Richard Fine - Political Prisoner
Twin Towers, Los Angeles, 2009
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Off the record, Off the count...
Half a year in jail - off the count, off the record, does it count as a criminal record?
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AN URBAN MYTH...
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Heard on the streets of LA , unlikely related to reality, the product of the people's collective imagination, overdosed by TV and Hollywood crime movies of the worst kind...
1) A long, long, time ago, in LA County, California, in the medieval-digital age - Judge David Yaffe wanted to fix Atty Richard Fine... But he could not do it in a lawful way...
2) Atty Richard Fine was surely in contempt... His ongoing objection to judicial extra benefits, is simply narrow-minded and petty. There was no reasonable doubt that he was in contempt... He disobeyed Commissioner Murray Gross. He did not even deny it... He claimed that Commissioner Murray Gross had no Appointment Order... Well... technically it was true... but Mr Fine was simply putting form over substance... He knew that he had to obey... He was referred to Dept 1A... When you got there, you had better obeyed whoever was on duty there... Well, it's true that in the official directory of the court there is no such thing as Dept 1A, but he simply showed no flecibility...
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We had this weakness in our system with the Appointment Orders for Judicial Officers... that is why we worked on improving the Rule 2.5(d) - to try to get around the missing Appointment Orders... so here comes Richard Fine... and makes a whole news show about how it should not be that way... He got to figure out... it's not that I would not give him an Appointment Order if I could... But there is a tiny technical problem, and we can't give every single case Assignment Orders to the judges, and Appointment Orders to Referees... he got to be a bit more flexible...
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3) So Judge David Yaffe asked the Clerk to call the Sheriff Dept, and ask the Warrant Detail to come over and be present at the hearing March 4, 2009, at 9:30am, since Atty Richard Fine would be jailed by the end of that proceeding... There was also this problem with the Media - you know - the Pests... you got to treat them that way too... They were not permitted to record, but if you don't have some heavy duty guys watching, they may try to record anyway...
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The Judge said that he would make sure that the Warrant Detail were out of there by 11:00 am at the latest and back to base for lunch... You can never tell... but he runs his court on time... No matter what, you can pretty much bank on it... Trust his word...
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4) March 4, 2009, 9:30 am: Judge David Yaffe was famously lenient - He ran indeed the "Sentencing" proceeding for the Contempt OSC. The Warrant Detail, about 10 muscle guys you don't want to get on the bad side of, indeed were there all right, at 9:30am sharp as well... It was a full house, standing room only... There were a bunch of journalists... taking notes non-stop... but the Judge told them in advance to watch that nobody was recording... it was not allowed, and surely, nobody can video tape... you know nowadays... They can do it with the phone... So the Warrant Detail was spread out, and you could pretty much feel that you were under surveillance... no games played here...
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And indeed, as it was getting close to 11:00 am, Judge David Yaffe was reading from the bench the final lines of the Judgment for Contempt of Mr Fine, from the Judgment paper verbatim...
Was he rendering a Judgment? Or was he simply reviewing a draft with the parties, for discussion and debate?
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1. The court has considered and rejects Fine's explanation that he was entitled to refuse to
comply with the Order of Commissioner Gross that he answer the questions put to him in Judgment
Debtor Examination, because Commissioner Gross did not have the authority to make that order as
he was not "a referee appointed by the court" within the meaning of Section 708.140(a) of the Code of
Procedure, The contention has no merit for the following reasons. Judgment Debtor Proceedings
in cases pending in the Central District of this Court are assigned to Department 1A of the Central
District, by Local Rule 2.5(d). In January of 2008, Commissioner Gross was assigned to preside in
Department 1A for the Calendar year of 2008.
Debtor Examination, because Commissioner Gross did not have the authority to make that order as
he was not "a referee appointed by the court" within the meaning of Section 708.140(a) of the Code of
Procedure, The contention has no merit for the following reasons. Judgment Debtor Proceedings
in cases pending in the Central District of this Court are assigned to Department 1A of the Central
District, by Local Rule 2.5(d). In January of 2008, Commissioner Gross was assigned to preside in
Department 1A for the Calendar year of 2008.
