Sheriff & Judge Holding Richard I. Fine, Now One Year In Solitary "Coercive Confinement (Video 7 minutes)

Los Angeles, CA. On March 4, 2010 it will be one year in the L.A. County Jail for Richard I. Fine, who accused Superior Court Judge David Yaffe of corruption for taking illegal payments from the L.A. County in a case involving the County of Los Angeles. The ACLU has been called in to prevent inmate abuse by the L. A. County Jailers who are holding Fine in solitary “Coercive Confinement” in Central Men’s jail for contempt of court by order of Superior Court Judge Yaffe. Watch this seven minute video interview

Having never been convicted of a crime, Richard I. Fine is a 70 year old anti-trust attorney, who holds a Ph.D in International Law, who has been held without a trial and without bail and no hearing or release date. These circumstances are in violation of U.S. Supreme Court precedent, In Re Farr (1974), where the five day limit on holding a person in “coercive confinement” for civil contempt of court cases must apply.

The ACLU had previously informed Mr. Fine’s family and Full Disclosure that they were unable to assist him. But when his upper dental plate broke on January 5, 2010 he complained to his jailers that he could not eat without them, he realized he desperately needed their help.

Full Disclosure called Actor Ed Asner, long known as a humanitarian and who was recently honored by the ACLU for his devotion to preserving Civil Liberties. Mr. Asner unhesitatingly offered to call Ramona Ripston executive director of the ACLU and wife of prominent Ninth Circuit Court Judge Steven Reinhardt, to request help for Mr. Fine. For years the ACLU has served as court appointed monitor for the L. A. County jails to prevent inmate abuse and assure attention to inmate health care complaints.

Watch this 7 minute video news update report featuring:

· Mary Tiedeman ACLU Jail Project Coordinator
· Peter Eliasberg ACLU Managing Attorney
· Richard I. Fine by collect telephone call from his jail cell

Related Links:

Ed Asner, Requests Medical Updates On Richard Fine

L A Sheriff Denies Full Disclosure Interview of Richard Fine

Inmate Complaint Claims Sheriff Guilty of Unlawful Imprisonment

Ed Asner Requests Update On Richard I. Fine's Condition In L A Central Men's Jail

EDWARD ASNER'S HUMANITARIAN APPEAL FOR INMATE FINE

Los Angeles, CA After reading the latest reports from Full Disclosure Network® actor Ed Asner has requested updates on the condition of Richard I Fine Prisoner ID #1824367 in the L. A. County Central Men's Jail. For the past two weeks Mr. Fine has complained of the broken dental plate that has prevented him from being able to chew his food. The condition was reported to the jail's medical infirmary and two complaints and an appeal were filed by Mr. Fine to no avail.

HELD IN SOLITARY "COERCIVE CONFINEMENT"

Richard I. Fine has been held in L.A. County jail since March 4, 2009 in solitary "Coercive Confinement" for contempt of court following his challenge of Judge David Yaffe for having accepted illegal payments from L A. County who was involved in the case Marina Strand Colony II Homeowners Assn. vs County of L.A. In spite of U S Supreme Court precedent In Re Farr holding that persons cannot be held in "coercive confinement" for more that five days in contempt of court cases, Mr. Fine remains in jail for almost eleven months.

ACLU MONITORING COUNTY JAILS

Apparently County jail operations are now more concerned with who will pay for the dental repairs than they are with fixing the problem. When Ed Asner learned of the situtation, he called on the ACLU to look into this matter and asked Full Disclosure to keep him updated from our side of the story. As a result of court cases, and an agreement with L. A. County, the ACLU has been monitoring the L. A. County Jails to prevent inmate abuse and assure proper medical attention to the inmates. Ed Asner was assured by Ramona Ripston, Executive Director of the ACLU, that they would look into the matter.


FULL DISCLOSURE'S UPDATE FOR ED ASNER (1-23-10):
Dear Ed:

I got a call at 10 p.m last night, at home, from a Lieutenant at the L A County Central Men's Jail, as he promised to update us on Mr. Fine. He told me the following:

1) Mr. Fine is able to eat even with a broken dental plate, contradicting Mr. Fine.
2) The jail Medical clinic cannot fix the dental plate
3) Mr. Fine will have to pay to have it fixed.
4) No plans have been yet scheduled to deal with this problem.

And, there appears to be no sense of urgency on the part of the Sheriff's Department to do anything to accommodate the dental problem, as it has now been over two weeks since the dental plate broke and was first reported.

