July 3, 2007 -
An official of the Florida Bar proposed late last week that controversial Miami attorney Jack Thompson submit to psychological testing and accept a 91-day suspension of his law license, according to an e-mail GamePolitics received from Thompson himself.The claim has not been verified by the Florida Bar, which did not respond to our request for comment.
As GP has previously reported, Thompson is currently embroiled in a pair of federal lawsuits against the Bar (see Florida Bar Gives Jack Thompson a Wedgie Over Bully Case). The Bar has moved to hold a disciplinary hearing against Thompson based on several complaints about the anti-game attorney's professional conduct, including video game cases involving Grand Theft Auto and Bully. A scheduled June 25th hearing was postponed. Meanwhile, mediation talks have taken place between Thompson and the Bar.
On Sunday Thompson cc'd GP an e-mail of what appears to be a filing with the Florida Supreme Court, which has jurisdiction over Bar disciplinary matters. In it Thompson writes of an ongoing attempt to mediate the dispute:
Mediation failed today because there was no mediation whatsoever... [Florida Bar official] Ms. Tuma not only did not move off her [suspension] demand one iota, not one smidgeon, but she instead upped her demand by requiring that Thompson undergo a battery of psychological tests as part of the fabulous deal The Bar offered him...
Ms. Tuma [sic] last demand going into the mediation was a 91-day suspension, and she opened and ended with that and a shrink’s couch. This is bad faith...
This “mediation” was a charade... Finally, [Thompson] requests a status conference herein as soon as possible so that we can... shut this Star Chamber down. Thompson is not the one who needs a psych evaluation.
This would not be Thompson's first brush with Bar-ordered psych testing. As he writes in his 2005 book, Out of Harm's Way, in the early 90's the Bar compelled him to undergo such an examination. Thompson reports that he passed and subsequently sued the Bar, settling for $20,000 in monetary damages.
GamePolitics readers can view the Florida Bar complaints related to Thompson's GTA case and Bully case.
Comments
... is that for real, or did someone go to some serious trouble to make a joke? XD That can't possibly be an actual legal document. It's too utterly ridiculous.
I wonder if Thompson knows that in 30 years, a pixelante will probably be president.
That's an impostor. Check the last paragraph, and the content.
John B. Thompson,
Plaintiff,
v.
The Florida Bar,
Defendant.
PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS
COMES NOW plaintiff, John B. Thompson, and petitions this court for entry of an order granting his petition for a writ of mandamus, stating:
DESIGNATED REVIEWER BEN KUEHNE’S ELEVENTH-HOUR RECUSAL REQUIRES A WRIT OF MANDAMUS TO REVIEW THE “FAIRNESS
OF THESE PROCEEDINGS NOW
1. Last week, plaintiff and defendant Bar participated in “mediation,” under order of the referee, Circuit Court Judge Dava J. Tunis, who is presiding over certain Bar “disciplinary” proceedings pertaining to plaintiff. These are disciplinary proceedings ginned up by the porn-to-kids entertainment industry and they are designed to protect that industry, not the public, the majority of which like what Thompson has done to protect their children from that industry.
2. Staff Bar prosecutor Sheila Tuma, spawned out of The Bar’s Orlando office, having served her entire professional life as a Bar prosecutor, first in Illinois and now here in Florida, and thus never having practiced law a day of her life, and despite written assurances that she had “full authority” to mediate these matters, had no authority whatsoever, which was apparent when she had to suspend the mediation to ask for authority to relate a settlement offer from respondent. Thus, this faux “mediation” exhibited bad faith by The Bar. There was no representative of the Bar at this court-ordered mediation, despite the clear rules of mediation. Thus, all confidentiality is thus waived by The Bar by virtue of its bad faith.