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3. The Court finds beyond reasonable doubt that (a) Mr Fine is in contempt of court...
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4. Pursuant to Section 1219(a) of the Code of Civil Procedure, Mr Fine is sentenced to
Confinement in the County Jail until he provides all the information that he has been ordered to
provide, or is hereafter ordered to provide by the Commissioner the is assigned by the Presiding Judge
to preside in Department 1A of the Central District of this Court.
5) It is true that the legal argument used by Judge David Yaffe, was more than a bit lame...First-Appointment Order for a judicial officer as Referee is not the same as Courtroom Directory... The Appointment Order
required a few other details beyond the Room Number. But that was exactly the point.... People thought that Judge Yaffe was retaliating... small minded people... He was just minding his business... this issue of Referrals to Dept 1A with no Appointment Orders was essential for the ET (Enterprise Track). and all Judge David Yaffe was concerned with, was streamlining the ET
He considered himself a bit too old to bother with issues of pride and revenge... It was strictly business, as cold as green cash... And they just finished revamping that whole Local Rule 2.5, it looks much better now... There is no more any mention there, that Post- Judgment proceedings have to take place after Entry of Judgment...
You know that point has been a bit sensitive in LA in the last couple decades... We like more flexibility here... that whole I idea of clear cut Yes Judgment No Judgment, never fit with the LA mentality and LA style... We are more relaxed here... We managed just fine with no Judgment Book, and no Judgment Index in the past quarter century... Thank you... We dont need it, even if it is on sale... Two for the price of one...
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It's true that if Richard Fine had agreed to accept Commissioner Murray Gross with no Appointment Order, it would have ended up in some abuse... but some abuse was in order anyway...
6) Then Judge David Yaffe finished reading, the final lines of the Judgment for Contempt: "Mr Fine is sentenced to Confinement in the County Jail" - It could not get any clearer than that... and then -- he almost made a show out of signing the judgment... he did it with these expensive arm movements... so that there would be no doubt... signed and sealed.
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And then Judge David Yaffe flew out of the Courtroom... only in the late afternoon, the IRC paralegal realized that what Judge David Yaffe did was in fact - deliberately corrupt and invalidate the judgment - he signed it with the wrong date... Instead of March 4, 2009, he scribed March 24, 2009. Silly people think that it was some sloppiness, well - that is what it was intended to look like... In fact, it was one of these little technical problems... Not in every single case we can provide a true judgment today... it is just the the court grew so big, we can't accommodate every single case with a true judgement anymore... there are only so many we can provide...
Dated: March
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Obviously, the Judgment, defective as it was, was never served, noticed, or entered, you wouldn't expect a Deputy Clerk like Connie Hudson, bright woman to start out, and on top - trained by one of the best, to make such a beginner's errors. She was hand-picked by the Clerk of the Court - John A Clarke - some years ago - to work with Judge David Yaffe. Because the position of Judge David Yaffe is possibly the single most important one for the ET... Jude David Yaffe is in charge of Writs and Receivers.. the most productive activity of the track... it required a person would understand what to do, without ever being told explicitly anything out of the ordinary at all... And yet, John Clarke had had to trust her as well... that she would not go on some tangent with Judge David Yaffe, on one of these days when he get too creative...
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Talking about creativity and discipline... Judge David Yaffe is an old timer... no matter how creative he would get, you better believe that he sticks to the basic framework... He never went to Catholic school, but he has that basic discipline... It is just a generational issue.. these young guys, like Terry Friedman and John Segal... they simply never got the concept in the first place... With the old timers, like Jacqueline Connor, Patricia Collins, Valerie Baker Fairbank, it was never even an issue... It was clear like using good grammar... The only problem is if Judge David Yaffe would get too convoluted to the point that Deputy Clerk Connie Hudson would not be able to follow him, and drop the ball... Because the first rule of the game is - You never give and you never get any explicit instruction to do anything different than normal procedure... Not verbally, and surely not in writing... That is why usually we stick to several standard procedures... Like the mismatch in dates of Proof of Service and the date of the paper itself... that one has become by now a cliché...