There is a belief that Mr. Fine and or his supporters could raise the money to fix the dental plate. As I mentioned, I have talked with Executive Assistant to the Sheriff, Commander Jim Lopez, a Lieutenant and Watch Commander's Deputy in Men's Central Jail about this and the telephone problem over the last two days.

Last night (Fri 1-22-10) I got two voice mail messages from Commander Lopez at 7:48 p.m. and 8:16 p.m. he said that he talked to the Sergeants involved in oversight and they have solved one problem, but gave no specifics, and that they still have not resolved the dental problem and that he will be back to me on Monday.

I will continue to notify you if I hear from Mr. Fine and or the Sheriff's Department and hope to hear from you or Ramona of any developments from your end.

Thank you and the ACLU for your interest and concern. It is greatly appreciated by all who are watching this sorry saga play out. I hope that the clerical problems with the Ninth Circuit will be addessed as well, as Mr. Fine filed a petition weeks ago for an En Banc hearing before the full Court to appeal the Court's decision to deny his petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus. I will be at my office this afternoon at 310-822-4449 and checking my messages frequently.

Best regards,

Leslie Dutton

Producer

Full Disclosure Network®.

California State Bar Persecution of Attorney Richard I. Fine (Video 9 min)

Los Angeles, CA As a part of an on-going cable TV series entitled “Judicial Benefits & Court Corruption", the Full Disclosure Network® is releasing an exclusive (9 min) video preview of Part 6 and 7 featuring Daniel Henry Gottlieb, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics with Purdue University for 40 years. As a disgruntled homeowner Gottlieb set out to investigate what caused the attorney for his Homeowners Association, Richard I. Fine, to be removed from their case against Los Angeles County and a neighboring development, the Del Rey Shores complex.

STATE BAR ACTS TO DERAIL LITIGATION AGAINST COUNTY?
In this interview conducted by Full Disclosure®’s Leslie Dutton, Gottlieb describes the circumstances that took place when State Bar Association disbarment proceedings against their attorney began just two weeks after the Marina Strand Colony II Homeowners Association hired him to take over their case. Was it a coincidence that both the President and President Elect of the State Bar Association were attorneys for the developer and the county who had a lot at stake? Gottlieb explains the details.

AUDIO TAPES REVEAL SHENANIGANS AT STATE BAR COURT
Professor Gottlieb tells Full Disclosure what he learned after extensive review of the State Bar audio tapes of the hearings. He describes unorthodox procedures and rules of evidence and as a lay person was astounded by the manipulations of the charges and the verdicts that appeared necessary to accommodate what appeared to be a predetermined outcome…..the disbarment of Richard I. Fine.

STATE BAR ACCUSED OF FRAUD UPON THE COURT:
Following the release of this two-part interview with Professor Gottlieb, Full Disclosure has learned that a complaint was filed in U. S. District Court this week naming the State Bar of California, the Board of Governors of the State Bar, Scott Drexel, Chief Trial Counsel of the State Bar and The Supreme Court of California alleging perpetrating FRAUD upon the Court. The complaint filed by Richard I. Fine is asking the U. S. Court to void and annul the California Supreme Court Disbarment Order and is Demanding a Jury Trial.

CONTEMPT CHARGES LEAD TO “COERCIVE CONFINEMENT”:
Richard I. Fine remains in L. A. County Central Men’s jail since March 4, 2009, held in contempt of court by L A Superior Court Judge David Yaffe who he attempted to disqualify for having received illegal payments from a party to the case (L .A. County) and failed to disclose to litigants in the case and on his Economic Disclosure Form 700.

DVDS AVAILABLE FOR ENTIRE SERIES LISTED HERE

County To Stop Payments For New Judges.....L A Supervisor Michael Antonovich (Video 3 min)

L A County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich

November 23, 2009

Lincoln Club of Los Angeles County

Los Angeles, CA Full Disclosure Network® presents a 3 min video report on the November 23, 2009 remarks made by Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich at a meeting of the Los Angeles County Lincoln Club in North Hollywood. The Supervisor provided an update regarding the controversy over long-time practice of the County making payments to Los Angeles Superior Court Judges. Civic leader David R. Hernandez provides his account of the presentation in the video.

A Fourth District CA Court of Appeals decision in November of 2008 ruled the county's payments were illegal in the Sturgeon v. County of Los Angeles lawsuit that found Judges, who are all elected officials, had not been disclosing the extra payments they received from the County to litigants in the courtroom, in cases involving the county, nor on the Form 700 Economic Interest statements as required by the California Fair Pactices Act.

In response a question about the continuing public concern that county payments created a “conflict” for judges and if this conflict was going to be resolved?

