Catching Crooks One Family Court At A Time !

In 2004 the FBI  celebrated a landmark investigation : Operation Greylord, which in 1984 addressed the criminal  conduct that plagued the city of Chicago and  involved court corruption.

​Ironically, at that same time family court corruption in Santa Clara Family Courts  began to take root and for the next  30 years created a  wake of  devastation on innocent citizens engaged in divorce and probate matters.

​For the last two years a team of investigative reporters, litigants and lawyers have put Santa Clara County Family Courts under the microscope, something the FBI should have done.  The corruption and injustice that has been revealed shows hundreds  of lawyers, judges, court experts , CPAs and other fiduciaries  have acted  under the color of law to steal property, children and income from California  citizens during divorce, custody and probate cases.

​The story of Santa Clara corruption  begins in about 1984 as well, with Judge Stewart presiding over family court matters. Judge Stewart had been warned by California's Commission on Judicial Performance to disclose his  close relationship with lawyer Bradford Baugh.  The relationship clearly made the Commission  uncomfortable,  which we recently learned is hard to do.- See Report issues by Court Reform, LLC.

​By 1991 the Commission on Judicial Performance sent an investigator to address misconduct of judges in San Diego, and in Santa Clara the same conduct was visible to the public as it involved the family law bench.

​In Santa Clara's family courts Judge Stewart never disclosed  his relationship with Brad Baugh as CJP had required , and the team of Stewart and Baugh went to work  churning fees for Judge Stewart's political campaigns and for Brad Baugh to advance himself as Silicon Valley's top grossing family law attorney.

 ​At this same time in Santa Clara, public outrage over custody experts, including  Terry Johnson and Valerie Houghton  began to roar, and the judges began to " circle the wagons"  and retaliate against any litigant or lawyer who dare spoke up.  

It would not be  until 2016, and on a totally different matter, that Santa Clara County's district attorney would press charges against a family lawyer, Valerie Houghton, and then only for fraud and theft unrelated to  her family law and child custody practice. Are we really expected to believe that Ms. Houghton was only a crook in part of her life?  . ( See her indictment )

As San Diego was put under the Commission on Judicial Performance's microscope, courts in Santa Clara County became a joke as it tolerated judges who  allowed lawyers to bring ridiculous family law litigation where  family lawyers began to incur outrageous fees that drove  the costs of middle class divorces to the unconscionable.

​Silicon Valley began to make a mockery of the American  legal system, where average citizens were trapped to deal with divorce, custody and probate cases.  

Steve Wozniak , co-founder of Apple Inc, offered an example of what was yet to come in Silicon Valley  as the Wozniaks paid their family  lawyers millions to  argue over who would open the family Christmas cards each year. Judges tolerated this misuse of family courts as they began to  allow litigants to use court fees and time for the ridiculous, and where they became intoxicated with the " new" money Silicon Valley divorces had to offer.
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​Lawyers like Brad Baugh remained a staple in family court and after  Stewart's retirement, Judge  Mary Ann Grilli quickly became the  judge in the epicenter of corruption, cloaked in  immunity and sanctioned by her peers as one of Santa Clara County's superstar family law judges, just as crooked judges had protected their own in San Diego.  

​​For over 30 years the conduct known to exist in San Diego has thrived in Santa Clara Family courts, where citizens have lost property, income and children, based on flagrant corruption of a few lawyers and judges gatekeeping they system to benefit a select few.

​In 2012, Grilli used her political weight to as a contributor to the state's Bench Guide  on custody and support issues facing family law judges in the State of California. ​At the same time Grilli was jailing mothers for custody violations, and imputing mother's on Medicare to pay support for children she stripped them of, and as she let  fathers off the hook for failing to pay legally required child support.  Grilli’s mathematical incompetence precludes her from being able to read a tax return, or look at income fathers make which , In Re Marriage of Cheriton reminds us of daily in family courts across the state. 
 
Department of Child Support  Services in Santa Clara has reported  that Grilli so often fails to make proper support orders in cases involving her " favorite " lawyers, that if imposes huge burdens on the county and state, as well as self-represented  litigants who  try to collect legally assured child support.

​A careful review of Santa Clara Family Court files  show that Mary Ann Grilli and the same old crew of cronies picked up where Judge Stewart left off, and 20 years after Stewart was shipped off into retirement , there  is more than an appearance that Judge Grilli consistently misuses her authority  and power to impose:

• ​Pro per Bias
• Bias toward Immigrants
• Financial Deprivation of Women and Children
• Illegal orders
• Overreaching
• ​Misuse of Court Resources
• ​Failure to Protect Children

​The legal corruption the State Bar and Commission on Judicial Performance has known about for 30 years, is alive and well in San Diego, Santa Clara , and counties all over the state of California.
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