What a week it has been! And our first item of news, bombshell though it is, pales in comparison to the second.
In what was to have been a
recap of recent events, we were preparing to report the celebrations of Richard Fine's team of supporters at the
news that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David P. Yaffe is
resigning in October, prior to November's elections. (Yaffe wasn't even up for re-election this year.) He was predicted to become the scape goat who would be sacrificed over the bribery scheme, even though he was only one of thousands who'd participated.
But no sooner had we begun to contemplate the real-world consequences of this news, we learned that California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald M. George announced his own
"retirement", effective January 2, 2011.
What a stunning success for those who've worked tirelessly this past year and a half to bring the corrupt to their knees!
HOWEVER, the most important crisis to be dealt with at the moment is the one concerning an innocent man having been locked in solitary confinement for almost a year and a half (so far) for refusing to knuckle under to corruption. He was put there by a corrupt judge (Yaffe). Now, Yaffe's ultimate boss and an author of the bribery scheme, "Long-Con Ron", is also "retiring". After 16 months of fighting back, finally the dike has finally begun to break. Isn't it about time Richard Fine was freed?
He honored his oath when no one else would ... and it has literally cost him everything. But this champion of the taxpayers, a man who stood to gain absolutely nothing for digging in his heels on behalf of homeowners and taxpayers who were being royally screwed with the court's assistance, has brought about the beginning of the end for a large number of California's powerful. It's an absolute shame that he has yet to be acknowledged for his tremendous sacrifice. It's a tragedy that he remains behind bars as the
dominoes continue to fall and the righteousness of his convictions proven even further with each departure.
And as for Mr. George, we hope he's not foolish enough to think his resignation will stop the oncoming train that is barreling his way in the form of criminal indictments. No, George belongs behind bars alongside everyone else who participated in robbing taxpayers blind and completely corrupting our judicial system to the point that there is ZERO faith in it anymore by anyone remotely familiar with present-day operations.
Developer Doug Ring died last Fall under under circumstances we heard police officials considered to be indicative of suicide. Most curious was the insider opinion that it was ultimately because of "the Fine case". (The foregoing must be considered to be "opinion" and not "fact" as police officials will never confirm it publicly.) Ring had made millions off the backs of taxpayers over the years, his reputation repeatedly intertwined with allegations of malfeasance in his real estate transactions involving public officials.
As Fine's support team has said from the beginning, they will not stop their efforts to fully expose the corruption until all the corrupt actors have been removed from office and forced to face true justice. "Retirement" in no way relieves anyone from facing justice; the criminal prosecutions of those involved remain on the team's agenda. If their efforts continue to be successful and the dominoes continue to fall, we'll hopefully be seeing the departures of Jerry Brown, Mike Antonovich, Don Knabe and Darrell Steinberg soon enough, accompanied by the prosecution of another prominent developer who's at the heart of the most egregious crimes at hand.
Still, who would have thought such a small group of people, highly dedicated though they are, could ever have helped accomplish the results we've seen in the past week. Dr. Fine's supporters are a literal "justice league", examples for all decent Americans to emulate in our efforts to rid our government of its greedy, arrogant, corrupt members ... no matter how lofty their titles. Perhaps someday we'll even learn the details of the story behind the story of "the little team that could".
The "Justice League", as portrayed by DC Comics
Excellent job, guys and gals!
In the meantime, Mike Antonovich and his ilk ought to be consulting with lawyers. Their time has certainly come, and that particular bucket of sludge is on the proverbial verge of hitting the fan, we hear. (
Three laws were created to protect citizens the last time Antonovich was caught trying to influence a judge. We expect to be taking advantage of them shortly.)
Mike Antonovich and Ronald George, breaking ground at the Antelope Valley Courthouse.
We close with a thought for Governor Schwarzenegger: although you refused to become involved when you were notified about the corruption, claiming it was a "judicial" matter with which you could not interfere, you have the perfect opportunity now as outgoing governor to establish a decent legacy for yourself by freeing Richard Fine, ordering an independent federal investigation into the activities alleged, putting the State's finances into receivership so that the rest of the corruption can be unearthed and rectified, and restoring the due process rights of your constituents. We're pretty sure history will remember you more favorably if you find the decency to take the high road here. Not one of your movie characters was a coward. We hope to learn the real man is not one either. Time will tell ... and time is running out.
UPDATE: Recent post-dated filings of minute orders by Judge David P. Yaffe
reveal the undertaking of a callous
CYA to deny having been
caught out by
Richard Fine.
One attempts to justify Yaffe's citation to a non-existent order upon which his whole defense relied; the
other wormily reveals that Yaffe is now about to consider whether Dr. Fine's continued incarceration could ever serve its purpose of forcing him to answer questions to aid developer Jerry B. Epstein in extracting almost $47,000 from him in collecting upon Yaffe's bought-and-paid-for but nonetheless still invalid judgment. Our Magic Eight Ball is quite clear in saying the answer is "No".
It's time for "Judge" Yaffe to give it up and do the right thing ... IMMEDIATELY! No hearing is necessary for him to order Sheriff Baca to see to Richard Fine's immediate release. The disgust of Yaffe's honest and decent colleagues across the country ought to be motivation enough, and the pretense of properly dotting "i"s and crossing "t"s is merely heaping additional torture upon the already frail body of an innocent man being held in solitary confinement who's been prevented from eating solid food for two months now due to a broken dental plate Sheriff Baca has maliciously refused to have fixed.
FREE RICHARD FINE! NOW! Each minute of delay is yet another crime ... against him, and against humanity.
UPDATE # 2: Complaint filed by Sacramento whistle-blower Michael Paul regarding courthouse construction costs of $1,000 per sq. ft. when the standard reasonable rate is $55 per sq. ft, an EIGHTEEN THOUSAND PERCENT markup! Holy moly, that's a heck of a lot of bribery and kickbacks. Mr. Paul was fired for his trouble. Defendant "Administrative Office of the Courts", the staffing arm of the Judicial Council, is headed by ...? If you guessed
Ronald George, you get a cookie!
UPDATE # 3: News of Ronald George's imminent departure is bringing other stories to us, stories confirming George's long-rumored "Star Chamber" court ... complete with secret deliberations and the handling of cases "off the books". We'll report more on this soon, when we've obtained permission to print the details.
Update # 4: Speculation has begun regarding George's replacement, Associate Justice Corrigan seemingly the prime candidate. We'd like Governor Schwarzenegger to understand that there are
no acceptable candidates presently sitting on the Supreme Court: four of the justices were former recipients of the illegal payments themselves when they were former superior court judges; two of the justices sit on the Judicial Council, author of Senate Bill SBx2-11, which purports to pardon the commission of ten million felonies. None of these people are acceptable as justices, much less as chief justice. The only justice who didn't receive the payments and who doesn't sit on the Judicial Council is Justice Werdegar, but we submit that said Justice is also not a viable candidate due to her continued willingness to rubber-stamp Ron George's activities rather than thwart them. ~ If an "honest" judge is sought, can there be any better candidate than Dr. Richard I. Fine? ~
New readers: Please visit the official
"Free Richard Fine" website to catch up on the underlying story of Dr. Fine's saga, review documents filed in the case, and peruse mounting press coverage.
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