Here are some of the points made by Supervisor Antonovich:

• All new judges (elected or appointed) will not be receiving payments from the county.
• Most other California counties have been paying (illegal) benefits to the judges
• This was not just a Los Angeles County practice
• Recent legislation, Senate Bill SBX2 11 has now made the payments legal.
• L A Judges have not always ruled in favor of the County
• Several rulings have been in favor of illegal aliens (which the county opposed)
  

Featured in the video: are two prominent critics of the illegal payments made to Judges by the County and below are comments from Richard I Fine from his L.A. County Jail cell.

David R. Hernandez, Civic Leader (by telephone)
Sterling Norris, Judicial Watch Attorney (Sturgeon v County of Los Angeles)

From his L. A. County Central Men's Jail cell, Richard I Fine: Anti-Trust Attorney who remains in solitary “coercive confinement” following his attempt to disqualify Judge Yaffe for not disclosing to litigants in his courtroom, receipt of payments from County . Fine had this to say regarding the disclosure by Supervisor Antonovich:

“This is long overdue. This is a great victory for those of us that have been fighting the illegal payments. The County has spent approximately $300 million since 1988 on these illegal and criminal payments to the Judges. I and others have filed complaints with the U S Dept. of Justice knowing that these payments violate the tangible rights to honest services and I have filed a complaint with a the California Attorney general showing that these payments are a misappropriation of funds, and obstruction of justice and bribery."

"Senate Bill SBX2 11 which was enacted on Feb. 20, 2009 confirmed that the payments are criminal by the judges and those who make the payments now have retroactive immunity from criminal prosecution, civil liability and disciplinary action. The action of the Supervisors to stop the payments appears to be a clear response to rid themselves of this criminal activity."

In response to comments made by Sterling Norris (in the video) Fine said, "The 2010 budget bill resolution of the County left the decision regarding these payments to the Executive Officer and Auditor-Controller that is the reason you do not see second resolution to these payments. With respect to the Judges, this only deals with the payments in Los Angeles County, 429 judges, will continue to receive their payments however, those payments will stop as each judge comes up for re-election . The longest period of time is if that judge is reelected, he would get payments for six years until there is another election. Then he would be come a new judge.”

Sterling Norris, Judicial Watch Attorney:
Full Disclosure received the following response that is quoted in the video from Sterling Norris, Judicial Watch attorney who won the Fourth District California Court of Appeal decision ruling the county payments to judges were illegal.

“I have not seen anything in the press regarding a resolution by the Board of Supervisors has been passed that would impact the newly hired judges. Even if they did pass such a resolution, it would not impact the majority, about 95 percent of the judges, nor would it impact or our litigation, even if such a resolution would be approve by the by Board of Supervisors. It is estimated that from 1500 to 2000 California Judges will be impacted by the Sturgeon v. County of Los Angeles case that is still in litigation.”

Link to a complete listing and video links to the Series "Judicial Benefits & Court Corruption{

9-1-1 Call: From 70 Year Old Attorney Richard I Fine...Jailed After Attempt To Disqualify Judge

Listen Here: Richard I Fine's 9-1-1 call to Leslie Dutton of

Full Disclosure Network while reading the post with transcript below

Los Angeles, CA Prominent Anti-Trust attorney Richard I Fine placed his third 911 call to the Full Disclosure Network on Friday, July 31, 2009 describing a "State of Emergency" regarding Judicial abuse and corruption. The 911 calls were made in desperation as each call detailed the conditions in L.A. County Central Men's Jail in solitary confinement and the total isolation that was hampering his legal efforts to get out of jail.

On March 4, 2009 Mr. Fine was sentenced for Contempt of Court by Judge David Yaffe for an indefinite period of time, without bail, without a hearing date and without a release date following his attempt to disqualify the Judge from hearing a case involving the County of Los Angeles who had been making illegal payments to Judge Yaffe for more than a decade.

In this 13 minute audio of his latest 911 call Fine reveals shocking details, substantiated by the actual court documents (links provided here). The full transcript of the call is posted here:

9-1-1 CALL TRANSCRIPT (PDF download Here)

• DUTTON: What is the status your Emergency Motion (Writ of Habeas Corpus) to be released from jail?

• FINE: The status of my motion is that it is still pending. I filed the motion on July 9th -- as an emergency motion to be immediately let out of jail and to have the writ granted. As of the present time, there has been no opposition to the motion. In the U.S. District Court, there was not any opposition to my Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus. The Sheriff did not even respond to the Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus, and the Superior Court and Judge Yaffe did not oppose anything in the Writ for Habeas Corpus. And in addition to that, neither of them certified why I was in jail. There is something that is very, very seriously wrong in this case.

