14 years of illicit court hearings

Forum: This document was written by me, some years ago, before I finally realized that there was a systemic problem that was linked to judges, attorneys, Bar Associations, SMJ and a sundry of other items that I have learned about since that time. This article is relative to Florida DCF, formerly known as HRS. Please overlook the lack of understanding that I held at that time. The links may or may not work, as they are located on the "wayback machine" which is an archival service.

Jerry.

14 Years of Illicit Court Hearings
Department of HRS Dictates -- How cases will be decided

In 1979, December 15, the Department of HRS initiated a departmental regulation, HRSR 30-1 <http://web.archive.org/web/20020301092532/http://www.freenet.tlh.fl.us/~focal/hrsr30-1.html>"Processing Questionable Court Orders". The purpose and intent of the regulation was to allow the departments District Legal Counsel to make a determination on whether or not Court Orders were in compliance with the written law. More importantly, the order allowed departmental District Counsels to hold 'ex-parte' communications with the various Judges relative to their individual court orders.
It is stated in that regulation in paragraph 3.b.(3)(c)
(1) "If District Counsel determines that the court did use the appropriate statute(s) currently, he or she will send the unit supervisor a brief statement indicating why the court order is not invalid.
(2) "If the District Counsel concurs with the unit supervisor and determines that the court used the statutes inappropriately, the District Counsel will, within 48 hours, confer with the District Administrator and under his admisement (a) Notify the judge by telephone that the order does not conform to statute and that the order needs to be rewritten to adhere to the law." Emphasis added at bold text.
This practice continued for a period of 14 years, 1979 through 1993, when the regulation was finally eliminated from the departments active regulations. Ironically, in 1988, the Honorable Judge Dorothy H. Pate, called the departments hand and subsequently an admission was rendered by the department that the regulation violated both civil and criminal procedures, as well as Attorney ethics. See admission dated April 26th, 1988 <http://web.archive.org/web/20020301092532/http://www.freenet.tlh.fl.us/~focal/pateltr.html>
During that time frame, was Judge Pate the only Judge that had enough intelligence to recognize the illicit activity, and enough backbone to force the department to take another look at the wrongs that were being committed as a result of the execution of such a regulation? Giving all Judges there due regard and praise, it can only be assumed that the other Judges also recognized the invalidity of such a regulation, but they instead, opted to ignore the civil violations that were being conducted in their Courts. Thank you Judge Pate for being a forthright, upstanding, and prominent figure in the Florida Judiciary. Weak-kneed Judges, fearing the possibility of being taken before the Judicial Qualifications Commission, succumbed to the legal threats of the District level legal Counsels.
How many hundreds, if not thousands, of cases were manipulated and determined by the Department as opposed to being administered by the Judges across this State? How many civil violations were committed against the citizens of this State? There is virtually no way to determine, at this point in time, the number of unrecorded phone conversations that took place between the Judges and the District Legal Counsels.
The ability of HRS to write their own regulations is granted by the Legislature. Is the Legislature going to continue to allow the department to implement regulations, policies, and procedures that can concevably violate the Constitutional and other Civil rights of the Citizenry? Yes! Without proper oversight, the department will continue to implement law that violates the rights of the citizens. Law has precedence over departmental regulations, and Judges do have the authority to interpret law, and to determine if regulations comply with the law. Attorneys do not have the authority to determine if a court order complies with the law.... to do so is to question the integrity of the sitting Judge.
Because this regulation gave to District level attorneys power over the Judges, there was no reason for any other Attorney to interfere with the implementation or execution of the regulation. The brotherhood of attorneys in charge of review of such regulation, apparently decided that as long as they could dictate to Judges, and not get in trouble with the court, it would be OK to violate civil and criminal procedures. How many families were torn apart due to the departments ability to override the decisions of the Judges of this State? How many persons were subsequently prosecuted because the department had the authority to tell the Judges that the Judges had misapplied the statutes? I suppose a special thank you is in store for those attorneys that were in practice during that time, that failed to "jealously" defend the rights of their clientelle.
Today there is no written policy, procedure, regulation, or operating procedure that would allow such 'ex-parte' communications to be conducted. Unfortunately, records available from the department suggest that such communications still continue to this day. There is no way to monitor the phone calls that Judges receive. Under the law, ex-parte communications are not permitted.
In 1988, Gregory Coler stated in a letter to Judge Pate, "Prior to receiving your letter, I was not aware of the content of the regulation." This regulation had been in force for a period of ten years at that point in time. Can Coler rationally expect anyone to believe that he was unaware of the content of such a dynamic regulation? At that time, it was, individually, Secretary Gregory Coler that was required to sign 'final orders' of the department, to include amending and/or expunging abuse reports.
It appears that, once again, the general public has been hit on the 'blind side'! Not being aware of their individual rights, their Constitutional rights, that has led to the current condition of the Department of Children and Families. The poor blind fools have allowed the Department, in league with their witty attorneys and politicians, to establish rules and regulations that subvert the Constitutional rights of every citizen of this State.
The question now arises; "How many of the department of Children and Families rules and regulations, policies, and the general laws, will stand to Federal scrutiny?" Take an active role citizens, and do not allow your legislature to arbitrarilly allow anyone to write regulations that can violate your Constitutional rights ! ! ! Contact your legislators and demand that the Constitution of the United States, take precedence in all matters that affect your personal life. Email your Florida State Representative <http://web.archive.org/web/20020301092532/http://www.freenet.tlh.fl.us/~focal/legmail.html>

Copyright © 1997 F.O.C.A.L., Inc. All rights reserved.
Last Updated 20-Oct-97