3. At this “mediation,” Bar’s counsel added a new condition for settlement—an intractable demand that Thompson submit to a psychiatric/psychological testing by the Florida Lawyers Assistance Program as a mandatory condition for continuing to be licensed to practice law. This Court will recall that The Bar pulled this same disastrous stunt over a decade ago, seeking to pathologize Thompson’s conservative, Christian activism, upon the insistence of shock radio broadcasters whom Thompson got fined by the FCC while allegedly mentally ill (what does that say about their lawyers’ mental state?), and upon the insistence also of the former Chairman of the Florida chapter of the national ACLU. This High Court will further recall that Thompson was found by The Bar’s own hand-picked health care providers to be perfectly sane “and acting out his Christian faith.” This is now an official Bar finding. Thompson appreciated this Court’s summary order at the time that he endure the Bar’s and Supreme Court’s attempt to pathologize his Christian faith by placing him into a latter day gulag of The Bar’s whimsical construction, because Thompson, in addition to having been paid damages for this Court’s flight from judicial sanity, is now the only officially Bar-certified sane lawyer in Florida. But world-renowned lawyer, Barry Richard of Greenberg Traurig says in writing that another mental exam is in order because 15 years have lapsed since the last attempt to shrink Thompson down to size.
4. And yet, despite all that previous disaster, The Bar is now absolutely sure again to its core that Thompson is deranged and unfit to practice law. This demand that Thompson recline anew on The Bar’s Freudian couch comes in part from The Bar’s “designated reviewer,” Bar Governor Ben Kuehne, who served for nearly three years in that capacity to assure the “fairness” of these Bar proceedings against Thompson. The service of Mr. Kuehne in that “fairness” capacity, while he also has been a highly visible and highly active operative for the same leftwing ACLU that has hectored Thompson off and on for twenty years, is downright hilarious. This would be akin to Thompson’s serving as “designated reviewer” in a Bar matter filed against Mr. Kuehne by the Christian Coalition.
5. Remarkably and in a move “too clever by half,” The Bar’s Ms. Tuma, who participated in the aforementioned “mediation” with absolutely no representative of The Bar in attendance thereat, let slip, as is her inefficient custom, that Mr. Kuehne had just “recused himself” from the role of designated reviewer in these Bar matters against Thompson, despite his having served so ably in that capacity for nearly three years. The Bar was not going to tell Mr. Thompson of the recusal. Mr. Kuehne and The Bar refuse to disclose the basis for the recusal, although it appears that is likely because Mr. Kuehne, now that his work is accomplished in assisting the denial of all due process to Thompson, including all discovery, seeks to get away from what promises, in federal court, to be a litigative Ground Zero. Thompson has sought to depose Mr. Kuehne. That discovery has been denied.
6. Surely this High Court of accomplished jurists is aware of what the recusal of a judge, whose function is also to assure “fairness” in a proceeding, even at the eleventh hour on the eve of trial, means: that all actions taken by that judge are reviewable and attackable. Thompson has asked the referee to address this issue as to Mr. Kuehne. Judge Tunis refuses. This court must order her, by a writ of mandamus, to do just that, or in the alternative, ascertain by some means other than asking Ms. Tuma, whether Mr. Kuehne’s now admitted unfitness to serve as “designated reviewer” relates back in time to these bizarre proceedings that he has assured have been “fair.” Undersigned understands that Halliburton has just certified that its contracts in Iraq are “fair” as well.
REFEREE’S DENIAL OF RESPONDENT’S RIGHT TO COUNSEL REQUIRES ENTRY OF WRIT OF MANDAMUS BY THIS COURT
7. Respondent’s counsel has had to withdraw from representation of respondent because of a medical condition. Referee Tunis, however, refuses to give respondent sufficient opportunity and time for Thompson to retain new counsel and for that new counsel to prepare for trial. Judge Tunis, if she runs her criminal calendar in this fashion, must insist upon criminal defendants going to trial with no counsel. The right to representation by counsel is among the most basic of constitutional rights. One would expect a criminal bench judge to realize that. Judge Tunis, however, who has denied Thompson all discovery in this case, is simply continuing her methodologies which have necessitated the filing of the federal civil rights lawsuits, one of which was served upon each of the Justices on the Florida Supreme Court yesterday.
