Bethel judge could be removed from bench
KYUK by Angela Denning-Barnes - April 4, 2012
For the first time in Alaska history, there is a recommendation to permanently remove a judge from the bench. The Alaska Commission on Judicial Conduct is recommending the Alaska Supreme Court remove Bethel District Court Judge Dennis Cummings.
The commission could have responded in several ways when considering the latest allegations against Cummings. If he was found guilty, disciplinary actions ranged from a public reprimand to suspension to removal. However, the commission’s hearing, held March 16, brought a unanimous recommendation for the most severe sanction.
The commission found that Cummings told a prosecutor twice off-record to look at an opinion that would help his case. Speaking with one side of a trial off-record is considered ex-parte communications and is against Alaska’s Judicial Code.
It wasn’t the first time Cummings was found guilty of it. In 2009, he was found to have passed notes in court to the prosecution. For that, the Alaska Supreme Court suspended him from the bench for 3 months without pay which had been the commission’s recommendation.
The outcome of the recommendation is still unknown as Cummings is set to retire this month. The recommendation was sent to the Alaska Supreme Court Tuesday (April 3), which has allowed it to become public.
It’s not known how long the court will take to make a final decision, but Greenstein says it shouldn’t be long.
Marla Greenstein, the commission’s Executive Director said, “the court typically considers these types of filings on a fairly expedited basis.”
The timing ultimately will hinder on whether the court wants to re-do the hearing process or go with the information the Commission has gathered, which is the usual case.
First ever?!?! Is this a joke. There's a lesson here.
ReplyDeleteEvery day, and in every state, some crooked member of a court system should be facing removal. And with NO PENSION!
secretive off the record communications between state actors, officers of the court, and court personal appear to be the normal course of "business" in the NY courts... adherence to the rules regarding ex parte communications are essential to a just process, yet there are many people in positions of authority who routinely disregard them... this is a clear and undeniable obstruction of justice, and those who are found guilty should be held accountable to the greatest extent the law allows...
ReplyDelete--Michael A. Hense is Searching For Rule Of Law In America...
In NY, the rules are different. The conduct of announcing on the record of a private ex-parte meeting with a defendant and her lawyer to decide a motion in his court was acceptable for Essex County Supreme Court Judge James Dawson by the NY Appellate Division.
ReplyDeleteHaving worked with multiple judges I must state that the only ex-parte activity is done excluding the victims, pltfs or whomever is the charging party.
ReplyDeleteThe POLITICS of law exists to work out cases so they are seen only as postive actions of the almighty robes of justice.
The charging parties are the ones who are attempting to bring injustice to light..the most repulsive thing to the ears of OCA.
Rule of law passed away years ago!
True story..a judge still sitting and a public defender still assigned to that court a few years back worked together for 4 months straight.
ReplyDeleteThe PD would check in with ADA every morning and then head into judges chambers to discuss the ADA'S case with the judge to see how he might rule relative to PD'S clients.He was pre-trying the cases without THE ADA.
The staff knew this was going on and the judge..who had drug problems back in the 80's but kept his law license and was assigned to family ct to stay away from criminal ct and drug clients... eventually won a criminal ct judgeship..all because he knew the judge who would eventually become Admin judge....laughed about it since he himself was a defense atty.
A trial was conducted with the PD on one particularly strange day and the case was put on mostly by the ADA. The PD who checked in with the judge earlier that day let it go to verdict.
The judge announced that the PD client was guilty..and the PD jumped up and on the record said I didn't think you would find my client guilty..I want the case re-opened to put my client on the stand and also now give a closing statment.
The judge said Ok..no problem..the ADA was green and new... objected but said nothing else.... so the trial was re-opened and the PD puts on a case and in the 2nd verdict..which was neither legal nor ethical, the judge announced..PD client was now acquitted!
These two clowns still twist justice for OCA everyday and no one says a word.
Pltf got screwed, but then again who in the justice field cares about the pltf..not OCA or some of their judges!
You wrote a lot of important things about drunk driving. As usual, this article is really worth to read. I think, you are a very good DUI lawyer and invite you to submit your contacts to my Attorney Directory http://attorney-online.info/dir/dui/alaska/948 I try to gather on Attorney Online contacts of the best US lawyers and make it easier to find one who provides legal services in a proper practice area in every state of the United States. Invite please good Alaska DUI attorneys to this directory, you seem to know a lot of them.
ReplyDeletecases 2kb-09-712,2kb-11-435,2no-12-421 all involves public defenders helping law enforcemets tamper with video and audio evidence,illigal indicments,jury took only 5 miniutes to find me not guilty,judges,bar association,greenstein,ombudman,native justice center,reggie joule,senetors,jail warden and his minions unlawfully segragated me due to my fight of corruption and helping my fellow natives.chuck garfield.
