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3. Seeing double standard, 5th Circuit judge…

Judiciary

Seeing double standard, 5th Circuit judge resigns from judicial group over threats statement

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 11, 2025, 3:32 pm CDT

A federal appeals judge has said he has resigned from the Federal Judges Association because it issued a statement against recent judicial threats but apparently said nothing in defense of conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices.

Judge James C. Ho of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New Orleans announced his resignation at an event by the Federalist Society, a conservative group, on Saturday, report Bloomberg Law, Reuters and Law.com.

The March 5 statement by the Federal Judges Association said judges must be permitted to do their jobs without fear of violence or intimidation.

The Federal Judges Association statement said the group appreciates Chief Justice John Roberts and others who have “commented recently on the rise in criticism, threats and violence aimed at members of the judiciary. Irresponsible rhetoric shrouded in disinformation undermines the public’s confidence that our justice system can fulfill its constitutional duties.”

The group made the statement amid impeachment threats and criticism regarding judges who have ruled against the Trump administration.

“Did we see these statements in 2024 or 2023 or 2022? From what I can tell, no,” Ho said. “You can’t say that you’re in favor of judicial independence only when it comes to decisions that you like. That’s not protecting the judiciary. That’s politicizing the judiciary.”

Ho mentioned the 2022 arrest of a man armed with a gun and zip ties near the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and criticism of Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito.

Ho is an appointee of President Donald Trump during his first term. He previously announced that he is boycotting the hiring of clerks from law schools that he thinks have mishandled student protests or stifled conservative views.

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3. Judge texted bailiff, clerk that he can’t…

Criminal Justice

Judge texted bailiff, clerk that he can’t be in court next day because ‘I just shot my wife,’ jurors are told

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 20, 2025, 12:32 pm CST

A California judge admitted that he shot his wife in a text to court personnel, in a police car and when sitting alone in a police interrogation room, jurors were told Wednesday.

Judge Jeffrey Ferguson of the Orange County Superior Court in California is accused of fatally shooting his wife in August 2023 while watching the AMC TV show Breaking Bad at their home and arguing about finances. Their adult son was also present.

Law360, the Associated Press and KABC have coverage.

Ferguson’s defense lawyer maintains that the shooting was an accident, according to the AP.

Orange County, California, Deputy District Attorney Seton Hunt showed jurors a copy of a text to Ferguson’s clerk and bailiff, the articles report.

“I just lost it. I just shot my wife. I won’t be in tomorrow. I will be in custody. I’m so sorry,” the text said.

Jurors were also shown a video of Ferguson muttering to himself in a police interrogation room, according to Law360.

“I killed her. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, convict my ass. I did it,” he said.

In the back of the police car, Ferguson said, “I killed my wife. F- – -. Ugh, s- – -,” video showed.

At the police station, Ferguson’s blood alcohol level was 0.065. Hunt said a forensic scientist would testify that the level was likely 0.17 or more when Ferguson’s wife, Sheryl, was shot.

The adult son testified that he had stepped outside as his parents argued and heard his mother say words to the effect, “Why don’t you point a real gun at me?” The son said he turned around and saw his father fire the gun, according to Law360.

Hunt is seeking a second-degree murder conviction, according to KABC. It’s unclear whether jurors will also be able to consider a manslaughter charge.

See also:

Criminal court judge, 72, arrested in wife’s shooting death

Judge who made ‘reckless’ Facebook allegation about prosecutor is admonished

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3. Judge gave ‘reasonable impression’ she was…

Judiciary

Judge gave ‘reasonable impression’ she was letting immigrant evade ICE, ethics charges say

By Debra Cassens Weiss

December 5, 2024, 12:52 pm CST

A Massachusetts judge who allegedly gave a “reasonable impression” that she was allowing an immigrant to evade federal custody was “less than fully candid” when asked about the incident, according to an ethics complaint filed Monday.

The judge, Judge Shelley M. Richmond Joseph of Massachusetts, is accused of willful misconduct in the ethics complaint.

Boston.com, Reuters, the Daily Mail and Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly have coverage.