THE FLORIDA SUPREME COURT, IF IT IS TO BE CONSISTENT, MUST IMMEDIATELY ORDER THOMPSON TO UNDERGO A PSYCH EVALUATION
8. Surely each Justice, sitting on the Florida Supreme Court, has lived long enough and has been around enough, to understand the meaning of the saying “Put up or shut up.” Here is the application of that command that is so clear that no one will be able to avoid its application here:
9. Over a decade ago, this Court, as noted above, ordered Thompson to undergo exhaustive and intentionally embarrassing mental exams to determine why anyone would be so crazy as to actually believe what the Bible has to say about God’s claims on our lives. Jesus issued a challenge to the “rich young ruler” (Mark 10: 17-30), and the young man just walked away, saddened that he could not serve both God and mammon. When Thompson became a born again Christian in November of 1976, Christ, through his Holy Spirit, challenged him in ways apparently this Court cannot and will not understand, to use his life in a fashion that the Ben Kuehnes of The Bar despise. Thompson has never demanded that others accept his agenda, or even His agenda, but The Bar has always insisted that Thompson abandon his agenda—or else—now even after The Bar has been officially found to have tried to pathologize Thompson’s faith. All of this is set forth in Thompson’s book, Out of Harm’s Way, published by Tyndale House and available in fine books stores (Exhibit A hereto). Maybe the Bar Governors hang out only in secular humanist shelves at Barnes & Noble. Thompson is now delighted to send, along with this petition for writ of mandamus, a copy of that book. It is autographed to each of the Justices. Each Justice should read it, as he/she will, with all respect, learn some things about what one person, by God’s grace, and despite his fallen nature, can accomplish in the face of liberal nitwits who tolerate nothing because they understand nothing.
10. Now we come to the “put up or shut up part” of this writ of mandamus relief sought from this High Court: The Bar’s official position now is that Thompson is mentally impaired. So convinced is The Bar of this that it has DEMANDED, through its Bar staff prosecutor, Sheila Tuma, after consulting with Ben Kuehne, with her Director of Lawyer Regulation Kenneth Marvin, and with the new “designated reviewer” Bar Governor Steve Chaykin (who has bizarrely stated, publicly, that anyone who opposes gay adoption is an “enemy” of The Bar), that respondent Jack Thompson MUST be professionally evaluated by the Florida Lawyers Assistance Program for mental illness. Ms. Tuma assures us all that this demand is made with the full knowledge of The Florida Bar’s Board of Governors. So this is not some rogue prosecutor acting like a Commissar of the Soviet gulag sending “enemies” off to the Stalinist gulag for psychiatric treatment and “healing.” This is the entire Bar Board of Governors signed up with the demand that this lunatic, this religious nut Jack Thompson, be shrunk on the couch down to the insect that he really is. On July 4th, Thompson came out of the same movie theatre with his family as did newly-installed Bar President Frank Angones. Thompson pleasantly said hello to Frank, whose look on his face indicated he was beholding the local variant of Charles Manson. Thompson, as The Bar found over a decade ago, is not the one suffering from paranoia. Frank Angones and his fellow “Guardians of Democracy” seem to be.
11. Fine, then let The Bar, which is convinced that Thompson is mentally ill and so impaired that he must be examined, act upon its conviction. The Bar can’t have it both ways: It can’t hector Thompson with demands for mental exams stemming from what it is convinced is his disabling mental illness that renders him a danger to others, while at the same time not going to this High Court, yet again, for an order requiring Thompson to undergo these exams.
