Corruption
Friday, February 02, 2007
Corrupt Spokane district court judge Sara B. Derr needs to be FIRED!
Judge Tied to Collection Agency Overruled in Collection Case
by Mike Bevel,
insideARM.com
February 2, 2007A recent case in Spokane, Washington, appears to be highlighting some unsavory conflicts of interest between a judge and a local collection agency.
District Court Judge Sara B. Derr ruled in favor of Automated Accounts against Betty Winfrey. Winfrey, who had let a grandchild use her home address as a mailing address, started receiving collection notices in the mail. Winfrey ignored them; the collection notices were for a towing bill on a car that Winfrey neither owned nor used.
In court, Winfrey provided documents that proved that she was in no way connected to the car in question. Judge Derr even agreed that Winfrey’s documents proved her case. But then, in an odd sort of Bizzaro World justice, Judge Derr still ruled in favor of the collection agency, claiming that Winfrey could have been more proactive in proving that she was incorrectly listed as the registered owner of the car. “I’m basically looking at what was done,” Derr said at the trial. “I don’t believe that Ms. Winfrey took sufficient action to rebut” the presumption that she owned the car.
Some things it might be interesting to know about Judge Derr:
Derr worked for Aetna Adjustment, a collection agency, before being elected as judge back in 2004 Derr worked for more than a decade in the same law office as Jack R. Reeves, who filed the suit against Winfrey on behalf of Automated Accounts.
Neither, of course, should have any bearing at all on Derr as a judge. However, she kept these potential conflicts out of the court record.
Judge Derr noted that Reeves’ collection agency would not be able to recoup the money from the towing bill if she ruled in Winfrey’s favor. Which seems to set up a disturbing precedent; it doesn’t matter who pays the debt, so long as the debt gets paid.
Judge Derr’s ruling was later appealed, and reversed.
Derr continues to dispute any suggestion that her association with Reeves or her work with a collection agency prior to becoming a judge had anything to do with her ruling. Derr says she simply followed the technical requirements of the law even though she felt bad for Winfrey.
“I do not always rule in favor of a collection company or landlord or whoever,” Derr told the Spokesman Review. “I follow my oath. I take it seriously. And I have no bias to that collection company or any collection company.”
How many people have the CASH to get these bizarre rulings overturned? There are so many corrupt judges you do NOT read about in the press and they feel safe and don’t think they could lose their job.
Judge Derr needs to be FIRED immediately!
Debtors do NOT have to prove that they do NOT owe, it’s up to the COLLECTOR to document the debt. I don’t care WHY judge Derr ruled the way she did, her ruling documents that she is simply not qualified to be a judge.
Legal • Court - rulings - procedures • Corruption • (2) Comments • Permalink
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Reader mail: creating a Department of Citizen Defense
An excerpt from a reader’s mail:
… If I were President, I’d create a Department of Citizen Defense, with the sole purpose of protecting individuals from Corporations and other scammers. When the forefathers created this country there were no corporate entities written into the constitution. Yet somehow, at some point, Corporations became living, breathing members of our society. They receive all the benefits of being a human, with none of the downfalls. They have no conscience other than a short-term outlook on how to increase profit, often-times at the expense of innocent lives.
The DCD would have the authority to hold regulators responsible for enforcing consumer protection laws, and those not complying would be forced to resign or fix their stance. It would also serve as a filter for consumer complaints, with the output of all letters having a tracking number that holds attorney generals and FTC officials responsible for replying to each instance of a legitimate complaint. The DCD would also be responsible for overlooking the implementation of a pin-based credit-protection protection program. No pin, no access to a credit report. ...
Of course it would be a dream come true to have the government protect people from the corporations. Unfortunately, the trend not only in America but also in Europe is to increase power for corporations with fewer rights for the people.
Over a year ago I detailed my thoughts on what to do about this at Summary - the lawyers are the last piece in the corruption puzzle, Is there ANY way to fix this broken system?
There definitely is a way, but it takes LOTS of cash. And as we’re actively working on developing credit analyzing software and a tri-merged credit report with all the relevant data, I’m dreaming about being able to FUND a consumer litigation organization similar to the Department of Citizen Defense.
While we couldn’t ENFORCE consumer protection laws as the regulators SHOULD, we could certainly have a similar result through lots of PUBLIC litigation. We could submit demands for enforcement to regulators and if they refuse to enforce, maybe even sue them. It doesn’t take a whole lot of money to research the individuals in charge, to expose their connections and demand replacement of corrupt regulators by the administration.
Deborah Platt Majoras, FTC Chairman
The Commission is headed by five Commissioners, nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, each serving a seven-year term. The President chooses one Commissioner to act as Chairman. No more than three Commissioners can be of the same political party. The current Chairman and Commissioners are: Deborah Platt Majoras , Pamela Jones Harbour, Jon Leibowitz, William E. Kovacic, and J. Thomas Rosch. ...
Deborah Platt Majoras was sworn in on August 16, 2004, as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. ...
Jones Day happens to be the firm representing EXPERIAN in every suit I’ve seen. It’s very obvious why the FTC is giving the CRAs free range.
If I had $100k to spend, I’d set aside at least $20K to investigate the commissioners, to document that they FAIL to act on consumer complaints (grunt work, filing lots of FOIA requests) and to MAKE Bush either replace the commissioners for failing to do their job or to direct them to ENFORCE the FCRA and FDCPA.
A former Lexington employee recently wrote to me about the MILLIONS of dollars they make every month. Maybe he didn’t deduct the large commissions Lexington pays to affiliates, but they certainly make a TON of money. And we can make MUCH more than Lexington because we won’t be scamming people.
