Judicial Hellholes are places where judges systematically apply laws and court procedures in an inequitable manner, generally against defendants in civil lawsuits. In this sixth annual report, ATRF shines the spotlight on six areas of the country that have developed a reputation for uneven justice.
1 South Florida
2 Rio Grande Valley
and Gulf Coast, Texas
3 Cook County, Illinois
4 West Virginia
5 Clark County, Nevada
6 Atlantic County, NJ

From pg. 22 of the report:
The Los Angeles Times conducted an in-depth report on the Clark County judiciary entitled, "They're Playing With a Stacked Judicial Deck." As the paper reported: "A common perception among a dozen out-of-state lawyers interviewed about their experiences in Nevada
courtrooms is that justice in Las Vegas is just another form of legalized gambling."
Lawsuit shenanigans have increasingly tarnished the reputation of Clark County's
civil justice system. Clark County "courts are clogged with frivolous litigation and
the rolls of the state bar are spotted with unethical and incompetent attorneys."
"Indeed, frivolous class action lawsuits know no boundaries in a city that sings to
lawyers in siren song fashion."
...

As I have written before, it is so nice to know that the Times reports more on our corrupt legal system than Nevada's own media. Our newspapers seem to enjoy relaying and replaying our scandals but seem reluctant to upset the party by actually uncovering corruption, unless the players aren't part of Nevada's favorite sons and daughters club, such as former Chicagoan Lacey Thomas.of UMC "fame."

From an article in PokerNews online gaming and entertainment empire Bodog headed back into court last week to appeal against the default judgement imposed on them by a Nevada court last month.

A company called 1st Technology caught Bodog by surprise last month by claiming the downloadable casino software used by Bodog Casino was in breach of a patent held by 1st Tech. Bodog claims they were not served with notice of the proceedings and didn't appear at the hearing, resulting in the judge handing down a default judgement ordering the US-based domain name registrar to remove all Bodog-related websites from their servers and fining Bodog $49 million.

Calvin Ayre (Bodog's CEO) stated, "In addition to the inevitable appeal we are also intending to open up new legal fronts to ensure that this important issue is given proper judicial review in the US. This is the first time in history that a non-US company, with zero operations or assets in the US, has had its domain names seized with no prior notice simply because it was using a US-based domain-name registrar. We do not believe that domain names should be allowed to be defined as assets to be seized for purposes of collecting on a judgment."

A Nevada jury ordered Wyeth (WYE.N) to pay a total of $134.5 million in compensatory damages to three women who blamed their breast cancer on the drugmaker's hormone replacement medicines.

Damn! There goes the price on pharmaceuticals again just before I got to a doctor for a prescription so I can be like Green Valley Zoners, drifting around without a care in the world.

It appears the highest court in the country should be quite tame after abortion, race, and campaign finance issues caused liberal Justices to wave their pens in frustration last session.

This session of the U.S. Supreme Court will include the legal rights of Guantanamo detainees, the constitutionality of lethal injections for executions, photo identification cards for voters, and investors' trying to find accountability in cases of fraud.

The court also could add a Second Amendment case from Washington, D.C., that would test limits on the right to own guns.

Steve Miller, ever tenacious in discovering the relationships of the few, the rich, and the shady in Las Vegas is reporting in a new article that in 2005, immediately following Rick and Lisa Rizzolo's divorce and three weeks after Rizzolo began negotiating his plea agreement with Federal prosecutors, the couple visited the law firm of Lionel Sawyer and Collins in Las Vegas, a law firm closely associated with United States Senator Harry Reid, whose son Rory works there. Steve writes that they met with attorney John E. Dawson, the brother of U.S. Federal Court Judge Kent Dawson, to protect assets in various ways including transfers of property and creation of a trust.
....
After setting up the separate trust, the Rizzolo's hired John E. Dawson as the Resident Agent for the Crazy Horse Too's parent corporation, "THE POWER COMPANY, INC."
....
Steve writes that it appears "Judge Dawson went real easy on 16 former Crazy Horse goons after they pleaded guilty to crimes including racketeering, tax evasion, robbery, and extortion; this after U.S. Federal Prosecutors asked for harsh sentences; and after a member of the New York Crime Commission testified about several of the defendant's mob ties."

