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| Powder Springs, Georgia - During the past 7 years, my family has been the victims of fraud, corruption, identity theft, corporate identity theft, theft by taking, theft by deception, vandalism, burglary, violation of rights under color of law, and other crimes. Some of these crimes have been committed by elected officials. These crimes emanated from our speaking publicly against the illegal sale of common real property, about which we have a legally vested interest. This property was sold to the Honorary Consulate of the Netherlands, for pennies on the dollar of its value. It was sold without 100% concurrence of all the people who had a legal right to the property. This sale was "handled" by the law firm of Brock and Clay, in Marietta, GA. Managing partner of Brock and Clay is Charles Commander (Chuck) Clay.
Chuck Clay was our State Senator, and a candidate for the U. S. Congress when my wife presented evidence of crime and ethics violations to the Attorney General of Georgia. He is a former County Commissioner, former Head of the Georgia Republican Party, Head of the Bush/Cheney campaign in Georgia. Chuck's personal information page on the Brock and Clay web site states, "Charles C. Clay facilitates changes to laws to benefit clients and industry and helps companies secure business relationships with government agencies." This statement can be viewed at http://www.bccwr.com/attorneys/trial-lawyer_Clay.cfm. When we first discovered this statement, Chuck was the Senator for Senate District 37, for which I am currently a candidate. Chuck was also a candidate for U. S. Congress at the time. Look back at that quote. At the time Chuck was an elected Senator, he claimed to change laws for clients and secure business relationships with government agencies for his law firm's clients. This is a clear admission that then Senator Clay was being paid, by law firm clients, to enact legislation and obtain lucrative contracts, in violation of state ethics and conflict of interest laws. It also violates campaign finance laws in Georgia, as the statement was present during legislative sessions. It is illegal for legislators to solicite money during a session.
In 2003, my wife and another concerned citizen met with Michael E. Hobbs, in his official capacity as Deputy Attorney General for Special Prosecutions. At this meeting, Taffy presented Mr. Hobbs with over 300 pages of evidence of the aforementioned crimes. Mr. Hobbs informed my wife the Attorney General's office knew about Chuck Clay and his firm, but the Attorney General's staff would not do anything about the violations of law, of which he was a part. Mr. Hobbs told Taffy to get a good lawyer. When she asked if he knew a good lawyer who would pursue legal action in the matter, he said no one would go after Chuck Clay. Mr. Hobbs also said the Attorney General would not get involved in a situation where a judge was involved in crimes or violations of civil law.
In 2003, just prior to the trial in Lost Mountain Homeowners Association, Inc. and Architectural Control Committee of Lost Mountain Township Homeowners Association v. J. Andrew Rice and Kathryn W. Rice, Judge Adele Grubbs voluntarily participated in a public conversation, about the lawsuit, at a Cobb County Chamber of Commerce breakfast. The conversation was between two members of the first plaintiff listed above and Judge Grubbs. The substance of the conversation was related to us personally by the Cobb County District Attorney, Pat Head, during a meeting in his office. The meeting was documented by sworn affidavits of two of our neighbors, as well as us. One of the men Judge Grubbs discussed our case with, illegally, was Bill Cheeks. Mr. Cheeks is a former executive at Equifax, according to Pat Head, and a self-proclaimed old friend and associate of Judge Grubbs. Mr. Cheeks told us, face to face, that he and "Adele" (as he said it) were old friends, and they were honorary commanders together at the local military base. The other man, with whom Judge Grubbs conversed, was Tom Hill, former CEO of Wellstar Health Systems, which paid Chuck Clay's firm over $200,000 during the first 6 months of 2003 (the time of our trial), according to Chuck's campaign financial disclosures, on file with the Georgia Secretary of State.
Under Georgia law (i.e. the Code of Judicial Conduct) the conversation between Judge Grubbs, Mr. Cheeks, and Mr. Hill constitutes ex parte communications. Since Judge Grubbs intentionally failed to notify us of the existence and contents of the conversation, she is required by the Code of Judicial Conduct to recuse herself from further action in our case, due to the appearance of impropriety. Not only did Judge Grubbs refuse to offer her own recusal, but she has illegally refused to recuse herself upon our multiple motions for recusal and/or disqualification. Judge Grubbs has also made improper public statements, in writing, through her "attorney" the Georgia Attorney General, which show an extreme bias and prejudicial treatment of us in another case, Rice v. Cannon. Yet she still refuses to recuse herself in direct violation of the law. Judge Grubbs has issued several void orders against us over the past 3 years.
The Attorney General also violated the law, in filing a false certificate of service on a legal pleading, which led to an improper dismissal of our federal suit against Judge Grubbs, Rice v. Grubbs. The Attorney General was also involved in collusion between Judge Grubbs, Judge George Kreeger, Judge Bo Woods, and Judge Arthur Fudger in our Petition for Writ of Prohibition case against Judge Grubbs, wherein our suit was dismissed illegally by Judge Fudger, without a hearing, without a trial, and totally without jurisdiction. Then the Attorney General threatened us with contempt in the matter, as if the Attorney General had the authority issue a ruling on contempt.
