51st Circuit Court or Area 51? Unexplained Phenomena in Judge Richard Cooper's Court

[XLFD]

Area 51 is a part of Edwards Air Force Base whose secretive nature and undoubted connection to classified aircraft research, together with reports of unusual phenomena, have led it to become a focus of modern UFO and conspiracy theories. Some of the activities mentioned in such theories at Area 51 include:

The storage, examination, and reverse engineering of crashed alien spacecraft (including material supposedly recovered at Roswell), the study of their occupants (living and dead), and the manufacture of aircraft based on alien technology.
Meetings or joint undertakings with extraterrestrials.
The development of exotic energy weapons for the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) or other weapons programs.
The development of means of weather control.
The development of time travel and teleportation technology.
The development of unusual and exotic propulsion systems related to the Aurora Program.
Activities related to a supposed shadowy one world government or the Majestic 12 organization

 

The Circuit Courts of Michigan also have an area 51, located within Mason and Lake Counties.  Strange things have been reported happening there of recent note under the direction of its leader Judge Richard I. Cooper. 

 

The recently finished "Baby Kate" trial which found Sean Phillips guilty of "secret confinement", a potential 15 year felony, is the first such event going back in reverse chronological order.  This was covered well by the media, and a review of the case shows what many would consider a permissive attitude by the judge for the prosecution, a dismissive attitude for the defense, and a broadening of the meaning of the law in the court's directions to the jury, likely making the jurors return a guilty verdict with more of a clear conscience.  The appearance of such bias has already opened avenues of appeal for the defense.  "(Phillips' Attorney) Smedley said appeal issues include the judge's instructions to the jury; his allowing Prosecutor Paul Spaniola to introduce a last-minute "surprise" witness; and a Sixth Amendment issue -- regarding attorney-client privilege -- over introduction of a jailhouse note found in a shirt pocket of Phillips' jail fatigues July 11." Muskegon News 4-27-12. 

 

The other high profile case recently decided was finding in favor of Consumer's Energy in a lawsuit initiated by CARRE, a group of Mason County individuals united to address the safety, legal and health concerns of the proposed wind farm in Riverton and Summit Townships.  In Judge Cooper's decision, he totally dismissed the concerns of the citizen's group.  Not covered in any of the other media outlets was the fact that Consumer's Energy was represented by his son's law firm, and that they made a tiny profit from representing the Energy juggernaut.  CARRE members have presented their case here at the Torch, and it deserves a better, and more expeditious, judicial review than this was. 

 

Then there was a minor circus atmosphere created by the PPO took out on April Reynolds by Baby Kate Mother, Ariel Courtland.  There was plenty of evidence showing that Ariel had lied repeatedly on her sworn PPO affidavit about Ms. Reynolds, but as the confirmed lies Ariel told in the Baby Kate trial, her lies here were overlooked by Judge Cooper as meaningless details in the finding of facts supporting his original supposition of guilt.  This is currently under further review by the Torch.

 

Lastly, I had two FOIA appeals in front of Judge Cooper.  One involved the lack of a response from the Prosecutor's office to a request, and although this turned out favorable for myself in February 2012, and the Judge effectively admonished Paul Spaniola for the better part of an hour, the Chief Jurist of the 51st Circuit Court failed to admit his own ethical failings; that would come to light at the other FOIA case, where I was co-plaintiff with another with an appeal of the City of Ludington denying us public records.  This was brought to light in The Appearance of Impropriety, pt.1 and pt.2 at the Torch. 

 

But whereas the Ludington Torch is an avenue for raising the awareness of such issues in our area, we would be remiss in not doing our civic duty in trying to correct some of the problems we turn up.  In such manner, we contacted the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission, a committee of retired jurists whose duty is to review the activities of judges to make sure they are doing their jobs properly.  We hope to get Judge Cooper back on the right track.  Here is our complaint against Judge Cooper that was submitted to the JTC at the beginning of last week.  The links are provided to various documents, some of which were provided in the complaint.

 

Remember, if you enter Michigan Circuit Court, area 51, and something inexplicable happens to you, you do have recourse, and the precedent of bizarre behavior from high up is growing in documentation.  If you are looking for alien autopsies, this isn't the place, but if you are looking for justice miscarriages, you're in the right area.

 

  (Attached Sheet)              ALLEGATION OF MISCONDUCT: JUDGE RICHARD I. COOPER

 

We, TOM ROTTA and TONI SWIGER, two individuals, filed a civil action: 11-415-CZ in the 51st Circuit Court last year as co-plaintiffs in a FOIA appeal against the City of Ludington, DEFENDANT, and was assigned Hon. Judge COOPER, the judge for that court. On or before November 8, 2011, the DEFENDANT chose the lawfirm of Gockerman, Wilson, Saylor and Hesslin (GWSH) (their 'City Attorney') as their counsel and they contacted the court to come forth and apprise them of that fact, this is presented as Exhibit 1 . Shortly thereafter, PLAINTIFFS received a letter from Judge COOPER describing what the court's intentions were, this is presented as Exhibit 2.

