Some time ago, I shared with the Huffington Post community my personal story about my father, a lawyer and outspoken taxpayer advocate. He has been unjustly held in jail under contempt of court for over a year because he questioned the authority of judges being paid illegal bonuses by the County of Los Angeles. The outpouring of sympathy from readers was touching to me and to my family but unfortunately, things have remained status quo since my post in January.
Now, almost 14 months after being forced into jail, my father's case is being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Richard I. Fine vs L.A. County Sheriff Leroy D. Baca will determine whether it is legal for a U.S. citizen to be held in coercive confinement for such a long period of time. On April 23, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear my father's case in conference.
No matter your political leanings, it is easy to see that this case has great repercussions for the future reach of judicial power. I believe no U.S. citizen should have to spend significant time behind bars without a jail sentence being placed upon them. I believe that many of you will agree.
With that being said, I wanted to share with the Huffington Post community the letter I have written to the U.S. Supreme Court to call for the release of my father. I hope that it may motivate you, if this is an issue that is important to you, to write your own letter or to share this story with others so that such injustices don't go undocumented.
Dear Justice Roberts, Justice Ginsberg and U.S. Supreme Court En Banc,
My name is Victoria Fine and I am the daughter of Richard I. Fine, whose fate you will determine in your upcoming conference on April 23, by considering his case Richard I. Fine vs L.A. County Sheriff Leroy D. Baca.
I am writing to you to ask you to release my father from the horror he and my family have endured during the last 13 months of our lives. He has raised me to trust in our country's justice system to uphold freedom, democracy and moral right. I admit that as of today, as my father sits in solitary confinement, I have very little faith left in our American system. But now, as I write to you, I place that faith in your hands to make the decision that will free my father and send him home to my mother and me.
I cannot say I can make a decision better for America than the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. But I can tell you what this decision will mean to my father, to my family and to me.
My father is staunchly moral, aggressively inquisitive and has the most precise intellect of any person I have known. He is a person who sees the right and wrong in black and white but who will always consider the opinions of those who think differently than he does. He is a man who believes no matter how dire your situation, the world will turn to meet you in the middle if you face it squarely. He is a man who, until this last year, was a lawyer and a diplomat and an active citizen in his community.
He is a man who, until this last year, donned a suit and bow tie each day with pride, ready to enter a court to fight for a cause he believed in.
My father has been at every important event in my life until this last year. His time in solitary confinement has made it difficult for him to be the father I have known for the last 24 years. I can't call him when I need advice, or support, or when I need to hear his voice. When I visit him, he is not the man I know, a great man, a proud man. In jail, he is a 70-year-old man with failing heath and the only thing I recognize is his optimistic smile. I have not held his hand for a very long time.
In my father's absence, our family has been fractured. My parents have no livelihood, no home, no future until my father is released and his legal license restored. My mother and I look towards the future and face only a huge and gaping question mark.
Please remember, that as you review my father's case on April 23, you are considering the future of a man, not a policy. You are considering the fate of a father, a husband, a friend and a deeply concerned citizen, who has dedicated his life to upholding the decisions you make in your court.
Thank you in advance for your deep and thoughtful consideration of this case.
Sincerely,
Victoria E. Fine
To mail your own letter, address it to: Hon. John G. Roberts Jr., Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court, One First St. N.E., Washington, DC 20543.
For more information on this case and about Richard Fine, become a fan of Free Richard Fine! on Facebook or visit his website.
Follow Victoria Fine on Twitter: www.twitter.com/vfine
The thing about agreeing to the disbarment does indeed explain part of that, and I understand that Mr.Fine feels he is a man of principle, but the disbarment thing, as I understood it in the past, was linked to having continued to practice law without a license, which itself in turn was suspended because of his multiple "frivolous" lawsuits... Perhaps, in his crusading, this poor man did indeed go too far? Further, is it perhaps a bit premature to paint the story publically as a classic case of right vs. wrong, David against the corrupt, systemic Goliath, when all of such details have clearly not yet come to light?