On June 8, 2006 Judge Grubbs held a hearing in the face of our properly filed objection to the hearing. She did not notify us priot to the hearing she would hold it anyway. We did learn a few days ago, however, that she hand delivered notice of same to Richard Calhoun of Brock and Clay, prior to the hearing. We are still waiting for our copy. Judge Grubbs occaisionally hand delivers or faxes orders to or opposing counsel. Then she held the hearing and "found" us in civil contempt of her void order from the trial in 2003. This order on contempt was illegally penned and void from the moment she elected to file it. By the way, in the writ of prohibition case, which did not involve Mr. Calhoun, he attempted to aid the defense of Judge Grubbs, as related to us via an open records act request to the Cobb County Attorney. It is clearly imporoper for Mr. Calhoun o be involved with Judge Grubbs' defense, due to his financial interest in the outcome, if we were able to obtain an order prohibiting Judge Grubbs from taking action in our lawsuits.
Due to her illegal order for our arrest, and the Cobb County Sheriff's notice we would be arrested even if we gave in to Judge Grubbs' void 2003 order, my family was forced into political exile. On June 12, 2006 we filed an Application for Supersedeas and Notice of Intent to Seek Appeal of the contempt order. Under Georgia law, supersedeas must be granted, and is automatic and immediate, when an application is filed. However, Judge Grubbs waited 4 days, from the date we filed our application, to publicize the fact she had denied our application two days earlier. It was not until a news reporter spoke to her office that the information was made available to the public. Judge Grubbs denied our application because she said it was not signed. The appication was, in fact, signed. However, we were denied, for the first time, in 7 years of litigation, the opportunity to file a pleading showing our signed names, with express permission for someone else to sign our names. Attorneys routinely use this procedure, to facilitate filing pleadings by mail, or even agreements between opposing counsel, with an opponent signing the attorney's name. Judge Grubbs has never denied the filing of such a document, in any of our case, before now. However, not only did she deny it, but she struck it from the record. Today, another Application for Supersedeas was delivered by FEDEX to the court. This time, we personally signed the pleading. At present, we await a copy of an order from Judge Grubbs, if and when she serves it on us.
In an effort to urge Judge Grubbs to follow the law in granting the automatic supersedeas, numerous concerned citizens called on our behalf. I also wrote three web letters, using the AHRC web site, to the Attorney General of Georgia, asking him to ensure Judge Grubbs acts in compliance with the law. The first two letters went unanswered. My third letter, today, caused a response. The response came from none other than Michael Hobbs, the gentleman who told Taffy he would not do anything about Chuck Clay or Judge Grubbs.
This is the entire text of Mr. Hobbs' email to me:
Mr. Rice:
Deputy Attorney General Mary Beth Westmoreland has requested that I respond to your previous e-mail correspondence requesting action by the Attorney General in a civil case in which you have been held in contempt by Judge Adele Grubbs. As legal counsel to the executive branch of state government, this office does not involve itself in litigation between private parties. This office does not represent private citizens. This office does not intercede in judicial activities that do not involve our client agencies, including contempt findings. This office does not supervise judicial activities. This office does not seek to suggest to any judge how he or she should rule on a particular matter that does not involve one of our client agencies. To do so might well be considered a violation of Georgia's constitutional separation of powers. Therefore, this office will not be taking any action on your behalf or against Judge Grubbs.
However, I have the following suggestion for you: You should secure the services of a qualified attorney as soon as possible to assist you with your case.
Sincerely,
Michael E. Hobbs
Deputy Attorney General
My three letters to the Attorney General can be found elsewhere on the AHRC web site. I made the point, in my letters, that if I took legal action to force Judge Grubbs to issue supersedeas, the Attorney General would be the defense counsel, just as in the past. I asked the Attorney General to advise his "client" to follow the law, in order to ensure the public good and save taxpayer money which would be wasted defending Judge Grubbs, if it came to that. As you can see, Mr. Hobbs' official position is one of allowing judges and, in the past, senators to violate the law. I hope you good readers noticed the conflict between the Attorney General's official position in not getting involved in contempt, yet the Attorney General threatened us with contempt in our case writ of prohibitoin case against Judge Grubbs.
Now, one must ask, how does the Attorney General plan to follow the madate he posted on his own web site, as quoted here:?
"Public Corruption
Government officials are caretakers of the public trust, placed in positions of trust that affect the lives and finances of the public. Citizens of Georgia have a right to expect that their government officials will be beyond reproach. As Attorney General, it is my duty to see that our officials discharge those duties ethically and honestly. Our office is charged with the responsibility of prosecuting public corruption that involves either state employees or private citizens dealing with the state. In recent years, we have prosecuted and obtained convictions against a number of state officials who violated the public trust as well employees who have misappropriated state funds. Our office will continue to diligently pursue criminal prosecutions when necessary to ensure that our state government is free of corruption."
This paragraph can be found at: http://www.law.state.ga.us/corruption.html
Clearly, this paragraph is lip service, as the Attorney General has shown time and again he has no intention of actually enforcing the law, when elected officials are involved. His position is he is the defense counselor for these perpetrators of crime. How long will the people of Georgia allow this to continue?
Taffy Rice is running for House District 36 and Andy Rice is running for Senate District 37. The primary is July 18, 2006. We have pledged to fight corruption in government, particularly in the Judicial Branch. More information about our campaigns can be found at www.ElectRice.org, and more information about our lawsuit nightmare of corruption and abuse by the legal profession can be found at www.RiceGang.com. |
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