Thursday, June 15, 2000
Joseph Leonard Neufeld
general delivery
Mission Rafael Station
San Rafael, California state
non-domestic, no ZIP Code
Representative Lynn Woolsey
439 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Please introduce the following legislation into the congressional hopper
so that the people of our nation can maintain some semblence of control
of their judicial branch. If you read the proposed legislation
carefully, you'll see that it doesn't threaten the independence of the
judiciary, nor does it strip the individual judges of their immunity,
but rather holds them accountable for their criminal acts committed from
the bench.
Sincerely,
Joseph Leonard Neufeld
cc:
Senator Dianne Feinstein
Senator Babara Boxer
(As amended 6/5/2000)
- Preamble. The House of
Representatives finds: that an inordinate and ever-growing number of
complaints for willful misconduct have been lodged with Congress involving
federal judges across this nation; that the current Title 28 U.S.C.
§372(c) (Judicial Misconduct and Disability Act) is in many cases
inadequate due to conflicts of interest of judges judging themselves; that
judicial integrity is of major importance which affects all areas of our
American society. Be it therefore resolved that the House of
Representatives assembled hereby enacts the following legislation which shall
be known as the "Judicial Accountability and Integrity
Legislation."
- Definitions. For
purposes of this statute:
1.
The term "blocking" shall mean any act that impedes
the lawful conclusion of a case, to include unreasonable delay and willful
rendering of a void judgment or order.
- The term "federal
judge" or "judge" shall mean any federal justice, judge,
magistrate, commissioner, or any person shielded by judicial immunity.
- The term
"Juror" shall mean a Special Federal Grand Juror.
- The term
"strike" shall mean an adverse immunity decision based upon bad
behavior as set forth by paragraph (c), or a criminal conviction as set
forth in paragraph (r).
Where appropriate, the singular shall include the
plural, and the plural the singular.
- Immunity. Notwithstanding
common law or any other provision to the contrary, no immunities shall be
extended to any federal judge except as is specifically set forth in this
statute. Preserving the purpose of protecting judges from frivolous and
harassing actions, no immunity shielding a federal judge shall be
construed to extend to any deliberate violation of law, fraud or
conspiracy, intentional violation of due process of law, deliberate
disregard of material facts, judicial acts without jurisdiction, blocking
of a lawful conclusion of a case, or any deliberate violation of the
Constitution of these United States, all violations of which shall
constitute bad behavior.
- Special Federal Grand
Jury. There is hereby created within the District of Columbia a
twenty-five member Special Federal Grand Jury with full federal
geographical jurisdiction having power to judge on both law and fact.
Their responsibility shall be limited to determining, on an objective
standard, whether a civil suit against a federal judge would be frivolous
and harassing, or fall within the exclusions of immunity as set forth
herein, and whether there is probable cause of criminal conduct by the
federal judge complained of.
- Professional Counsel.
The Special Federal Grand Jury shall have exclusive power to retain
non-governmental advisors, special prosecutors, and investigators, as
needed, who shall serve no longer than two years, after which term said
officers shall be ineligible. However, with permission of the Special
Federal Grand Jury, a special prosecutor may prosecute their current cases
through all appeals and any applicable complaints to the Special Federal
Grand Jury.
- Establishment of a Special
Federal Grand Jury Seat. A Special Federal Grand Jury seat is hereby
created, which seat shall be located in excess of one mile of any federal
judicial body.
- Annual Funding.
Congress hereby deducts two and nine-tenths percent from the gross
judicial salaries of all federal judges, which amount shall be deposited
regularly into the exclusive trust account created by this statute in
paragraph (k) for its operational expenses, together with filing fees
under paragraph (h), surcharges under paragraph (i), and fines imposed
under paragraph (r).
- Filing Fees. Attorneys
representing a client filing a civil complaint or answer before the
Special Federal Grand Jury, shall at the time of filing pay a fee equal to
the filing fee due in a civil appeal to the United States Supreme Court.