Before I myself start railing about the corruption and injustice of the totalitarian, evil LA justice department on behalf of "the little guy, fighting for the public good," ie, Mr. Fine, as he so consistently paints himself (I've read about this case before) I would like to see more investigative reporting done into not just the seedy stuff around Judge Yaffe but into these other cases which were decided against Mr.Fine in the past, leading him to file the multiple (what were termed "frivolous") lawsuits against the judges in the cases, what this $50,000 Marina del Rey thing is about, and if there is anything weird about his personal finances that would lead to this man, at his age, stubbornly sticking it out in jail and putting his family through such hardship rather than furnish the court-ordered records in what would seem to be a standard procedure.
s refusal to submit documents to the court.
(which he so far has refised to do.
all judges have the right to require the production of documents.
Mr Fine could be freed at once if he were to obey the
lawful order of the court and produce those records.
He has the key to the jail in his hand. -
The Superior Court Judge should have imposed a fine and let other processes or appeals go forward.
Coercive confinement is massive overkill in a situation like this.
Coercive confinement is massive overkill in a situation like this.
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Dean, the judge *did* fine him.
Then, the judge ordered him to produce his
financial records. He did not, and that constitutes contempt.
if he obeys the order of the Court and produces the records
he will be released.
Meanwhile, his appeals certainly *have* gone
forward-two different panels of judges
of judges have heard his appeal and turned it down.
(The state Supreme Court of California, and then
The US 6th Circuit Court of appeals. )
He has one final appeal pending.
The judge did not, and could not stop his appeals from going forward.
Where did you get the idea that the judge woukd not let
him appeal-No judge can stop an appeal. That's ridiculous!
he has already appealed to 2 different courts
Please, Victoria, don't let this go. You may well be the spark that is needed to light a fire of much needed reform that could possibly sweep the nation, leaving behind clean, new growth.
What these guys (and girls, I guess) don't understand is that the act of "contempt of court" is exactly what it says it is, and has little, if anything, to do with who they are. Are these people so insecure that they will take a criticism personally? In this case, it would appear that is so. What they don't seem to understand is that they are all in the service of the community and do not have the authority to decide which cases they will hear. This is not soccer, where the referee is God for the duration of the game.
Please go to No. 2
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Hugh-leighton,
THis has nothing to do with the judge's "ego".
Mr Fine refused a lawful order of the court to produce documents.
he refused the court's order and was cited for contempt.
the only tool a judge has to force compliance with a court order
is to cite the person for contempt and hold them in custody until
the person decides to obey the order-then they are released.
It's that simple.
If judges did not have this power, how could they make a person
pay the child support they were ordered by the court to pay?
OR, what if I am ordered by a court to make resititution to you
for something I have damaged, and I tell the judge no.
The judge then would be powerless to enforce the order unless he
could cite me for contempt and order me jailed until I
complied and made restitution.
I dont think you understand what a contempt citation is for, nor
do you understand the facts of this case.
Prisons are often repositories, for people who ask questions. Who would have thought that searching for answers, could be considered so subversive.
“the world will turn to meet you in the middleâ€
Or put another way. What goes around, tends to turn things around.
I would advise you to write and call every newspaper outlet, local and national television station, and programs like 60 minutes, asking them to air this story.
You may have more hope of a positive outcome the more publicity this case gets.
They simply claim someone is showing "contempt" for their court.
Frequently that contempt is deserved.
Yes, that contempt is all to frequently deserved from the lowest District Court of Municipal judge all the way the the Supreme Court.
I hope that this man goes free and vindicated soon.
Leonard Pellitier and Mumia abu Jamaal in the long list of American political prisoners. Remember Eugene Debs? I wrote a letter to Obama when he was elected and requested that he pardon or free Leonard and Mumia, (both imprisoned for crimes the evidence shows they could not have possibly committed) but Obama has never responded.
http://www.fulldisclosure.net/Programs/562.php
Why is this the first time I have heard anything about this?
I do not live in a cave nor have I been in a coma for the past year.
I have been told everything I do not want to know about Tiger Woods though and that was done against my will and while I was actively trying not to know about that.