A Preview of Dr. Sugar’s next book–Equity Killing America

 

INTRODUCTION

Justice John Molloy who served on the Arizona Superior Court bench in his book  THE FRATERNITY, LAWYERS AND JUDGES IN COLLUSION writes:

The once honorable profession of law now fully functions as a bottom-line business, driven by greed and the pursuit of power and wealth, even shaping the laws of the United States outside the elected Congress and state legislatures.”

 

At the center of fervent complaints about equity abuses sits the legal fraternity—lawyers and  judges who began as lawyers and occasionally return to being lawyers. They are the primary drivers of a massive but poorly understood multilayered legal system in which they and their colleagues –the legal fraternity of court insiders–routinely make life and death decisions and control massive amounts of money by virtue of their unchallenged control of our courts and the immunity bestowed upon them by their managing guild, The American Bar Association—arguably the single most powerful nongovernmental organization in the country. They make the laws—lawyers occupy the vast majority of seats in every state legislature–, they selectively enforce the laws—by deciding what to litigate and what to not litigate– and they choose which laws to ignore. They own us. And they charge us by the minute to access their serpentine system that only they can understand or navigate.

 

The evolution of the modern lawyer’s fraternity is a subject of great importance to anyone who is even potentially a litigant and anyone with anything to lose. When the evolution of lawyer fees turned from reasonable global fees needed for a given case in the 1950’s and the judicious use of contingency arrangements to support expensive litigation to the modern age minute by minute charges in the mid 20th Century, the entire idea of equal justice for all was turned on its head.

The courtroom has become a modern day roller derby where legal gladiators in $5,000 suits joust for the kill in  staged matches where court insiders skate around the rules and laws to the finish line in which massive legal fees and not justice are the ultimate prize. Anyone who is not an insider get trampled.

 

 

 

Section 1 Chapter 1

Judicial Kleptocracy

Though there have been many, we are witnessing one of the most turbulent epochs in our nation’s history. On both sides of the political divide, many of us show little respect for—actually animus toward– authority. Some openly defy law enforcement if it suits our ideology de jour. Our country is, as has happened before, hopelessly and permanently divided along countless important fault lines. Rising levels of distrust cripple us and leave us vulnerable to corrosive cynicism, bad ideas and opportunistic politicians. News that spews from our various screens, papers and speakers is undeniably partisan, heavily slanted opinion designed not for truth but served up for the sake of  votes, donations, clicks, views, ad revenues or papers sold. We survive because the core of the fabric of our nation is in the legitimacy we bestow on our government, but it is fraying. Dishonesty, greed, corruption and arrogance in public servants is the acid that corrodes our trusting good nature and betrays our trust and security from within. Matters worsen when it appears there is a double standard in justice where officials manage to skate even when clearly guilty and the rest of us drown in highly suspect courts–especially so called Equity courts– around the country.

Perhaps it was always so. But if ever we needed to foster trust and faith in our American system it is now, because endless stories pummel us daily showing corruption at every level of government including our courts.

According to a revealing Pew Poll http://www.people-press.org/2017/12/14/public-trust-in-government-1958-2017/ , Americans’ faith in their government has collapsed. In 1964, 77% of Americans trusted their government most or all the time, according to the Pew Research Center. As of December 2017, that number was 18%, nearing an all-time low. As a major primary conduit from the government to the people in matters that will affect them personally, and as the face of legal legitimacy, courts are front and center in determining American attitudes about government.

The decline in faith is predictable when one sees stories like the following:

Judges are actually knowingly committing crimes.

Case in evidence: Ila Gore, New Mexico Ward

No one knows what ever happened to this woman once in her guardianship. But we do know what happened during it. Following are excerpts from court records on this one case, so representative of so many others.

 

In the Matter Of Ila Glore
D-1329-PQ-201400007

Entry #1– May 2, 2014

  1. “Verified Petition for Appointment of Guardian & Conservator” (filed by Petitioner Home Care Assistance Corp, represented by Greg MacKenzie, who presumably recommended Decisions in Care to be Guardian, because  Decisions in Care is listed as Guardian in the case docket.)
  2. Acceptance of Appointments (by Susan Stewart, in Register of Actions Activity, but in the Parties to the Case section, Decisions in Care is shown as the “Guardian”)
  3. Letters of Guardianship or Conservatorship issued (by Judge John F Davis to Darryl Millet)
  4. Order appointing Guardian/Conservator (written by MacKenzie, for Judge Davis’ signature) The Register of Actions Activity states, “Order Appointing Temporary Guardian and Temporary Conservator and Granting Other Relief”.  It would be informative to know just what “Other Relief” was granted.

Entry #2-May 9, 2014, one week after A Petition for Guardianship was both filed and granted on the *Same Day*

  1. MacKenzie files a “Verified Emergency Motion for Order Directing Banks to Freeze Accounts.”
  2. Judge Davis issues an Order, based on MacKenzie’s motion, titled, “Order Directing Banks to Freeze Accounts.” — Who wrote this Order for the Judge’s signature?

