So what did the tribunal make of the story you’ve just read? In the section of its report (64-page pdf) titled CONCLUSIONS OF LAW, you’ll find such passages as:
The facts and circumstances of Mr. Shelton’s initial arrest and the events from that point until Judge Green dismissed the charges against him are disturbing at best but not as to the conduct of Mr. Shelton.
While this Tribunal believes that Mr. Shelton should be reinstated to the practice of law, the Court has directed the Tribunal to conduct an inquiry into the requirements for reinstatement under M.R.D. 12. Frankly, it is the position of the Tribunal that the Court should forego consideration of that Rule and rectify an egregious wrong. It is the opinion of this Tribunal that Mr. Shelton should have never been arrested in the first place let alone indicted. …
While the lawyers among us knock themselves out on the pdfs, here for the rest of us are a few other choice tidbits:
Mr. Shelton was wrongfully indicted and should never have been suspended in the first place although under the Rules of Discipline, neither the Bar nor the Court really had any options with respect to the actions taken by either. …
Mr. Shelton has never admitted he committed or was guilty of bribery or conspiracy. In fact, he has always denied his guilt. In tendering his plea, all he admitted was that it was possible for the State to obtain a guilty verdict on the underlying charges in the Circuit Court of Hinds County, Mississippi. This is totally consistent with an Alford plea. In an Alford plea situation, an express admission of guilt is not constitutionally required in order to be punished criminally. North Carolina v. Alford, [citation omitted]. …
Regardless of whether you call this a "best interest plea " or an Alford plea, there still must be an evidentiary foundation that the individual is guilty of the crime charged. In Mississippi, an actual admission of guilt is not necessary for a guilty plea. However, it is essential that there exist a factual basis for a defendant’s guilty plea. … However, and most importantly, a defendant’s decision to plead guilty does not satisfy the evidentiary requirement that there be a factual basis for a guilty plea. … There must be contained within the record a specific evidentiary foundation which would allow the court to determine that the defendant’s conduct was defined as criminal. … "Such a foundation must be enough that the court may say with confidence that the prosecution could prove the accused guilty of the crime charged. " … [Emph. the tribunal's].
There certainly has been no finding by the circuit court that Mr. Shelton committed bribery or conspiracy. In fact, the court has found just the opposite. …
While the entry of the plea may have been sufficient to warrant Mr. Shelton’s suspension, it is the final entry of an order accepting that plea and finding Mr. Shelton guilty of the crime charged that would trigger further proceedings. In essence, a final conviction is necessary. As no such "conviction " has ever occurred and the underlying charges have been dismissed, Mr. Shelton is entitled to immediate reinstatement pursuant to Rule 6(b) M.R.D. …
Even though innocent, people plead guilty to criminal charges for a myriad of reasons. However, in most instances, it reflects directly on the potential loss of personal freedom. It is respectfully argued that the loss of a law license pales in comparison to a jail sentence. While Mr. Shelton holds the privilege of practicing law to the highest respect, the privilege to practice law cannot take the place of personal freedom, the relationship with one’s family and other factors personal to the individual entering the plea.
In this case it appears that Mr. Peters had followed his "let’s see if I can bluff a plea out of this guy by indicting him " format and had been successful to a point. Mr. Shelton entered a "best interest plea " because he truly felt it was "in his best interest " to do so. Mr. Shelton valued his personal freedom and recognized that given the venue of the proceeding, the individual making the allegation and, as Mr. Taylor stated in his memorandum, the fact that prosecutors get "revved up " when the suspect is an attorney and the victim is a judge, his decision was not misplaced. Thus, given the fact that the previous District Attorney would indict individuals on a dare or for the purpose of trying to flush out a plea tends to support the reasonableness of Mr. Shelton’s decision. …
Note the tribunal’s clear disgust with what these years have meant to Keith Shelton — and one of his tormentors:
[T]he only person who has suffered pecuniary loss throughout this ordeal is J. Keith Shelton. The accusations alone nearly wrecked his practice in 1997 as he lost client after client in the days and weeks after the accusations were made public. He is the one who was thereafter suspended from his chosen profession, the practice of law. We find no evidence to indicate that his client suffered any pecuniary loss. There is no evidence that Judge Patton suffered any pecuniary loss as he has continued to sit as a county court judge for Hinds County, Mississippi. Mr. Shelton had nothing to do with the filing of the complaint with the Commission. To the extent that Judge Patton suffered pecuniary loss from that complaint, such was the responsibility of Jennings and not of Mr. Shelton. As there has been no pecuniary loss, there is no one for whom full amends and restitution is due under the requirements for reinstatement.
