Supporters of the appellant (in re Trummel v. Mitchell) created a standing room only situation at the Court of Appeals, Seattle, Washington (14 Nov 03). Several more people queued outside the courtroom but did not gain entry. An unnamed attorney reportedly said that he had never seen such a turnout for an appellate hearing. The appellant expects a decision between six weeks and six months. [Court of Appeals]

Washington Court of Appeals questioned attorneys for both sides about the draconian and biased trial court decisions that caused a reporter to go to jail for an indeterminate period. The case attracted worldwide interest among journalists when they learned that a Seattle judge had jailed journalist Paul Trummel. He served 111 days (25 days in solitary confinement in the same section as Gary Ridgway, the Green River serial killer) for publishing constitutionally protected information.

The appellant published details of senior citizen abuse and misappropriation of federal funds that occurred in a federally-assisted apartment block. He has since alleged homicide by abuse by administrators condoned by directors. He reported the facts to municipal, state, and federal authorities but they have neglected to do anything about the complaints. [Homicide by Abuse]

The trial court judge, James A. Doerty, denied legal representation then had ex parte contact with a senior superior court judge - husband of the apartment block landlord. Paul L. Sherfey, Chief Administrative Officer, aided and abetted Doerty in thwarting an appeal by unlawfully withholding access to transcripts and hundreds of other documents.

Washington Supreme Court did not condone their actions in its unanimous decision which ordered the appellate court to hear the case. Appellate court granted the hearing, however, Sherfey and Doerty have still not released copies of records that would prove malfeasance and judicial misconduct.

The appellate court heard oral arguments that affect journalists internationally. They concern First Amendment rights to assemble and to report news and the misuse of anti-harassment orders. The trial court effectively placed a prior restraint on a journalist using non-applicable laws. It defined interviews with sources as harassment and news gathering as unlawful surveillance and stalking.

Appellant (first published in 1944 at the age of eleven) has had a long career in publishing also as a university professor. He published one of the first electronic Internet journals in 1992 and holds an institute award for his satire. Previously denied legal representation by the trial court, he now has a team of six attorneys. [Attorneys-at-Law]

Five independent organizations employed attorneys to argue amicus curiae.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU - Washington, USA)
American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA - New York, USA)
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ - Brussels, Belgium)
National Union of Journalists/London Freelance Branch (NUJ - London, UK)
Seattle Weekly (Seattle, Washington, USA)

Kafkaesque Experience

After Nmesis’s release from jail, Doerty retained jurisdiction and refused to recuse himself, then granted another draconian order tantamount to a gag order. That order says in effect, that no personal identifiers (names, addresses, telephone numbers, or email addresses) may appear in any article despite public information status and both federal and state disclosure laws. Any use of those identifiers would immediately result in a warrant for re-incarceration. Constructively, the author must not publish his own name and his movements in Seattle remain restricted. Hence the use of pseudonyms in this essay.

Moreover, Nmesis must not reprint his previously published material or any material from others that has identifiers within the text. Any publication, whether source material attributed to him or another person, must not contain those identifiers. By this, Doerty has forced massive revisions to a web site including the removal of political cartoons and placed a prior restraint on future publications.

Lynn Wartnik, director, former co-president, and part-owner of Council House, Seattle, a federal financially-assisted apartment block in Seattle, conspired in a massive frame-up that included subornation. Second wife of senior, superior court Judge Anthony P. Wartnik, Lynn filed anti-harassment charges against a reporter for exposing her complicity in alleged senior citizen abuse, misappropriation of federal funds, and homicide. In a consort with her administrator, Stephen A. Mitchell (a consummate liar), Lynn unlawfully obtained multiple antiharassment orders against Nmesis for news gathering and publishing constitutionally protected speech using perjured testimony. [Thespian Liar]

Neither telephone harassment nor any other harassment occurred at any time before, during, or after Lynn (and her directors) obtained court orders from her husband's trial court poodle. They used anti-harassment laws as an end-run around burden of proof and the trial court outrageously disallowed discovery, refutation, or legal representation.

The directors provided virtually unlimited legal resources to their administrator who then locked Nmesis out of his home and office (while still charging him rent) for 14 months. He later had Nmesis sent to jail for 111 days in further attempts to silence him and to cover up his own alleged criminal activity - all without due process of law.

Another outrage occurred, when Judge Wartnik allegedly coerced Doerty, during ex parte communication, to issue a sua sponte order for solitary confinement. Nmesis had no disciplinary charges pending against him. Neither did Doerty have a motion before him to support this extreme measure. The term “ex parte” means a judicial proceeding for a court order or injunction granted at the instance of, and for the benefit of, one party without notice to, or a contestation by, the person adversely affected.

