Judicial Activism Goes Berserk

In a pending civil lawsuit in a Texas Federal Court, a constitutional nightmare is occurring. In violation of the Constitution, the activist federal judge in this case has made a U.S. business owner essentially a slave without any due process or hearing. All of the relevant details of this profoundly disturbing case are online at LawInjustice.com.

No case in recent judicial history resembles more of a Stalinist show trial. The conduct appears to be more corruption than merely judicial activism and the litany of outrages occurring are almost beyond belief. If there is no intervention now, a precedent will be set with truly ominous implications for all Americans.

The case involves an Internet pioneer named Jeff Baron. In the early days of the Internet, one could register a domain name and monetize it to earn a few cents every time someone called it up with a search engine. Jeff designed an automated software to quickly register these domain names, and in this way his company registered hundreds of thousands. However, in doing so his company was responsible for the annual fee to re-register each name.

Jeff was doing quite well when he took on an ostensibly promising new partner who claimed quite convincingly to be developing a search engine to outmatch all others. What the partner didn't mention was his history of indictments for fraud and theft. Jeff knew none of this, and companies were established to legally protect the assets of the stakeholders. However, it wasn't long before money under the partner's control, unawares to Jeff, started disappearing. And then the partner made an audacious move: he suddenly claimed ownership of the names Jeff had registered and paid for with his own money years prior.

Jeff now had to try to regain control of his company and fend off his duplicitous partner. Attorneys, quite naturally, were engaged-always expensive but not invariably competent. Legal experts who have looked at the behavior of the attorneys in this case have universally found their proceedings highly suggestive of corruption. When the famous trial attorney Norm Pattis was acquainted with the case, he exclaimed, "My Lord! What a mess!"

The obstreperous partner's lawsuits failed in court after court until one controllable, activist judge was found. After Jeff paid one attorney over $400,000, the presiding judge, W. Royal Ferguson, inexplicably ordered ALL present and future income from Jeff's company be turned over to his attorney. And then, to add more than a pinch of surrealism to injustice, the judge hurled threats from the bench-threats including imprisonment and death. Naturally, the attorney who had received all the income from the company, hundreds of thousands of dollars, wasn't about to contest the judge's order. More than one outside judicial expert suspects conspiracy.

Remember that federal judges are appointed for life. In this case, the judge made rulings without any conceivable basis in fact or law, acting as judge, jury and executioner, ignoring the Constitution. Jeff felt he had no alternative but to put the company into bankruptcy (Jeff has never personally been in bankruptcy). And when he did, control over his company was lost. With the attorneys grabbing off more and more money in great, unjustifiable sums, Jeff reluctantly agreed to settle the civil suit with his double-dealing partner. And then a case that was unparalleled in its weirdness took another wild turn.

Although Jeff complied with all of the terms of the settlement agreement, the interested attorneys refused to file to have the case dismissed. The blood was in the water, and they were closing in for the kill. After Jeff had already paid ridiculous fees to lawyers in sums of millions of dollars and as the fees kept mounting in great baseless leaps, Jeff filed a formal objection to them- triggering an almost unimaginable round of retribution.

The attorneys bypassed any hearing process and met in secret with the judge to appoint a "receiver" over both Jeff and his possessions. In doing so, all of Jeff's possessions and property were stripped from him--everything from his house and car keys to his exempt retirement account were immediately seized for “redistribution” to lawyers. He was further forbidden from working and keeping any money or owning any property or possession. Equally shocking, the sole stated purpose of the receivership was to prevent Jeff from hiring a lawyer. Obviously, the act was in violation of the Constitution.

And the receiver himself? The receiver is Peter Vogel, an adjunct judge in the case and a friend of the senior judge. While still acting as adjunct judge in Jeff's case, Vogel met with adverse attorneys, who requested the senior judge appoint him as receiver. Upon request, without any hearing, Vogel was immediately appointed receiver over Jeff and all Jeff’s property and possessions and has now been paid around a million dollars (including his law firm). Vogel continues to threaten Jeff with contempt and jail if he hires an attorney. Remember that a federal judge can act as judge, jury and executioner if they choose to ignore the Constitution. This is exactly what is occurring here.

Needless to say, this receivership, as confirmed by several attorneys, is a flat violation of numerous articles of the Constitution. Jeff has in effect been reduced to servitude. His personal bank accounts, his home, his IRA, his other business interests, a charitable trust for diabetes-all of which had nothing whatever to do with the case at issue-were seized. Jeff has been barred from hiring an attorney, and the court is forcing Jeff's appellate attorney to work without compensation.

Any attorney Jeff has had contact with in the past has been cajoled to file claims-even more claims-against him. When Jeff filed an objection, the interested attorneys had their friend, the judge, seal it, thus hiding it from the public and preventing it from appearing in the court record. These deeply interested attorneys have thus far enriched themselves to the tune of more than five million dollars prior to the receivership, and now the attorneys are trying to take the rest of Jeff's money through force. Despite the enormous amounts of money Jeff has paid to lawyers, the lawyers "claim" they were defrauded and have made claims that are totally groundless and in many instances fraudulent. An expert observer called it "a court-sanctioned gang rape."

If a judge, as in this case, is allowed to seize all of a person's assets and make him a servant to his friend in clear violation of the Constitution, the implications for all Americans is ominous. If not overturned, decisions such as these set precedent and become part of the "common law" that all Americans are bound by.

Jeff is not an aristocrat. He does not live in a palatial home or drive a sports car. His car is twenty years old, and Jeff lives in a modest condominium in a working class neighborhood. He has been forbidden a livelihood and even denied funds for a health-imperiling medical condition. The attorney-judge cabal not only wants his assets. They want his life.