Finally, the tribunal announces,
It is the recommendation of this Tribunal as follows:
1. That J. Keith Shelton be immediately granted his petition for reinstatement to the practice of law in the State of Mississippi and that his name be reinstated to the rolls of The Mississippi Bar; and
2. That J. Keith Shelton not be required to take the Multi-State Professional Responsibility Exam.
So, on August 14, 2007, recommended Beverley M. Franklin, Katherine S. Kerby, and William C. Cunningham. It took the Mississippi Bar until December 11, 2007, to respond (two-page pdf) that the tribunal’s findings “are supported by clear and convincing evidence,” that its conclusions “are supported by the Rules of Discipline of the Mississippi State Bar and the case law of this Honorable Court,” and that its recommendation “is consistent with the findings of fact and the conclusions of law.”
With that, Adam B. Kilgore, General Counsel of the Bar, sent Reinstatement of Shelton to the Supreme Court of Mississippi for the last necessary action to right the tremendous wrongs done Keith Shelton by what passes for Mississippi’s justice system.
SCOM releases its opinions every Thursday. Eight Thursdays have passed since the justices received Kilgore’s statement of the Bar’s response. A few more Thursdays and it will be eleven years since a wrongful arrest and bogus “indictment on a dare” signaled the beginning of Keith Shelton’s and his family’s nightmare.
I don’t care how sclerotic Lady Justice may have become on her Mississippi diet, this is obscene.
lotus
Each and every attorney on the blog should post the link to this blog on every legal source they use.
And if anyone is a member of the MS Sololist this needs to be posted over there as well.
What agency funds Judicial Perforance? Is Brant Brantley a Judicial Bureacrat or enept,lazy, or underfunded. He has been around many years and this corruption has happened on his watch, what do we do with him, fire him or vote him into office.
I’ve just informed Donna Ladd, the CL, Sun Herald and the Daily Journal of these articles. Let’s see if the mainstream media actually reports on this.
I wouldn’t hold any breath for that, irate. Mighty damn intricate story for MSM.
Unfortunately, lotus, Keith Shelton will probably have to be patient a little longer. The Supremes are moving into their new marble palace this week and aren’t planning to take up any matters for a while. Correcting injustice can’t compare to picking out new drapes and placing your mementos just so.
I can’t wait to see the email the bar sends out in re to this. And yes I am looking at the ceiling as I type this.
“Correcting injustice can’t compare to picking out new drapes and placing your mementos just so.”
Oh, hebn forfend, somslawyer! I mean, it really matters whatcha gotta live with each day an’ all . . .
The JFP now has links up to this article and comments from Donna Ladd.
So the Honorable Houston J. Patton is still a sitting judge?
I’m much more pissed off about this than I am the Scruggs fiasco. It is one thing to bribe a judge(s) but it is indeed another level to indict an innocent man and his client.
irate, I’m in your camp — but as someone said over at Y’allP, “Man, what a depressing story.”
People don’t flock to depressing stories, so I doubt this one will go far either. But it sure needed telling.
Having appeared before Judge Patton, I am stunned.
Irate…I’m with you on this. This is a worst abuse of the legal system I’ve seen or heard about lately. One can only hope that all the “bad guys” get theirs in the very near future…and the rest of them that squeak by in the first round get to lay awake at night wondering when the knock is coming to their door.
Can’t say as I blame you, MrS.
Thank you for the blog, lotus. Frightening, but thank you.
