10/09/03
MISSISSIPPI
GULF COAST
STEVEN A. McCALEB
103 ALVERADO DRIVE
LONG BEACH, MISSISSIPPI 39560
PHONE & FAX: (228)-868-8428
I don't
no what to think about an attorney that will lie down to keep from going to the
courtroom.
Since she
is running for elected office, and being an attorney, I would not vote for her.
Remember:
NEVER VOTE FOR AN ATTORNEY
Anyone
that will endure 6 years of law school in order to be the lowest form of person
on earth does not need to be an elected official of any kind.
I have dealt with three attorneys in my time and got screwed by all three of them!
What happened at the Jackson County Courthouse Thursday was, to say the least, unusual. Sheriff's Deputies had to carry a lawyer into court.
Docket call for Judge Pat Watts is 8:30 a.m. sharp. When attorney Wanda Williams was an hour late, the judge found her in contempt of court and fined her $50.
Ken Broadus, with the Jackson County Sheriffs' Department, is the deputy in charge of courthouse security.
"Judge Watts' normal practice is, if you don't answer his docket call, he finds the attorney in contempt and fines them $50. He started that process with her and she took offense to it and started to leave. Judge Watts ordered her to stay in the court room and she left the court room," Broadus said.
That's when the judge sent a bailiff to get her. When she didn't return, the judge ordered two deputies to bring her back.
"When they talked to her, she walked away from them in the parking lot and walked all the way over to her car, refusing the entire time, failing to listen to any of the officers' instructions. When they got to her car, she actually laid down on the ground and said 'I'm not going'."
The deputies say Williams told them they'd have to handcuff her to get her back inside the courthouse. So they did.
"As soon as they did, she started yelling 'Help! Help! Help! They're arresting me illegally.' So we just escorted her back inside the court room by each arm. On three different occasions she went limp and the officers had to pick her up and bring her in."
Back in front of the judge, Williams was found in contempt and ended up with a ten day jail sentence and a $100 fine. Everyone else in the courthouse ended up with a story to tell.
"This is the first time that we've actually had to go out and get an attorney and bring them back in. Judges have found attorneys in contempt before and locked them up for their actions in the courtroom, but of this nature, this was very unusual."
Williams is free on a $1,000 appeal bond. We asked Judge Watts about the incident, but he said it would not be appropriate to comment.
Williams is a candidate for Chancery Clerk in Jackson County, and says that's the real reason behind why she was arrested.
After our story first aired, Williams sent a reply by fax to WLOX News. In it, she claims that the hearing she's accused of missing was rescheduled with the Court Administrator's Office for October 13th. She also called her arrest "desperate political acts."
"Prior to the August 5th Primary Election, I was not considered to have a chance at winning. Since I was honored with 71.66% of votes cast in the Primary, I have seen an appreciable change in attitude in some officials, most for the positive. This is just an indication desperate people will do desperate things," Williams wrote.
by Josh Ridgdell
01/16/04
Gag Order
Arguments Heard In Diaz Case
U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate will rule next week whether to bar attorneys from speaking to the media about a judicial bribery case.
The gag order, proposed by the U.S. Attorney's Office, would ensure seating a jury that is "not subject to media bias or influence,'' argued Assistant U.S. Attorney Dave Fulcher in a Friday hearing.
The case against state Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz Jr., his ex-wife Jennifer, former judges Wes Teel and John Whitfield, and attorney Paul Minor has received extensive media coverage. All five are accused of participating in a scheme in which Minor allegedly gave gifts, cash and loans to the judges in exchange for favorable decisions.
They are charged with fraud and bribery, and Minor is additionally charged with racketeering. All five have denied the charges. A trial is scheduled for March 1.
Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Minor, argued that defense attorneys had not made inappropriate comments to the media, but simply explained complex legal filings to reporters.
Robert McDuff, Diaz's attorney, said the rules of conduct make it clear what types of statements are appropriate, and a gag order should not be issued.
"I think we're going to be able to pick 12 jurors untainted by the publicity,'' McDuff said.
Defense attorneys said the U.S. Attorney's Office issued a press release when the indictments were handed down last summer and had made statements to the press during the investigation.
Fulcher said no comments to the media have come from his office since the indictments, and a gag order would be for both sides to follow.
"It would create a very clear line over which no one would step,'' Fulcher said.
Wingate said he would take the arguments under advisement and issue an opinion next week. Defense attorneys also told Wingate that on Friday they received a stack of computer disks that translates to 500,000 pages of documents investigators seized from Diaz and Minor.
Next week, they said, prosecutors will turn over a 120-gigabyte hard drive filled with Mississippi Supreme Court documents. That's in addition to 70,000 pages of documents already received, they said.
McDuff argued for a list from the U.S. Attorney's Office outlining what will likely be used in trial. The sheer volume of what was turned over is "like looking for a needle in a haystack,'' McDuff said.
He said a magistrate judge had already ordered prosecutors to turn over a list.
The U.S. Attorney's Office challenged that ruling. Wingate said he'd make a decision on when prosecutors should turn over a list in a Tuesday telephone conference.
Lowell said it will take time to get in order all the information turned over. He declined to say whether that could delay the trial date, though.
