FAKE Or REAL? Sex Harassment Debate Hits the Judiciary Next

Judicial Disgrace

 

​Last month it was Harvey Weinstein and today NBC fired Matt Lauer. Seems these days every man in every corner of society is losing a job, a reputation, or their family where an old photo, a hand on a back or even a false story of abuse is concerned, except judges and lawyers gatekeeping our legal system.

This time the public is refusing to wait for of an epic court ruling, thanks to  the viral anonymity offered by the  internet and social media, a modern communication tool that fills the void when mainstream media won't .

Seems the legal system is ripe to be the last area of society to fall bare naked where the topic of sexual abuse and harassment are concerned. 

Family Courts in particular  are ripe as the next frontier in the nation's sexual harassment debate. In a world where everyone claims someone is lying, and where the law allows the dirtiest of lies,  all eyes may be turning to the lawyers , experts and judges  working in divorce, probate and custody cases. 

Sex abuse and assault at work and home are very real issues, so are false allegations about abuse for a nefarious  purpose - taking children from innocent parents, ordering sanctions and attorney fees at unconscionable rates and awarding business to unscrupulous court appointed and joint experts. 

When the courts and legal community ignore real abuse but create abuse out of false claims and legal games, society loses. Women, men and children lose and that is what is happening daily in our family courts.

False claims are made by lawyers to make more money. These same lawyers refuse to represent real victims who have no money. Too often a DA will aggressively pursue a false claim, to  look good at the time of an election. And what secrets lurk in a judge's past ?

How about law enforcement agencies that respond to DV calls?  DV runs rampant in law enforcement agencies. Police misconduct, and officers charged with violence in their own homes that is often protected by a blue wall is a wall that extends into court where lawyers and judges use public agencies as their own private security. 

What about non-profits claiming to be feminist groups or father's rights groups funding corrupt organizations such as the AFCC.  

​Politicians including Trump, Moore and  Al Franken were not immune to the court of public opinion,  so what about lawyers, prosecutors, public defenders. judges and others who work with women in the legal industry?


          Sexual Assault, Abuse, & Sex Crimes Comes to Divorce Court 

Judge Aaron Persky's judicial decision to sentence Stanford Rapist Brock Turner to only six months in jail may have brought Persky comfort byway of a clean vote of confidence from the toothless watchdog agency better known as the CJP, but Persky did not escape the court of public opinion, or the recall effort that followed. For years Persky has failed women  and children appearing in his court where family law cases are concerned. Persky failed to address attorney misconduct and was involved in the Mesiti case, where a father was awarded full custody because the mother was too poor. That father drugged, raped and killed that girl and was just sentenced for 49 felonies in another county. 

Persky also presided over the Whal divorce, a divorce where the husband reportedly paid lawyer Bradford Baugh with a blank check to "make his former wife's life a living hell".

​The court of public opinion is the same that saw the fall of sports stars, movie  industry moguls and business tycoons, and now that court has been conviended to address the same in the legal system. 


                      Link Between the Silent Press and Sex in the Court 


The Press and the Judiciary are two areas carefully balancing the trust of society, often unnoticed and working with the blind trust and reliance of  the public. Now they are noticed.

Now, that public is restless.  

​Members of the press  reluctant to cover courts, are drawing attention. A  San Jose Mercury News Reporter admitted to the subject of one of her stories that she knew women made false claims of domestic violence , because she had done it before herself. So , how could any such woman cover the courts objectively and believe any woman claiming abuse was credible? If that reporter covered the Brock Turner case, did she believe Emily Doe?  And what about the press coverage linked to family court issues in mainstream media, why is the press afraid to cover that ? 

In Napa, the Hayward case showed an attorney acting as a private judge, Nancy Perkovich, openly flirted with the husband's lawyer, Bob Blevens, while presiding over a divorce case, causing significant harm while earning excessive fees. The judges who knew did nothing. The State Bar did nothing. 

In Contra Costa Merritt Weisinger, Daniel Cantrell, Christina Currington,  Stacy Stevens, Dominic Porrino and Paula Groah have engaged in gross abuse of the legal system, while carrying on improper relationships with court bailiffs, court clerks and Judges like Cram, Haynes, Austin, MillS and Fannin. 

In Orange County lawyers like David Weinberg and Tom Tuttle have been sexually harassing and abusing children with the help of custody experts the likes of Dr. Rebecca Bailey. 

In Santa Clara County attorney Nat Hales told a widow he would give her a favorable settlement in a probate case if she agreed to be his mistress, at the same time Hales acted as referee and private judge appointed by the women judges in Santa Clara : Pichon, Lucas, Emede and Yew, all who did nothing and allowed Hales , with others : Moreno, Baugh, Krepalkha, Erickson, Mitchell, Yates- Carter, Houghton, Frye, and Hammon to protect violent abusers for financial gain. Judge James Towery and Stuart Scott openly harass court staff and female litigants and lawyers, and at worse, get letters of discipline , when they should lose their jobs. 

