Lawyers Know Too Much

The Personal Experiences Of Richard S. Wagner M.D. Board Certified Psychiatrist

Note:
This is a seven-page excerpt of the book "Lawyers Know Too Much." For information about buying this book, please go to the purchasing page.

Introduction

"Lawyers Know Too Much" is the title of a poem composed by Carl Sandburg. I found it some time ago and put it to music including it in my book, "Bringing Poetry To Life Through Music". Before me, Carl Sandburg hated lawyers more than anyone else in the world. Before him it was Charles Dickens who held this honor. Read "Bleak House". Before him it was William Shakespeare. In 1500 Francois Rabelais expressed this universal opinion. There are dozens of others who are also in this category having started life with the study of law to please daddy and take over the family business to fill the pocket book. The more honest individuals soon became disillusioned with the hypocrisy of this profession or racket as it is referred to as one begins to gain knowledge and experience with its "intricacies and extracacies" played out in real life. As this knowledge deepened, their self-disgust intensified making it impossible for them to live with themselves in this profession. They dropped the profession of law when they realized they were unable to continue to live with themselves with peace of mind and integrity. Many entered more fulfilling and honest professions. Many of the lawyers who remained in the racket of law turned to alcohol and drugs to make their lives as a lawyer bearable. Other lawyers make deals with the power brokers of society to fill (over sixty percent) positions in politics. At the present time more of them are infesting Universities and Colleges to exert their malicious destructive influence in that arena.
In the United States there were performed studies of lawyers on the East Coast and West Coast demonstrating much dissatisfaction among lawyers with their choice of profession. Most hang on because they are trapped. Others seek escape by infesting the political system with their presence. There they proceed to express the deviancy of their character disorder by creating laws not with the good of society in mind but rather laws that will enhance the financial status of their fellow lawyers who stayed in the field. For this service they are well compensated in a generous and lucrative fashion. There are so many ridiculous and contradictory laws on the books now and the situation is so confusing that the citizens should enact a universal petition in the form of a plebiscite demanding that all laws should become null and void after five years. This would free the citizenry of the intolerable burden of irrational laws and force the legislature to reevaluate some of the useless and contradictory rules that were passed and are still in force. They have so many edicts now on the books that any criminal district attorney or sheriff can use them to harass the citizen causing him to needlessly expend large sums of money for legal fees to protect himself from the corrupt system. My own experience in Warren, Pennsylvania exemplifies this abuse. This story will be described later.
Lawyers are attracted to the profession because they possess character disorders of the psychopath. The essence of the psychopath consists in the person wanting to be above the law exempt from society's rules. The same problem is found among many policemen. The profession of law does not create the deviancy, however, it attracts people who possess it and are prone to use it for selfish motives and self-aggrandizement.
Lawyers-to-be enter law school not with the intention of learning justice, ethics, morality and honest behavior, they enter law school to spend their time and effort in learning to use "Law as a weapon to commit crime". Law School becomes for them merely a trade school for psychopaths to learn to use "Law as a weapon for Crime".
One wonders what these young psychopaths wanting to be above the law really think when they enter law school. This article from the Philadelphia Inquirer gives a glimpse behind the scene and throws some light on the subject. I used to travel around a lot and in doing so had the opportunity to use the yellow page telephone guides. I began to notice that the lawyer section was quite large. I started my own unofficial survey. I counted the lawyers' names and divided the number into the total population of the city. It consistently resulted in approximately the same ratio in many large and medium sized cities. The result was one lawyer to every 400 citizens. I was appalled by this ratio thinking it extremely high and I considered the possibility that I was in error. I was in error but not in the direction that I suspected. I couldn't imagine any population no matter how litigious needing so many lawyers. There were also many other lawyers in other positions not noted in the lawyer section. This augmented the number. This number was excessively high justifying the statement that they were swarming like the rats in Denmark or like the problem faced by the people of Hamlin which necessitated a Pied Piper to draw them off into the sea. One could start in Washington D.C. by piping a song about "Money Making the World Go Round" thus leading them into the Potomac River. The river would be so full that a plane off course could safely land on this dense mass of inert matter which these attorneys would provide. Many aeronautic tragedies could be avoided as a result and some benefit could be gained for society from their exorbitant numbers.
This question of ratio was finally clarified and corrected for me by the enclosed article from the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper. The budding attorneys seemed to think that the stuff in law school was excessively hard and the final test was prohibitively extensive, comprehensive, and too full of law. They failed the test since most of these novices weren't letting the law books interfere with their drinking and social behavior. So the supreme court of Pennsylvania which is made up of the same kind of deviants as these budding lawyers felt sorry for the novices who were crying in their beer begging for lower standards. They seemed to realize as we all do that the entire system is a farce and the real challenge for a lawyer is to perfect his political sucking skills and not his knowledge of justice or law. These sucking skills will be treated in a later chapter of this book concerning the sucking machine of the judge from the Texas-Oklahoma area of the country.