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Well - on March 4,2009, Judge David Yaffe never entered any judgment for the jailing of Mr Richard Fine... He just could not do it... Sometimes he gets like that - too liniment... In the last minute, he decided to give Richard Fine one last chance, another week or two...Because it would do the business no good to have Ricahrd Fine jailed... what we need is to have him accept the authority of Murray Gross, and show a good exaple for everybody else, how to comply with the new Local Rule 2.5(d). Judge David Yaffe wanted badly for Richard Fine to change his mind and obey Commissioner Murray Gross, with or without an Appointment Order... It would make the management of the ET so much more streamlined...
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That streamlining concept - it's ingenious... it's the brainchild of Sandor Ssmuels... the guy is admirable... such a simple concept... and look how far he got with it... Who knows what the final tally would be... Under a trillion, over a trillion... Numbers no human ever even dared dream of embezzling... In fact, I think he borrowed it from Thomas Jefferson... he used to have a saying...Grab it always from the smooth side... But Jefferson was entirely unfocused... he ended up in banruptcy... This whole Civil Rights thing, and the Amendments, and on top of it women, got him entirely off the simple and easy... Forget it, regardless of the idea, the point is - who managed to practice it to perfection...
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You can tell right away... They had no use of keeping Angelo Mozilo on board at BAC... and if you pay attention.. Sandor Samuels was so quite there, you could have thought he had retired... But in the meanwhile... he was running his training workshops on the guys in North Carolina... and before you knew it... Tim Mayopoulos that saintly guy... was out of there, and now also Kenny Lewis... I just hope I would not be around here anymore when Sandor Samuels gets to the last stage of his BAC job... It would be hectic... Let me tell you... But hey... SEC already greed to accept from them a quarterly report based on accounting by "Taxonomies"... No, it has nothing to do with Tax, usually it is used in Zoology... I'd say, it was an ingenious piece of Streamlining...
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Nothing was final yet... Maybe on March 24, 2009 Judge David Yaffe would schedule another final final Sentencing Proceedings... No reason to rush when you send another person to jail...
5) March 4, 2009, 11:05 am, Mosk Courthouse, Dept 86: "The Judge said so" - The Warrant Detail heard Judge David Yaffe say: "Mr Fine is sentenced to Confinement in the County Jail", and figured out that it was their turn, and they arrested Atty Richard Fine, and got him into the car. After all - that was what they were there for...
Or do you mean that it was the Sheriff Department's responsibility to train these big muscle guys to second guess the judges?
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Can you imagine what this place would look like? Would you expect the training manuals for Sheriff's Warrant Detail to read something like this?
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"... and to start out, you must assume that the judge is dishonest, he/she
does not mean what he says and does not say what he means...Never take
him/her for the word, always demand it in writing... upfront..."
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They don't teach that even in Law School, it's Post-Grad...
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Come to think of it, in fact, it is true, at least in Los Angeles. That's the whole I idea about no Judgment Book and no public access to records... The judge says one thing in open court, and by the time he/she gets to chambers, they change their mind... Well, it's true that they don't bother to tell the parties that they changed their mind, but they should know, that nobody is made of stone... People change their minds from time to time... and accordingly... they change the records... It's only natural... you want to records to reflect the true inclination of the judge... up to date...
For example, sometimes a judge may feel later, as Judge David Yaffe felt relative to the March 4, 2009, proceeding, that it was not really a formal proceeding, so he deleted the whole session from the record... Or in West District... they have their own little "local custom" of inserting Minute Orders in the Court file, but mark them as invalid, or "disposed" on the system... Let's see who likes to practice the Local Custom: Gerald Rosenberg, Jacqueline Connor, Allan Goodman, John Segal, Lisa Hart-Cole, Patricia Collins, Terry Friedman... It's an established custom... you can see...
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6) Then the Warrant Detail realized, that they got no papers at all... Nada! No big deal, by the time they would get to TTCF (Twin Towers Central Facility) or IRC (Inmate Reception Center), less than 1 mile away - the papers would already have been faxed over by the Court... They called by cell, just to make sure... whatever... But surprise , surprise... The Clerk , Connie Hudson was there, but now Judge David Yaffe was nowhere to be found - the Clerk said that he left early for some social...