"Would Judge Dawson have been so lenient with the Crazy Horse goons if his brother had not gained lucrative clients like Rick and Lisa Rizzolo? Or had he not been appointed a Federal Judge by the business partner of one of the Crazy Horse Too's attorneys?"

As Steve points out, Judge Dawson sentenced Crazy Horse shift manager Vinny Faraci, a reputed Bonanno crime family soldier who had a prior felony conviction, to only five months in an Arizona Federal Prison Camp.

Steve notes that not once during the trials did Judge Dawson disclose that his brother John was the Crazy Horse Too's corporate Resident Agent, or that his brother arranged to hide the Rizzolo's assets from forfeiture, or that he was appointed to the Federal Bench by Senator Reid who is the business partner of Jay Brown who is the law partner of Oscar Goodman who was once Rizzolo's criminal defense attorney and former corporate Resident Agent!

Cause if he did, that would be ethical behavior and I think that such behavior has been outlawed in Nevada. This is the place--possibly Hell--where graft and corruption have to be listed on your resume to get ahead, and where Las Vegas Mayor Goodman recently offered to beat Columnist Bob Herbert of the New York Times over the head with a baseball bat because--gasp--that reporter dared to report in "City as Predator" that Las Vegas and Nevada exploit women through prostitution and human trafficking. Can we beat over the head--with a rolled up Sunday paper--the next person to suggest that Oscar should run for governor or U.S. Congress. Please, haven't we had enough embarassment from our elected officials in this state

President Bush on Sunday signed into law an expansion of the government's power to eavesdrop on foreign terror suspects without the need for warrants.

The law, approved by the Senate and the House just before Congress adjourned for its summer break, was deemed a priority by Bush and his chief intelligence officials.

Bush signed the bill into law on Sunday afternoon at his retreat at Camp David, Md.

For more go to Bush Signs Bill Expanding Terror Surveillance Powers.

The Final Interim Suspension Order has been issued and filed July 25, 2007 by the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline in the matter involving Judge Elizabeth Halverson. The District Court has requested a Senior Judge from the Administrative Office of the Courts and it is expected the Supreme Court will assign a Senior Judge to fill in for Halverson beginning Monday (July 30).

Only legalese scholars could come up with a "final" "interim" "suspension" and I use the term scholars in only the sincerest and strictest sense of sarcasm and scholarly suspension of disbelief.

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected school assignment plans that take account of students' race in two major public school districts in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle, WA.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote a concurring opinion in which he said race may be a component of school district plans designed to achieve diversity.

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and the other Democratic presidential contenders, in a debate at Howard University in Washington, took the opportunity to slam the above Supreme Court decision barring the use of race in assigning students to public schools

Hoping for the black vote (especially interesting between Clinton and Obama, who both appear popular to black voters) the candidates spoke of racism, made promises to raise the poor off the floor and to do more for Africa. But did any of the candidates discuss antitrust laws which have been gutted allowing mega-corporations to form which limit competition and allow those corporations to dictate to the American people what services they can receive? And have Democrats done anything in the last 50 years which have actually raised the standard of living for the bottom 40 percent of the population or have they just kept promising--remember that for most of the last 50 years we have had Democrats in power in Congress and 20 years of Democrats in the presidency. Me thinks the Democrats smell just like Republicans; it's just the words are different.

The Supreme Court also abandoned a 96-year-old ban on manufacturers and retailers setting price floors for products, where in 1911 the Supreme Court found that price floors violated antitrust laws.

In a 5-4 decision, the court said that agreements on minimum prices are legal if they promote competition.

The ruling means that accusations of minimum pricing pacts will have to be evaluated on a case by case basis.

I suppose, intellectually, that Wal-Mart could set a minimum price floor with some "Mom & Pop" stores so that Wal-Mart wouldn't undersell and drive the little stores out of business, but I haven't seen an example yet; more common is the activity of an Archer Daniels Midland which was found to be price fixing and agreed to pay $100 million in fines. This latest Supreme Court ruling seems like a good way to allow those corporations, which have our best interests in mind, to agree to raise that minimum price to a level where they make enormous profit, make stockholders happy, and allow corporate officers to make obscene amounts of money. Just for fun let's look at some of those salaries.