ReplyDeletemoses milligans case 2no-08-433cr is very illigal,doctors,police,judges,DA.public defenders all conspired in his case that involved tampered jury,nome is very racial.my jury was tampered with in the 421 case,a juror wasnt even on the jury list was a juror,brook aloah,jason weiner,matt tallerico,amy bender,of opa fbks lied,denied self representation,tampered with audio evidence,mike dunham,prison warden is depriving the prisoners legal books,court forms,"jail house lawyer"due to the law is breaking the law and knowlege of natives are ignorent to the law.chuck garfield
ReplyDeleteprison officials repeatedly lied about me to unlawfully segragate me to isolate me cause i helped alot of people and wrote greivances,to the entities thats required to investigate ethic violations,and stash me away.the prison of anvil mountain is greatly corrupt.they dont want us to have legal knowledge,nora appel the prison nurse stuck some thing in my arm,she hid the tips of the needle already out of the hiv test needle,her intentions were not to take blood,she swished the needle around,i can feel something in my left arm,i also let people feel something in my arm,thats wny the doctors refuse to take xrays of a broken chip bone directly below the place she pokedd me.chuck garfield
ReplyDeletemy back spine is crooked,dislocated in the prison,i was placed in segragation and deprived hospital attention,its crooked when i seen my xray in the kotzobue hosp.dr sicilia told me i was standing sideways,she wasnt there to witness the xray.i stood straight due to the xray docs instruction 3 times,the broken chipped bone was called a contusion,than a blood clot,its a perfectly good arm when i seen a xray of my left elbow,the xray would prove that nora appel put something in my arm.today the nome hospital deprived me of further xrays of my back and left elbow.dr karen oniel also conspired in moses milligans case,2no-08-433,i read his rex butlers appeal,and case transcripts,lies all the way around,corruption is bad here in nome and kotzobe.
ReplyDeletecopouts and grievances being destroyed in the prison,bar association and judicial councel that ben eshe who is a very corrupt judge was on the counsel,greenstein denied my grievance of 2kb-09-712 case agains rich erlich.i was accused of ten miniuts of choking my ex girlfrind,on a tampered phone recording at the kotzobue jail she admited a single red mark thats a hickey,illigal indictment,public defenders,anjela greene,debrah muckoully,will mcmillien,greg parvin all conspired with judge richard erlich,whom greenstien denied my grievance,in the "hickey case"i possibly had the fastest not guilty verdict in history.tokk the jury only 5 minites of deliberations.2kb-11-421.chuck garfield
ReplyDeletethe bar association denied all my grievances,against john cagle jason gazewoon and jason weiner,anjela jamieson,greg parvin,i expalined under the penalty of purjury sworn statement of evidence of audio telephonic recordings that was 20 miniuts cut into 11 minites.and the illigal indictment.i fought hard,barrow to juneau,micheal jeffries wrote a response in my plea for help"how dare u write to me"greenstein told me that lawyers dont lie,brooke aloah says the court is a "buisness"yeah natives are easy money.native justice center told me"boohoohoo,poor u"reggie joule threw all my audios away and court documents,certified mail i sent it.micheal jeffries denied a forged release of info of my medical records my attournys unlawfully generated,cut paste,copy deal of my original signiture.the hospital on a meeting of my grievance says the copier made the discrpecie.garrett adsuna confessed that will mcmillien forged my signature on the medical release form.
ReplyDeletegarrett adsuna was the nome medical records employee at tne nome hospital,in 2kb-09-712,i was unlawfully isolated in segragation by corrupt prison warden who proved to be involved in cospiricies,to hide me and prevent me from sending documents throught people getting released.i was lied and repeatedly hung up by brook aloah on most of my court hearings,i put in 5 motions on my week of pro se,the day the court recieved the motions i was given back jason weiner jason gazewood,matt tallerico pub,defenders.accusing me of court outbursts,lies,jb brainard a child delingquent lawyer conducted my hearing,illigal,brooke aloah condected a court hearing on a cell phone,my 3 page requsal of brooke aloah was denied by paul roatman and ben eshe,i was lied about to get mental evaluation of api and mike mod attempting to force me on lithium,2kb-435 and 712 cases,brad gator helped errin lilly and tom jamgochian tamper with audio evidence,chuck garfield
ReplyDeletea juror who wasnt even on the jury list was my juror,2no-12-421,evidence 2 days before trial was admitted with a denial of continuance,kennith greist was unlawfully convicted,with the help of matt tallerico of no evidence at all,chip hailstones case the trooper roughed up his family,chip put a restrainig order,it was chip that was guilty of perjury,the audio evidence proved by a authenticator of audios 11 seconds of deleted audio portion of his family being roughed up was deleted.yet on the motion for new trial,paul roatman denied a new trial with bad faith.kenny greist,trooper chris bitz a proven liar told the jury that the breathalizer condcted proof of home brew demontrated to the jury that he waved a piece of paper by the bucket and the breathalizer showed alcohol,a photo that a rnr bottle hovering in air,nothing holding it by griests face was tampered with,kennith told the jury hes not "magic"matt tallerico helped him convicted with no appeal transcripts and just one point to appeal,and no help of a appeallete lawyer.its crazy up here.chuck garfield.
ReplyDeleteThe Alaska Office of Children's Services stole our grandson and adopted him out without our knowledge or consent. We never had a trial. The doctor in this case diagnosed him with CPT-1A which he said was incurable. Last year, when we had a hearing, the OCS facilitator told us that he was miraculously cured of the disease. Now, they have the rest of our children under false pretenses again! We do have people helping, but this system is so corrupt, they have the resources, we don't. Please, people...we need to stop the madness and get our lives/children back unharmed. Our two boys did not have a birth certificate and the state told us in a letter that they would name our baby boy for us if we didn't file for a BC. They call him Baby Boy Henry... . the Kotzebue system as well as the Nome system is very corrupt, no one to make sure things run as they should. We, as people are not U.S. citizens. Please learn this. Sui Juris Court Angels have some good information to help people like us in cases like this. Please check the site out. Thank you.
ReplyDelete