According to this report, Pennsylvania has one lawyer for every 218 citizens. Only Maryland is worse off since that is the drainage for the leach lines from the cesspool of Washington D.C. However, with the lowering of test scores and standards in general, Pennsylvania now has the dubious honor of having the most and dumbest lawyers in the country. It is nice to hold the record. It is almost as ludicrous as the Citizens of the Carolinas going for the Gold with the longest reigning and most senile Senator in Congress. The entire world is laughing at the United States which flaunts its democracy.
I have had many judges tell me that they are not in the court to seek for truth or justice but rather to apply the law. And the law, of course, is the way they see it. It can readily be understood how these individuals can be turned into political pimps and the justice system subverted. Many times citizens are deprived of their constitutional rights because of technicalities that these political pimps lean on to make decisions favorable to their own cronies rather than for truth and justice. And that is exactly what is happening across the country. If there were anything standardized and objectively accepted in this so called justice system, there would not have to be such a political battle over each appointment to the supreme or other courts. The truth is that this whole process proves that the entire system is a farce and citizens are completely justified in scorning it, loosing faith in it and finally avoiding it as the article from the Washington Post demonstrates. The question must be asked and the consequences of the truth followed. If a lawyer person is unfit for the supreme court, why is he fit for any other court? He should be disbarred. This system of congressional lawyers wasting time in hearings is simply adding to the expense and proving by this evidence that the entire system is a political farce. Judges through out the nation are nothing more than political pimps. The system is a disaster and a disgrace resulting in grave injustice to citizens. How long people can tolerate it will be discussed later with the story of a citizen who finally said "enough" and shot a lawyer and a judge in Warren, Pa. Jefferson who understood well the corruption of power stated in his writings that from time to time we should have' revolution in this country. Peaceful yes, however, bloody if necessary. Read the history of Watts, Chicago, Milwaukee, and other centers. There occurred bloody revolts and they caught the attention of the corrupt political establishment which ignored the rights of people. Citizens do have a limit to their patience and tolerance of injustice. Take note of the book, "French Revolution" by Carlyle. This famous work also applies to all revolutions including the American Revolution. When the blood is washed away and the bodies are buried in France as well as in America, China, Russia, England and in every other state formed from revolution, "the inheritors of the revolution still cling tightly to their inheritance of monotonous political irresponsibility."
People should avoid the court system at all hazard. Judges exist there only to see that the lawyers are well compensated for that service of "lawyering" for which the judges in turn are then generously compensated. Papers are filled with stories of criminal malfeasance perpetrated by judges, prosecutors and lawyers. The appendix in the book "Mean Justice" is a startling and frightening collection. The "injustice system" of the divorce court shows the extent of this interdigitation and incestuous relationship between lawyers and judges. It is the result of the lawyers infesting the legislature, creating unjust and irrational rules which the judges follow and finally apply for the benefit of the lawyers and the judges. There is no one to oversee this system of organized crime. In Pennsylvania it is the product of "the dumbest, the mostest and the worstest".
It is also clear that the worst criminal actions of the justice system are suppressed preventing their entering the public forum. Much of the public media is still controlled by being bought up by the corporate-political syndicate. Many publications of criminal malfeasance are suppressed by the political power of the syndicate which is centered in the court, however, many more scandals are recently coming to light independent of the syndicate. The appendix in the book titled "Mean Justice" is a must read. This is the story to be told in more detail later in this book concerning a psychopathic district attorney in Kern County, California who introduced a perjurious witness into a murder case to put Pat Dunn in prison for life for politically and financially motivated reasons. More of this story will be told when the perjurious actions of the District Attorney Massa of Warren County, Pennsylvania are also related. He introduced a perjurious witness into a case when he said "he knew" the man was guilty even though there existed no evidence. The Lawyer, Barry Smith, defended the man and brought the perjury to public attention. He should have been hailed as a hero. Instead, the legal syndicate got angry with Smith and retaliated against him while keeping Massa in Power in Warren. Yaegle also stayed in office in Bakersfield. People want corruption. They just want to be beneficiaries of the corruption. This is the consequence of the mindless masses in the world. John Adams and Alexander Hamilton feared these. These masses are capricious and non-thinking to the point of being irrational. America is living with the consequences.

