December 3, 2007
The famous Scopes Monkey Trial lasted only eight days.The prosecution of Jack Thompson by the Florida Bar may take considerably longer.
Although information from the courtroom of referee Judge Dava Tunis is sketchy, GamePolitics has learned a few more details of Thompson's desperate fight to save his license to practice law.
For example, while the Bar set aside last week to hear the case, that time frame has already been exceeded. Direct testimony and Thompson's cross-examination of seven witnesses for the prosecution consumed most of the week. Thompson only began his defense on Friday afternoon.
Testifying in support of complaints made about the controversial attorney to the Florida Bar were:
Judge James Moore: He revoked Thompson's pro hac vice (visiting) license to practice law in Alabama in 2005 based on Thompson's conduct in Strickland vs. Sony.
Clatus Junkin: Thompson has alleged that Junkin, an Alabama attorney, claimed he could fix cases before Judge Moore.
Jim Smith and Rebecca Ward: Both are attorneys for Philadelphia law firm Blank-Rome. They were Thompson's opposing counsel in the Strickland case.
Judge Ron Friedman: He presided over the 2006 Bully case.
Al Cardenas & Lawrence Kellogg: Both are attorneys for Florida law firm Tew Cardenas; this one relates to Thompson's ongoing campaign against his other favorite target, shock radio.
I had a rather brief (and not entirely pleasant) e-mail exchange about the case with Thompson over the weekend. He asserted that he was winning and that the trial would go on for weeks.
Comments
Some doubts in the mind, Jacky?
Yeah, that is Thompson to a T
At least if he has to go through a seperate lawyer things like 'where is the evidence' start to be considered before everyone is in court.
I suspect he'll still be free to act as other people's lawyer, there's no law about being a bad lawyer, but his habit of vexatious litigation, and especially his method of pulling facts out of nowhere without any real supportive evidence (remember the vibrating controller or 'nobody shoots anyone in the face' etc?) have proved embarrassing for the Bar in general because it makes them all look unprofessional.
That said, I don't know the entirety of the charges levelled against him, there's a thin line between stating opinion and libel. Claiming that a Judge can be bribed is not an opinion, it is a rumour, and one that was put about to deliberately attempt to gain leverage for Jack, that in itself could land him in very hot water, it's not un-akin to attempting to gain an advantage through Blackmail, the rumour doesn't have to be true, people just have to believe it.
That's probably why the trial will take a long time. Takes a while to properly dot the i's and cross the t's. Give him time to blow everything the first time, then there's no chance.
That's not to say he won't try, no matter what.
Ah, that first point is something i forgot to add before. Thanks for reminding me there.
So how will you celebrate Jack-Tommy Day? I hope it doesn't fall on Valentine's Day, although St. Patrick's Day would be good.
The thing is, all of Jack's kicking and screaming is basically him refusing to accept lesser forms of discipline. Given that he's been a problem in the past, and it's taken this much effort just to give him more than a slap on the wrist, the Bar is likely to opt to just plain rid themselves of him rather than repeat this 3 ring circus in another 5 years
Don't forget about the marshmallows, to be roasted over the smoldering remains of a career gone down in flames.
Indeed.... in the words of the Sega Rally announcer:
Game Over yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
@Gameboy:
Exactly. Thread (and Thompson's career) over. :P
@Vinzent:
MADNESS? THIS! IS! THOMPSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!
(I sincerely apologize for the preceding stupidity.)
@smeagol23:
Sounds about right, LOL.
I can see his defense following the pattern of his motions and last minute gasps to get the case dismissed. He will blame others, bring up what they do for a living, insinuate wrongdoings on their part, and the judge will ignore each of these, telling him time and time again, "This is not relevant to the trial at hand."
I think at best he will be able to drag the trial out, but eventually they will disbar him.
What would be worse is the idea of:
Jack Thompson Televangelist aka Gods Angry Man
He is already used to preaching about the "evils of games" and there are always some that are will follow such in blind devotion. He gets to continue his television attacks on games (and stroke his ego) and might be in a position to cause some damage when actually backed by religion.
His would be an amusing sermon (irony) when you consider in his rudeness, general lying and passing the blame for his mistakes (sorry I keep forgetting he does not make mistakes... hmmmm) on others.