Doerty issued sua sponte (at will and without a motion) an order for movement of Nmesis to incommunicado, ultra-security, solitary-confinement with a 23-hour lock down and no access to his attorney of record. Doerty also denied Nmesis the telephone privileges granted to murderers and rapists in the same section. In other words, Wartnik and Doerty could do whatever they liked leaving Nmesis with no recourse in law. They elevated him to a level of incarceration usually reserved for violent individuals classified by jail authorities as “ultra-security inmates”.

Nmesis clandestinely interviewed several of those inmates after learning jail communication techniques. Those inmates showed a higher degree of integrity and honesty than Wartnik and Doerty have shown at any time during this legal debacle. One of the accused murderers will soon appear before Wartnik. A reasonable person must fear for him receiving a biased hearing and wonder whether Wartnik will recuse himself before he sentences that inmate to death. Norm Maleng, King County Prosecuting Attorney, has claimed that sufficient circumstances do not exist to remove the option of the death penalty. [Hanging Judges and Bloody Assizes]

Although, the ex parte activity attempted to protect Lynn from exposure for alleged complicity in abusing senior citizens and misappropriating government funds, media reports (apparently based on Council House propaganda and hate mail) show that administrators claimed: “. . . Council House was federally examined and no negligence or tenant abuse was found . . .” [01] and “Federal investigators have not found evidence of wrongdoing”, [02] both slanted statements that reporters neither validated by records search nor verified by fact-checking.

A thorough search of US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) public records took place under the Freedom of information Act (FOIA). It disclosed that no audit or investigation has ever taken place although HUD received several requests for action more than two years before.

John W. Meyers, HUD Secretary’s Representative, Seattle, and his predecessor Robert Santos, have both neglected to respond to correspondence regarding resident abuse. They have restricted access to public records, allegedly to cover up departmental negligence. Meyers must hold the ultimate responsibility for his staff actions in particular those of Martha Dilts, Kathy Klein, and Becky Sands, who have neglected to oversee the property and have covered up problems reported to them. [Agency Accountability]

Several web masters have mirrored the original web site that contains the prohibited identifiers. On the World Wide Web, Uniform Resource Locators (URL) help readers to find files on various servers. The URL includes the access address, server domain, and file location. According to legal opinion, contact with any single web site, letter, or email (yes, email) that has identifiers of thousands of people whom Nmesis does not know or who associate with him violates the order.

Doerty has handed down this order pending appeal of his many irrational decisions. Any link to, or citation of, the banned information places Nmesis in contempt and subject to re-incarceration. Likewise, it bans any cooperation between Nmesis and a mirror web master offering or agreeing to exchange files.

To protect Nmesis from another contempt citation, any creator of a mirror must remain entirely independent of him and not discuss it with him. For example, the web masters have remained independent in the creation of mirror sites that now appear on the web in several places.

It horrifies and shocks Nmesis that anyone would defy a court order, unlawful as it may seem, and use their constitutional protection to follow their conscience. He acknowledges their action but cannot possibly confirm it under penalty of imprisonment. In fact, Doerty has said that Nmesis should sue the web masters for infringing his copyright!

Doerty said, Big Brother (oops - court security) would trace the email messages that he has received back to their sources. In his paranoia, he sees a very real threat from some of the postings in his guest book which he removed from his personal web site, now mirrored on other sites. [Jiminy’s Journal]

Doerty claims that some email sent directly to him and other court staff, could ripen into a criminal complaint. A lawyer answered by saying: “Please caution folks that ridicule and argument, even bombastic arguments, are fine, but threats which a recipient reasonably believes may lead to harm are a criminal act”.

Doerty’s sycophantic behavior toward Wartnik and his wife has truly earned him the title of “pandering poodle”. He demands his victims give account of themselves then prevents them from doing it. He defames them through slander and tries to ruin their long-term professional standing. Then he absurdly orders that: “Beyond this, the court will not intrude on editorial rights except to require all the information posted by him on his web site be in good faith compliance with the anti-harassment order” - a “narrowly tailored” order that relates to thousands of people he does not know.

Doerty continues to refer to publication of social security numbers that Nmesis has never published and has said that he never intends to publish because he considers it unethical journalism. Doerty had no basis in law for his decisions and did not address matters introduced as fact. Instead, he editorialized from statements not in evidence many of them gleaned from the world wide web.

Council House Kapos Virginia Lambert, Felippe Jacques, and Nathaniel Sthl, in a conspiracy with administrator Stephen (aka Stefan) Mitchell, have conducted an international hate campaign by email and US mail. They have distributed dozens of hate and propaganda diatribes and published some of them on the web to discredit and character assassinate Nmesis also to influence the court.

