Thursday, July 11, 2013

Records Show That Black AL Judge Dorothea Batiste Received Harsher Treatment Than White Colleague


Dorothea Batiste
Perhaps the most important term in a discrimination action is "comparator." Often used in employment cases, comparator refers to someone who is "similarly situated" but is outside the complainant's protected class (based on race, gender, age, etc.) If it is shown that the comparator was treated more favorably than the complainant, it might prove a case for discrimination.

In the pending disciplinary action against Alabama Circuit Judge Dorothea Batiste, it probably would be hard to find a more perfect comparator than Suzanne Childers, who perhaps is best known for toting a gun to court. Both women sat as judges in the Domestic Relations Division of Jefferson County. Both did not hesitate to use contempt powers in cases where it appeared parties were ignoring court orders.

The record presents one glaring difference between the two women--Batiste is black, and Childers is white. Here is another difference: Batiste is facing possible sanctions from the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission (AJIC) for allegedly making excessive use of her contempt powers; Childers never faced such an inquiry, even though records show her use of contempt power dwarfed that of Batiste.

Does that suggest the AJIC is going after Batiste because of the color of her skin? Put more bluntly, does it mean the AJIC is a racist organization?

A review of documents in the Batiste case could lead a reasonable person to conclude that the answer to both questions is yes.

Julian McPhillips, the Montgomery-based attorney who represents Batiste, puts the discrimination question front and center in a Motion for Summary Judgment that calls for the charges against Batiste to be dropped. (See summary judgment motion at the end of this post.)

Central to Batiste's defense is her contention that AJIC rules preclude investigation of a judge for alleged erroneous rulings, absent evidence of bad faith. And Batiste claims that the AJIC does not even make firm allegations of bad faith, much less present any evidence of it. From the summary judgment motion:


Even though the AJIC only sparsely hints at bad faith, in the alternative, the fact is that the AJIC cannot point to one shred of evidence that Judge Batiste did engage in bad faith. As such, the AJIC does not meet the requirement of its own rules, which state:
"It (AJIC) does not review either final judgments or allegations of legal error or abuse of judicial discretion during a court proceeding absent evidence of bad faith."
As has been amply argued in the preceding pages of this motion and brief, there is a total absence of bad faith on the part of Judge Batiste, and as a result Judge Batiste is due to receive summary judgment in her favor on this issue.
As aforestated, all the complaints against her revolve around her allegedly misguided or misinformed use of the contempt power in a court proceeding. The AJIC Rules do not allow the AJIC or the Court of the Judiciary to review either "allegations of legal error or abuse of judicial discretion during a court proceeding absent evidence of bad faith." But that is what the AJIC has done. Hence, Judge Batiste is entitled to summary judgment.

McPhillips makes a powerful case. He argues  that, even if Batiste mistakenly used her contempt powers, that does not mean she did so in bad faith--and the AJIC has neither alleged nor shown that she acted in bad faith. Based on the commission's own rules, it is not allowed to investigate Batiste's actions, much less impose discipline upon her.


Suzanne Childers
The argument becomes even more powerful when McPhillips turns his attention to five contempt orders issued by Batiste's white colleague, Suzanne Childers.  (See copies of the contempt orders in exhibits at the end of this post.) Here is a summary of what they show:


Finally, reflecting on a standard for measuring Judge Batiste's good faith, when compared to other judges, are five copies of orders from a white female judge, Suzanne Childers, all in 2011-2012 (the same time period Batiste is being questioned about), wherein Judge Childers confined parties, respectively, for 325 days, 520 days, 310 days, 355 days, and 255 days. By contrast, the most Judge Batiste ever ordered someone confined was for 12 days, and usually no more than 2-3 days. (See Exhibits H, I, J, K and L.)

Those numbers are staggering, so let's put them in perspective. Childers confined one party for more than one year, three others for almost one year each, and another for almost nine months.

But Dorothea Batiste is the one on trial for excessive use of contempt power?