"I don't know,'' Lowell said after the hearing. "I just know the government is giving us a 120-gigabyte hard drive and we have many more motions to file.''
Wingate denied a motion by prosecutors to expand the area from which the jury will be selected from the Jackson area to the entire court district, which stretches to the gulf coast.
Prosecutors said they were concerned by the large number of attorneys, public officials and state employees in the Jackson area. They wanted jurors who don't know the defendants or have to deal with them professionally, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ruth Morgan said.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
STEVEN A. McCALEB
COMMENTARY
MY OPINION
A federal grand jury on Friday issued a new indictment with extortion allegations in the government's racketeering case against prominent trial lawyer Paul Minor.
Minor is accused of a "pattern of racketeering activity" for allegedly setting up a bribery scheme involving state Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz Jr., former Circuit Court Judge John Whitfield and former Chancery Court Judge Wes Teel.
Diaz and Minor are charged with extortion in the "superceding indictment," which replaces the previous indictment issued last summer. Jennifer Diaz, the former wife of Justice Diaz, remains a defendant. She is accused of handling money in the alleged bribery scheme.
No new defendants are named in the indictment, but it does tie two additional court cases to the investigation. The same cases and allegations from the prior indictment are repeated, mostly word for word.
"The government thinks piling false charges on top of other false charges will somehow make their case better," Minor said in a released statement. "No matter how they rearrange, repackage or revise their case, I'm still not guilty and I firmly believe the jury in this case will come to the same conclusion."
Abbe Lowell, one of Minor's lawyers, called the new charges "outrageous." Rob McDuff, a lawyer for Justice Diaz, said the new charge against Diaz is "completely baseless."
With the new indictment, the likelihood that the case will go to trial March 1 as scheduled is fading. The defendants will have to first plead to the new charges. Their lawyers will be given time to file motions and to share evidence through the discovery process.
Political accusations
"After investigating for two years and on the eve of trial, (government attorneys) bring new charges only after our motions have revealed the U.S. attorney's conflicts of interest and political affiliations," Lowell said. "This smacks of retribution that is not allowed under the law."
Minors' lawyers had filed motions seeking to have the charges in the old indictment dismissed because they contend he is being "selectively prosecuted" by a biased U.S. attorney. The motions point out that U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton is a Republican, while Minor is a Democrat.
Lampton would not discuss specifics of the case or respond to criticism.
"We've got a motion filed dealing with a gag order," Lampton said. "We think it would be sort of unseemly to try to restrict what (lawyers) are saying to the press and be saying a bunch of stuff ourselves."
U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate has yet to issue a ruling on the gag order.
Minor's four co-defendants had pleaded innocent to the charges of bribery and fraud. Minor, who faces the racketeering charge in addition to the bribery and fraud charges, also pleaded innocent.
Criminal charges
In one of the two new cases brought forth in the amended indictment, Minor was not involved as a lawyer. The government alleges that he tried to solicit money from two other lawyers on behalf of Diaz.
The case, Brandon HMA Inc. v. Dawn Bradshaw, is a medical malpractice lawsuit originally heard in Rankin County Circuit Court in January 2000. It involves a woman who sued Brandon HMA Inc., dba Rankin Medical Center.
Bradshaw claimed the hospital staff provided "subpar treatment" and was responsible for brain damage she suffered after being admitted for bacterial pneumonia. After five days of testimony, the jury found in favor of Bradshaw and awarded her $9 million.
The hospital asked the trial court for a new trial but was denied. Brandon HMA appealed the decision to the state Supreme Court in 2000. The high court upheld the jury's verdict in October 2001. Diaz wrote the opinion, court records show.
According to the indictment, Minor told Bradshaw's lawyers that Diaz "helped swing the vote" in favor of Bradshaw and solicited $20,000 from them for Diaz.
The indictment alleges Minor told the lawyers that the money would be used for a function at the Green Oaks Bed and Breakfast and that profits would be used for Diaz's benefit. The Diazes owned and operated Green Oaks at that time. The lawyers refused to give Minor the money, according to the indictment.
The indictment identified the lawyers who spoke to Minor by the initials BLD and RBS. Supreme Court documents show the lawyers who represented Bradshaw are Bobby L. Dallas and Brad Sessums. Sessums' full name, according to the 2003 Mississippi Bar Membership Directory, is R. Brad Sessums.
"The new charge in the indictment accuses Justice Diaz of attempting to extort money by threatening two lawyers with respect to a case of theirs pending in the Mississippi Supreme Court," McDuff said. "However, Justice Diaz never spoke to these lawyers about this case and never authorized anyone to speak to them on his behalf. He never suggested to anyone that his actions in this or any other case would be based on campaign donations or any other financial consideration. Once the facts are fully presented, it will be clear that this charge against Justice Diaz, like all the others, is completely baseless."
The other new court case in the amended indictment stems from Jackson County Chancery Court. It is not linked to the extortion charge, but is given as an example of the racketeering scheme.
The case involves the estate of Jeffrey Richardson, a civil case involving wills and trusts.
According to the indictment, Minor guaranteed a $25,000 loan made to Diaz in October 1994, the month before Diaz was elected to the Court of Appeals.
The indictment alleges Diaz, as a Court of Appeals judge, voted to affirm a ruling in favor of Minor's client in the estate dispute.