No Public Official guilty of introducing a perjurious witness into the court should be allowed to stay in public service. Yet they remain continuing to do damage to the justice system and society.



Chapter 1 - Judge Bogert and His Back Room

My disillusionment with the "Injustice System" began years ago when I was involved in a program organized to try to reduce the traffic deaths caused by citizens whose driving skill was impaired from excessive use of alcohol. This program was referred to as the "Alcohol Safety Action Program", or if one prefers acronyms or puzzles, ASAP. The United States' citizens had learned to live with and take for granted the slaughter of the highway. There were killed fifty thousand people every year on the highways. Half of these deaths were directly related to skill impairing substances. Usually alcohol though not always. The number has remained constant over these thirty years since 1970. The rage of the population and the use of the motor vehicle as a weapon and an outlet for this road rage are partly the causes responsible. The irrational irresponsible behavior of citizens will never be changed. The real cause of these deaths and slaughter lies with the political establishment called the Legislature which allows itself to be bribed by the Mammoth Monsters of our society. Oil and Gas Industry. Auto Makers. Road Builders. Nothing will stop the slaughter of the highway until mass transportation is given its proper place in our society. The responsibility must be taken away from the citizen driver as it is in the English Channel tunnel. Sometimes referred to as the Chunnel. No one should be forced to get on a highway like 1-10 from EI Paso to San Antonio then Houston in an automobile. A bullet train with slots for economical autos would express citizens across over a thousand miles of Texas desert in three hours instead of eight or ten hours. It could be made to work not only on that route but also in other locations. Sweden offered to construct a demonstration train from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to obviate the death trap of I-15. The plan was rejected and refused by the Barons of the Oil Industry. Bad decision on their part based on their profit margin.
The mindless citizens who infest the highways with their road rage have always proven themselves to be totally irresponsible. People don't care about anything until it is brought home as a personal tragedy. One must ask the MAD Mothers running around the country. Where were you before your son or daughter was killed?
I have watched billions of dollars wasted on the ASAP program over the past thirty years. The real issue is Mass Transportation for the "Bete Humaine" of Victor Hugo, Balzac and Zola. Like the Aztec Indians with their human sacrifice, the Legislature through the Auto and Oil industry has learned to make a gift of fifty thousand lives a year as a sacrificial offering to appease the gods of greed and avarice found in the corporate offices of the Mammoth Monsters. They, however, are never appeased. The American public allows this to go on because we worship the automobile, and are ready to slaughter and declare war to preserve the dwindling energy supply which make it possible for the single driver to tear across the country. It seems to be a small price to pay for independent arrogance and ability to demonstrate road rage. Any excuse will do.
There I was in my youthful naivete trying to impact a problem and right a wrong as if I were Don Quixote taking on the wind mills. I soon realized what the true issues were and I resigned the program to finish Medical Studies in Mexico. I then specialized in Psychiatry. Little did I realize at that time that I was jumping from the fire into a larger fire. It was brought home to me that I would always have to be a Don Quixote or I would have to learn to "deal with the devil", ever present in our society, as one unethical doctor chided me. I had to learn to live with the slaughter of the highway and the corruption of the medical profession or perish in the battle to change the systems of society.
My first lesson was to be given by Judge Bogert of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. He was well aware of the political situation and the realities of being a judge in a community where his primary responsibility was keeping the lawyers happy and well fed. To keep them well fed was to keep himself well fed. He never gave ethics a thought. This was to be a real course in Social Politics 101 and Justice System 209.
At that time, 1970's, the Nation had a Blood Alcohol presumptive level of impairment of .10 mg % with few exceptions. Wisconsin, heavily endowed with breweries and beer lobbyists, was one of these exceptions. It continued to have a presumptive alcohol level of .15 mg. %. A state famous for beer must be allowed to drink it was their motto. This is why the state was chosen for the demonstration program in the first place. In thirty years the facts show that the Alcohol level dropped to .10 mg. %. The number of deaths and the amount of slaughter have not dropped. People still drink and drive and kill each other under the influence of alcohol.
Judge Bogert with a twisted leg caused by a birth defect liked sitting behind the bench. He didn't want to go back to riding the circuit. He had made a deal with the lawyers for his election and their support was essential to keeping the judgeship. He intended to keep the deal. It didn't matter to him how many dead people were found on the highway. He made this clear to us in an angry way when we protested his decision of not guilty he rendered for a lady whose blood alcohol tested .25 mg. %. The lawyer, a supporter of and contributor to Judge Bogert argued that since she was also taking other medicine like valium, one couldn't be sure that the impairment resulting in the crash was caused by the alcohol. "Not Guilty" was the verdict. It was a verdict that kept him in good favor with the hometown lawyers and helped him keep the job behind the bench. The old boy network was alive and well.
He took us to his back room, a luxurious space known as the judge's chamber. This is the place where deals are struck between lawyers and judges. In a firm and angry fashion he stated, "Look guys, I 'm going to tell you how this system works. When people are arrested, I'll throw some your way and some the peoples' way to balance justice. But when they come into "my" courtroom with a lawyer from "my" district, I must give it to the lawyer or they won't support me in the next election. This is the way it has to be. This is the way the system works. That's final .....non negotiable."
That ended the session in the chamber. That ended the course in Social Politics 101. That ended the course in Justice System 209.
This abuse is going on all over the country, and this is why the number of deaths of fifty thousand a year has not gone down. We are still offering up human sacrifice to the gods of greed and avarice controlled by the Oil and Auto Industry. Nothing will change till Mass Transportation replaces the irresponsible behavior of the Bette Humane.
I sometimes laugh at the hypocrisy of our nation's politicians. They are willing to declare war over the death of 6-10 thousand citizens caused by radicals driving a plan into two skyscrapers in New York City. This may happen once in a century. No one can condone such actions. We should, however, start to examine the behavior of our nation with its greed and avarice in dealing with nations around the world. They are tired of being bullied by the US. One must also ask this question. If we can't tolerate six thousand deaths in a 911 disaster, why should we willingly sacrifice and tolerate 50,000 dead on the highways each year as offerings to the gods of the oil-auto industry? Can't the politicians and citizens ever get honest with themselves and the rest of the Nations of the world? We are all brothers. So goes the rhetoric.
The money wasted on a war could more than finance the mass transportation system needed in this country. Also, besides the deaths there are billions of dollars wasted in broken bones and autos. Just get the price tag of the insurance industry. All of these wasted resources could be directed toward a more rational solution. The answer is not war and more inefficient highways. This nation must return to the rails with bullet trains.
The reason these rational solutions are not allowed to happen is that the Legislatures, sixty percent of which are lawyers, are being bribed (read campaign contributioned) by the industries with vested interests. To understand the actions of any politician one must find out who are pulling his financial puppet strings.