Executive Title Company Total Compensation Salary
Thomas J. Fitzpatrick CEO Sallie Mae $39,629,325 $682,500

Richard D. Fairbank Chairman, President,CEO Capital One Financial Corp.$31,604,431 $0

Martine A. Rothblatt Chairman and CEO United Therapeutics Corp. $31,104,933 $660,000
Gary D. Forsee President and CEO Sprint Nextel Corp. $29,980,973 $1,252,875
Nicholas D. Chabraja Chairman, CEO General Dynamics Corp. $17,683,972 $1,300,000
Len J. Lauer COO Sprint Nextel Corp. $16,360,481 $934,062

Robert J. Stevens--Chairman, President. CEO Lockheed Martin Corp. $15,687,137 $1,248,750
Bryce Blair Chairman and CEO AvalonBay Communities Inc. $15,611,876 $716,827
Dwight C. Schar Chairman NVR Inc. $15,598,383 $2,000,000

Richard F. Syron Chairman and CEO Freddie Mac $15,554,809 $1,100,000

Gov. Jim Gibbons signed a bill on Thursday making Nevada one of at least a dozen states to enact laws against fake groups promoting themselves as famed musicians.

"Nevada is the entertainment capital of the world, so this was one of our major goals," said Sonny Turner of the Platters.

Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Illinois are among the states with similar legislation.

I am all for protecting artists and the public from fake groups but I was really hoping to see movement on education, transportation, water, corruption, ethics reform, and a ban on Elvis impersonators, especially those over 70 with chicken necks.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that nearly half the U.S. attorneys slated for removal by the administration last year were identified by Rove or other administration officials as working in districts that were trouble spots for voter fraud -- Kansas City, Mo.; Milwaukee; New Mexico; Nevada; and Washington state. Four of the five prosecutors in those districts were dismissed.

Senior counselor Matthew Friedrich, turned over notes to Congress that detailed a telephone conversation about voter fraud with another Justice official, Benton Campbell, chief of staff for the Criminal Division.

The notes show that Campbell identified Nevada as a problem district. Daniel G. Bogden of Las Vegas was among the nine U.S. attorneys known to have been removed from their jobs last year.

Rick Hasen, a professor at Loyola Law School who runs an election law blog, said that "there's no question that Karl Rove and other political operatives" urged Justice officials to apply pressure on U.S. attorneys to pursue voter-fraud allegations in parts of the country that were critical to the GOP.

Hasen said it remains unclear, however, "whether they believed there was a lot of fraud and U.S. attorneys would ferret it out, or whether they believed there wasn't a lot of fraud but the allegations would serve political purposes."

The behind-the-scenes maneuvering to replace U.S. attorneys viewed as weak on voter fraud, from state Republican parties to the White House, is one element of a nationwide partisan brawl over voting rights in recent years. Ever since the contested 2000 presidential election, which ended in a Florida recount and intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court, both political parties have attempted to use election law to tip close contests to their advantage.

Possible voter fraud in Nevada. I can't believe it. It's not like we live in a state where Clark County commissioners would give key employer status to Vinnie Faraci who is going to prison later this year--after several commissioners received jail sentences for taking bribes over another strip club incident; or the Las Vegas city council or its mayor, Oscar Goodman, would continue to support mob run businesses, such as Crazy Horse Too; or judges would sit on cases involving business partners; or Governor Gibbons would be under investigation for possibly taking favors, including an alleged $100,000, to award contracts to a friend while Gibbons was in Congress. I mean...I would just be shocked!

INSIDE VEGAS by Steve Miller
AmericanMafia.com
April 30, 2007

Miller reports in Inside Vegas on the latest shenanigans committed by our elected official where Vinny Faraci, Federal Inmate Number 18408-053, was quietly given the County's blessing to operate a Vegas topless bar after he gets out of prison. This comes on the "heels" of Las Vegas City Council's decision to grant a license to Mike Signorelli for the "Crazy Horse Too."

Faraci and his attorney, David Chesnoff, now hope Metro P.D. will recommend he get the coveted license before he starts his five month sentence on July 1st.

The son of reputed Bonanno crime family captain "Johnny Green" Faraci of New York, the younger Faraci worked with Rick Rizzolo, Federal Inmate Number 41390-048, at the Crazy Horse Too as a shift manager during the years patrons were beaten or killed for not signing inflated credit card tabs. He has a felony mail fraud conviction on his record; and was recently convicted of his second felony - tax evasion. Faraci was also part of the Crazy Horse Too management team that last summer pleaded guilty to racketeering.