Joseph maintains, however, that she was not aware of a plan to let Jose Medina-Perez escape custody, and she was cooperative and truthful in the investigation by supervisors and disciplinary authorities. She “committed no misconduct and certainly no willful judicial misconduct,” her lawyers said in the written response to the charges.

“Judge Joseph looks forward to a hearing where all the circumstances finally become public,” said Thomas Hoopes, her lawyer, in a statement published by Reuters.

Joseph had once faced federal charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice over the April 2018 incident in the Newton, Massachusetts, courthouse.

Prosecutors had alleged that Joseph allowed Medina-Perez to go downstairs to the lockup, supposedly to retrieve property. The immigrant was then allowed to leave through a back door by a court officer. The charges were dropped in September 2022 after Joseph agreed to report herself to the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct.

The ethics complaint recounted the alleged sequence of events.

Medina-Perez was in court on a Pennsylvania warrant and two controlled-substance violations. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was in the courtroom, and Joseph asked him to wait outside in accord with district court policy. At some point before a reconvened hearing, the defense attorney “formulated a plan with the court officer” to avoid ICE agents in which Medina-Perez would be returned to the lockup and let out of a door by the court officer.

The prosecutor later advised Joseph and the defense attorney that she no longer thought that Medina-Perez was the subject of the Pennsylvania warrant, and she would not seek bail on the misdemeanor charges. During a recorded sidebar conference, the defense lawyer said, “ICE is going to pick him up if he walks out the front door. But I think the best thing for us to do is to clear the fugitive issue, release him on a personal, … and hope that we can avoid ICE.”

Joseph allegedy replied, “The other alternative is if you need more time to figure this out—hold until tomorrow.” The defense lawyer responded that ICE would pick up Medina-Perez if he was bailed out. Joseph allegedly responded, “ICE is gonna get him?” and, “What if we detain him?”

The defense lawyer then asked whether the sidebar conference was on the record. Joseph directed the court clerk to turn off the recording equipment. The unrecorded remarks lasted 52 seconds.

Joseph’s recorded statements “would give a reasonable observer the impression that she sought to assist defense counsel in identifying a means for the defendant to avoid ICE,” the ethics complaint says. “Judge Joseph’s willingness to conduct an unrecorded sidebar conversation with counsel, in violation of [a district court rule], added to the basis for that impression.”

The defense lawyer allegedly asked Joseph in the unrecorded conference to allow him to accompany Medina-Perez to return to the lockup area after he was released from state custody. The defense lawyer also allegedly said Medina-Perez could be released through a rear door, according to the ethics complaint. Joseph allegedly agreed to the request with the knowledge that ICE agents were waiting in a different area of the courthouse.

When the recorder was turned back on, the defense lawyer said he thought that the defendant had property downstairs, and he would like to speak with him with an interpreter. “That’s fine. Of course,” Joseph said. After their arrival downstairs, the court officer released the defendant from the rear door, unbeknownst to the ICE agent.

Joseph failed to disclose the unrecorded session to the first justice of the Newton District Court, and when asked about it by a regional administrative judge, she said her unfamiliarity with courtroom equipment may have caused a portion of the hearing not to be recorded, the ethics complaint said.

She mentioned an experience in another courtroom in which she disconnected the recording system after learning that it was amplifying a sidebar conversation. In a conversation with the chief justice of the district court, she denied having anything to do with the defendant’s release.

In her response, Joseph denied that the defense lawyer told her of a plan to release the defendant through the rear door. In addition, she had no knowledge where the ICE agents were waiting outside the courtroom, the response said.

In her response, Joseph said she suggested detaining Medina-Perez to give the defense lawyer time to investigate his belief that ICE had issued a detainer for the wrong person. Because prosecutors were not seeking bail, she thought that the defendant would be released to ICE after his lawyer spoke with him, she said.

As for the unrecorded sidebar, her experiences as a practicing lawyer “led her to believe that this was an occurrence with no sinister meaning,” her response said.