The U.S. Supreme Court, in Shelby County v. Holder, recently overturned a key section of the Voting Rights Act by more or less stating that we no longer have reason to worry much about mistreatment of racial minorities in Alabama.

You never would know it from studying the case of Dorothea Batiste.






32 comments:

Anonymous said...

A white judge holds parties in confinement for a year or more, and no one questions it? Unreal!

Anonymous said...

Those numbers on Suzanne Childers blow my mind. Perhaps some of those folks merited contempt for failure to pay child support and such. But it appears that parties in Batiste's courtroom merited contempt also. Why no investigation of Childers?

Anonymous said...

Hey, Clarence Thomas, come on down to Alabama and witness a real high-tech lynching.

Anonymous said...

No problems here in Alabama. No need for the Voting Rights Act or federal oversight on anything. Move along, nothing to see.

Anonymous said...

Why was Childers not investigated for bringing a gun into the courtroom?

Anonymous said...

Hey, @10:57, I can answer your question. Childers played the game the way it was supposed to be played with Scott Vowell and the big-shot divorce lawyers. Batiste didn't. That's why one was investigated and probably will be kicked off the bench, and the other wasn't.

Anonymous said...

Batiste got in trouble because she wouldn't let certain divorce lawyers run roughshod over her, as they were used to doing with other judges. Those lawyers went complaining to Vowell, and that's what this charade is all about. It has nothing to do with the half dozen or so parties cited by AJIC. It's all about lawyers, not parties.

Anonymous said...

It's well known among legal insiders that Scott Vowell is a closeted gay. So is Gary Pate, former presiding judge of the domestic relations division.

Anonymous said...

http://greaterbirminghamrepublicanwomen.com/photos.html

they are both in the same love fest with the Republican Party

and just gotta admit this is priceless, photo with her .38-caliber 'laptop' what a hoot

In Birmingham, Ala., Judge Suzanne Childers keeps a silver .38-caliber Smith & Wesson under her bench after county officials let her two courtroom deputies go because of a budget shortfall.

"I feel like I need some kind of protection, both for me, my staff and the general public," said Childers, who often has angry people battling over divorce or child custody issues in her courtroom. "I don't want to be in a situation where I'm on the bench and I'm a sitting duck."

When cuts are made to security staff, it compromises the safety of the courthouse, said Timm Fautsko, a security expert for the National Center for State Courts.

For Childers, the loss of deputies in her Alabama courtroom is inconceivable. She began bringing her gun to work after the county commission suggested she have her two female assistants make sure her courtroom is secure by checking that no one unauthorized to be there is inside.

"My comment was, 'OK, what do they do if they find someone in there?"' she said. "Throw paper clips at them?"

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/20100111-Court-safety-concerns-rise-after-shooting-9813.ece

LS, wonder whether the young Republican Woman 'black' gets to have a handgun like the 'white' SISTER?

Robby Scott Hill said...

It's early Friday morning, can't sleep, need my blog fix today & am expecting some fur to fly along with some racial tension in the Zimmerman case. So, I'll be hanging out over at The Field Negro. Everybody Liberal give him a big Follow Friday on Twitter @fieldnegro because that's FNB.

Anonymous said...

Dude--BATISTE put a woman in jail for not appearing in court when she WAS NEVER SERVED and the poor woman even CALLED THE COURTHOUSE TO ASK IF SHE SHOULD BE THERE.

Has anyone considered the possibility that Childers consistently jailed people who were actually contemptuous. Whereas Batiste did not have a strong underlying reason...

Isn't the fact that she is playing the race card/sexual harassment card a red flag? Shouldn't her primary defense be that the people she jailed were actually contemptuous.

I think there is a strong belief that there is too much dishonesty in courts, and that judges should use contempt of court powers more often than they currently are in order to maintain integrity of legal system. So if she was using her powers appropriately, I don't think it would matter what her party is, what color she is, if she was harassed, or if her boss is gay. If she used the power appropriately, there would not be an issue.