It is really great to actually be working on software, to think about the fields and design for the tri-merged report, flagging the obvious incorrect data like lates after a charge-off, the interface to notes, resources, disputes ...
I’m hopeful.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation kills the people they claim to want to help
An outstanding article by LA Times writers Charles Piller, Edmund Sanders and Robyn Dixon on two of the word’s most evil people: Bill and Melinda Gates
Dark cloud over good works of Gates Foundation
... At the end of 2005, the Gates Foundation endowment stood at $35 billion, making it the largest in the world. Then in June 2006, Warren E. Buffett, the world’s second-richest man after Bill Gates, pledged to add about $31 billion in installments from his personal fortune. Not counting tens of billions of dollars more that Gates himself has promised, the total is higher than the gross domestic products of 70% of the world’s nations. ...
The 5 page article describes in great detail how the Gates Foundation invests in pharmaceutical companies and polluters like oil companies and paper mills. It is stunning to read how they DIRECTLY cause disease and misery in Africa, while claiming to want to help.
How the West will make a killing on Iraqi oil riches
...The US government has been involved in drawing up the law, a draft of which has been seen by The Independent on Sunday. It would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972. ...
Bill and Melinda Gates “help” the poor by killing them and Iraq was “liberated” to have at least half a million people killed, to have the country destroyed and polluted with depleted uranium and now FINALLY their oil will be stolen.
Since the “insurgents” don’t seem capable of stopping the takeover, maybe aliens will intervene. NPR has an interesting interview with Chicago Tribune transportation reporter Jon Hilkevtich.
Not only is it amazing to have such qualified witnesses, but both United and the FAA LIED about the election day sighting at O’Hare until Hilkevtich filed an FOIA request. Funny how that goes ...
But I’m not too optimistic about alien intervention, at best they’re watching and making sure we don’t blow up the planet. Maybe we’re some alien high school experiment, an advanced version of Sim City.
It sure is frustrating to be able to read about all that corruption, not being able to DO anything about it and knowing that just about everybody with the power and money to do something is only interested in accumulating more power and money.
Legal • Court - rulings - procedures • Corruption • (0) Comments • Permalink
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Settled with First Magnus—despite Kangaroo Court, corrupt judge John Taylor and regulators
After over a year in Kingman Kangaroo Court (Justice Court, Cerbat Precinct), I prevailed on appeal and we finally settled my mortgage junk fax claims.
Some background is at First Magnus at Fight Back and the filings are at CreditCourt
You may have read some of the recent news about dramatic increases in foreclosures. Much more important than the fact that the mortgage junk faxes I continue to receive from all kind of scummy outfits are sent in violation of the TCPA is the CONTENT:
The false advertisements of terms and APRs and the misrepresentations and deceptions, not only in the faxes, but also in print, radio, TV and of course web and spam advertising.
Mortgage lenders and brokers engage in ILLEGAL advertising, lie and deceive without suffering any consequences:
*** The Arizona Department of Financial Institutions ignored my complaint and refused to enforce the law.
*** Kangaroo Court Justice of the Peace John Taylor DISMISSED my claims and on his own initiative he invited First Magnus to claim attorneys fees and costs. He then awarded $6,400 for ONE court appearance by the First Magnus attorney. They had not filed a single motion.
If I hadn’t had those $6,400 to pay to the court for a supersedeas bond, First Magnus could have garnished wages, raided bank accounts, etc. to collect the judgment even after the appeal was filed. It also cost me almost $500 for filing fees and the transcript.
The superior court ruled in my favor before Thanksgiving. I called Kangaroo Court to find out how/when I get my $6,400 and Samantha told me that judge Taylor would decide and that he had the file on his desk. Of course he decided NOTHING in his subsequent scheduling order for briefs pursuant to the superior court ruling.
I had to file a motion for return of the supersedeas bond and for First Magnus to pay my costs of the appeal. Judge Taylor then sent out a notice stating that he would not decide until the time for First Magnus to respond expired, in about 3 weeks.
Today I found out that the case was dismissed pursuant to our stipulation, but Samantha is the only person who knows when/how I’ll get my money back and she is out sick.
I SHOULD have received the bond money IMMEDIATELY after I prevailed on appeal. There was no need for the court to keep my money.
So, now you have an idea what to expect in Kingman Kangaroo Court and unfortunately, that may be how YOUR court operates too. It’s even more unfortunate that few people dare to publicly complain about judges IF they had the cash, skills and guts to appeal. The likely repercussions are obvious, especially in small towns and rural areas.
From the court’s website:
Justice of the Peace John Taylor
… After working two years in private practice, Judge Taylor moved to Arizona, and worked in the Mohave County Attorney’s office, until he was elected as a Justice of the Peace in 1998. During his tenure as a Deputy County Attorney, Judge Taylor served 13 years as a felony trial attorney. ...
Having experienced judge Taylor’s nasty habit of deliberately ignoring the law, facts and evidence, I can imagine how many innocent people went to jail and how many lives he ruined.
In 2002 judge Taylor IGNORED the FCRA requirement to provide the adverse action letter after a decline due to information contained in a credit report
A few years ago a reader contacted me after reading about my 2002 cases and he was planning a class action suit against Mohave county over judge Taylor’s misconduct. He had a Tucson lawyer working on the suit, but apparently it was never filed. Too bad.
HOW TO FILE A COMPLAINT AGAINST A JUDGE
I’ll try to get around to submitting my complaint and documenting how nothing happens. And I’ll also try to file another suit in Kangaroo Court soon, I got a big stack of junk faxes and some other issues. Having fallen into many of judge Taylor’s traps, I wonder how many more there are.
So much to do, so little time and money.
Legal • Court - rulings - procedures • Corruption • (0) Comments • Permalink