• DUTTON: The Sheriff filed, in his Motion to Dismiss. What was the outcome of that?

• FINE: His Motion to Dismiss was denied on June 30th by Judge Walter, and Judge Walter denied it as being moot.

• DUTTON: So the Sheriff didn't certify why you were being held, having made a motion to dismiss, and Federal District Court Judge Walters said it was moot?
  
• FINE: He said -- Yes, he -- he denied it as being moot after he ended up denying my writ. So basically we had the situation that the Sheriff did not answer -- the Sheriff did not answer the Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus. And did not certify why I was here.
  
• DUTTON: Now, for our viewers' sake, a Writ of Habeas Corpus is basically -- it's presumed that it will be granted unless the respondent can demonstrate otherwise, that you should remain in custody.
  
• FINE: Well, that's correct. The law says -- and the law is (inaudible s/l called?) 28 United States Code Section 2243 says that when the writ is filed, the judge either has to do one of two things: He either has to grant it immediately or he has to enter what is called an Order to Show Cause ordering the respondents -- which in this case was the Sheriff -- to show cause why the writ should not be granted, unless for some reason the writ itself is just totally fails. In my case, the writ didn't fail and the judge ordered the Sheriff to show cause why the writ should not be granted. Instead, what the Sheriff did is, the Sheriff moved to have himself be dismissed as the respondent, or in the alternative, have the District Attorney -- have the Superior Court answer. And what happened is that Judge Walter ended up denying that motion, and the Sheriff never answered or certified why I was being held. The Superior Court came in and they never certified why I was being held, and they never ended up showing cause why I should -- why the writ should not be granted.
  
• DUTTON: And were they -- was the Superior Court and Judge Yaffe a party to this Writ of Habeas Corpus?
  
• FINE: No. Actually, they were not. The only party to the Writ of Habeas Corpus was the Sheriff. The -- so they were not a party, but they could be called what is called Real Parties in Interest, but they were never named as that by the Sheriff, and when they came into the case, they never applied to be named to intervene in the case or to be named as a party. So they actually were strangers to the case.
  
• DUTTON: Now, from a legal standpoint, does that make their arguments of any consequence, if they don't have standing?
  
• FINE: Well, it makes their argument of no consequence, but had they intervened, they could have achieved some type of a standing. But even if they had achieved the standing, then they would have had to have respond with reasons why the writ should not be granted, and they never did that. And also, they would have had to have ended up certifying as to why I should -- why I was being held, which they also didn't do, and also they would have had to have produced the entire record of the contempt case, which they also did not do.
  
• DUTTON: Now, there have been reports of judicial abuse of the contempt of court cases, instances where some people have been held in jail for decades. Do you see this breakdown of the court not following the United States Code as an abuse?
  
• FINE: Oh, there's absolutely no question. In my particular case, there's no question that it's an abuse because the Code has specific rules as to what is supposed to happen, and in my case, they broke every one of the rules. You could go -- go right down the Code -- I won't enumerate them all here -- but you can go right down the Code as to each rule that was supposed to take place and they broke them rule by rule by rule.
  
• DUTTON: What is the recourse now? What is your recourse?
  
• FINE: My recourse is to be in the Ninth Circuit, and that's where I have gone, and in a normal situation, when you make a motion -- in the normal situation, when you make a motion in the Ninth Circuit and there's no opposition, your motion is granted immediately. And so that's the next problem that we have here is that I have the motion in the Ninth Circuit; there's been no opposition, and we're sitting -- I've been sitting around waiting for almost a month now.
  
• DUTTON: Is it con- --
  
• FINE: This is a very, very strange part.
  
• DUTTON: Is it conceivable that there is, like, a code of silence here among the judges to just keep you imprisoned without allowing the case to go forward as prescribed by law?
  
• FINE: Well, I think it's more than conceivable. Actually, in my papers, I called it a code of protection. Because what we have in this particular case is that with respect to the Superior Court, you have criminal activity that has occurred, and that's not my viewpoint. That's actually the viewpoint of the legislature of the governor because they passed Senate Bill SBX 2 11, which gave the Superior Court immunity from criminal prosecution. So the governor and the legislature has said that the payments that Judge Yaffe got and that what every other judge got from the County are criminal. So you have criminal activity that has taken place. And now you have the District Court going in and protecting these judges from being prosecuted for this criminal activity, because my Writ of Habeas Corpus goes in and says that these judges took -- engaged in criminal activity by having taken these illegal payments, and therefore they can't sit on either the underlying case or the contempt case. And so what the District Court did is, the District Court then broke federal law by denying my writ. And now we're up in the Ninth Circuit and the Ninth Circuit is sitting on my motions and delaying, which basically means that they're going along with what the District Court has done, which is effectively not prosecuted the Superior Court judges for having taken the illegal payments. That's what it really comes down to.
  