Individuals filing a civil complaint or answer before the Special Federal
Grand Jury in their own behalf as a matter of right, shall, at the time of
filing, post a fee of one hundred dollars, or file a declaration, which
shall remain confidential, stating they are impoverished and unable to pay
and/or object to such fee.
- Surcharges. Should
this statute lack sufficient funding through its fines, fees, and
forfeitures (including deductions in paragraph (g)), Congress may impose
appropriate surcharges upon the civil court filing fees of corporate
litigants as necessary to make this statute self-supporting, or they may
appropriate any and all the necessary funds for the full implementation of
this statute by legislation, notwithstanding the two and one-half percent
deduction of the salaries of federal judges.
- Compensation of Jurors.
Each Juror shall receive a salary commensurate to fifty percent of a
federal district judge prorated according to the number of days actually
served.
- Annual Budget. The
Special Federal Grand Jury shall have an annual operational budget
commensurate to twenty times the combined salaries of the twenty-five
Jurors serving full time, which sum shall be initially deposited by
Congress into an exclusive trust account to be annually administered by
the Controller. Should the trust balance, within any budget year, drop to
less than an amount equivalent to the annual gross salaries of fifty
federal district judges, the Controller shall so notify Congress which
shall replenish the account, prorated based on the actual average
expenditures during the budget year. Should the trust balance in any
subsequent year exceed the annual operational budget at the beginning of a
new budget year, the Controller shall return such excess to the United
States Treasury.
- Jurisdiction. The Special
Federal Grand Jury shall have exclusive power to establish rules assuring
their attendance, to provide internal discipline, and to remove any of its
members on grounds of misconduct. The Special Federal Grand Jury shall
immediately assign a docket number to each complaint brought before it.
Except as provided in paragraph (s), no complaint of judicial misconduct
shall be considered by the Special Federal Grand Jury unless the
complainant shall have first attempted to exhaust all judicial remedies available
in the federal courts within the immediately preceding six-month period.
Such six-month period, however, shall not commence in complaints of prior
fraud or blocking of a lawful conclusion until after the date the Special
Federal Grand Jury becomes functional. This provision is intended to apply
remedially and retroactively.
- Qualifications of Jurors.
A Juror shall have attained to the age of thirty years, and have been nine
years a citizen of the United States, and an inhabitant of Washington,
D.C. Those not eligible for Special Federal Grand Jury service shall
include elected and appointed officials, members of the Bar, judges
(active or retired), judicial, prosecutorial and law enforcement
personnel, without other exclusion except previous adjudication of mental
incapacity, imprisonment, or parole from a conviction of a felonious crime
against persons.
- Selection of Jurors.
The Jurors shall serve without compulsion and shall be drawn by public lot
by the Secretary of State from names on the voters rolls and any citizen
submitting his/her name to the Secretary of State for such drawing.
- Service of Jurors.
Excluding the establishment of the initial Special Federal Grand Jury,
each Juror shall serve one year. No Juror shall serve more than once. On
the first day of each month, two persons shall be rotated off the Special
Federal Grand Jury and new Citizens seated, except in January it shall be
three. Vacancies shall be filled on the first of the following month in
addition to the Jurors regularly rotated, and the Juror chosen to fill a
vacancy shall complete only the remainder of the term of the Juror
replaced. A majority of thirteen shall determine any matter. Special
Federal Grand Jury files shall always remain public record following their
final determination.
