Subject:  and, on that note... Geoff files $1 mil lawsuit against the judge |
Author:
Chris
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Date Posted: 00:23:43 04/12/02 Fri
In reply to:
Elli
's message, "Re: Thomas Jefferson once wrote..." on 00:16:06 04/12/02 Fri
I do not agree with the following: "It's not out of a sense of outrage, justice or anything else," Patterson said."
I honestly feel Geoff feels he was wronged, otherwise he would not be bothering with this. He doesn't need publicity, surely not from FL where they don't want to hear his name anymore. I think he feels he was wronged and is simply trying to prove his point. That's my biased opinion.
Source:
www.heraldtribune.com/frontpage/story.cfm?ID=66388
Read the Lawsuit here:
www.heraldtribune.com/story/apr-12-2002/fieger.pdf
Fieger sues chief judge for $1 million
The suit is over Thomas Gallen's letter to the editor criticizing the attorney for calling two jurors 'Nazis' and 'creeps.'
By JENNIFER SULLIVAN
Geoffrey Fieger, the flamboyant Michigan attorney who lost a client's murder case in Sarasota last month, has filed a $1 million defamation suit against the local chief judge.
Fieger said 12th Circuit Judge Thomas Gallen "declared war on the Constitution" when he wrote a letter to the editor saying Fieger should be punished for calling two jurors "Nazis" and "creeps." Gallen's letter was
published in the Herald-Tribune.
Fieger began berating the jurors minutes after Ralf Panitz was convicted March 26 of killing his ex-wife. Nancy Campbell died July 24, 2000, the day a taped episode of the "Jerry Springer Show" featured her, Panitz and his
present wife, Eleanor. Panitz will be sentenced next month.
The Florida Bar began investigating Fieger's post-trial remarks last week, after Gallen filed a complaint.
A circuit judge since 1985, Gallen said Fieger violated the Bar rule that says an attorney "shall not make a statement that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to its truth or falsity concerning the
qualifications or integrity of" court officials and jurors.
"He (Gallen) thought it was more important to piously defend two former jurors than severely prejudice and impact a case that's still pending in the 12th Circuit," Fieger said in a telephone interview from Michigan.
"Not only does Judge Gallen have no respect or understanding of the First Amendment, he has no understanding of the prejudicial effect he had on someone whose case is still pending. He doesn't care about it."
Fieger denies telling a Herald-Tribune reporter last week that jurors Owen Stacey and Stephen Krum acted like "Nazis." He said he also may sue the Herald-Tribune.
If published reports are true, Fieger is not averse to using the term. When several Orthodox Jews came out against assisted suicide after Fieger defended "Suicide Doctor" Jack Kevorkian, Fieger said the rabbis were "closer to Nazis than they think they are." He tried to rattle an expert witness called to the stand by an opposing
lawyer by asking him if he was a Nazi.
Michael Alan Schwartz, Fieger's lawyer in his suit against Gallen, said in a press release that he filed the suit in a Detroit circuit court Thursday. "When a Judge such as Thomas Gallen, who is sworn to uphold the Constitution, attacks the rights of citizens to excuse (exercise) their
First Amendment rights, we are all in danger," Schwartz said in the release. Ellis Rubin, the showy Miami criminal defense attorney, and John Patterson, a longtime Sarasota civil attorney, both scoffed at Fieger's lawsuit. They
agreed that he won't be able to prove the judge slandered him.
"This is a garbage lawsuit filed for publicity and for a million dollars," Rubin said after reading copies of the suit and Schwartz's press release. Like Fieger, Rubin is drawn to high-profile clients. He argued in 1999 that a Cape Coral teen made an online threat against Colorado's Columbine High School because he was hypnotized by the Internet. He defended a Fort Lauderdale woman in 1991 by blaming her prostitution on nymphomania caused by Prozac.
Patterson, who has practiced law in Sarasota since 1970, said he doesn't recall another case in which an attorney sued a 12th Circuit judge for defamation.
Fieger is "buying free advertising. It's not out of a sense of outrage, justice or anything else," Patterson said.
"When a lawyer issues a press release about them suing a judge it's an indicator that they are seeking publicity, not a judgment."
Fieger said last week that he wants to know the "nature and context" of any conversations Gallen has had with Panitz's trial judge, Nancy Donnellan, since the trial ended. He has called for Donnellan to hold a hearing to determine whether the local judges have discussed the Panitz case among
themselves.
On Thursday, he said "Donnellan, Judge Gallen and every other judge will have to be called … if she won't give me a hearing, we'll go right to the appellate court."
Gallen was unavailable for comment Thursday.
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