Joseph was suspended in April 2019 as a result of the federal indictment but was reinstated after the federal charges were dropped in 2022, according to Boston.com. She is currently a judge for the Boston Municipal Court.

Ari Kaplan recently spoke with Greg Hong, the co-founder and CEO of Steno, a tech-enabled provider of legal support and court reporting services.

They discussed the industry trends driving the need for court reporting and litigation support, creating a competitive advantage in the current market, and the evolution of the legal support market.

Ari Kaplan: Tell us about your background and the genesis of Steno.

Greg Hong: I’ve participated in several two-sided marketplaces. Out of school, I traded stock for hedge funds and went pretty far down the finance path before realizing I’d rather be building businesses than valuing them. From there, I worked in ad tech and ran a restaurant technology company that directly competed with OpenTable. I ultimately sold that business to Resy and American Express. We had some litigation in that sale, and my co-founder at Steno, Dylan Ruga, represented us successfully. We won that case on summary judgment, but I had my deposition taken, so he and I became good friends. Afterward, he proposed starting a court reporting business with me and a third co-founder, Dan Anderson, now our chief technology officer, when we saw an opportunity to add unique technology to a legacy agency model and structure it more like a marketplace.

Ari Kaplan: What trends in the legal industry do you see driving the need for court reporting and litigation services?

Greg Hong: The volume of litigation continues to grow year over year, but the court reporting industry has become a commoditized service market, and our competitors use decades-old playbooks. We are focused on our customers’ needs and use their feedback to design technology and financial options that directly improve their experience and workflows. For law firms, this means that we do the basics very well. We reply to our customers with substantive responses in 10 minutes on average, while others respond in hours or days, and we hardly ever miss covering a job. We pair that with the benefits of unique technology, like Transcript Genius, our new AI offering, or Steno Connect for Zoom, our Zoom app, so we really make it easier for attorneys to take depositions or more thoughtfully consume the post-deposition content that gets delivered to them in their transcripts.

Ari Kaplan: What traditional court reporting and litigation services do you offer, and how do you tech-enable those activities to distinguish Steno’s approach?

Greg Hong: We offer court reporting, videography, interpreters and conference room sourcing. We are also starting to provide service-of-process and e-filing assistance. We want to become a one-stop shop for our clients. Today, court reporting is about staffing. Law firms are looking for a provider, and that is often the end of the transaction. In addition to services, we offer unique technology and a dashboard allowing our customers to search their entire repository of Steno transcripts. We also have unique integrations with case management providers, like Clio and Litify.

Ari Kaplan: How do you stay ahead of the market, given that even traditional court reporting firms are starting to offer broader services?

Greg Hong: We take the best-in-class technology from outside the legal world and bring it to bear within this industry. When we transitioned from in-person depositions being the de facto standard before the pandemic to remote depositions becoming the norm after mid-2020, we built remote deposition offerings to accommodate our clients. We continue quickly bringing new ideas to market because we maintain an in-house technology team. At the same time, our competitors often leverage third-party providers to build their technology solutions or use something off the shelf. We also package our tools, so that attorneys can easily consume them. My co-founder is a practicing attorney running a firm with 11 lawyers, so before we release anything, we pilot it in his office for feedback, rather than simply affixing a label and charging for it. That is not the way to build a long-term customer relationship.

Ari Kaplan: How much human stenography occurs in a typical matter, and how much technology is involved?

Greg Hong: We only offer human court reporters, the de facto gold standard. The technology is supplemental. When we talk about our AI offering, it is applied on a post-deposition basis. A firm expects a court reporting agency to deliver a transcript following a deposition, but we allow the reader to interact with that document more thoughtfully, using the power of a large language model to interrogate that record. For example, our technology can help a lawyer instantly summarize a deposition and highlight the areas that indicate liability, with citations to the supporting testimony. Or if a practitioner is taking a deposition on Zoom and needs to share documents, our proprietary app makes that process as seamless as sliding a file across a conference room table. We are trying to emulate the real-world deposition experience even when virtual.

Ari Kaplan: How do you leverage your success in court reporting into other areas of litigation services?

