This post covers two sections from the complaint tribunal’s findings of fact (64-page pdf), a short one and a long one, picking up our story on or about March 26, 1997. Keith Shelton has just returned from visiting Judge Houston Patton to report to his client, James Jennings, his bleak appraisal that the judge had apparently dismissed the idea of settling Jennings’ claims against him . . .
Judge Patton Apparently Reconsiders His Position and Tells Mr. Shelton He Wants to Discuss Settlement
Shortly after 5:00 that afternoon, a phone call from Judge Patton surprised Shelton. Patton said he’d reconsidered and was seriously interested in working out a settlement. Shelton would later testify that, when he asked the judge whom he would use as his attorney to begin wrapping up the matter, Patton said he was qualified to handle it himself, and since he didn’t want anybody to know about this and wanted Jennings’ claims to go away quietly, he wouldn’t be using an attorney.
Between March 26 and April 16, Shelton made several attempts to contact Patton. On a few occasions they spoke briefly, the judge always quick to hang up. But on one occasion he intimated that he might be ready to settle, and Shelton told Jennings to be in Jackson so they could meet. But again as before, Shelton couldn’t reach Patton.
Now, as Patton became practically impossible to reach and stopped promptly returning messages, Shelton began to wonder if the judge had changed his mind again. He contacted Don Leland, a lawyer in Brandon, MS, and asked him to consider associating on the case. When Shelton told Leland about Pierce’s experiences and the other facts as he knew them, Leland said that if Patton didn’t come to the settlement table within a reasonable time, he’d agree to become lead counsel on the case.
A Settlement Agreement is Agreed to and the Parties Meet to Conclude the Settlement
All morning on Wednesday, April 16, Shelton couldn’t get Patton to answer or return phone calls, so he decided to try to catch the judge when he broke for lunch. He went to Patton’s courtroom with the already-signed release-of-claim that Jennings proposed to exchange for the settlement. When Patton recessed for lunch, he asked Shelton to step into a side room. There Shelton showed him the release and settlement documents, which the judge looked over as they talked.
Jennings wanted $25,000 to settle. Patton, who had previously asked the real bottom-line, now asked whether he could pay some down and the rest later. Shelton said Jennings would agree to finance some of the payment only if Patton agreed to the whole $25,000. How large a down payment did Jennings want? When Shelton said $12,000, the judge said he couldn’t raise that much immediately. They agreed that he would put down $5,000.
Continuing to look over the documents while they talked, Patton told Shelton that the case before him had gone to the jury, which would probably be through that afternoon, and he wanted some more time to continue to look over the papers. As soon as he could definitely let them know when he could meet, he’d call them. Shelton left the documents with Patton and returned to his office to tell Jennings about the meeting.
Sometime around mid-afternoon, the judge called. Unbeknownst to Shelton, he was now wired and this conversation was recorded. The transcript has the two of them again discussing the settlement agreement they’d talked about at noon.
In the transcript, Patton says he’s concerned that the release doesn’t refer to the “default [sic] judgment” he’d forced Jennings to sign away, adding, "We need to go ahead and take care of that, too.” At one point he asks Shelton, "Does he still … does he still want me to reinstate that? "
"No, sir, it doesn’t mention that because he doesn’t expect that from you anymore. "
"He doesn’t want me to reinstate the judgment, then? That’s what he’s saying now? Okay? "
"Yes, sir. "
Shelton says Jennings doesn’t want to burden Patton with reinstating the judgment, but Patton insists, "It’s not a burden. It’s just something, you know, we have to do. "
Patton later phoned again to say it would be five o’clock before they could meet. Though Jennings had previously been willing to take a personal check, now he asked Shelton to request a cashier’s check or cash: he didn’t need to be trying to cash a personal check after hours. Patton said he was trying to get to the bank in time and would get cash to come to the meeting.
This resolved, Patton returned to the modification of the release, asking that Shelton redo it to include the reinstatement of Jennings’ $35,000 judgment. And again he began to talk about dismissal of the JPC complaint. (Little did they know, the Commission had five days earlier dismissed Jennings’ complaint, but notifications didn’t go out to Jennings and Shelton until April 17, to Patton until April 18.)
Now Shelton revised the release document to include language Patton wanted on the reinstatement of the summary judgment and what Jennings would tell the JPC, as well as to change the payment terms from $25,000-lump-sum to $5,000-down-and-promissory-note-for-$20,000. Having confirmed their meeting time and place (Patton naming both), they hung up, Shelton finished the revisions, and he and Jennings left the office for the McDonald’s at Metro Center Mall to meet the judge.
There Patton asked Jennings and Shelton join him in his car, telling them he was going to record the conversation and Jennings was free to do likewise. In the transcript, Patton says that he has the money, which Shelton tells him to give him to count while Patton and Jennings look over the documents. Shelton counts the cash to be $5,000, they go over the promissory note, which both Patton and Jennings sign immediately, then they sign the cash receipt, the release agreement, and the order reinstating Jennings’ judgment. Judge Patton leaves with his originals of the documents.
Shelton was holding Jennings’ originals when they were arrested at the McDonald’s.
At police headquarters, an officer asked Shelton if he always carried that much money. No, he said, he’d just received that from Judge Patton. Asked what he thought he was doing, Shelton said all he knew was that he was settling a civil claim against Judge Patton. What kind of claims? Civil rights claims. The officer looked puzzled so Shelton explained, "Section 1983 claims, we believe there are 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 claims and violations of due process claims. " Other than that, he said, he had no clue why he was arrested.
When Shelton and Jennings were able to make a call, Jennings got Pierce on the phone, and Shelton once again asked her about Patton’s abuse of Jennings just to make sure he hadn’t misunderstood. She repeated that Jennings was in jail at the hands of Judge Patton: She had sought and obtained a habeas writ and tried to serve it at the Sheriff’s office. Judge Patton had refused to authorize a release, and the Sheriff’s office had told her that they couldn’t release Jennings without his authorization. She had gone back to the courthouse and found Patton in front of some people. She’d asked him what it would take to get Jennings out of jail, and he replied that Jennings would have to agree to release his summary judgment. She’d told him that what he was asking was illegal. He’d simply turned and started talking to some other people.
As the journos say, More to Come . . .
lotus