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On the phone earlier in the week she said - Trust his word, but now she sounded like she was not sure that there would be any paper at all... she sounded more like we were supposed to figure it out on our own...
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Well, finally someone gives us credit.. not just brawn... some brains here as well, we would figure it out OK...
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7) The Warrant Detail tried to kill time, they drove around for almost an hour... They couldn't go to the IRC or TTCF, since there were strict rules in Reception, and they had no papers whatsoever. And Att Richard Fine - he just appeared in court, he had no part in the Weather Underground, or anything like that... In fact, he was a nice Abuelito... it was difficult to think of anything nasty to stick on him...
8) The Warrant Detail did not know the truth - in fact, the nice looking Grandpa, Atty Richard Fine, was found guilty of Moral Turpitude by the State Bar of California - by filing complaints in Federal Court against State Judges... truly a liberal construction...
9) In the meanwhile, Judge David Yaffe was sipping mint tea in chambers... He entered the records for the morning session...Pretty slow morning - most of it, chart reviews - no formal proceedings at all... The hearing on sentencing of Fine was continued in the last minute after all... But he did go with the parties over the [Proposed] Judgment, and cleaned it up, entered some of the changes, eliminate most of the charges- to make it easier for Atty Richard Fine to comply and avoid jail... All that was left was really accepting Commissioner Murray Gross as Debtor Examiner, and pay $1,000 - and he could avoid jail easily... At the end he even clearly warned Atty Richard Fine one more time... that if he did not accept the authority of Commissioner Murray Gross, he would end up in jail... Not as an imperative... as a conditional...
10) Fine was jailed? Nobody told mw about it... It must be an error...He had nothing to do with it... He was not even in the courtroom when it happened... of Course there was a [Proposed] Judgment on file, and it was even corrected in detail, but how could Atty Richard Fine be possibly jailed, when no Judgment was entered, and no warrant was issued? Maybe staff was sloppy, you know how it is these days... He did notice that Richard Fine missed some hearings after that... It was even noted in the court file that he failed to appear...
11) Finally - the Warrant Detail decided to use the old San Pedro Maneuver - only thing - by then it was truly old - some 20 years out of commission... They heard about from old-timers... They drove to San Pedro... 25 miles away...
12) March 4, 2009, 12:23 pm in San Pedro - As simple as that: You have there, in San Pedro, this tiniest village Courthouse with one part-time judge (Dept 88c) and a tiny Sheriff Station next to it with one part-time Sheriff Deputy, a slow and peaceful place... With no booking or any jail facilities at all... In fact, one must wonder why it is kept open at all... The Warrant Detail finally had a chance to grab something to eat. They actually shared it with Atty Richard Fine... Originally they wanted to bring Atty Richard Fine in, but the Sheriff Deputy told them: "Get out of here, no way, you must be out of their minds..." So, then they sat outside in the shade of the tree for a break, and filled the the Arrest and Booking Reports. They formally asked for his Name - Richard Fine, DOB, Male, he definitely was a Whitie, ... His Hair Color? They gave it a lenient Grey; Eye Color - nice Brown; Height - 5'09", a bit overweight, not too bad - he probably cheated on at least 5 lbs - 175lbs... They simply asked him... Then they called back TTCF... Finally, the Deputy Sheriff went to the rest rooms for a bit long, and left the computer logged on, but the door unlocked, and they entered the data from the form... They got stuck a bit on the Charge Level- since there were no papers at all, but then they found Other - pretty safe. They entered for location San Pedro of course - Where else? At Dept M86 [none existed in San Pedro for almost a decade, but the computer menu still had the option from the time it was [Municipal Court]... As simple as that... They wanted to leave the original of the hand-completed Arrest and Booking forms there as well. But again, the Deputy Sheriff was getting stiff and nervous... He would not have them leave there anything at all... He never met them, never knew them, never saw them, he only wanted them out of his sight...
