Interlude 8A. Ronald N. Gottschalk Esq. —The Smoking Gun

Report: Ronald N. Gottschalk Esq. denies my accusations of fraud, less opprobrious than his anti-First Amendment threats. To quench readers' lawyerly thirst for proof, I append two e-mails: the first, confirming our agreement; the second, claiming weather conditions delayed Gottschalk's performance, which he didn't intend to deliver. My low rate expressed anti-State Bar solidarity.

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from Stephen R. Diamond to gov@roadrunner.com, randypotter@gmail.com date Sat, Sep 27, 2008 at 1:36 PM subject Agreement mailed-by gmail.com

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Dear Ron,

You retained me today for legal research, analysis, and consultation. We agreed on a fee of $50 per hour, and an initial retainer of $750, which I will apply to the first 15 hours of work.

No fees will be charged for previous telephone consultation time. I will begin work upon receiving the relevant documents by e-mail and a business or trust account check for $750, or notification that you have actually mailed it.

Stephen R. Diamond
Legal Research & Writing Service
Supplier of Legal Theories
srdiamond@gmail.com
760.974.9279

from Randy Potter to "Stephen R. Diamond" , gov@roadrunner.com, randypotter@gmail.com date Sun, Sep 28, 2008 at 12:29 PM subject Re: Mailing Address mailed-by gmail.com

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We had a massive power failure in North Mandiville canyon last night for all residents. That included theinternet, and all power. Will try to email the documents tonight. I will mail the retainer check Monday. Ron

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The addressee Randy Potter is Gottschalk's employee.

kanBARoo Court. Interlude 7. Does Sturgeon v. County Help State Bar Respondents?

The California Court of Appeal recently decided Sturgeon v. County of Los Angeles (4th Dist. 2008) __ Cal.App.4th __, prohibiting Los Angeles County’s payment to judicial officers of almost $50,000 in annual benefits. Sturgeon would be outside kanBARoo court's scope, except that State Bar respondent Richard I. Fine argues in state and federal court that these benefits create a conflict of interest, and State Bar Court judges should have succumbed to his disqualification motions. (See Fine's statement by scrolling down here.) Fine recently moved for rehearing in the State Bar Court Review Department, based on Sturgeon, which Fine considers vindicating.

I criticize Fine's analysis, while supporting his State Bar defense effort. Fine relied on plaintiff Sturgeon's claim that the benefits were a gift, but the Court of Appeal expressly rejected that characterization. No gift, no bribe, and probably no conflict of interest. Sturgeon v. County wasn't a victory for Fine. Sturgeon really wasn't even a victory for Judicial Watch, as the funding organization claims, since the Court of Appeal refused to find County funding inherently unconstitutional. Sturgeon holds only that the Legislature must rigorously prescribe the benefits County pays. Sturgeon doesn't espouse Judicial Watch's overblown theory that the benefits were a bribe. The Sturgeon court held only that without rigorous Legislative prescription, the benefits program could threaten judicial independence. By locating the wrongdoing in the County's failure to respect the judiciary’s institutional requirements, rather than in any judicial misconduct, Sturgeon exonerated County judicial officers of disqualifying charges.

Opponents of County judicial-income supplementation claim its consequences include a disproportionately low rate of plaintiff litigation success against County. Fine offers statistics:

The statistics showed that 670 new cases were filed in fiscal year 2007 and 261 dismissals occurred based upon favorable rulings for the County. This is approximately 39%. The October 3, 2007, letter did not state the ratio of filed cases to dismissals for non LA County cases. LA County took 24 cases to trial and prevailed in 15. Five were defense [jury] verdicts. This shows that 10 defense decisions were done by the LA Superior Court judges. This is over 41%.These are more cases decided by judges against the plaintiffs, than the 9 cases the plaintiffs won at trial before a jury. It appears the plaintiffs did not win any cases before a judge. (Fine's statement, supra.)

Although Fine's initial hedge and his conclusion's ex cathedra character diminish its force, the most important claim is the last sentence: "It appears the plaintiffs did not win any cases before a judge." What appears is that winning a bench trial against Los Angeles County is impossible. Then, the County payments would cause injustice on a threat theory, instead of a bribe theory. But if Fine's statistics are accurate, one must wonder why Sturgeon the plaintiff failed to argue them.