According to Miller, that didn't faze the County Liquor and Gaming Licensing Board. Faraci's attorney, Mayor Oscar Goodman's law partner Chesnoff, didn't even have to speak at the 30 second long hearing. (Goodman's other law partner Jay Brown represents the Crazy Horse.)

After his release from Taft Federal Prison Camp in December, Faraci plans to become the general manager of a topless bar named "EDEN" located on Valley View Blvd. Miller believes if he's granted the license, he will be the first club executive to ever go to work wearing a prisoner's ankle bracelet.

Miller also writes that a source claims Faraci is really hoping to get a key employee license at Pure in Caesars Palace with help from the City Council, County Commission, and local courts because he and Rizzolo provide girls for private parties with casino executives, and drugs and "security" for the exclusive clubs frequented by TV and movie stars. In return, the politicians tap the casinos for campaign contributions.

If I were to write this stuff as a screenplay or novel, I would probably be told it's just a bit too over the top to be believed. Welcome to business as usual in southern Nevada. After the rash of recent scandals--which never seem to be "discovered" by Metro's corruption unit--one would think that our politicians would try to employ some standards for a few months, but apparently I am simply gullible to think they have enough sense to even pretend honesty for awhile.

Reported on IBLS INTERNET LAW - NEWS PORTAL, the plaintiff, Frank Snowney, a California resident, reserved a room by telephone from his California residence. He was told that the room would cost $ 50 per night plus the room tax. However, at the time of payment of the bill, he paid a $ 3 energy surcharge.

Subsequently, the plaintiff filed class action against defendants in Superior Court of Los Angeles County alleging that defendants charged him and other guests more than the advertised or quoted price. He alleged causes of action for: (1) fraudulent and deceptive business practices in violation of Business and Professions Code; (2) breach of contract; (3) unjust enrichment; and (4) violations of Business and Professions Code section 17500 et seq.
Defendants filed a motion to quash the summons for lack of personal jurisdiction, arguing that they were incorporated and maintained their principal place of business in Nevada.

The Superior Court of Los Angeles County granted the defendants" motion, holding that the defendants did not have sufficient contacts with the State of California to warrant the exercise of personal jurisdiction. The Court of Appeal, Second District, Division Three, reversed this finding, and stated that the defendants had sufficient contacts with California to justify the exercise of specific jurisdiction. The California Supreme Court affirmed the Appeals Court ruling and concluded that the defendants' Website and other promotional activities conducted in California established sufficient contacts with the State necessary to warrant the exercise of jurisdiction.

Plaintiff submitted evidence that the defendants: (1) advertised extensively to California residents through billboards in California, newspapers, and radio and television stations; (2) maintained an interactive Web site that accepted reservations from California residents; (3) provided driving directions to their hotels from California; (4) and touted the proximity of their hotels to California; and (5) accepted reservations from California residents through their Internet Web site and a toll-free phone number listed on the site and in their advertisements.

Examining the defendants' Internet contacts with California residents, the California Supreme Court noted that the defendants' Web site, which quoted room rates to visitors and permitted visitors to make reservations at their hotels, was interactive and, at a minimum, fell within the aegis of the Zippo sliding scale. (Zippo Mfg. Co. v. Zippo Dot Com, Inc. (W.D.Pa. 1997) 952 F. Supp. 1119)

So, I wonder if he will get his three dollars back. It looks like businesses who advertise on the Internet are liable to be subject to court jurisdiction in any state where their advertisements reach...I wonder what the international ramifications might be. Maybe get sued in China, Zimbabwe....Who knows?

According to a Las Vegas Review Journal story Gibbon's office reported it has filed with the Nevada Secretary of State office a list of the contributions to and expenditures from a legal defense fund formed to deal with three scandals prior to the November election, including a pesky case of alleged bribery by software entrepeneur Trepp, currently being investigated by the FBI. Of the $204,000 taken in, $193,000 has already been spent, for the most part on the Gibbon's/Mazzeo alleged parking garage encounter.

The 2006 donors include a number of doctors and medical companies, including Las Vegas-based Nevada Heart and Vascular Center, giving $10,000; its managing partner, William Resh, who gave $5,000; and three of its physicians, Drs. Robert Berkley, Cres Miranda Jr. and Nicholas Tselikis, each giving $5,000.