Chapter 3 - The Grizzly Bear And The Bear Bells

This is a true story that was published in the Washington Post Tuesday, 27 August 1996. I am including a copy but since the reproductions are constantly resulting in poorer legibility, I will for easier reading write it out completely in this chapter. I think it is a classic not only as a story but also for the symbolism and for the things not written. Reading between the lines is essential. The story is great in itself, however, the gossip chit-chat that made the circuit in Washington D.C. following this event was even more enlightening.
I am somewhat like Will Rogers. I don't like nor do I tell jokes. I think that real life is more humorous. I have been told all the stories about the relationship between lawyers and sharks and they don't amuse me since the lawyers are too avaricious and destructive to be funny and it insults the sharks who are just trying to make and honest living. I was told a story by a lawyer about the boatload of lawyers on a pleasure boat cruise in the Caribbean. The boat overloaded with excess baggage, mostly the stuffed lawyers, sank with the lawyers ending up in the ocean. The sharks didn't attack. Why? The answer is "professional courtesy". This is not funny at all because the sharks should have attacked for the good of humanity. It would have been a great service. That would have been funny. Sharks of the sea defending the citizens of the nation against sharks of the court by reducing the number of lawyers. The irony of real humor or the humor or real irony.
Will Rogers, the great satirist not a comedian, was invited by his friend Charlie Wagner to give talks to municipal groups. He toured for several months leaning heavily on his Vaudeville and Siegfried Folly days for amusing stories. A lady on hearing him wrote him a letter. "Dear Mr. Will Rogers. We are so tired of the girlie jokes of the Follies and Vaudeville. You are at your best with satire about our government politicians and world events. Please....."
He took this letter to heart and followed the young lady's counsel. He took it with him for the next few years sharing it with the audience on stage. "You know this lady is not only a good professional consultant telling me what the people really like, she is also an excellent financial advisor. When you think of it why should I pay the clowns in Vaudeville and the Siegfried Follies to write my jokes when I can get the clowns in congress to do it for nothing?" Since receiving that letter, he stated that he just read the congressional record and the newspapers from around the country. He got more than enough to talk and laugh about in congress and city hall.
I, like Will Rogers, do not tell jokes. There are too many clowns running around the world to describe in real life. Real life is much better than fiction.
The following is a real life event packed fuller with satire and more engorged with meaning than all the jokes of TV or Broadway.

Grizzly Bear Kills District Lawyer on Alaskan Hiking Trip
A Washington lawyer was attacked and killed by a grizzly bear while on a long-planned hiking trip with two friends in the northern Alaskan wilderness, authorities there said yesterday. Robert C. Bell Jr., of the 5200 block of 42nd Street, N.W. died instantly in Friday's fatal attack in the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, an 8.5-million acre national park in one of the most remote areas of Alaska, officials said.
After the attack, park officials closed off the area where Bell was killed. It will remain closed until Sept. 30 to allow them to assess the bear population there.
Bell, 42, a lawyer with Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays and Handler had begun a nine-day hiking trip Aug. 19 with two friends along the Noatak River. Ulvi, a spokesman for the Gates of the Arctic said Bell and one of his friends stumbled across a female and her young cub in dense willow brush six to eight feet tall as they returned from a day trip up the Kugrak River, a side creek of the Noatak.
The third hiker had remained with their boat on the Noatak River, Ulvi said.
Ulvi said the two men had tried to walk around the animal and her cub, making noise so the bear would not be startled by their presence. Bell's companion, who asked authorities not to release his name, passed the bears without incident, Ulvi said, but Bell was attacked when he tried to pass.
"It was a classic case" of a mother protecting her young, Ulvi said. Bell "was killed very rapidly."
Bell's body later was recovered by his friends, and the men and Bell's body were evacuated Saturday after a pilot spotted the men's signal for help. Ulvi said that no action is expected involving the bear. "There is no reason to seek the bear, and there is no blame on Mr. Bell," Ulvi said. "It was just a very unfortunate situation. " Ulvi said Bell and his friends who had not been armed, had taken the normal precautions for hiking through bear country. They had worn bear bells and had made noise while moving through dense brush.
"It is definitely a very unusual attack," he said. "Bear attacks are very uncommon anywhere. You're much more likely to die from being stung by a bee or hit by lightning than being mauled by a bear."
But Ulvi said there are more bears than usual in the area where Bell was attacked because the salmon are running and the bears are feeding off the fish.
Bell's wife, Jody Foster, also a lawyer, flew to Alaska after learning of her husband's death and could not be reached yesterday.
Dorothy Morrison, the director of business affairs for Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays and Handler, said Bell, a native of Ithaca, N.Y., joined the firm in 1993. Most recently, Bell had been part of a team of lawyers who last year won the largest award--$100 million---ever granted by a Federal jury in Washington, in a civil lawsuit known as "DePriest et al. V s. McCaw Communications".
Bell, who received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, worked at the National Labor Relations Board for three years before joining the law firm.
"He was a person who really loved life," Morrison said. "He was quite an enjoyable character. He had a great sense of humor. He was not your typical lawyer type." Washington Post: Tuesday, 27 August, 1996.