This woman does not need to be a judge.

Anonymous said...

@11:37AM, couldn't agree more, no matter what sex, race, religion, etc., judges should be practicing due process law.

that is our problem, whether it's honored in the 'system' US respect for 'law'. Missing In Action.

when looking at color, the pigments not 'white' aren't close to being represented 'fair and square'

maybe the sister is out of line and doing bad, all are, 'Roaches In Robes'

deal is, all the whiteys also need to be taken out, that's the ideal, take the sister and all the brothers and sisters that are corrupt and they've been carefully noted here at LS

Anonymous said...

Two words:

Don Siegelman.

This truth as self-evident puts Alabama as the worst state in the 'union' - Rove and his cronies got to take the LAW and prove there is no such 'idea'.

Time to change the idea back into the reality and not the way it has been made to be 'raw power' and not a shred of truth to the 'charges' against Don.

Roaches in Robes and oodles of closeted gay Republicans hiding behind the pretenses of 'law'.

Dems now simply get to get the drones from the Repubs and kill with their new raw power, too.

Anonymous said...

ADL and SPLC

ADL was set-up in the south to protect the 'style' of pedophiles such as Leo Frank who killed Mary Phagan. Begin 'law' taken over.

1-Amendment was and is overseen by the Anti-Defamation League and that's a Zionist pretend Jewish organization, DECIDES how to 'honor' our 1 Amendment and journalists are all well aware what this says.

Southern Poverty Law Center and its leadership, Zionists.

SPLC & ADL, surprise-surprise, US all: how the 'law' really is!

South is in big trouble with so many levels of 'government' that are not government, but obviously do whatever the 'JUSTICES?!' decide, such as, Siegelman's false incarceration.

What is this about?

The new order that Rove is a top henchman of-for: Zionists.

The Supreme Court USA, rests our case. Zionist Louis Brandeis decided American Patriotism was how the world was to be a better place 'culturally' of course, the design we have now was what it was and is: Zionists' Patriotism.

We have the world that began being designed at the same time that the Middle East, Palestine in particular, was also TAKEN for this new order of world government as only one 'power' in control and that is from Tel Aviv.

USA was the first greatest test subject to allow 'freedom' to grow the 'herd', and then cull and cultivate the new 'colonies' developed by war. Nothing new.

China and Russia are both key players in these times that are more than interesting.

Games, snowjobs, reality isn't truth and truth isn't the fake 'real' sold in the 'news'.

Legal Schnauzer is a gift and must be cherished and WELL PROTECTED.

see link to understand more of what we've been dealing with as the gamers play like they are not, yea sure, all 'invested' in the 'new order' of one world government. The monsters simply can't decide which monster gets to be top horror show in earth.

Protect the greatest investment the south has: Legal Murphy Schnauzer family & true friends as Robby Scott Hill.

http://www.dcdave.com/article4/021110.html

Anonymous said...

... The Jewish supremacist criminal organization known as the Anti-Defamation League, along with its partner in crime, the Southern Poverty Law Center, has been whining and crying about Freedompalooza and the "hateful, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories" which proliferate there for weeks now.

http://www.john-friend.net/2013/07/news-from-jews_12.html

Anonymous said...

You folk need to get something straight! Family Law attorneys are not big shots! They are the used car sales people of law! Even though most are crooked they don't make shot for income considering what they do to people! They all need castration! Especially the Family Law judges! Taking bribes, covering for criminals and killing kids! That's al they know! Then they go home and pretend to be good (well some do). If their wives, husbands and children only knew who they really were and the lives they destroy everyday, these used car salesmen would live lonely lives. Most shouldn't be living!

Anonymous said...

If Childers was an ethical, decent judge, there would be no need for weaponry in her courtroom! She would have nothing to fear! She's smart to be fearful! Guilt is dead weight. These scum bags are getting worse by the day. They know what they are brewing! Time will tell!