Greg Hong: We see NPS scores well into the ’80s, indicating that our customers like working with us. They often provide unsolicited positive feedback. Doing an excellent job is the easy starting point for expansion. Once you’ve built that relationship and rapport, customers will trust you with e-filing or service of process tasks. They give us that shot, and we exceed expectations. That is how we have been able to grow.

Ari Kaplan: How do you see the legal support market evolving?

Greg Hong: Over the next few years, there will be consolidation across all of these service offerings. Law firms engaging in litigation today use several different service providers, from medical records support and e-filing to service-of-process and depositions, which can be challenging to manage. Many attorneys would prefer to combine those services, especially when they offer thoughtful integrations into their case management platforms. If all their records could sit magically in a single application, it would offer a much more cohesive experience. Adding unique, best-in-class technologies also transforms legal support, allowing legal teams to more efficiently and thoughtfully litigate their cases.

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Listen to the complete interview at Reinventing Professionals.

Ari Kaplan regularly interviews leaders in the legal industry and in the broader professional services community to share perspective, highlight transformative change and introduce new technology at his blog and on iTunes.

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This column reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily the views of the ABA Journal—or the American Bar Association.

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3. Phishing emails purported to be from PACER’s…

Cybersecurity

Phishing emails purported to be from PACER’s electronic filing system target lawyers

By Debra Cassens Weiss

November 7, 2024, 9:42 am CST

Lawyers who respond to fake emails purporting to be from PACER’s electronic filing system are being led to malicious websites with computer viruses, the U.S. federal judiciary warned Wednesday.

The emails claim to contain notices of electronic filing from PACER’s Case Management/Electronic Case Files system, known as CM/ECF. Lawyers are told to reply immediately, and when they do, they are sent a link to access the supposed case documents. Instead, the link sends lawyers to the malicious website.

The scam targets lawyers across the country, according to the IT Security Office for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

“To avoid becoming a victim of the scam,” the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said, “be sure to always validate cases and case documentation directly through your local federal court’s CM/ECF system. Never download attachments or click on links from unofficial or questionable sources.”

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3. Suspect in custody after courthouse explosion…

Criminal Justice

Suspect in custody after courthouse explosion that injured several people

By Debra Cassens Weiss

September 25, 2024, 4:05 pm CDT

Updated: Police were questioning a suspect Wednesday afternoon after he was arrested following an explosion at the Santa Maria Courthouse in California.

The Wednesday morning explosion was caused by an improvised explosive device, the Santa Barbara County sheriff’s office said in a series of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Police later identified the suspect as Nathaniel McGuire, 20, of Santa Maria, California, who had been scheduled for arraignment on a firearms charge on the day of the explosion.

McGuire allegedly threw a bag at a screening station when he entered the courthouse, causing an explosion in the hallway near the arraignment courtroom, according to a Sept. 25 press release by the Santa Barbara County sheriff’s office.

McGuire then ran to the parking lot, where he was detained by authorities, the sheriff’s office said. He was wearing body armor underneath his jacket when apprehended.

Six people injured in the explosion were treated and released from the Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria on Wednesday, the New York Times reports, citing information from a hospital spokesperson.

Darrel Parker, executive officer of the Santa Barbara Superior Court, said the injured people were thought to be bystanders, rather than court employees.

McGuire has been charged with felonies that include attempted murder, manufacturing an explosive device and use of an explosive device for attempted murder.

A witness at the courthouse, Shane Mellon, said he heard a loud bang, according to a report by KSBY cited by the Associated Press. The bailiff evacuated Mellon and others. In front of the courthouse, Mellon saw a smoldering sweater and saw a man screaming while four or five people were on top of him trying to restrain him.

“I think this could have been way worse than it was if not for the deputies just jumping on top of that guy,” Mellon told the broadcast station.

Other publications with early coverage of the explosion included Noozhawk and Reuters.

Updated Sept. 26 at 4:15 p.m. new information from the New York Times and the Santa Barbara County sheriff’s office’s press release.