This is the story as related in the Washington Post. The following is not to make the world believe that this writer is unaware of the human tragedy of this case from the point of view of the father lost to the child and the spouse lost to the wife. Nonetheless, this was a member of a profession that is universally despised in this century as in all the ages that have gone before. The personal loss is admitted and respected, however, the joy of having one less lawyer infesting the country must be perceived as just as real. As Sandburg stated in his poem "Lawyers Know Too Much", "the hearse horse snickers when the lawyer cashes in".
Now we will move on to describe the article and the gossip circle comments of Washington D.C. The first item to note in the article is the manner in which the office manager Ms. Morrison described this competent and resourceful lawyer, Mr. Bell. She is very complimentary. Bell is noted to be one.....loving life, an enjoyable character, having a great sense of humor. Then she admits the fact that he is not the typical lawyer type. This makes one wonder what kind of colostomy bags all the other lawyers are that run around the country extorting people's money. And the question remains would Bell have become, had he lived, just like the other "typical lawyer types" that she is left-handedly condemning by her complementary description of Bell and distinguishing him so convincingly from all the "typical rest" of this herd roaming the world as the "Bete Humaine". Overly drunk, overly fed, excessively avaricious, and using law as a weapon to commit crime. Bell should be grateful to this Grizzly for saving him from the future deterioration into becoming the typical lawyer type.
Considering the statistics from the prior article of the Philadelphia Inquirer concerning the overpopulation of lawyers it is strange that the comment in the Washington Post dwelt on the population of the grizzly bear. They stated that the Park would be closed to assess the bear population. Why not close the court system until the lawyer population can be assessed? Why is there not a special investigation assessing the lawyer population along with their destructive corruptive behavior that tears apart the citizens as the Grizzly tore apart lawyer Bell? It seems that no one wishes to face this infestation of society. Lawyers have systematically subverted the justice system with bribes and kickbacks euphemistically referred to as campaign contributions. Some judges take campaign contributions even when they aren't running. They are in office for life and don't have to enter an election campaign. "Never know when we will need the money", is their motto. There is a very serious case now in New York New Jersey involving a judge who demanded a higher percentage of the settlement in the way of kickbacks. It got so bad that the lawyers themselves finally said enough and turned him in. The question, however, remains. Why did the lawyers wait so long? What about these lawyers who for all this time were paying bribes knowing the connection between the decision making process of this judge and the money which they were giving him? Shouldn't they be indicted also, guilty of giving... bribes.... "ever so small"? We can't let the lawyers fool us. It's wrong to give bribes as well as to take bribes. If the judge hadn't gotten excessively avaricious this situation would still be going on in that district as well as it is in many other places in the United States. This court system is as corrupt as any third world state. Yet we continually and hypocritically condemn the system of other countries for what we routinely perpetrate in the United States of America where the deer and the buffalo roam as well as the Grizzly.
The lawyers' next problem for the nation to solve is that they have now infested the legislative system trying to destroy it as they have the court system. Of all the law makers over 60% are now lawyers and the number is always climbing. Frighteningly this number is growing as the political syndicates get more cohesive and the citizens grow more indifferent and feel more helpless. This number of lawyers has to be reduced no matter what the grizzly method.
Finally, with fewer places to store this offal of the court system as Balzac described them they are now entering the educational system to destroy that. The President of Duquesne University, Pittsburgh Pa. The University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. More recently Columbia University in New York. All these have presidents who are lawyers. There are also others around the country. Their claim to fame is that they are good money gatherers, and they keep the school out of debt. They are turning the centers of learning and higher education into diploma factories. This is bad for the education process in America. The lawyer population must be assessed. It is more hazardous than the bear population. At least one can stay away from the bears, but the lawyers are surrounding us.
I have known cases in which lawyers and judges do terrible injustices and harm to families under the disguise of law and order which serves none other that a shield for their pathological need to control or destroy as characterized in the psychopath. They are more destructive than all the Grizzly Bears in the Alaskan wilderness. If this bear was allowed to protect her offspring with violence why not the mothers and fathers of Kern County who were victimized by the district attorney, psychopathic mad man Yaegle, with his witch hunts. More of this later. The full story can be read in the book "Mean Justice".
Let the Grizzly bears alone and start dealing with the infestation of lawyers.
The next item to be treated in this in depth survey and analysis of this tragic article which makes the hearse horse snicker is the response of the company which lost the $100 million court case, McCaw Communication Inc. It certainly is a corporation with enormous amounts of money which like most corporations in America probably "earned" the money by questionable business practices, and probably will not miss its $100 salmon and get a dinner. This was in preparation for the life that lay ahead according to the natural law. The bear had no interest in nor did she much care for all the "intricacies and extracacies" of the legal system with its quiddities and quoddities, as described and condemned by Shakespeare, which have no connection with the natural law nor with common sense. Their only connection is with the "law" that keeps lawyers and judges well fed and well drunk. The mother bear's only concern was that her baby was hungry and she just wanted to feed it.
The lawyers joined ranks from all over the world in attacking the Grizzly. The reasoning was this. Lawyers should not be sent to the Community College to earn a hiking permit since they have been walking in circles for many years.
The guilty party was obviously the Mother Grizzly. She should be sent to the community college for courses to earn a fishing permit. She ran across a lawyer on the way to the river to get some dinner for the cub. This dinner was supposed to be salmon. The Salmon were running according to the official spokesman for the "Gates of the Arctic, National Park and Preserve", Ulvi. Since they were looking for salmon, it was clear that the Grizzly lacked knowledge sufficient to identify a salmon. She needed courses at the college more than the lawyers did.
Ergo, mother Grizzly should be sent to the classes since she couldn't tell the difference between a salmon and a shark.
The discussion continues and it is not known whether the mother Grizzly has retained a lawyer to represent her. The cub was last seen heading North trying to get lost in the 8.5 million acres of wilderness wanting nothing to do with the "injustice system".


Chapter 4 - Judge Burke

He came to power in the usual way. Favors granted, a little but very discrete graft, power brokering, and returns for campaign contributions. Each year it got easier and easier as the number of people who owed each other increased and as his experience in manipulating the system was perfected. His base of power and influence expanded until it was decided by the syndicate that he could be trusted to be placed in the position of judge. So much questionable behavior was done by everyone that no one could afford to blow the whistle for fear of bringing down the entire superstructure of a system which guaranteed to all of them the comfortable living which they all enjoyed at the expense of the justice system. The Justice System and the Court of Law was sacrificed but everyone rationalized that this was human nature and this is the way it was done everywhere.

