This is a really odd one that was hiding under seal, first in the Circuit Court of Madison County, and then, after removal by a third party defendant (but much more briefly) under seal in the Southern District federal court. It turned up out from under the seal earlier today.
First, some preliminaries.
Dunn Lampton, the former U.S. Attorney down in the Southern District of Mississippi,prosecuted Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz twice, first related to loan guaranties as a part of the Minor prosecution. Diaz had recused himself on cases all of the cases involving Minor, and so he was acquitted.
Lampton, determined if nothing else, then prosecuted Diaz for tax evasion related to the loans. Diaz was acquitted again. Then, this all apparently turned up in charges before the state Judicial Performance Commission.
Dunn Lampton has a cousin named Leslie Lampton. Leslie Lampton is on the Forbes list of the richest men in the world– Forbes clocks his wealth in around $2 billion, placing him at 239 on the list of 400 richest Americans. Forbes also describes him as “intensely private.”
Leslie Lampton once served in one of the two lay positions on the Mississippi Judicial Performance Commission, including at the time Diaz came before it. According to his pleading, Leslie Lampton initially was involved in issues involving Diaz, then recused himself, and then resigned from the Commission.
Back last December, Larisa Alexandrovna at Raw Story reported there was a Justice Department investigation underway about whether Dunn Lampton had improperly shared the tax returns of Oliver and Jennifer Diaz with the Judicial Performance commission generally, and with his cousin Leslie in particular.
Meanwhile, out of public view, it seems that Justice Diaz and his wife hired a lawyer, another former Supreme Court Justice, Chuck McRae, who was also known (before taking the bench) as a plaintiff’s lawyer.
In January, McRae wrote Leslie Lampton, stating that he represented Diaz about “your involvement and procurement of his banking and income tax records” in violation of various federal statutes, as well Lampton’s alleged participation in a bunch of torts. McRae asked for a response within ten days or legal proceedings would be instituted.
Ten days thereafter, Leslie Lampton sued Oliver and Jennifer Diaz in the Circuit Court of Madison County (he alleges they live in Flora in that county), asking for a declaratory judgment that he has quasi-judicial immunity for anything he did on the judicial performance commission. The complaint alleges that he “played a limited role in the initial investigation and ultimately voluntarily recused himself from participating.”
The Diazes responded with a motion to change venue or stay proceedings while discovery was conducted, and propounded some discovery, including some requests from admissions (requests not particularly calculated to get useful responses– “Admit that you obtained and/or possessed income tax records of Defendant for the purpose of inducing malicious prosecution upon he and his wife.” ). They also noticed Lampton’s deposition.
Leslie Lampton moved for a protective order, asserting that “Defendant is conducting a ‘conspiracy theory’ fishing expedition in an effort to obtain information for a possible counterclaim.” Lampton asserted that the “discovery is being submitted to annoy and harass Plaintiff” and that it “reveals a wild goose chase…” He asserted that he is 83 and should not “bear the burden and/or expense of answering….” discovery in a case he himself filed. Seriously. He was basically arguing “don’t make me respond to discovery in my lawsuit.”
Lampton demanded a ruling on the motion for a change of venue and a ruling on “whether or not to even permit discovery” before he had to respond to discovery. In the lawsuit he filed.
He does not explain a special privilege that exempts him from discovery in a lawsuit he himself filed. He did finally give one reason for stopping discovery– he asserted that there was no legal theory on which the Diazes could get around the judicial immunity he claimed as a member of the Judicial Performance Commission. While he cites cases on some issues, he does not get around to citing a case for that proposition.
In April, McRae subpoenaed the Luther Brantley, the Executive Director of the Judicial Performance Commission, to a deposition. He also wrote Brantley, asserting that the filing of the declaratory judgment action was a breach of the confidentiality rules of the commission, and making a formal complaint against Lampton for this. Luther Brantley filed a motion for a protective order.
On April 29th, the Circuit Judge entered an order providing that: a) The Diazes had dropped their motion for a change of venue, so it was out of the case; b) The case would be under seal; c) The motion for protective orders by Leslie Lampton and Luther Brantley were granted; d) The discovery in the case would proceed under the Miss. Rules of Civil Procedure (that’s a relief. Although I’m still having trouble reconciling (c) and (d) here).
There was a brief side-trip into a motion to strike correspondence from the file, the motion relating to the complaint McRae filed against Leslie Lampton with the Judicial Performance Commission.
At this point, Jennifer Diaz filed an answers, counter claims, and third party claims, asserting that Leslie Lampton, Dunn Lampton, and Darlene Ballard (a staff attorney at the Judicial Performance Commission) had conspired to hurt her, illegally obtaining bank and tax records, and committing invasion of privacy, abuse of process, and so forth.