12. Florida Bar Rules are very clear on this, and Thompson, even in his allegedly impaired state, should like to note them to this obviously perfectly sane Court and The Bar it is supposed to supervise: Florida Bar Rule 3-5.2 states, clearly:
“RULE 3-5.2 EMERGENCY SUSPENSION AND INTERIM PROBATION
RULE 3-5.2 EMERGENCY SUSPENSION AND INTERIM PROBATION
(a) Petition for Emergency Suspension. On petition of The Florida Bar, authorized by its president, president-elect, or executive director, supported by 1 or more affidavits demonstrating facts personally known to the affiants that, if unrebutted, would establish clearly and convincingly that an attorney appears to be causing great public harm, the Supreme Court of Florida may issue an order suspending said attorney on an emergency basis.”
13. Chief Justices and Justices, in light of The Bar’s absolute certitude that Thompson is nuts and poses a danger to the public, what in the world are you and The Bar waiting for? Either act upon the logical conclusion of this demand for psych evaluation, or knock it off. Again, to state the obvious, The Bar can’t have it both ways. If it continues to try to have it both ways—maintaining on the one hand that Thompson is impaired while on the other hand doing absolutely nothing about that current impairment—then this High Court, along with this Bar, are making it inadvertently but abundantly clear that the disciplinary posturings of The Bar are nothing more than vindictive, venal, crazed attempts by a bunch of regulatory thugs to end the career of Thompson, no matter what it takes.
Put another way, this Court must suspend Thompson immediately, or prove each and every Justice thereon to be a duplicitous hypocrite at best.
14. Put another way, either this Bar and this Court act upon the courage of their convictions as to Thompson’s alleged mental impairment, or both this Bar and this Court give Thompson the means to wipe out the treasury of this Bar not just now but for years to come. Failure to act on this issue alone proves this Court’s total divorce from what it says and what it does. Failure to act makes a liar of every Governor of The Bar.
THIS COURT MUST ENTER A WRIT OF MANDAMUS TO STAY THESE PROCEEDINGS PENDING DETERMINATION OF WHETHER RESPONDENT IS MENTALLY IMPAIRED/DISABLED
15. The Bar has not thought its recidivist use of the “lunacy ploy” through to its logical application application as shown by another analysis. Consider the inescapable truth of the following:
16. The Bar is alleging that Thompson is likely impaired. The referee, knowing this, is insisting that Thompson, in his Bar-alleged state of mental illness and impairment, must proceed to trial, unable to assist, by virtue of that impairment, his trial counsel. But wait, the analysis gets worse for The Bar and for Judge Tunis: Not only is Thompson, according to The Bar, likely impaired and thus, arguendo, unable to assist his counsel in his own defense, BUT THOMPSON IS NOW BEING ORDERED BY JUDGE TUNIS, UPON THE BAR’S INSISTENCE, TO PROCEED TO TRIAL IN EARLY SEPTEMBER WITHOUT GIVING RESPONDENT THE TIME TO RETAIN COUNSEL AND PREPARE HIM OR HER!
17. The Referee is now having hearings, like the ex parte one yesterday, while the allegedly incapacitated respondent is not represented by counsel, through no fault of his own but because of his prior counsel’s health problem.
18. This is truly fascinating stuff. Thompson, while insane, has been able to think this through but all the geniuses who just had their annual Bar meeting in Orlando can’t following the simple logic of their own legal positions.
THIS COURT MUST GRANT A WRIT OF MANDAMUS REMOVING DAVA J. TUNIS FROM PRESIDING OVER THESE CHARADE PROCEEDINGS
19. Respondent could not possibly have conjured up a more unfair “referee” than Circuit Court Judge than the Governor Bush-appointed Dava J. Tunis.
20. Here is a judge who, while professing concern about Thompson’s wife while she was undergoing rigorous chemotherapy for cancer, and while Thompson was trying to care for her and their minor son, refused even one day’s continuance of these proceedings. Judge Tunis had an ex parte hearing yesterday while Thompson was shuttling his wife to and from her oncologist and surgeon at Doctor’s Hospital. Judge Tunis, one hopes, extends more judicial compassion to convicted rapists, and she likely does. But Thompson, obviously, is worse than a rapist. He has dared fight back against the very legal establishment that put her on the bench.