Judge Burke was pleased with the idea of the power and the social prestige that the judgeship would offer to him and to his family. He would, however, have to give up the extra money he made as a lawyer. On the other hand, the income would be constant and sufficient for the family needs since most of his twelve children were now married and independent of the parents. Also, he could always accept a favor, in cash of course, for a reasonable decision as long as it was kept within the team and definitely in cash. He would, as other judges do, tilt the scales of justice toward the cases that were represented by his local lawyers who would see to it that he would be well cared for by what is euphemistically called, “campaign contributions”. It is hard to keep everyone happy but with experience a judge can spread the “justice’ around to cover himself.

He debated all this out loud to himself and at times he used his wife as a sounding board. She was a good woman and although her input was usually ignored unless it echoed what he wanted to hear, he often used her to think out loud when the topic involved the family and had no legal, confidential content.

“Patty, the money won’t be as good, but the security will more than compensate for that. You know that once in office in this county, a judge is in for life. The people just stick with you no matter what happens. It takes a major scandal to get someone out. You and I both know what the previous judges have done and survived,” he thought and spoke at the same time. “They were above the law. They were the Law.”

“Yes, security and the added social status would be nice. The power that no one could speak out against for fear of retaliation was breathtaking to consider. Everyone protected each other since the guilt was spread around evenly.”

“Also, you wouldn’t have to run around as much since the entire day would be spent in the Hornell Court House,” reflected his wife understanding what he wanted her to say.

“It’s a sure thing if I declare for it. No one would dare run against me for fear of receiving legal retaliation in the decision making process after the election. You remember how some judges have continued their negative decisions for years forcing some young lawyers to relocate. Legal revenge is endless and ruthless,” concluded Lawyer, soon to be, Judge Burke.

Judge Burke accepted the position at the bench vacated by an eighty-two year old hanger on who stroked out while rendering a decision that never quite made it out of his mouth. Now the plaintiff family had to wait for a new judge to be appointed and go through the ordeal again with all the added inconvenience and expense. The octogenarian couldn’t stand the thought of giving up the position in a reasonable manner for the benefit of the community. He said that being a judge got easier and easier with the years. “Just find for the person clean shaven and in a nice business suit or the one represented by an attorney with a history of generous campaign contributions,” he quipped when asked how he did it all these years. “Amazing how easy justice can be.” No one could have convinced him to give up the position because of his age and incompetence. One must die somewhere. It may as well be on the bench. He defended his practice of administering Justice by claiming that a Federal Judge, Maurice B Cohill Jr. in Pittsburgh actually instructs the jury members to believe more the person who is soft spoken, well dressed in an expensive suit with his hair neatly combed. Quite a way to evaluate the truth and distribute justice!

Judge Burke took over the bench and as a result had to give up his law practice since he couldn’t decide and judge on his own cases, though some try to do this vicariously by giving special preference to their prior law partners. He did not, however, give up several clients who he felt would need no decision making. Though this was stretching the code of legal ethics to the breaking point, he salved his conscience by telling himself that they all did it. “Why give up all this extra money?” he reasoned. “I did the paper work. I’m entitled to it.” The cases that he kept were several items of wills and testaments that he held for older people who had known and trusted him for many years. Their confidence in him was so firm that he was certain they would never complain about the ethical extension. Besides, several would be very lucrative. Neither would they require any additional work once the papers were filed. All that had to be done was wait for the aging process to do its work, file the final report and collect the fees which were usually grossly exaggerated. That’s what made being a lawyer fun.

The Judge began the job and as foretold won term after term with little opposition as his status in the community and his reputation for honesty in this delicate job dedicated to balancing justice, applying the law, and keeping the lawyers happy and well fed improved with the years. He decided, which immediately was confirmed by his wife, that he was doing a very good job.

His children continued to exit the home for independent living. Of his Catholic Dozen the youngest was ready to enter college. The older ones were well established in their life work. They never had a close relationship with their father since he was always absorbed in his work or the politics of this small town. Personally he had never found it easy to express his feelings and open himself to intimate human relationships. He was always closed and guarded. It came easy to distance himself from his loved ones and as he did this he could settle into this new position which offered him the opportunity to test the limits of a system which could place him above the law. This new attitude took him farther from his children and farther from those principles which had governed his life up to this point. He was evolving beyond the limits unaware of where this attitude was actually leading.

His youngest son was just accepted to an Ivy League University, an admission which was facilitated by the power of the bench. Nothing too good for the judge’s son! The boy wasn’t sure what he wanted out of life and he entered the school more to please his father than for any real direction in life. He wanted to please and do well as the older children had done but somehow he felt empty and lost. Following the demands of his father was wearing him down but he just couldn’t figure him out or fight him now. “I can survive an Ivy League School”, he thought.

As the years proved the judge’s reputation and skills on the bench, they also took their toll on the clients that had filed their will and testaments through him. Several had already died and they were expedited with no delay and no accusations of unethical behavior. He almost felt that he could stretch any code of ethics or law beyond the wildest possibility now that his power base was so firmly established.

One of his clients was a spinster. She had no relatives living and her friendships had consisted of a few older women either spinsters like herself or widows. She never had a close male relationship. To fill the void she turned her affection, her time and her money to animals. She liked to have many pets herself and gave special attention to the housing of strays and homeless animals with repeated contributions to the SPCA animal shelter. She had spent much time there and had many friends among the employees and the animals. Since she couldn’t bring all the animals home, she could help them in their home and aid them with financial contributions. This philosophy of life was so lived and talked about by the spinster, dog lover, that no one was surprised when she related casually that when she died she would leave all her money to the dogs. “Since I have no relatives to fight like cats and dogs over my money, I will leave it to the cats and dogs to fight over it,” she joked. This was her favorite quip which she threw out so often while visiting her animal friends at the SPCA that it became her trademark among her acquaintances. She was a talker and everyone in the immediate circle of friends knew that there was going to be plenty of money for the dogs and cats to fight over. She was not exactly a millionaire, however, she had worked hard, lived frugally and invested wisely. She was to leave a large estate.

