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Judge James Mize Apologist Shifts Blame for Court Corruption to Judicial Council Forms Professor John E.B. Myers, a family law instructor at University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, pens an intellectually dishonest defense of Sacramento Family Court corruption and Supervising Judge James Mize. By Cathy Cohen (Open Post)
July 23, 2014 at 7:53pm
Sacramento Bee Editorial Reveals Family Court Cronyism Reaches Law School Academic Community
In a laughably inaccurate editorialpublished by the
Sacramento Bee, McGeorge School of Law family law professor John E.B. Myers redefined the meaning of the out-oftouch, ivory tower academic. Among other clueless assertions, Myers made the bizarre, demonstrably falseclaim that: “Sacramento’s family court, under the wise leadership of Judge
James Mize, serves the community well.”
Family court watchdogs have collected and catalogued overwhelming evidence that Judge Mize provides anything but “wise leadership,” and that the court – which operates essentially as an organized, criminal enterprise– serves only a select,
exclusive group of judge pro tem lawyers. The community at large, and especially those financially disadvantagedfamily court users without an attorney, are subjected to second-class statusunder an illegal two-track system of justice.
Rationalization FAIL: "Unworkable Form-Driven System" Responsible for Injustice
Myers went on to attribute what in fact is incompetence and corruptionby family court judges and employees to
“incomprehensible” Judicial Council family court forms: “Today, there are more than 200 family-law forms, making the law incomprehensible to anyone but an expert…The amazing thing is that so many lawyerless litigants somehow navigate the labyrinth of financial and other forms to accomplish their goals in family court. Countless others simply give up. Many try their best but do not receive justice. Not because the people at
family court don’t care, but because our form-driven family law system is unworkable,” Myers wrote. News Flash Professor Myers: Real world, lawyerless family court users will be happy to explain to you that the “people” at family court not only don’t care, the “people” at family court knowingly and routinely collude with a secretive, insular groupof for-profit, private sector judge pro tem divorce lawyersto deprive lawyerless litigants of their children, income
and assets, and civil and constitutional rights.
Click here to view a list of the divorce lawyers who also act as judge pro tems and run the family court settlement conference program in exchange for favorable treatment by judges and
court employees. The number of family law forms is not why lawyerless litigants do not receive justice, and the claim that there are “200 family-law forms” is a misleading red herring. But, nice try, professor. Few, if any, uncontested divorce cases require more than 6-8
forms in total to complete a divorce, and a typical family court law and motion hearing requires just 1-3 forms. As the recently released documentary film Divorce Corp makes
clear, lawyerless litigants do not receive justice because of rampant, garden variety corruption and collusion between attorneys and judges.
University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law Alumni Discredit the Legal Profession And, in an ironic coincidence, many of the most corrupt,
unethical attorneys in the group of attorneys from the cases chronicled in Divorce Corp are graduates of McGeorge School of Law – where Myers has taught family law and other courses since 1984. In addition, two McGeorge alumni not included in the movie
have been disbarred by the State Bar of California: divorce lawyer Scott Kendall (for multiple acts of misconduct), and divorce lawyer Gary Appelblatt (for sexual battery against clients).
The Sacramento County judge pro tem group accurately is
called a cartel by family court reform advocates. The cartel is led by the Sacramento County Bar Association Family Law Executive Committee, known among cartel attorneys by the acronym FLEC.
Click here to read a laundry list of documented examples of collusion and corruption between cartel attorneys and family court judges and employees. Family law attorney and Sacramento Bar Association Family Law Executive Committee officer Paula Salinger is an esteemed McGeorge Law School class of 2002 alumna. Salinger, also a Sacramento Superior Court sworn
temporary judge, was recently accused of committing
obstruction of justice crimes against an indigent, unrepresented family court domestic violence victim. Salinger also has been caught in other scandals, including filing counterfeit documents in court, violating state laws and
court rules, illegally attempting to obtain a final divorce judgment while an appeal in the same case was pending, and
obtaining a questionable waiver of the requirements to become a temporary judge. In addition, corrupt and controversial family court Judge Matthew J. Garyis a McGeorge SOL graduate. Gary has been involved in a string of misconduct allegationsdating back to when he became a full-time judge in 2007, and reportedly is
currently under investigation by the Commission on Judicial Performance, the state agency responsible for oversight and discipline of California judges.
Judge Sharon Lueras, another proud McGeorge graduate, has been blamed in the family court-related deaths of 8-month-old
Ryder Salmen, and 9-year-old Matthew Hernanez. The cases have been covered by local and national news outlets, including Nancy Grace at Headline News.
Divorce Corp Documentary Film Exposé Compels Damage Control & Blame Shifting Apparently coordinated with Judge James Mize and Sacramento Family Court administrators and employees,
Professor Myers’ editorial is nothing more than strategically timed damage control and blame shifting. The nationwide release of the documentary film Divorce Corp has put the local court system under intense, national scrutiny. Featuring four cases from Sacramento County – more than from any other court jurisdiction covered in the film – the documentary portrays the family court system as the most corrupt in the nation. The Sacramento Family Law Court cases of litigants Andrew Karres, Mike Newdow, Robert Saunders and Ulf Carlsson all get screen time in the movie. The details of the Carlsson case, involving criminally convictedand twice CJP disciplined Judge Peter McBrien and judge pro tem attorney – and McGeorge graduate - Charlotte Keeley, are the most disturbing, and Ulf Carlsson himself rightfully receives a starring role. The Divorce Corp video clip above provides the unsettling
details of the Carlsson case. For more on the film, visit the
Divorce Corp website or the Divorce Corp YouTube Channel. Sacramento Family Court News is the only California news source accurately reporting on family court corruption. Click here to visit the SFCN home page.