17. Here we also have in Judge Tunis a judge, who when moved by respondent to recuse herself, has steadfastly refused to give any reason for her refusal to recuse, despite the clear requirements of the law that she so indicate the basis for her refusal.
18. Here we also have in Judge Tunis a jurist who is now a named individual defendant in a federal civil rights action in which Thompson is the plaintiff who is so lacking in circumspection that she does not grasp the inescapable: that no judge who is a defendant in a federal civil rights action can continue to preside over the sham state proceedings that spawned it. What is next? Is Judge Tunis going to preside over criminal cases in which she is the victim of the defendant’s alleged criminal act? Where did Governor Bush find a judicial candidate who does not understand the concept of “bias?” Is the dictum regarding “Caesar’s wife” a salad recipe to this judge?
Wherefore, if this High Court wants to further assure Thompson’s success in the federal courts as he pursues his federal civil rights claims against The Bar, Judge Tunis, and the Justices of this High Court, then it can foolishly ignore this petition for writ of mandamus in all its regards, not only the patently clear requirement that Judge Tunis be removed from her compromised duties. Judge Tunis is this High Court’s nightmare referee. Any Justice who does not know that is totally unfamiliar with what has transpired in Miami at the hands of an incompetent prosecutor, a compromised “designated reviewer,” a cocktail parties-distracted Board of Governors, and a partial judge.
I HEREBY CERTIFY that I have provided this to John Harkness, Executive Director of The Florida Bar, July 6, 2007, but the undersigned may only be imagining such service given how totally nuts he allegedly is.
man what a nutter... he needs to be locked away in a padded cell or soming
he is the kind of man that would say freedom should be baned!
First, the Jack and violence issue. The stress of his actions on others, and the physical reactions of that stress could be considered. (This is only half joke).
A little more seriously, the psychological evaluation results could be good either way. The better result for him is passing. However, the Bar could then use that to say insanity isn't a defense for his actions. That still means that he has to go through the entire process.
Failing could mean a lot more things though. They could very well revoke his license and place him on a national but confidential registry. Any impairment to his reasoning is a detriment to his performance. In his profession, any level of insanity would fall into the "danger to others" category. It doesn't have to be physical danger, just danger to well-being in some form, including legal, emotional, mental, or living conditions. However, stipulations could be made to get his license back. For example, if he was deemed fit to practice but would have to submit to regular testing to keep his license.
So I guess those are mixed "good" results. Passing is a whole different thing if he really didn't have a full eval before. A FULL psych eval is very scrutinizing. It involves multiple tests, sessions with the subject, and some form of third party testimonial about actions in daily life. The tests are hard to fool too. It depends on what ones they use, but there are a lot of tests that don't have obvious things like "True or False: Most people are against me" to determine anything. A lot of questions are things like "What is your ideal color for a car?" Tests like that are actually very accurate. The questions are researched very extensively to determine the most likely answers for different diagnoses or general instability. Unless you have previous knowledge of the answers, you can't fool those tests. There are different question sets, so taking or seeing one previously is usually worthless. Besides that, the tests and answers are not available to anyone other than health professionals. Being a psych student, I can't even see a real test, just examples of the questions, but ones that aren't used. I have to have my first degree before I can even see the tests to learn how to use them.
@ GoodRobotUs
"both the UK and American political parties seem to base their campaigns more about what ‘The other guys’ would ruin, rather than what they themselves would fix."
That's something I hate more than anything. I swear, I'd almost vote for anyone who ran an entire election campaign without smearing his opponent.
Eternal Darkness reference FTW!
What this is about is a stream of insulting and non-factual letters to two judges as well as a string of other individuals, accusing them of 'murdering children', 'being in the pay of the Game Industry' and other such comments without any evidence whatsoever. Whilst the First Amendment applies, those accusations could be construed as being deliberately designed to discredit and or insult/humiliate the reciever.