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3. After Hurricane Helene, court deadlines extended,…

Natural Disasters

After Hurricane Helene, court deadlines extended, misconduct hotline activated

By Debra Cassens Weiss

October 2, 2024, 12:25 pm CDT

Hurricane Helene is having a continuing impact on the courts.

The Georgia Supreme Court’s chief justice declared a statewide judicial emergency Monday to extend deadlines in cases where parties were affected by the hurricane.

The judicial emergency affects all courts, but deadlines are extended only in cases in which parties certify that they were unable to file or meet deadlines, according to the Sept. 30 order by Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael P. Boggs.

Law360 has coverage.

Boggs told Law360 that many chief superior court judges in Georgia began issuing emergency orders closing courthouses in advance of the storm.

In North Carolina, North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby issued an amended order extending court deadlines in 28 counties, according to a Sept. 30 press release.

Law360 has coverage.

In Florida, all courts had reopened by Oct. 1, according to the Florida Bar, which has activated a hotline for residents to report potential misconduct and solicitation by lawyers.

A Florida courts information page said orders will be issued to extend deadlines that happened during court closures.

ABA Young Lawyers Division Disaster Legal Services Resources

• Message from ABA President Bill Bay

• Volunteer Interest Form

• Donations for Providing Legal Services to Disaster Survivors

• Hotline Numbers for Legal Services Questions

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3. Judge must take training after banning law…

Judiciary

Judge must take training after banning law clerk from courthouse and threatening jail time

By Debra Cassens Weiss

August 29, 2024, 8:43 am CDT

A Chicago judge who objected to a law clerk carrying his cellphone into her courtroom will have to undergo training after threatening him with jail time and banning him from the entire courthouse.

Judge Peggy Chiampas of Cook County, Illinois, will have to take training on the enforcement of administrative orders governing electronic devices, according to an Aug. 27 news release.

The Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune have coverage.

Members of the public are generally barred from bringing cellphones into the George N. Leighton Criminal Courthouse where Chiampas works, but attorneys and their “authorized employees” are allowed to keep them, according to prior coverage by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Chiampas’ “secret” order banning law clerk Robert Almodovar from the courthouse was never entered on a docket and was not provided to Almodovar, according to a statement by his employer, lawyer Jennifer Bonjean. The Chicago Tribune reported on the statement in a prior article.

“Judges cannot ban citizens from public buildings, even if they think (wrongly) that the citizen has violated some administrative order,” Bonjean claimed.

Bonjean is suing Chiampas and others for alleged misconduct in a case involving two men accused of killing a police officer.

The cellphone incident happened in October 2023, when Almodovar was observing proceedings in Chiampas’ courtroom. Almodovar is an exoneree who spent 23 years in prison for a double murder that he did not commit.

A sheriff’s deputy who was told that Almodovar had a cellphone asked him to go out in the hallway. The deputy said Almodovar should lock his phone in a public locker downstairs.

The Chicago Tribune described what happened next as alleged in a motion seeking to overturn the courthouse ban. The Chicago Sun-Times interviewed Almodovar and quoted from a court transcript.

Almodovar said he thought that he was allowed to keep the cellphone as a law firm employee but agreed to comply. At that point, according to the motion, Chiampas “began screaming loudly from the bench, ‘Bring him in, bring him in, bring him in.’”

Chiampas ordered Almodovar to turn over his cellphone and said he had two options.

The first option: Chiampas could hold Almodovar in direct contempt and sentence him to six months in jail for violating an established order. The second option: Almodovar could “voluntarily … open up your phone so that they could check to ensure no photos were taken … and nothing was spread on social media regarding anything in this building or in this courtroom.”

A deputy searched the phone and said she found no pictures, no videos and no social media stories.

Chiampas nonetheless told Almodovar that he was banned from the courthouse unless he has a criminal case, unless he is subpoenaed to appear, or unless he gets prior approval.

“If you come to this building again,” Chiampas said, “I, sir, will give you the max six months.”

Chiampas vacated the courthouse ban earlier this month.

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3. Federal judiciary seeks more money for security…

Court Security

Federal judiciary seeks more money for security amid rise in threats

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 5, 2024, 2:46 pm CST

The federal judiciary is citing “evolving” risks and a “significant increase in threats against federal judges” as some of the reasons for a requested increase in its security budget.