Judge Burke held this will in his office file for many years. He more than anyone knew exactly her worth. He knew it better than she did herself. He stayed in constant touch with his client through occasional visits to her home and then to the nursing home when she became unable to care for her own needs. In fact the trust was so deep of this spinster for her one time lawyer friend, now judge, that she allowed him power of attorney to take over the payment of all her bills and manage her financial matters. He knew her financial status in every detail. He knew also that all the money was going to the dogs as directed by the will that he controlled in his file by his power of attorney and he realized that this amount was enough to make anyone envy the dogs and the cats for it.

As the spinster paid the price of aging and passed into senility, she conversed less and less rationally. A fleeting thought passed through the judge’s mind. “Why should all this money go to the dogs?” he questioned. “I could see that better use was made of it than just throwing it to the dogs.” He wished that he could use his wife as a sounding board for this idea. He dared not since this was one thing he couldn’t share even with her. She would find the thought too repulsive as he did when he thought too long and too logically about it. The idea went against every principle of his religion and his profession. Yet he was above the law. He was the law. He rationalized that the good which he could do with the money would more than make up for the act of sharing in an illegal manner what was destined to go to the dogs by the will of the owner and the law.

The implications were very great. On the other hand his status and power could help him overcome the obstacles. Look what it had done for him up to now and for his predecessors. “We are above the Law”, he thought again. “The power of the bench is supreme. We are the Law.”

He put the idea out of his mind but it kept coming back. She trusted him. He could fashion another document which she would sign without reading or questioning so deep was her confidence and trust in him. She would never miss the money after her death and the dogs would never know. Her complete trust in him made her the easy target for the deceitful act that was being perpetrated by her one time lawyer friend, now judge.

He finally wrote up the alternative will in which he claimed himself the primary beneficiary of the estate. He gave a small portion to the SPCA to prevent too much suspicion or gossip. Both documents were in place. All he had to do was decide which one he would file. His mind whirled with the thought of the money. It whirled more from the thought of pulling this off and feeling the thrill of being omnipotent and being above the law. His destiny was riding on a roller coaster of his own grandiosity.

Time did its part in this conspiracy and the spinster went into a coma preparing for death. She went to her maker, trusting that her estate was safely disposed in the hands of her one time lawyer friend, now judge. She was buried and again as power of attorney her lawyer friend took care of the costs. He brought up to date the nursing home account. He waited the specified amount of time to see if any new claims would be made against the estate, then as surreptitiously and clandestinely as possible he filled her last will and testament. He knew that eventually his decision would become public. He weighed his status, considered his standing in the community and in the eyes of his family. He almost didn’t believe what he was trying to do himself. Would his prestige see him through this? He realized now that he was risking the entire past and future of himself and the family. He had to make people realize what a special person he was in the eyes of the spinster. He tried to lay the ground work for the belief that she would reasonably have chosen him as the one to receive the greater part of her small life’s fortune. Would the power of the bench see him through? His grandiosity seemed to be weakening.

Allowing as much time to elapse as possible, hoping that many people would die or forget, he filed the revised edition of the document naming himself the main recipient of the inheritance. The SPCA received its share according to the new will. They were grateful, disappointed and somewhat suspicious since it was not exactly what the talkative spinster had described to them as she prattled on while playing with the animals in the SPCA shelter.

Others in the spinster’s intimate circle of friends began to question also. Enough talk was generated by the community, that it resulted in an open inquiry by the District Attorney. Questions were being asked and answers could not be given. The judge had never foreseen this. He never believed that the gossip of the spinster’s friends could push it this far to overcome the power of the bench.

One evening he came home saying to his wife, “They are going to investigate. I think there is enough evidence to bring me down.”

“Why did you do it?” she questioned, for by now even she had her doubts about the situation and the judge.

“She changed her mind at the last moment, considering me as her best friend and confidante,” he said. “I just followed her directive.”

“I hope you can prove it to the people,” she uttered, thinking of the scandal, the disgrace to the children and herself. All her worries were now personal and familial. It never occurred to her that there were principles of justice at stake. In moments of pain and destructive threats there is little thought of others. All human energies and resources are mobilized to defend the self and the family. This was her instinct and this was the tract she followed.

Time passed as the investigation continued. The questioning became more and more determined and damning. The judge realized that he would never survive its unrelenting progress. He would surely be indicted as the evidence mounted. The inevitable was fast approaching. Time was running out. During this time he had secretly invested in a new life insurance policy on his life for $300.000.00 with his wife as the beneficiary. He made sure that it contained the double indemnity clause for any incident causing accidental death. Then he waited. He knew that he could prolong the investigation to allow the time to pass for the insurance policy to take full effect. Also, his friends were helping to stall knowing what lay ahead as the evidence mounted. He knew now that the power of the bench could not save him. Why had he let the grandiosity of the moment allow him to believe himself to be above the law? He couldn’t discuss anything with anyone. Not his wife nor his children would be allowed into this void. This world was his alone as it plummeted to the abyss. He was more distant than ever before in his life.

A short time after the insurance policy was in full effect, he entrusted it to his wife with vague explanations about the need for it in case something might happen. She knew her husband and sensed his intentions.