Anonymous said...

Messing with children's lives will come back to bite all their asses! They well know this! It's time!

Anonymous said...

an excellent writer has written about culture in the US

the 60s mortified the 'governing elite' and of course the global partners were also not pleased

culture revolution began as the humans were forced into a 'multicultural reality' which is so manufactured, the artificiality has caused failure

no truth in each 'culture' getting an opportunity to be in a wholesome 'natural' evolution into a higher developmental process

basically the human being has been a project and the real scary part, do we really know what's going on

Anonymous said...

Childers looks to be throwing dead beat dads in jail! What the hell is wrong with that? Is it better they're out whooping it up and ignoring responsibilities? I'd vote for her! Far cry from Babtiste!

Unknown said...

used car sales cons selling lemons

wish the 'judges' were an inkling as low life as used car sales personnel, but no, what we get in the department of 'law' is the most down dirty human filth

manufactured society to be exactly what it is:

ghettos and then the hell is how to figure out why when in the century we're in, there is no such idea ~ money. Well other than countless trillions to the Middle East's Israeli project and then of course to set-up and grind USA into the state of failed, we're IN

money isn't the problem, the problem is the American population for the majority, are literally experimented to the point of being truly brain dead

can't problem solve because BIG SISTER DHS is 'smarter' than the common variety USA citizen

what a crock of crocodile shit

when we get tired of this, we'll change the reality

not enough have been as destroyed as Legal Schnauzer, and then not enough are smart as journalist LS, to teach law in reality

bow to the bow wow

Anonymous said...

The eBook by Hicham Hamza, "Israel and September 11: The Great Taboo" (2013) brings together the case against Israel, with impeccable precision and all easily accessible sources

Anonymous said...

N places around round earth
people eat bugs & roaches get roasted
let us send the 'elite'

with all their families, friends
fiends & certainly tribe-clan- ? ?
trapped inside their own imaginations

wearing robes and playing games
trumpets clarion call deaf mutes don't
TBone zombieland palestine Texas

while the insects crawl holy
into holes of dark shame toxic shock
flush the toilet scrub walls

on knees on elbows up
asses up flying into the void wee
vacuum the playground free see

gobbled burnt buggy roaches raw
no more robes melted poly poison N
crackled ash dust digital ass

no good in anyway

porn pom

Anonymous said...

Why does Pujadas (propelled to France 2 television news just a week before September 11) mention Afghanistan, which has nothing to do with the information being introduced? The slip can only be deliberate and illustrates "the great taboo" which Hicham Hamza alludes to: never mention September 11 and Israel in the same sentence.

http://www.voltairenet.org/article179295.html

Dick Cheney and Karl Rove and the neocons were all involved, in the PNAC think tank 9-1-1 false flag

Big power Rove and the Republicans of the South with the 'Klan'

e.a.f. said...

Hello Annon....

Can you get over your zionist phobia? This blog is about legal issues in Alabama. If there is a zionist conspiracy of world domination, then they won't be startting with a couple of small time judges, etc. in Alabama, the back water of the western world.

Without reading the various judgements the two women made it is difficult to say "whats what". However, L.S. has given a good discription of what has been going on. It is not unreasonable to conclude some of it is based on racist attitudes.

Whether one judge carries a gun or not is not germaine to the issue if we are discussing quality of decisions.

If there are no security officers in court rooms, what else would a judge do? In B.C., Canada, the judges simply don't go to work. They refuse to hold court if there is no Sherriff in the court room. Judges have the right to have a safe work enviornment.

What qualifies the judge to carry a gun into a court room is beyond me, but then Americans are fond of their guns. If a legal system can not protect its judges, then there is something very wrong. If judges are left to defend themselves, they have left the realm of being impartial.