- Procedures. The
Special Federal Grand Jury shall serve a copy of the filed complaint upon
the subject judge and notice to the complainant of such service. The judge
shall have thirty days to serve and file an answer. The complainant shall
have twenty days to reply to the judge's answer. (Upon timely request, the
Special Federal Grand Jury may provide for extensions for good cause.) The
Special Federal Grand Jury shall have power to subpoena witnesses,
documents, and other tangible evidence, and to examine witnesses under
oath. The Special Federal Grand Jury shall determine the causes properly
before it with their reasoned findings in writing within one hundred
twenty (120) calendar days, serving on all parties their decision on
whether immunity shall be barred as a defense to any civil action that may
thereafter be pursued against the federal judge. A rehearing may be
requested of the Special Federal Grand Jury within twenty days with
service upon the opposition. Twenty days shall be allowed to reply
thereto. Thereafter, the Special Federal Grand Jury shall render final
determination within thirty days. All allegations of the complaint shall
be liberally construed in favor of the complainant. The Jurors shall keep
in mind, in making their decisions, that they are entrusted by the people
of these United States with the duty of restoring a perception of justice
and accountability of the federal judiciary, and are not to be swayed by
artful presentation by the federal judge. They shall avoid all influence
by judicial and government entities. The statute of limitations on any
civil suit brought pursuant to this statute against a federal judge shall
not commence until the rendering of a final decision by the Special
Federal Grand Jury.
- Removal. Whenever any
federal judge shall have received more than three strikes, the federal
judge shall automatically be brought up on charges before Congress for
Articles of Impeachment by the Special Federal Grand Jury through its
special prosecutor for bad behavior and willful misconduct. Congress
thereafter shall commence to a vote on such Articles of Impeachment. Upon
a conviction, the federal judge shall be permanently removed from office.
He may also be held liable under any other appropriate criminal or civil
proceeding.
- Indictment. Should the
Special Federal Grand Jury also find probable cause of criminal conduct on
the part of any federal judge against whom a complaint is docketed, it
shall have the power to indict such federal judge except where double
jeopardy attaches. The Special Federal Grand Jury shall, without voir dire
beyond personal relationship, cause to be impaneled special trial jurors,
plus alternates, which trial jurors shall be instructed that they have
power to judge both law and fact. The Special Federal Grand Jury shall
also select a non-governmental special prosecutor and a federal judge with
no more than four years on the bench from a state other than that of the
defendant judge, (or outside of the District of Columbia, if the case so
be). The trial jury shall be selected from the same pool of jury
candidates as any regular federal jury. The special prosecutor shall
thereafter prosecute the cause to a conclusion, having all the powers of
any other prosecutor within these United States. Upon conviction, the
special trial jury shall have exclusive power of sentencing (limited to
incarceration, fines and/or community service), which shall be derived by
an average of the sentences of the trial jurors.
- Criminal Procedures.
In addition to any other provisions of this statute, a complaint for
criminal conduct of a federal judge may be brought directly to the Special
Federal Grand Jury upon all the following prerequisites: (1) an affidavit
of criminal conduct has been lodged with the appropriate prosecutorial
entity within ninety (90) days of the commission of the alleged conduct;
(2) the prosecutor declines to prosecute, or one hundred twenty (120) days
has passed following the lodging of such affidavit and prosecution has not
commenced; (3) an indictment, if sought, has not been specifically
declined on the merits by a Grand Jury; and (4) the criminal statute of
limitations has not run. Any criminal conviction (including a plea
bargain) under any judicial process shall constitute a strike.
- Public Indemnification.
No federal judge complained of, or sued civilly by a complainant pursuant
to this statute shall be defended at public expense or by any elected or
appointed public counsel, nor shall any federal judge be reimbursed from
public funds for any losses sustained under this statute.
- Redress. The
provisions of this statute are in addition to other redress that may exist
and are not mutually exclusive.
- Preeminence.
Preeminence shall be given to this statute in any case of conflicts with
any other federal statutes, case law, or common law to the contrary. The
foreperson of the Special Federal Grand Jury shall read, or cause to be
read, this statute to the respective Jurors semi-annually during the first
week of business in January and July.
Proposed Bill written for Congress by:
Ronald
Branson
11024 Balboa, Suite #214
Granada Hills, CA 91344
Ronald Branson is a three-time publicly elected Representative of the office
of the Republican Central Committee for the County of Los Angeles. He currently
represents the 38th Assembly District.
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