Other than a notice from court administration for a court date to determine summary judgments that both parties asked for, this is the only communication received by PLAINTIFFS from the 51st Circuit Court or Judge COOPER. On the date the summary judgment was to be determined, March 7, 2012, Judge COOPER made it known that an "appearance of impropriety" existed, in that he was the father of one of the DEFENDANT'S attorneys.

On EXHIBIT 1, you will notice the last associate of DEFENDANT's attorney is Craig R. Cooper, and that he came forth on the case on November 8, 2011 according to the author of that document, Richard Wilson. Effectively, 121 days had elapsed between the time that Judge COOPER's son came forth to represent the DEFENDANT, and Judge COOPER's acknowledgment of that fact.

Judge COOPER was well aware of this relationship between himself and the DEFENDANT's attorney. He had been the presiding judge of another case that involved the GWSH lawfirm that started around the same time between a group called CARRE and CONSUMER's ENERGY, where that firm represented the defendant. The judge allegedly had immediately disclosed the relationship he had with his son on the GWSH lawfirm to the attorneys representing the plaintiffs. Yet though we filed motions and regularly met in person with the 51st Circuit to drop off briefs and discovery copies, this relationship was kept secret for the over four months.

Though we asked repeatedly for expediency throughout for our time-sensitive FOIA request, it was never addressed by the court. A short list of actions that occurred that may have been fostered by the improper relationship between the judge and the judge's son's law firm include these actions by the law firm: unprofessional badgering of plaintiffs by defendants for depositions without purpose and in violation of court rules, filing a Show Cause Motion [p.2] and order against plaintiff ROTTA for contempt of court for engaging in the unauthorized practice of law for advising plaintiff SWIGER to not attend a deposition when the plaintiffs had an active Motion to Quash deposition filed with the court, filing a Motion to Compel Discovery [p.2] on plaintiff SWIGER for not being deposed, Motions to Compel Discovery and Sanctions against both ROTTA [p. 2] and SWIGER [p. 2] for lawfully objecting to some interrogatories, filing a MOTION TO STRIKE/OBJECTION TO DISCOVERY AND REQUEST FOR SANCTIONS [p. 2] avoiding discovery by the plaintiffs and attempting to sanction them for process delivering to them via the Ludington City Attorney's office at 400 S Harrison. The court did nothing for those 121 days, either way. We hope to have the involved attorneys' conduct reviewed by the Attorney Grievance Commission as well.

We humbly claim that Judge COOPER has therefore violated some of the Canons of the Code of Judicial Conduct in his behavior as regards our case.

We claim that Canon 3C, "A judge should raise the issue of disqualification whenever the judge has cause to believe that grounds for disqualification may exist" has been violated in his untimely raising of this appearance of impropriety 121 days after the fact.

We claim that there was impropriety or at least the appearance of impropriety defined in Canon 2C, which says "A judge should not allow family, social, or other relationships to influence judicial conduct or judgment. A judge should not use the prestige of office to advance personal business interests or those of others." The methods used by the DEFENDANT's counsel, the language used by their attorneys in their pressing of their case, were never commented on by the court, even though they went beyond the codes of professional conduct of attorneys as far as we understand those to be, with our limited knowledge. The DEFENDANT's GWSH lawfirm, which includes the judge's son, received many hours of 'special project' remuneration from the DEFENDANT at $185 per hour for their efforts in drafting about 200 pieces of documentation including six motions.

We claim that Canon 1 was violated in that high standards of conduct by the judge and the 51st Circuit Court's administration, were not met. They knew of the relationship between Judge COOPER and Attorney COOPER, and stood mute for 121 days, while not affording us the knowledge of the relationship. The judicial system is for the benefit of the litigant and the public, and the DEFENDANT and Judge COOPER appeared to have forgot that.

To his credit, Hon. Judge COOPER did eventually bring up the appearance of impropriety on his own, and gave us the opportunity to disqualify him, which we decided was best. Yet, since March 7, 2012, when we were told by Judge COOPER that we would be assigned to a new judge, a call to the Court Administrator on March 13, 2012 found that the judge had still not been officially disqualified from our case. We had to read that in the local paper to figure that out.
We wound up filing a Motion for Disqualification on our own on March 22, 2012 with the court and have not heard anything from them in over a month. For a FOIA appeal, which by law should be adjudicated in the most expeditious manner. In our opinion, Judge COOPER and the court administration should be investigated, and sanctioned for their actions in this case.

[Willy]

Excellent work X. I'm impressed with your growing knowledge of the law and court proceedings. One question tho. Why did you not black out your address and phone number  on the application? There are just to many kooks still roaming around out there who may cause you a lot of grief.

[AQUAMAN]

I agree too, here, there, and everyxhere. And don't loox for a positive reply by the AGC either, they stinx. (both doubleu and cay are on the fritz again), sorry.

[XLFD]

That's not a bad idea, and I used to do that.  But since I ran for public office, that info was out there for the kooks, so I have gotten a little less cautious, and more brazen.  Toni's info is still private.