Entry #3–16, 2014, June 16, 2014, Decisions in Care filed a 90 Day Initial Guardianship Report

Entry #4–Aug 3, 2014 Judge Ford was removed from the case, and Judge P Eichwald – to whom >80% of all guardianship cases in the this jurisdiction went to– was installed.

Entry #5– in the case docket’s Register of Action Activity, Nov 4, 2015 the case is marked “Administrative Close” with the detail, “Administrative Order – no significant action has been taken in 180 days”

And on the final day Entry #6 listed in the case docket, Dec 14, 2015, there is listed simply, “NCJ: DISPOSITION ORDER.”

Six events, likely consuming less than one hour total spent on a guardianship case that lasted about 18 months, and there’s:

  1. No Hearing to determine competency, etc., and give the poor person a chance to at least stand up and be heard.
  2. No annual report;
  3. No indication if the Ward is dead or alive
  4. No indication if the Ward left Advance Directives,
  5. No indication if the Ward had family or loved ones
  6. No indication if the Ward had property, other than the frozen accounts
  7. No indication of happened to the Ward’s money?

This is Fraud upon and from within the Court, by the Court.   When  the Judges who hold the power over life & death decisions are not held responsible for their actions taken as part of their official duties , the courts are at least illegitimate , lawless and likely criminal. There is a storehouse of evidence about   New Mexico’s District Civil Division’s. If you need statistics at www.WillPowerNM.org  website.

A review of the case dockets will show the Courts themselves aren’t obeying the Laws & Rules, in about 80%-90% of all guardianship/conservatorship cases in one state alone. These courts have become lawless.

There are no consequences to the judges or the court insiders who drive these abuses.

When courts are run with such lack of concern for the rules and when vast amounts of money change hands in the process, no wonder so many (even before they become victims) see the courts as nothing more than a sophisticated kleptocracy. This is court corruption on a massive scale, borne of deception, hubris and a total lack of concern over ever being called to task over it. It is reflected in what then-Nevada Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Daniels clearly meant on March 24, 2017 when he was heard to say to Kelley Smoot Garrett, EVP of AAAPG (paraphrasing): “Oh if you’re just one of these malcontents who claims there are no honest judges, then I’m not going to listen to you any longer. That’s just a pack of nonsense from conspiracy-minded people that I do not intend to listen to.”

Of course, the subsequent Federal multimillion dollar indictments of Ayudando Guardians as well the multimillion dollar indictment and guilty plea of Desert Trust’s Paul Danisthorpe in 2017 –2  long time key New Mexico court insider guardians—proved Daniels wrong.

Even when you present naysayers with solid evidence and even near impossible to find statistics that prove judges aren’t obeying the law, you, the victim, are blamed for your own predicament, just like women have endured for millennia, when confronting their rapists.

Is our court system doing its job?

In a 2015 Washington Post article https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/07/20/why-the-u-s-court-system-is-criminally-unjust/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.4233deee0363

Adam Benforado, a professor of law at Drexel University, describes unsettling problems with the justice system in the recently published book “Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Injustice.” The book uses psychology and neuroscience to examine and expose the illogical and unfair ways that judges, jurors, attorneys and others in the legal system make decisions. His concerns about the Criminal law apply perfectly to Equity.

“I think most judges are extremely well-intentioned people who believe that they act objectively, to the best of their abilities. I think one of the best ways to change the system — a system that we know does include quite a lot of judicial bias — is simply to bring to judge’s attention the wealth of data that exists on what is going on. … Judges aren’t aware of those things until they look at the data.”

But when there are no data, when it is all sequestered and hidden as is the case in Equity, how can there be any hope of accountability, reform, recognition or any attempt to address a searing problem affecting more and families daily?

When bias, greed and corruption extend to the top, whom do you turn to for justice?

And this is just one case. There are countless stories just like it all over the country waiting to be told.

This is not supposed to happen America.

Our courts have betrayed us and become lawless. Just when we need the reassurance of bold honest judicial and law enforcement leadership the most, they fail us. We see the FBI and DOJ in turmoil—its top echelons fired or demoted. We see scandal after scandal that start and end with spurious investigations and inscrutable legal maneuvering and decisions. Especially in very personal Equity, guardianship and divorce, courts keep their proceedings secret and sequestered—giving us no reason to trust them. The legal fee cudgel destroys any notion of equal justice under the law.

And in particular, Special Jurisdiction courts of equity inflict pain and suffering on innocent Americans whose lives can be ruined permanently by a person just needing some assistance in their daily lives or by wanting to care for an ageing parent or by wanting to end a marriage and move on with their lives or by wanting to care for and nurture a natural child.  These courts do so in spite of clear rules and statutes that should prevent such actions. In this book we focus not on the civil or criminal courts but on these courts of equity.

We will explore the forces that molded the equity system in America and discover how equity came to be, how it has failed us, and what we can do about it. Along the way we will learn the about the awful destruction misguided Equity has wrought on innocents and their families.