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One must wonder what they built the IRC for... with all those overpaid "professionals" staff... It would probably take, let's see -- one doctor, one psychologist, three nurses, a paralegal, a Deputy Sheriff, and two hours minimum at IRC - to do what they did just like that... Bottom line - the computer at San Pedro generated a Booking Number all right, but the Sheriff Deputy in San Pedro never had anything to do with it... And on the way they were...
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13) They also called the Boss again, hoping that the papers were finally there, but there were no papers yet. Regardless, they were heading back to IRC, because it was getting time for them to go home, and with traffic, you could never tell...They thought of heading straight to IRC... Because the rule was that the papers remained with the Booking Agency... And you could read it as if the Warrant Detail just drove him from San Pedro, but the Arrest and Booking were by some police or the court sheriff... Where it took place... So, obviously the papers were left in the long extinct Municipal Court, Dept M86 in San Pedro - the Booking Agency... Or maybe with the San Pedro Sheriff Station there... To IRC they would bring only the completed Arrest and Booking Reports, the one they completed over that nice siesta... but none of the support documents - because there were none...
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14) Then they decided to stop over at TTCF, have someone call the Boss, to ask for instructions, before they formally enter IRC... Because they knew better than enter the place with no papers... They really did not want to create any major problem...
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15) The Watch Commander surely was unhappy... But he understood... It wasn't their fault... They heard the Judge say so, so they arrested the man... And they better do so anytime a judge tells them so... Well... they would have to rest a bit before they go to IRC, because there must be some paper there for them to enter... How is the Grandpa? Did you feed him? Does not look like the menace they claimed he was... You better be nice to him... He must be safe and sound... Enough trouble already...
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16) So staff got on the phone dialing non-stop any number you could think of at the Court... Judge David Yaffe was simply not available... The Big Boss himself was already involved and on the phone with the court...
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17) March 4, 2009. 4.31pm The fax finally arrived. but man,,, was it a strange fax, or what.... No cover sheet for starters...You could not tell for sure who sent it, and go figure who received it... It was marked on the header from "Judicial Services"... not any recognizable Court Dept, very convenient... No, wait a minute... It's the new name of the Sheriff Station at the Courthouse... So CONNIE HUDSON smarted out, and instead of faxing it over from Dept 86, which would have left an authentication trail, she walked it over, trying to be nice... to the Sheriff Station at the Courthouse.. So at the end, it was the sheriff faxing to himself... a judgment... No wonder that Att MCCORMICK never filed any authentication...
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To top it off - it included Two invalid records:
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a) REMAND ORDER - One page signed by the clerk of Judge Yaffe ...but there
was nothing to Remand... there was a need for a warrant.... and it was incorrectly
completed on top...
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b) FALSE ON ITS FACE JUDGMENT - Connie the clerk, after consulting with John
Clarke the clerk of the court, sent them a judgment on March 4, 2009, where the
front stamp says "FILED MARCH 4", and the back says "Signed by Judge Yaffe - with
the date of March 24," that was false court record, so she did not endorse the stamp.
In addition - the judgment was missing the "authentication" - proof of service. So it
was clearly not a valid record.
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18) The sheriff did not know what to do... it was a very sensitive political situation... On the one hand, no Deputy Sheriff would sign the admission papers for Fine- since there were no legitimate papers to support the arrest and booking. On the other hand - he could not let Fine go and get the judges angry... he was facing re-election....
19) So - they decided to stash FINE, on an interim basis in the remotest hospital room in solitary confinement. The issue is that he must never mix with the other inmates - because there are 3 times a day counts, and Fine must never be on the count. So he cannot leave his room...
20) October 2009: HALF A YEAR LATER.. FINE IS STILL IN THE HOSPITAL ROOM IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT...
20) October 2009: HALF A YEAR LATER.. FINE IS STILL IN THE HOSPITAL ROOM IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT...
In comes this LA Guy, and asks to see the Arrest and Booking papers...
The Sheriff's Office says: for the safety of the prisoner, we cannot provide this information....
TO BE CONTINUED...
The Sheriff's Office says: for the safety of the prisoner, we cannot provide this information....
TO BE CONTINUED...