Even as an agnostic that leaves a bad taste.
Wait I have a name for it. The church of The Lying Scapegoat.
Yeah, so you. You ever consider joining the forums? We've got a few veterans but no lawyers. Plus we need someone to counter Pandralisk.
Walker T
In jacks case winning means no jail time ^_~
"...would be dragged out as long as possible." I think would be more fitting.
Jack's boned.
A Thought: a long trial is not a sign of a sure victory. In fact, it's the opposite. If your victory were so certain, there would be no need to take so much time to verify this, and the case would end quickly. That it does not means that your victory is uncertain, as they need to spend much time to determine wither or not your innocent.
Also, you're desperate, flailing attempts to stall the case suggest that you are in fact in trouble. If you were so sure you were going to win this, you wouldn't feel the need to stall as much as possible. You are stalling, therefor you clearly fear something about this trial, I wonder what that is...
I guarantee if he does get disbarred, he'll claim it as a victory, that he planned it all along and the video game industry is falli ng into his trap. Or something along those lines.
The man is simply completely incapable of admitting that anything he does/thinks could ever be wrong
So winning is dragging the hearing out for weeks. Lovely. So much for a happy Christmas for the Thompson Family.
John Bruce to Family, "I know it is Christmas morning, but I made sure that the trial would continue through today so that I could blame it on the vast conspiracy to silence me."
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Well, at least when he gets disbarred, the Florida taxpayer's money won't be entirely wasted.
Expect this to go into the New Year, folks. You know that when he loses, he's going to appeal. He's got nothing to lose by appealing, and will probably get a stay against enforcing any disbarrment until after the appeal is heard, which could take years.
I have to believe Christmas for the Thompson family involves him dragging his son around to malls and trying to get the Santas there to promise him an M-rated game for Christmas.
Poor guy, he's in denial. :(
*Coughs*
LOL!
==================
Jack claiming that he is winning - if this "win" is consistent with past "wins" then I'm keeping the Guinness chilled and on standby. The weather here has been a bit wet and rainy, not suitable weather for s'mores, but one can still use the microwave in a pinch.
Thompson: "Your honor, i'd like to add the Union of Store Santas as witnesses to the growing, undeniable conspiracy against me"
Judge: "And *snigger* your evidence for this?"
Thompson: "Santa promised my to get my son Crysis for christmas"
Seriously, though, if this is JB winning, i'd LOVE to see what JB losing is like...
Tic toc you still can't stop the clock.
It reminds me of the line Gomez Addams said in the first Addams Family movie: "They say the man who represents himself in court has a fool for a client. Well as god is my witness, I am that fool!"
poor jack, i think he's seen too many courtroom drama movies.
Of course he broke said order and nothing came of it, just the icing on the cake for the judge and jury to consider.
If he can really hope to counter the many discrepancies (spelling) that he has commited by claiming that he did it for the children, ensuring that they would not be exposed to such "terrible evil videogames" then I will be extremely surprised and will probably regain what little respect I had for the man (that is of course before he went absolutely senile).
And as a public personal for Jackie (John Brucie) Thompson, "give up the act, you will find plenty more work as a lawyer in a retirement home resolving the case of the missing dentures!"
In closing why does this man still exist anyway? if his theories are to be believed then we have already chainswed him, shot him, beaten him, grenaded him and pushed him off of a building (etcetera) however none of this has actually happened!
TTFN
(all words posted here are the opinion of Pominator, CEO of Green Phoenix industries (c) 2028, by reading this fine print your soul and body are now exclusively the property of Pominator, any action you take is because Pominator says so, you are allowed to breathe)
Likely why they didn't do anything about it. It was a legal agreement, and Thompson broke it.
And using online gaming logic, isn't it usually the hotshot who says he'll own everybody before the match really starts the first to get owned when the match actually starts?
Anyway it happens, and since the world's favourite lawyer fits into said position, I think this will be fun to watch, anyone got a live eCast of this?
They could make JT's life into a situational comedy show on E4!
(all words posted here are the opinion of Pominator, CEO of Green Phoenix industries (c) 2028, by reading this fine print your soul and body are now exclusively the property of Pominator, any action you take is because Pominator says so, you are allowed to breathe)
he really needs to lay off the acid, because he seems to be getting these hallucinations more often than usual nowadays.