The whole thing about the First Amendment is that is has the stipulation that you do not harm others. That's the crux of the computer game argument in Jack's mind. However, he tries to use his own First Amendment rights to harm others, and the simple fact he's convinced himself that the ends justify the means, no matter how much lying, verbally attacking or just plain insulting it requires is pretty good evidence that Jack's moral compass is seriously broken, he works almost entirely on a 'Do as I say, not as I do' mentality nowadays.
You can even be 'almost' forgiven for conducting a smear campaign in a political environment, whilst it's always frowned upon when you get caught, it's still a pretty common political tactic, both the UK and American political parties seem to base their campaigns more about what 'The other guys' would ruin, rather than what they themselves would fix.
However, conducting a smear campaign against a judge, accusing him of 'fixing' a trial for money, as he did in the Strickland case, and generally accusing 2 judges of being corrupt because they didn't agree with you is a very risky path to take when you are supposed to be a representative of the law, it throws the entire Law System into disrepute when you have a Lawyer making stuff like that up.
"Just because hes a tad crazy doesn’t necessarily mean he is going to fail a psych test anytime soon, if he keeps his act together that is."
Not true, although you are partially right about that if he pulls himself together and find plans to defeat us, but no one likes a crazy person just like the Florida Bar. Besides, we have a long-time evidence that he insulted and shamed us gamers before and now it's time for him to be insulted and shamed.
"GIVE THAT MAN AN ENEMA!!!!"
El autoproclamado enemigo de los videojuegos ha sido condenado a una suspensión de 91 días por el colegio de abogados de florida y a realizar un test psicológico, resulta que este no es el primer problema que tiene con el bar (el colegio de abogados...
"THIS...CAN'T...BE...HAPPENING!..."
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:11 am
“Michael D Says:
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:04 am
Add a few zeros to the suspetition please. The man is a retard and should be shot.”
death threat lol.
Oh noez D:! Doesn't make it not true tho :D!!
I personally get the impression that he's more insulted than afraid, which makes sense, and it's his MO to make a big public stink about everything and everyone that opposes him.
He could be afraid, but I don't see it that way. On a similar note, if I had to work with someone I didn't get along with and they asked me to take a psychiatric evaluation, I'd be pissed off too.
But on a serious note I think that he is either among the biggest assholes ever or he is mentally insane. Update us if its verified by the Florida Bar.
Not arguing with the vague possibility, but that would be the worst thing in the world for the gaming community since it would define martyrdom if it were to happen.
I'm 19 and Canadian... 0% of any laws, legislations, and criticisms that are in the news are going to affect my right to play video games.
Back on topic. Jack's denial to take this test proves that he's scared. When you think about it, if he's sane, he should have nothing to fear by taking another psyche test, especially if he passed the first one.
Brings to mind the phrase "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice..." They need to take the hint.
However, on the subject, I'm not so sure people are pleased that Jack been offered a 91 day suspension, that's a start, I think people are pleased because people are starting to come round to the fact that Jack Thompson is EXACTLY the sort of person we've been saying he is for a long time. And those saying Thompson will probably pass this test may be right, but it is worth bearing in mind that last time he was tested, he didn't have letters that contained paragraphs like... 'You're the kind of guy who would wave into an intersection a child (sic), to be run over by a semi' which were addressed to 2 seperate Judges and cc'd to everyone who stood the smallest chance to listen.
It's also worth bearing in mind that whilst Jack did pass his test last time, the amount of times he's had disciplinary action taken against him that succeeded is far more numerous than the amount of times they haven't.
Beside, from what I understand, the last eval wasn't at the request of the Bar, it was at the request of the Supreme Court issuing an order after Thompson started claiming that the third party was placing 'Homosexual Education Tapes' in a school, this is the first time, to my knowledge, that the Bar itself has requested Thompson take an evaluation.