With his equally sick mind, Doerty has consistently relied on this material (in addition to the declarations suborned by the same people) when writing several findings. Sub-literacy does not allow other Council House Kapos to write hate mail. [Five Kapos]

Former Council House Kapo, Virginia Lambert (diagnosed as a person with diminished mental capacity) wrote and disseminated this unsupported hate language using the Internet: “He is nothing more than a misogynistic, homophobic, anti-semitic [sic] and racist snoop . . .”. She apparently sent a copy to Doerty. After paraphrasing the statement, Doerty entered it into the record as: “. . . his anti-Semitic, misogynistic, homophobic lies . . .”. [03] These three terms do not appear in evidence. They only appear in the hate email (which Sherfey continues to withhold) and the trial court finding.

In fact, Lambert swore a declaration that contains no mention of these prejudices. [04] Doerty allegedly rearranged the language then entered it into the court record without any evidence to support it. A pattern or practice of this judicial misconduct persisted over a fourteen-month period. The lack of any evidence to support findings and incarceration amounts to judicial harassment contrary to rules of judicial procedure. The available decisions and transcripts show Doerty’s extremely sick perception of reality.

Doerty, clutches at any straw not in evidence that suits his assumption without question. He does not care about truth or falsity as long as the statement suits his predetermined decision. The assumption then becomes the reality. Coupled with pathological lying by Council House administrators (which he fervently believes) Doerty presents an outstanding example for the superior court in Seattle. The public whom they serve should hope that the appellate court has a modicum of ethics when deciding these issues.

Doerty types his decisions before he has heard oral argument and before a hearing thereby denying due process of law. He denies legal representation using a variety of ploys that deny either funding or time to make arrangements. The victim goes to jail for an indeterminate time with no review of the “sentence” and without any chance to defend himself. [Metamorphosis]

An allegedly mentally sick judge, whose own words reflect his projection of self claims: “difficulty modulating his behavior due to organic brain damage suffered as a consequence of his many years of chronic alcoholism”. [05] He breaks the laws of the external, empirically rational world to indulge his political affiliations and personal bias. He favors the machination of his allegedly corrupt and bigoted mentor and his wife, also Council House board of directors. A queer form of justice henceforth known as Justice, by Jiminy!

Doerty assumed guilt of which the victim remained ignorant then arrested and imprisoned him without probable cause. Extensive interviews with several jail inmates confirm that this ranks as normal practice in King County. A Seattle attorney so aptly put it in a moment of dudgeon: “This matter has now elevated beyond even First Amendment outrage it began as. This is a petty tyrant judge running amok with power and possibly trying to cover his tracks”.

Council House Kapo, Felippe Jacques, has admitted in writing his own violent, anti-Semitic, and homophobic disposition. Ironically, the queer Doerty fervently believes and frequently quotes him in evidence. Jacques wrote: “He is a delusional man who believes in his own fantasies about himself - and his writing, full of conspiracy themes, reflect a further damaged personality”. Doerty entered that into evidence from an email message posted on the web without a shred of proof to support it probably because he saw it as a reflection of his own better qualities. [Noblesse Oblige]

Conclusion

Judge James A. Doerty, Washington Superior Court, has yet to learn a lesson. His recent attempts to censor the Internet globally show an abysmal ignorance of technology and rhetorical structure. He has issued contempt findings against a journalist to silence him without questioning evidence or understanding the means of dissemination.

One would expect any lawyer of standing to have studied Socratic method and to have at least a basic understanding of rhetorical assumption, implication, and conclusion even if he knows nothing about computer technology. However, Doerty sits on the bench with a laptop computer and uses it to glean “evidence” without any fact-checking - a basic function of any ethical journalist let alone the expectation for a superior court judge.

Even tyro web surfers know that one must carefully evaluate web information based on other criteria before accepting online statements. Doerty, and other judges of his ilk, threaten the very foundation of free expression and democratic practice with their assumptions.

Doerty irrelevantly claimed in court that he had his own web site. On that site he published more than thirty pictures of small children allegedly without permission from their parents or guardians. This ranks as inexcusable and unethical behavior for a journalist. However, for a queer judge to use this method of promoting himself does a disservice to the whole queer community.