This is the most sickening case of abuse I think I have ever heard, and I would like to know when judge patton is up for re-election so that I may work against him. Attorney Shelton should file a civil suit against him for all the income he lost during those eleven years.
Lotus @ 6:59:
Oh, hebn forfend, somslawyer! I mean, it really matters whatcha gotta live with each day an’ all . . .
LIKE YOUR FREAKING CONSCIENCE??????
Having posted a frivolous comment, let me pose a more serious question: Demanding and receiving $25,000 for a release to settle the 1983 claim was clearly a legal transaction. BUT, was conditioning the release – a thing of value – in part on reinstatement of the summary judgment – an official act on the part of Judge Patton – a quid pro quo that could support a colorable bribery charge?
This Cowboy just read this series and can not believe such a wretched piece of human pig shit like Houston Patton actually sits on the bench. Is it any wonder few of us coasties have any confidence State Farm will ever be brought to justice when ethical lawyers are crushed over a few thousand dollars. Unit 32 ain’t good enough for ole Patton. Lotus this series represents the very best of bloggin’. Yippee Kia Yea!
It get s even more interesting if you look at the MSSC’s first denial of Shelton’s reinstatement petition. http://www.mssc.state.ms.us/Images/Opinions/CO34776.PDF
And here is the Order disbarring him in 2003.
http://www.mssc.state.ms.us/Images/OPINIONS/CO11299.PDF
Looks like the Supremes have egg on their face!
I’ve just informed Donna Ladd, the CL, Sun Herald and the Daily Journal of these articles.
Great. Now all of 15 people in Fondren will get a look-see. You need to contact the AP to get the serious eyeballs.
Irate … what’s that old saying? Be careful what you wish for … you just might get it. You ‘spect the powers that be wish they’d never opened that can o’ worms?
Bud this Cowboy just posted the entire series over at the Clarion Ledger Forums.
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3a40bdf45e-a317-4419-ae25-3886ff53446fForum%3a5343b432-de02-416f-9d5c-303d79786ca8Discussion%3af2550243-5011-403b-b5f8-fc3f119cff7a&category=PluckForum
AP Mississippi
Capitol Towers
125 South Congress St., Suite 1330
Jackson MS 39201-3311
(601) 948-5897
948-7975 Fax
I’d contact Jack Elliott. He’d love to sink his teeth into a nice filet.
Well you’ll certainly get more play that way CC than wasting time with the free weekly entertainment tabloid. Toodles.
You mean the Jackson Free Press pardner? I never post there.
irrate, the way this played out almost tied the court’s hands at the time of those opinions. When the lawyer did an Alford plea, their rules required disbarment. This had gone squirrelly before that.
I ain’t gonna be dropping no names CC ‘siderin the sensitivity round these parts for those 3 words and the reflexivity that results when them persons come ’round. From my experience the C-L as a report house don’t easily climb back off a limb they first went way out on and no amount of pip squeakin’ from parts nigh Fondren Corner changes a hill of beans. Suffice to say you went and put the stuff where it will get exponentially more Jackson eyeballs and that is good thing. If the AP shows an interest then you’ll get traction.
Lol pardner. There is a story here that I hope the folks at the C-L will pick up and cover. I reckon based on their earlier reportin’ that Lotus linked that somebody named Agnew is feelin’ slightly duped by ole Judge Patton. If we make enough noise they can’t ignore us. And this Cowboy is accomplished at makin’ ole piggy squeal.
All I can say is “Thank God for the internet.” Otherwise we would not know a damn thing about any of this.
I don’t think this story can be ignored now that quite a few attorneys have gotten wind of it. Let’s see what happens this week. I’d be surprised if don’t see some severe repercussions erupt out of this.
Madam Lotus,
please explain for us slow lawyers out here what the indictment of shelton said he did wrong. how do you get indicted for bribing a judge by receiving money from him? something like he bribed the judge to reinstate his default or whatever by threatening him with a 1983 action and then settling it? doesn’t really pass the straight face test. just goes to show that a prosecutor really can indict a ham sandwich and our supremes will affirm it.