The U.S. Supreme Court is requesting $19.4 million to expand security and transfer responsibility for protecting justices’ homes to the high court’s own police force, Reuters reports.

The security budget request for other federal judges has increased by $39.5 million to cover “additional security and equipment” and other security needs, according to the fiscal year 2025 budget request.

The request comes amid a Reuters investigation published last week that found an “unprecedented wave of threats” in cases related to former President Donald Trump.

According to the wire service, the annual average of harassing and threatening communications directed at federal judges, federal prosecutors, judicial staff and court buildings increased from 1,180 incidents in the decade before Trump’s 2015 presidential campaign to 3,810 in seven years that followed.

Trump is a defendant in four criminal cases alleging 91 felonies, Reuters points out.

“Trump has fused the roles of candidate and defendant,” the wire service reports. “He attacks judges as political foes, demonizes prosecutors and casts the judicial system as biased against him and his supporters.”

Jon Trainum, who previously oversaw the U.S. Marshals Service’s unit that investigated judicial threats, told Reuters that whenever a case against Trump was in court, “we would see a noticeable uptick in threats directed at whatever judge had the case.”

U.S. marshals investigated more than 1,200 threats against federal judges that they deemed to be serious in the last four years. Reuters identified 57 federal prosecutions involving judiciary threats, 47 of which involved threats against federal judges.

There is no comparable data for threats and intimidation against state court judges. But a survey by the National Judicial College of mostly state judges in 2022 found that nearly 90% were worried about their safety. One out of three had carried a gun for protection at some point.

The wire service spoke with Senior U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth of the District of Columbia, who said he was unprepared for the amount of death threats and harassment directed at him when he began hearing cases of defendants accused in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot. Lamberth received threats on his home phone and his chambers voicemail.

U.S. marshals found the man calling Lamberth’s home and warned him to stop. They also upgraded Lamberth’s home security system.

“Living this way, it does change your life,” Lamberth said.

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3. ‘Airborne defendant’ leaps over bench, attacks…

Criminal Justice

‘Airborne defendant’ leaps over bench, attacks Vegas judge during court hearing recorded on video

By Debra Cassens Weiss

January 4, 2024, 9:55 am CST

A man who pleaded guilty to attempted battery with substantial bodily harm attacked a Las Vegas judge who was sentencing him Wednesday.

The video shows defendant Deobra Delone Redden, 30, leaping into the air, flying over the judge’s bench and landing on the judge. A Politico headline described Redden as an “airborne defendant.”

Other publications with coverage include the New York Times, the Associated Press, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Washington Post, USA Today, KSNV and the New York Post.

The Clark County, Nevada, judge, 62-year-old Judge Mary Kay Holthus, was injured and being monitored, a court spokesperson told the New York Times. A marshal who was injured was taken to the hospital. KSNV reported that the marshal needed stitches to his head. The marshal also suffered a dislocated shoulder, according to AP.

The first person who came to Holthus’ aid was a man in a suit sitting beside her. In a longer video posted by the AP, the same man is shown punching Redden as another man in a suit tries to subdue him. Redden is shown throwing punches at this same time at a person who is outside the video frame.

One of the people trying to subdue Redden was Chief Deputy District Attorney Jory Scarborough, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“Thank God the judge is OK,” Wolfson said in a statement cited by the New York Post. “Thank God for the heroic efforts of those who came to her aid, especially her marshal and her law clerk. Without them, the situation would have been much worse, as this defendant exhibited extremely violent behavior, and I’m confident there will be consequences.”

Redden has been charged with battery, battery on a protected person and battery on a protected person resulting in substantial bodily harm.

Redden had sought probation, telling the judge that he had mental health problems, but he was “a person who never stops trying to do the right thing—no matter how hard it is.” His lawyer, Caesar Almase, said Redden had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Redden attacked Holthus after she indicated that he would be sentenced to prison. Redden previously spent time in prison for attempted theft and domestic battery.