Besides the kooks will have a harder time getting to my front door with the construction on Dowland going on all summer.  The construction workers have done admirably so far, leaving my spring tulips untouched when removing concrete within inches of them.  They also seem to be following the Complete Streets Resolution passed by the City by tearing up bad sidewalks along Dowland, including their 2006-proposed LFD station property which had the worst sidewalk in Ludington. 

[XLFD]

Interview: Baby Kate jury foreman: woodtv.com

 

This interview with the Baby Kate jury foreman shows what influence a simple instruction by the judge may cause to make a jury choose 'guilty' or 'not guilty'.  It also shows what influence the introduction of the note had on the ultimate decision, and other evidence whose relevancy was almost based entirely on certain parts of Ariel's testimony-- even though he freely admits the majority of her testimony was highly questioned by most jury members. 

[Willy]

I think that note was the key. If in fact it was not written by Saun then why didn't the defense challenge it by having it analyzed for authenticity. So it obviously was written by him. As far as I'm concerned that was the key piece of evidence which Sean himself provided.

[XLFD]

Good point on the defense's reaction to the note.  It seems weird that in the seven plus days the prosecution presented the case, the analysis of the note deserved more than a small fraction of a Friday afternoon. 

I myself have a hard time reconciling, if I was in the role of a juror, that I could charge someone with secret confinement based on a note that indicates the baby was given to another person or couple-- yet speculate that the boots and other mainstays and suppositions of the prosecution (indicating a more nefarious route of baby disposition) point to something other than secret confinement.  I'm sure I would have been a holdout, even with Judge Cooper's expansion of the definition.

[XLFD]

Sean Phillips will serve 10-15 years for unlawful imprisonment aka secret confinement.  It's the maximum possible by law and far above the state sentencing guidelines. 

I hope Honorable Judge Richard I. Cooper has similar mercy applied to him when the Judicial Tenure Commission makes its ruling on his problems with the appearance of impropriety he allowed to exist for over four months at the 51st Circuit Court. 

[Estlin Cummings]

I am glad to see that I am not alone in feeling unpleasantly surprised and amazed by the thankfully retired Mr. Cooper.  While admitting that what is happening where I am concerned is 'Parental Alienation" and saying so in open court (no small feat), Judge Cooper inexplicably removed my parenting rights while giving the other party a suspended 30 days to be hung over her head, with no triggering event.  I have been in front of Cooper on numerous occasions as my X continually and wrongfully denies me time with our daughter.  The X has made it clear that she will stop at nothing to deny me time with our child, but rather than enforce the court order, which states that I am to have time with our daughter, Cooper has allowed his own order to be violated without repercussion while my daughter is abused.  

If Cooper has a conscious, than I hope he does not rest easy for the rest of his life, knowing that he has allowed a sociopath to brainwash my child under his watch. I hope that he someday realizes that he could have done something, but chose not to, and so allowed a child to be abused.  Namely, he could have seen that his court order was enforced on multiple occasions, but instead allowed the order to be violated, resulting in me not seeing my daughter in 20 months now, while my daughter is brainwashed. 

Incidentally, the things cited above, as far as "surprise witnesses" is something I have dealt with in his kangaroo court many times as well. He also made mention of 'knowing the step father personally around town", which may have had something to do with his questionable decisions where I am concerned. Also, it seems that Cooper is thorough, ...but thorough about the wrong things.  I've heard it said that, if there is an accident, he'd ask what color the car was.  Very happy to have this do nothing, unaware, unethical judge off the bench.

[XLFD]

Estlin, welcome to the Ludington Torch, and thank you very much for your personal input on the subject of the retiring Judge Cooper.  If you listened to our other local news organizations (the City of Ludington Daily News and the Mason County Pressed), you would think the messiah had just retired and left a grand legacy behind him.

Frankly, I don't see that.  I've used Cooper's 51st Circuit Court and have been singularly unimpressed by the incompetence of the staff and the ethical shortcomings of every component of their being.  If you want someone accused of a crime to get a lot of time, this was the court for you.  If you wanted fairness and justice for all parties, you wouldn't find it in Cooper's court.  If you wanted to hold a public figure or agency accountable for their actions, you would ultimately fail in this court.  Every single time I have witnessed him in action, the bias and lack of judicial rigor by Cooper was always on display. 

This type of judge, however, is exactly what the local governments, police and well-connected people want, which is exactly why you read testimonials from those very people in the gushy articles about Judge Cooper in his retirement.  You will note, however, that 79th District Court Judge Peter Wadel and Probate Court Judge Jeffrey Nellis are quality judges, in my opinion (although, I have not yet seen Hon. Nellis in the courtroom just yet).  In that same opinion, Judge Cooper and Lake County's Circuit Judge Mark Wickens are disgraces to the profession. 

[wildfire]

You know XLFD you should be a lawyer  of a judge, lol with all the stuff you know n everybody learns something new evertyday, so you would make a good canidate. Wildfire

[XLFD]

Thanks for your endorsement, Wildfire; but then who would want to take my old job, LOL.

[wildfire]

I don't know maybe aqua man, lol  or your daughter lol or maybe you could do both jobs, lol