The million dollar question is why it is six 1/2 months later and even though the Tribunal has recommended Shelton be immediately reinstated the MSSC has not expedited a ruling in this frigging matter.
Maybe Judge Smith is still reliving his Borat fame!
dear its: you are so right. The judge paid the money to settle so where’s the beef . . . I mean the bribe? Maybe that’s why peters/ delaughter thought their behavior was not bribery ’cause the judge wasn’t paying in those cases? What a load of bull!!
Ed do you have any scruples? How ’bout one? Can you name one?
Typical Ed Peters MO here. I wonder if ol Ed got some money from Judge Patton for going after the atty Shelton and his client with the criminal charges and indictments? Sounds like it pretty much ended the lawsuit against the Judge, which was the prosecution’s intended effect — it certainly was not justice that was intended. Ed Peters is a despicable POS —IMO.
Patton needs to be removed from his judicial post immediately. Peters needs to spend the rest of his days at the Parchman MS Penal farm in an orange jump suit with some of the poor souls he has likely sent there for no reason.
If blog posts qualified for Pulitzers, surely this series would earn one. Lotus, this work is exceptional.
This may have been said before but it recently dawned on me that this blog has real therapeutic value to the average lawyer who is watching all this unfold. If you are an attorney and you have not experienced a profound sense of loss/fear over most of the threads here, somptin wrong wichya!
Has anyone got any research on how scandals like the ones being discussed here effect the psyche of the average person working within the effected system/institution? Psychological effects of corruption/oprression etc? Nonviolent terrorism?
Al-Scooter, This blog post moved me beyond words too. Pullitzer nomination seconded!
fish, I don’t have a clue but it did occur to me that participation ought to earn some sort of CEU credit. Of course, I don’t know what it is you do when the rest of us go to the beach.
Why would Judge Patton care whether Jennings kept a judgment against his ex-wife? Was he doing somebody a favor in having Jennings give up the judgment?
What lawyer was representing the ex-wife in that case?
Overlawyered.com now has a link to the Shelton articles as well. Da shit has hit the fan folks.
Curiousgeorgette, because I have been given an assignment from the Defendant for their cause of action against the attorney for malpractice! By the way…the attorney that drafted the order for me to set the judgment was none other than former County Court Judge, James ” What’s rule 36″ Bell!
The day I got out of jail, I filed a motion to set the release aside based on fraud, etc. The file DISAPPEARED then. Two weeks later, despite no entry on the check out docket, a clerk Tondeay Mc Laren ( sp) that Judge Patton took the file. Patton denied it.
My email jailforpatton@gmail.com
Upstairs for some answers, keeds. Good morning!
Ah mighty grasshopper! Nowweducit! Patton did all of this to save Bell from a 35k malpractice claim. Question: what did Bell have on Patton that made Patton go to such great lengths for Bell. Sounds like Patton was bribed but it wasn’t by Shelton, it was by Bell.
Question for Mississippi bar and judicial performance: why did you guys let Patton and Bell off the hook? ’cause they wuz good ole boys is no excuse.
Ahh so Glasssshopper…correct…ALMOST.. All I asked for in the summary judgment were ACTUAL damages…I still had the PUNITIVE set for trial. With admission # whatever…” Please admit you did this maliciously and intentionally ” deemed ADMITTED. That was a slam dunk. It was a $50,000.00 claim plus the attorney’s fees paid.
Oh yes, and I forget dear Peter Corson. The firm was at the time, Bell, Brock and Corson at the Time. Peter personally handed me the pen to sign the release of judgment. He seemed scared to death and not very pleased. Boy needs a backbone. Well, he’ll toughen up in jail……
Excuse the typos…Next time I start venting my spleen about this, I’ll install my contact lens.
James: I’m so sorry that happened to you. Its inexcusable, immoral, unethical and just plain awful. Injustice is painful.
a-MEN, confounded!
James, YGM.
Thank you for sharing this about Keith. Why has the Jackosn Free Press not at least run this story. The clarion liar owes him a apology at the least. Truly Injustice for all.
The JFP ran it in print yesterday.