Nevada Heart and Vascular Center was the beneficiary of a $ five million a year cardiology contract with mismanaged University Medical Center, formerly run by Lacy Thomas, who manged to let a $ one million a year contract with Heart Center of Nevada to expire. Recently stepped down Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates voted for the new contract without disclosing that her company, Built By Yvonne, was bidding at the same time to build a custom home for Dr. Raj Chanderraj, one of Nevada Heart and Vascular's partners. Her vote was one of the four required to award the contract.

Atkinson Gates claims she did not know Chanderraj was a partner with Nevada Heart and Vascular - even though she met to discuss the contract with him and Dr. William Resh, managing partner of the group. She says she does not recall the meeting. She has also stated that at least she is not going to jail in reference to former Clark County Commissioners, Dario Herrara, Lance Malone, and others caught in G-Sting. There's still time, Yvonne.

Three entities managed by developer Harvey Whittemore each gave $10,000 to the Gibbon's fund for a total of $30,000. Shawn Lampman and his company, CAK LLP, each gave $10,000 for a total of $20,000.

Other notables on the donor list include Jay H. Brown, attorney and former lobbyist who was involved in land deals with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. and is now a player in the Crazy Horse Too deal, and the Rogich Communications Group, the public relations company belonging to Republican consultant Sig Rogich, a political and public relations consultant who advised ex-President Reagan and the first President Bush, and who needed his own image polished in April 2000 after the Las Vegas City Council ignored the advice of its own lawyer and voted to approve a controversial liquor permit for a property Rogich owned. With the liquor license, Rogich’s property was worth $3.5 million because it could be used as a topless bar; without the license it was worth perhaps $2 million. Rogich just happened to be a consultant to several of the council members who tossed the topless-bar premium his way, and more recently was with Governor Gibbons on the night he went into the parking garage with 'that woman."

Always the same games, always the same players, always the same results.

As with almost everything which involves government officials--at all levels--our legal system, our education system, people as a whole, I am always hopeful that something sensible will surface but I am still waiting. I have to admit that in the Scooter Libby matter, I have basically ignored the news stories--as most people probably have--but there is one issue that did catch my attention; federal prosecutors indicted and gained a conviction which could get Scooter 25 years in jail--and with a name like Scooter it better be country club jail--while during the four year investigation and prosecution for leaking the name of Valerie Plame as a CIA operative, to which all accounts seemed to have been less than a secret, I have not noticed prosecutors pursuing the man who actually was the source for the news stories, Richard Armitage. So, Scooter, who did not leak but apparently wasn't honest about what he did know and when, should get jail time and Richard who was the source of the leak gets...? So much for Truth, Justice, and the American Way, Mr. Kent.

For a bunch of stories on Libby's conviction go to Full Coverage: CIA Leak Case

The Raw Story and Prison Planet (by way of AFP) have new updates on the case of Lebanese-born German Khalid el-Masri who was a victim of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program, where the judge has thrown out the case at the behest of his Federal masters citing "national security."

Steve Miller reports that former strip club owner Rick Rizzolo has less than three months remaining until he must turn himself in at Taft Federal Correctional Facility where he will be joined at Taft for five months of his twelve month sentence by his associate Vinny Faraci who got off with a slap on the wrist. Faraci's excuse for a lighter sentence was that he would lose custody of his child; however his ex-wife is now married to Rizzolo's lawyer Tony Sgro, who is the child's step father. Steve notes that the judge in Faraci's case, Kent Dawson, was appointed by Nevada's U.S. Senator Harry Reid, who is a business partner of attorney Jay Brown, Brown works in the same 520 South Fourth Street law office as Faraci's lawyer David Chesnoff. Brown also served with Oscar Goodman as a resident agent for Rizzolo's corporation, and is now representing Mike Signorelli, who claims to be buying the Crazy Horse Too.

Steve writes, "Anywhere else in America, this would be called a conflict of interest. In Vegas, it's business as usual."

If that one is a conflict of interest, Steve, you might want to take a look at this one:

An interesting twist occurred last December, 2006 in a Clark County District Court on the way to closing the deal made for the Sapphire Gentleman's Club. While tables were full of attorneys representing the various parties waiting to sign papers, a Mr. B