Anonymous said...

http://decryptedmatrix.com/live/stingrays-the-biggest-technological-threat-to-cell-phone-privacy-you-dont-know-about/

On Friday, EFF and the ACLU submitted an amicus brief in United States v. Rigmaiden, a closely-followed case that has enormous consequences for individuals’ Fourth Amendment rights in their home and on their cell phone. As the Wall Street Journal explained today, the technology at the heart of the case invades the privacy of countless innocent people that have never even been suspected of a crime.

Anonymous said...

http://youtu.be/6Ejga4kJUts

Cranberries

e.a.f.

get off your anti-news about the Zionists who are, after all, just seemingly like you:

stick to what is stuck in the head as though never to go away, watch the video and think deeply how the all is connected to the all

Alabama is run by the Zionist ADL and the Zionist Southern Law Poverty Center or whatever these 'pretend' society protectors want to call IT, that's technology eaf case you didn't get that the IT controls the ALL.

you scream too much about the Zionist on this blog putting a cog in your wheel of propaganda

Anonymous said...

LS: THE PHONE WAS INDEED NOT TO BE OTHER THAN WHAT WAS DONE, FULL TRANSPARENCY!

... When Bilal Berjawi spoke to his wife for the last time, he had no way of being certain that he was about to die. But he should have had his suspicions.

A short, dumpy Londoner who was not, in the words of some who knew him, one of the world’s greatest thinkers, Berjawi had been fighting for months in Somalia with al-Shabaab, the Islamist militant group.

His wife was 4,400 miles away, at home in west London. In June 2011, Berjawi had almost been killed in a US drone strike on an al-Shabaab camp on the coast. After that he became wary of telephones. But in January last year, when his wife went into labour and was admitted to St Mary’s hospital in Paddington, he decided to risk a quick phone conversation.

A few hours after the call ended Berjawi was targeted in a fresh drone strike. Perhaps the telephone contact triggered alerts all the way from Camp Lemmonier, the US military’s enormous home-from-home at Djibouti, to the National Security Agency’s headquarters in Maryland. Perhaps a few screens also lit up at GCHQ in Cheltenham?

http://zen-haven.com/obamas-kill-list-the-disposition-matrix/

Anonymous said...

Women in Sibley Reynolds courtroom do not get a fair hearing. He closes the courtroom off, makes their families leave so they are alone. Threaten them to take their children before any evidence has been heard. He should be arrested for civil rights violations.

e.a.f. said...

Annony., in your response to e.a.f.; could you use what we call "normal" english to convey your thoughts. What you have written doesn't make much sense.

Zionists running Alabama? That is a hoot. Are we to conclude all the problems outlined in this blog about court cases, gambling, etc. are all because of Zionists? Really, that is a stretch.

The hunt clubs aren't run by Zionists. I'd say most of the members are protestants. There always seem to be a lot of Baptists and Pentecostals and the like in the south......

Face it, the problems of Ms. Rollins is not because of Zionists. The problems created by Luther Strange, aren't created by zionists. I have yet to see anything in this blog which blames zionists.

Given to reading many American political blogs there isnt' a whole lot of blame or for that matter discussion about Zionists. Perhaps you have a zionist fetish. There are other blogs for those problems.

Really, how can Zionists be like me, if I'm a practising Buddist?

Now i wsn't the one who raised zionism on this blog. Some one else did. I've just pointed out, this blog is about justice or the lack thereof in Alabama. Expressing an opinion is not supporting zionism.

Anonymous said...

Judge Suzanne Childers followed the law.
Judge Batiste did not.

Be informed before you start slandering good judges like Judge Suzanne Childers. By the way, Judge Childers qualified to carry a gun to Court because she had no security, and she volunteered, and took on all of the child support cases filed by the Department of Human Resources in the Birmingham Division of Domestic Relations Court in Jefferson County.

REBrew said...

Today, eight weeks and one day after my domestic relations trial, I received my order from a judge mentioned on this page. This "judge" was paid for private judging after she was ousted. I would like to talk to you about telling my story. I believe you'll find my case quite compelling.