• DUTTON: Okay. Well, we're going to release this update on the internet very shortly, and we will have it transcribed so people can download it from our website, and we are trying to reach the legal counsel for the Sheriff of L.A County-- that's Mr. Aaron Fontana -- and then we're going to reach Kevin McCormick from Ventura, California, who represented the Court and Judge Yaffe, and ask them why they refused to certify the reasons that you were being held in jail. And we're going to try to get a statement, if we can, from the District Court,* because of Judge Walter's denying the writ and denying the Sheriff's Motion to Dismiss as Moot. So is there any last comment you'd like to make before we move on with this report?
  
• FINE: Yeah, I think my last comment is that recently, the United States Supreme Court, in the case of Caperton versus Massey Coal Company, came down and said that when a judge gets a large payment into his campaign committee, and the person who gave the payment is coming up in front of him with a case, that the judge has to recuse himself. So in our case -- or in my case -- what you have is, you have a judge having gotten an illegal payment and refused to recuse himself, so my case is even worse than what the Supreme Court has just decided as being the duties of the judge. So we know that what is happening here is really horrific, and it is affecting over 1600 Superior Court judges across California, a number of Appellate Court judges, and a minimum of four of the seven California Supreme Court justices, and another two Supreme Court Justices that wrote the legislation that gave them the retroactive immunity. So this is a major, major problem in the California Judicial System, which has basically overturned and wrecked the entire California Judicial System and which has denied 38 million people access to the courts and has denied them a fair judicial system.
  
• DUTTON: Okay. Well, thank you very much. Just one last question: Are you prepared to go all the way to the Supreme Court to get your release from jail?
  
• FINE: Absolutely. I've already gone to the Supreme Court with respect to the disbarment, which is dealing with exactly the same issue that we're dealing with here. So I'm prepared to go all the way up and do what is ever -- what is ever necessary to cure these problems in our dysfunction judicial system.
  
• DUTTON: Now, we know that you are in solitary confinement and that we are -- at least can talk to you from this phone in your jail cell. What access do you have to the legal documents and to the records? How are you...
  
• FINE: What access? The -- the so-called law library at the jail does not have really any access to Federal Reports or anything else. They have some access to, you know, to some cases and things, but all of those things are on the disks, are on disks, and there isn't really any way to go in and trace them in the normal way that one does legal research. So basically everything that I have -- that I do really has to come off of memory or off of documents that come in to me from the people that work with me.
  
• DUTTON: Okay. Well, thank you very much for this explanation and update. We're going to get this out as soon as possible. Thank you.
  
  

*Full Disclosure's telephone calls to attorneys for the Superior Court, Judge Yaffe and Sheriff Leroy Baca were not returned at the time of this posting. The District Court was unavailable by telephone.

911 CALL FROM ATTORNEY IN JAIL: Video Here (8 min)

Los Angeles CA The Full Disclosure Network® once again brings "the news behind the news" covering the on going drama unfolding in the L. A. County Jail. Here is a video report of a 911 call for help from prominent Anti-Trust Attorney Richard I Fine who has been confined in the L A County Men's Central Jail, in isolation, since March 4, 2009 following his Superior Court contempt of court hearing in Department 86. Judge David Yaffe ordered Fine to turn over all of his personal financial records and until he did so would be incarcerated without bail, without at release date and without a scheduled hearing, making the term of his sentence, indefinite. Watch and listen here

The contempt sentence imposed by Superior Court Judge David Yaffe followed a request made by Richard Fine, representing him self "in pro per" that Judge Yaffe disqualify himself from hearing the case due to the fact the Judge had received unconstitutional payments from the County of Los Angeles that was party to the case (Marina Strand Colony II Homeowners Association vs County of Los Angeles).

IN PRO PER RIGHTS: In the telephone recorded conversation, Fine describes to Full Disclosure the conditions where he was being held and that he was being denied his Constitutional right to represent himself and even access to paper and pencil, thus preventing him from filing an “IN PRO PER” writ of Habeas Corpus in Federal Court that could possibly free him and provide him an opportunity to fight what he calls "Judicial Corruption".

Details of the contempt hearing and arrest of Richard I. Fine can be found here on this webpage.

A one hour exclusive Full Disclosure® videotaped interview featuring Attorney Fine prior to his incarceration along with government opposition supporting his incarceration and disbarment is to be released to 40 cable systems and on the Internet.