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                                              Prosecutor's and Public Defenders 
From Orange County , to Santa Clara and Contra Costa, prosecutors and pubic defenders date, work late and carry on with illicit  affairs. Infidelity runs so rampant that lawyers and judges know of affairs and remain silent. These are the ultimate faces legally assigning guilt or blame to sexual harassment and abuse by way of  our legal system.

​In Monterey, William Crawford represented a wife after her husband, a doctor  and convicted felon, after the wife's husband  manufactured false DV. William Crawford sexually pursued the client, and at the same time referred her to his wife at the time, Debra Crawford,  Finding out about the affair ,Debra Crawford married her own client's husband and the Bar, along with the male and female judges in Monterey, did nothing. The State Bar did nothing. The former wife continues to be harmed and legally abused by the Crawfords who are part of the cronyism in Monterey.

​The State Bar put new sex policies in place, as their own lawyers including Vanessa Holton, Sherrie McCletchie and other women knew of the rampant sex misconduct in the legal system. These female leaders at the State Bar were reportedly involved in heated affairs and casual sex with other State Bar employees, some who became judges and some who had Bar complaints disappear.
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​                                     So What do the Women Know ?
                               Who is Gagged, Threatened and Silenced? 

An alarming number of women have been gagged, restrained from social media, branded mentally ill, called crazy, labeled  disgruntled or declared vexatious to silence them from reporting real abuse or violence arising from the family. 

On the other hand,  in divorce cases, when one party allowed to use all the money to pay lawyers can  easily hire unscrupulous lawyers to make false claims as a means to assist them gain a financial and emotional advantage. These claims, made with no evidence to support them,  can cause men, or women, to lose their jobs, their homes, their children and their freedom. All because of a divorce. 




 In case after case women coming forward in sports, entertainment, politics and the press claim they didn't come forward because they knew they could lose their jobs, or face worse.  Research and interviews with thousands of women in the legal system shows the same holds true  where our justice system is concerned.  Men without money,  connections , or power are harmed as well. 

In Santa Clara County Judge Patricia Lucas received a complaint about sexual harassment related to Judge Towery, she responded to that complaint claiming she asked Towery and reported he said in a Weinstein like fashion, " it  didn't happen".  She then perched herself at a Bar and drank like a sorority girl at her first frat party with the very judges and lawyers she was charged to discipline as a matter of public protection.

To the  extent of Lucas' investigation involved asking the perpetrator, as Lucas was the managing judge in one of California's most important county, demonstrates the culture of apathy and silence in the legal system  where sexual abuse and harassment is concerned. The women working in the courts, and working in the legal community, were outraged by Lucas' failures, but not surprised,

​It is reactions like Lucas' that prevent women from coming forward. Lucas, a mother of son's herself, has turned a blind eye to maintain a culture of silence where violence and harm to women and children are concerned. 

It is this culture that prevents real victims from coming forward and allows  other women to feel  emboldened to make false claims of abuse or sexual harassment. For every false claim, hundreds of real victims suffer and are set back.

​For decades  women tried to complain about  James Towery, at law firms, and even as he cheated on his first wife while working at the firm owned by his own father-in-law. Today  Towery openly awards female lawyers less than male lawyers appearing in his court, and instructs female court staff to violate the law to protect his image. Worse is the conduct of Towery were pro se  women and children appear in his court. Similar to that of his colleagues, Judge Chiaello,  and Judge Persky,  Towery consistently issues gender biased rulings and ignores real domestic violence where women  not represented by favored male lawyer are concerned. Where favored female lawyers appear before Towery, the men involved in divorce or custody disputes are hit with bias and unlawful rulings as well. 

​When Judge Scott engaged in judicial misconduct and clearly was hitting on a female prosecutor in a manner that constituted sexual harassment, the Commission on Judicial Performance, where Judge Erica Yew acted as Chairperson, deemed such conduct only warranted a discipline letter and judge Scott was free to remain on the bench to harass other female lawyers, court clerks and court reporters.


 The judicial watchdogs, loaded with women like Judge Erica Yew are responsible for the continued harm bad judges and lawyers allow to be inflicted in real victims.

​The culture of protection and silence in California's legal community is so entrenched, most women are afraid to speak up. Those who do pay a heavy price.

​As the public wars on raging over Judge Persky, forming recalls and protesting, the Santa Clara County judiciary,  led entirely by female managers, and General Counsel, Lisa Herrick (former partner of McManis and Faulkner) , circle the wagons, protect the secrets, rest on their immunity and fund anti recall campaigns, ignoring the cries of the men and women they are charged to serve. 

​The judges protecting Persky include some of the worst in the nation and the press should be asking about the disconnect between the court of public opinion and the judges fighting to stay on the bench where they continue the culture of abuse. 




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