The gay community receives enough unfair, untrue, and defamatory innuendos about queer pedophilia without a superior court judge giving voyeurs more ammunition. Research statistics show that around ninety percent of pedophiles classify as heterosexual. Probably as the result of an investigation by Nmesis into this issue, Doerty has now taken down the web site at jdoerty.com. However, mirror copies still exist. [Queer Connection]

In a similar vein, Foggy wrote:

But then Jimmy, a former Childrens Court babysitter before he stumbled into his $100,000/yr judgeship, ain't exactly a legal whiz to begin with. With literally no judicial background whatsoever, he's mooching off his fellow Gays to hold his job. With all the first-rate Gay lawyers in town, a little weasel like Jimmy was a poor choice for the bench. But, since the others are too busy making tons of money and aren't as willing to kiss political ass as he is, he got the job after barely squeaking in during the vote. He kept his homosexuality a big secret right up until the last moment. You would have thought he was ashamed of being Gay or something. Then, trailing in the polls and with nothing left to lose, he came popping out of the closet as Mr. Queer Seattle. Whatever works eh. Once he had the job he climbed back in his closet and has done nothing to repay the Gay community for its help. What are Little People for, after all, except to help Big People like Jimmy. [Another Foggy Moment #227]

Doerty accepted without question more than forty perjured declarations suborned in abject cowardice by Jacques and Council House administrator Mitchell from senior citizens in fear of retribution for refusing to participate. However, right will eventually transcend as resident behavior in the appellate court lobby showed.

The multicultural attendance by Council House residents and local community members showed outstanding support for the appellant. Instead of the fear that residents have experienced for years from a succession of abusive administrators and Kapos, they showed a pleasing exuberance and individuation.

Perhaps more importantly, they showed a cross-cultural cooperation not seen previously. Residents and the public shared rides to the court and integrated in a way that did not exist six months ago. That makes it worth the effort to continue writing to expose the homicide by abuse before the Council House body count increases. A non-resident volunteered that the respondent even looked like a concentration camp commandant.

Interestingly, two Council House Kapos and their molls attended the court. They wore dark glasses (that is not normal). They stayed in the corner of the lobby without trying to hassle or coerce the residents - not normal behavior either.

Perhaps they have assimilated the fear that they have instilled into others for years and will not sleep at night in keeping with the sleepless nights that they have caused to others. Council House administrators not only stole sleep from residents but also taxpayer money.

Haggada contains the legends, anecdotes, and sayings that illustrate Jewish law. One saying addresses sleep deprivation. It claims that depriving people of their sleep counts as robbery. Stealing sleep ranks more perniciously than stealing money because monetary restoration mitigates theft, whereas the thief can never restore sleep.

Council House directors and their managers have used their authority, professional qualifications, and political ability, to take advantage of senior citizens. Through judicial connections, they have misused the law for their own selfish purposes. Collectively, they have become a stain on the integrity of the Jewish community.

Judges should disqualify themselves if litigants can reasonably question their impartiality because of a conflict of interest or personal bias or prejudice - something that Doerty failed to recognize. Judges who manifest bias on any count in a proceeding impair the fairness of the proceeding and bring the judiciary as a whole into disrepute.

Doerty denied legal representation, discovery or cross-examination, which determines the truthfulness of allegations then made findings on the basis of obviously perjured testimony. Council House administrators suborned fearful senior citizens to concoct a monstrous frame-up to cover up their alleged crimes and those of the directors.

Hopefully, the appellate decision will deter other judges from doing the same thing and make housing managers think twice before abusing senior citizens. In addition, it should encourage journalists to have the spunk not to hunker down each time some politically correct entity tries to silence them.

Solidarity among journalists, that existed several decades ago, no longer exists. Too many of them have followed their mothers’ politically correct admonition: “If you cannot say something nice about somebody else then say nothing”. Moreover, professional journalism societies have become politically correct private clubs for a media elite giving only lip-service to ethical behavior. It seems that fear of losing money and jobs (also loss of advertising revenues) have taken precedence over journalism ethics.

The lack of an energized fourth estate gives malfeasants and abusers an advantage when the three branches of government neglect to insure due process of law for victims. This case would probably not have reached the appellate court if journalists had properly investigated the facts instead of acting as a sop to Doerty’s ego. Publishers, in particular, Roger Oglesby, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and Lucy A. Dalglish, The News Media and the Law (RCFP), did not control renegade reporters, instead, they supported them by publishing libel which echoed worldwide. They have yet to mitigate the damage.

For the sake of legal precedent, it remains particularly important for a court of record to hold that the legislature did not intend use of anti-harassment laws as a quick and cheap end-run around burden of proof. Both judges and litigants must use defamation actions for complaints after comprehending the long-standing prohibition on prior restraint of free speech. They must not try to mold non-applicable laws to try to suppress speech. [Prior Restraint - SLAPP]

The appellant has decided to go to the Washington State Supreme Court, and beyond, if necessary. Hopefully the appellate judges will thoroughly review the perjured testimony, also the alleged judicial misconduct, then make a fair and unbiased decision based in law not on political affiliation - then Franz Kafka can rest in peace.

© Copyright 2003 by Paul Trummel
All Rights Reserved: 01 Nov 03/23:03 PST
Edition: #806-31-70/05-1024-14:56
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