Dunn Lampton immediately showed up to remove the whole thing to federal court. It became cause number 3:09−cv−00324−DPJ−JCS in the Southern District. There, a motion to seal (that had been initially granted) was denied on June 22nd, and it’s all now public.
Attempting to describe how this all went on in state court has fully exhausted me; for more federal-court fun, here’s the Lampton v. Diaz federal docket. The documents in the state court file I have in one really big 100+ page PDF seems to not want to upload, and so you’ll have to accept my account of what’s in it for now.
Here’s a link to the pdf I posted on one of my websites:
Exhibit A
This is the Exhibit that was filed with the notice of removal, I believe, and it was all under seal – until yesterday.
for the layperson… is this just a pissing contest or there any teeth to these proceedings?
I’m seeing a pissing context JDBerry.
Here are the filings.
http://www.yallpolitics.com/images/diazlampton062209.pdf
Mississippi is the sealing-est state in the Union. If you’re going to use the taxpayers’ judicial system, put it out there for the taxpayers to see.
“who was also known (before taking the bench) as a plaintiff’s lawyer”
If we are going to quote Forbes online articles lets not leave out what the article says about Justice Dickinson who unseated Justice McRae:
“. . . passing the gavel to a pro-business corporate lawyer and Republican named Jess Dickinson. Dickinson was swept into office on a down-and-dirty, name-calling campaign bankrolled by $1.2 million he raised from doctors and small-business owners–an unheard of sum for a judicial election. But he also had a hidden helper: Unbeknownst to some Mississippi voters, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce pumped $1 million more into anti-McRae ads, funneling it through local groups such as Mississippians for Economic Progress.”
Perhaps that would be pertinent had the original post had anything to do with Dickinson
And pray tell what relevance does the original post have with who donated to McRae’s campaign 9 years ago?
you figure it out
“Admit that you obtained and/or possessed income tax records of Defendant for the purpose of inducing malicious prosecution upon he and his wife.”
Yeah, they should’ve stopped at “Defendant.”
But Dunn Lampton seems to’ve been 7 types of stupid to remove to federal court, when everything was going vs. the Diazes in circuit court. The feds aren’t going to go for this everything-sealed, no-discovery treatment, I wouldn’t think. Perhaps Dunnica will surprise me, but it seems of a piece with his U.S. Att’y job performance.
NMC – the Sun-Herald has a PDF link to the original Complaint for Declaratory Judgment filed in Madison County Circuit Court. It’s 153 pages!!!!!! Love McRae’s (2) letters to Mr. Lampton – inviting him to settle and all and, in 10 days, btw. Take a look at the kitchen sink of ’causes of action.’ Like, a person in Mr. Lampton’s position would think, ‘oh, I better run on down to Chuck’s and write a big, fat check.’ And, check out the requests for admissions. A hoot.
JD and NMC – Don’t know O. or J. Diaz, so this is not about them. But, speaking of pissing contests, what on earth drives some people to live out the better part of their adult lives in serial protracted litigation? It’s so damn toxic and seems to suck the life energy out of most ‘regular joe’ type litigants. It’s like, there’s so much more to life, dude. Smell the roses; feel the warm breezes; watch a bird build a nest; read a poem; hell, write one; listen to nice music; take a walk and take your dog with you. Anything. Just get you a frigging life, already.
Anyone aware of any authority for absolute immunity for service on the JPC?
Judicial immunity didn’t do much for Wes Teel, did it?
Absolute Judicial Immunity has been applied to those in quasi-judicial bodies, i.e. Mississippi Board of Nursing.
The key to absolute judicial immunity is in what capacity or role the actor functioned with respect to the conduct alleged to violate the constitution.
It’s a heavy burden to overcome but given the right facts quite possible.
Am I the only one growing increasingly concerned that Y’all Politics regulars and intelligent dialogue cannot coexist on this blog?
Am wondering the same thing, Cap’n. Folo this ain’t, no offense to NMC.
I happily coexist with all sentient beings.
YMMV on the sentience threshold.
Offense taken, sailor
Well, I for one like the different views presented at times. “Folo this ain’t” is not a bad thing to me, personally. No offense intended to folo or Lotus or anyone else. However, the simple fact is, NMC allows different views, especially those that are hard to stomach at times: IF the commenters at least half-way attempt to support their perspective.Which they don’t always do. Even so he tolerates it for lack of a better term. Me included.
I know it’s not a big deal to some, but it’s a big difference to me, personally, to allow even those we view as total dumbasses to comment. Even a blind hog can occasionally find an acorn. I simply like to hear what “they” want to say, even if I don’t agree.
It appears to be much easier to combat words than thoughts.
I was a covert operative for lampton and feds and was betrayed by my cover being blown and threatened. I would like to be referred to someone in DC who i can communicate with about this and other serious misconduct. anyone have the email address to Glenn Fine or the special prosecutor appointed now on the Rove and USA firings issue?