She questioned, “What effect will this have on the children? Especially, our youngest son. He idolizes you and only went to the Ivy School to please you. He really wants to be more a part of your life.”

“They will all be well,” he replied softly almost trying to convince himself of the statement since he really knew his children not at all. He shared so little with his children and the communication with them was mostly that of a disciplinarian rather than as a father. They shared very little as family activity, nor as human beings. “They are strong.” He guessed again about them since he didn’t know them and they didn’t know him. The distance between them was immense. Little affection crossed the gap.

His wife stored the insurance policy intuiting the thoughts that were churning in the judge’s mind. He had to make it an accident. That much she was sure of. He was too good a lawyer to have it any other way. This is what the Life Insurance Policy dictated. This is what he would give them. He wouldn’t cheat the family of their last benefit. His anger was against himself not the family. He was trying to make up for the damage he had caused by believing himself to be above the law.

Several more weeks passed following the disclosure of the policy, and the evidence continued to mount. The results were clear. His lawyers detailed the conclusions of the investigation and the plan for the indictment. This would all take place the following week. He would have to resign the judgeship. There could be a plea bargain and restitution would have to be made. Nothing could save him from the social scandal and disgrace.

People were saying that since the spinster had no relatives to fight over her money, others had to step in to do the fighting. Sad things happen when money is at stake. All that power and money and the judge still wanted more. They never get enough. Such was the public gossip that he and his family had to live with.

During that week the judge tried to see all of his children. He couldn’t exactly explain why he did it to them or to himself. He couldn’t exactly explain his feelings since he never did it before. He was no good at sharing his inner self. To be a good lawyer and a judge he had learned to hide all this and perhaps to have destroyed it. This is the way they were falsely taught. This is what three years of Law School is for. Never show your feelings. Keep a poker face. It becomes a way of life to destroy many a person. Never having shared his feelings all the while the children were growing up, he couldn’t do it now. He tried to say in a weak sort of way. “I love you, no matter what happens.” It just wouldn’t come out. His walls were too thick.

Two days before the indictment the judge couldn’t sleep. He went out at two in the morning to take a stroll around the block where his large house sat. It was his final goodbye. He waved to his wife from the yard who he knew was not sleeping, got into his car and drove out of town. Winding to the south he crossed the river. The river was spanned by a bridge. The bridge was constructed to outlast any judge who ever sat on a bench Its foundation and abutment were of giant stone that kings’ castles are fortified with. It was clear from the dents and scratches that the stones were in many a duel with automobiles, and horse drawn carriages before that. The bridge never lost a battle.

Crossing the river the road turned sharply and rose steeply up a grade to a high hill. The danger of it all was know to every local resident and for the unwary, unknowing stranger constant reminders were present all along the road as it descended to the fortress bridge. Slow. Caution. 20 Miles per Hour. Sharp Dangerous Curve.

The judge reached the top of the hill and turned the car. He paused, trying to forget the past and merely struggled to make his peace with God. He had always been a Catholic and had herded his Catholic Dozen into the Church regularly for Sunday Mass. He realized now that he had never prayed. It was more like a social necessity giving the message to the people that they could worry less because they had a God-fearing judge on the bench. For the first time in his life he prayed. He was one with infinity and at the same time one with his finiteness. He was no longer grandiose and above the law. He was stripped and naked, as dark as the night. This was the contradiction. He felt very finite and not above the law and yet his final act was to place himself again above the law for all time. He would make himself at this moment his own judge and his own jury. He would bring down his own avenging justice on himself much more severely than any group of citizens set as a jury could ever do.

He had failed himself, his family and his society and for this he could not forgive himself. Not forgiving himself, he could not ask forgiveness of anyone else. He didn’t ask God to forgive him either. He prayed God to make his resolve determined and his aim true as he guided his missile toward the fortress bridge. “Please, God, don’t let my hand swerve at the final moment.”

Saying goodbye again to his family through the darkness of the night, trying to say “I’m sorry”, he began to drive. The hill was steep. The car was powerful. The gas tank was full. The bridge was invincibly entrenched. The curve was too sharp. All was in place. He let his anger do the rest.

He met his Maker in a new way as his car was crushed into unrecognizable scrap metal with his body melted between the pieces.

The accident was discovered and reported by the State Police.

The funeral was held with a closed casket as the family grieved. Grief mixed with anger and the remorse and pain of unanswered questions.

His wife’s security was assured with the double indemnity. His decision was that he had to be worth more dead than alive. However, her emotional hurt and insecurity left her embittered. Life went on with the family as they all went on with their lives.

His youngest son returned to the Ivy League University more to please his father than from any desire to go on with his life. He idolized his father whom he never knew nor understood. Confused by the actions of his father, he never quite accepted his death.

He wanted an explanation. He knew that he could only have that explanation by presence. He knew that he could only understand his father by presence and communication. He wanted to force his father to face him and tell him why. He couldn’t get over the loss and the eternal inability to find out why. He had to face him and make him talk to him. He needed his father’s presence and he would have it. If not in this life then somewhere else. The son, plagued by these thoughts and very unsettled by the loss of his father, came home from college for the Christmas vacation. After Midnight Mass, which was attended without the presence of his father for the first time in his life, the youth went to his father’s grave. Returning home, he went to his father’s garage, took his father’s gun, put it in his mouth and pulled the trigger. He would have the presence of his father. The funeral took place. Again, there was a closed casket. There was, however, no double indemnity. He had not yet acquired his father’s legal mind.

| Return to the main page |