Obstruction of Justice Crimes Alleged Against Family Court Temporary Judge and Sacramento County Bar Officer Paula Salinger

Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner and Salinger partner Paula Salinger allegedly engaged in obstruction of justice crimes against an indigent, disabled domestic violence victim without an attorney. Oversight authorities, including Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully and the State Bar have declined to investigate the allegations. 

Whistleblower leaked records from a Sacramento Family Court case - embedded at the bottom of this post - indicate that criminal acts were committed by family law attorney and temporary judge Paula Salinger against an indigent, unrepresented, pro per family court party.

The pro per was a victim and witness in a family court criminal contempt case filed against a Salinger client, and the pro per also is disabled with a cognitive disability, and is a domestic violence victim, according to court records.

Family court reform advocates say the case is another example of the complete lack of oversight and accountability of attorneys who engage in egregious misconduct against disadvantaged, pro per litigants who can't afford legal representation.

To continue reading, click Read more >> below:

Sacramento Divorce and Family Law Firm Woodruff, O'Hair & Posner & Salinger Sued for $1 Million in Legal Malpractice Case

Prominent family law firm Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner & Salinger is being sued for more than $1 million in damages for legal malpractice in connection with a family court case. Divorce attorneys Thomas Woodruff, Robert O'Hair, Jeffrey Posner and Paula Salinger are partners at the firm, and all hold the office of temporary judge in Sacramento County Superior Court.

Nationally recognized legal malpractice attorney Edward Freidberg last week filed a first amended complaint in a malpractice lawsuit alleging more than $1 million in damages against well known Sacramento family law firm Woodruff, O'Hair & Posner, Inc., and firm partner D. Thomas Woodruff. The full court filing is embedded at the end of this article.

The alleged malpractice occurred in 2001 and the firm is now known as Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner & Salinger. Partners Tom Woodruff, Bob O'Hair, Jeff Posner and Paula Salinger have been involved in a number of other controversies, including filing counterfeit court documents, attempting to obtain a final dissolution judgment while an appeal in the same case was pending, filing documents not in compliance with state law, and, according to family court watchdogs, collusion with family court judges.

To continue reading, and to view the first amended complaint, click Read more >> below...

Judge Pro Tem Attorney Fredrick Cohen Yolo County Judge Candidacy Targeted by Court Reform Advocates

Yolo County Judge Candidate Rick Cohen Declared Unfit for Judicial Office by Family Court Reform Group

Sacramento Family Court reform advocates have initiated a campaign to defeat divorce attorney Fredrick Cohen's campaign to be elected to a vacant judge seat in Yolo County. The opposition campaign was launched with this post at the Davis Patch website.

A group of family court reform advocates have launched a campaign to defeat Sacramento County Bar Association Family Law Executive Committee officer Fredrick Cohen's candidacy for election to the Yolo County bench. Late last month, Cohen announced he would be a candidate for a Yolo County Superior Court seat being vacated by Judge Stephen L. Mock, who will retire next January. The watchdog opposition group asserts that Cohen's conduct as a family court attorney, SCBA officer, and Sacramento County Superior Court temporary judge indicates that he lacks the ethical integrity required to be a judge. 

The group says they plan to use social media and other online sources to disseminate information about Cohen's misconduct as an attorney, including the judge pro tem lawyer's failed federal court attempt to extract $17,000 in attorney fees from an indigent, unrepresented litigant. Sacramento Family Court News previously reported that Cohen violated the Code of Judicial Ethics by using his status as a judge pro tem for advertising and promotional purposes. After our investigative report was published, Cohen removed from his website the references to his temporary judge service. The watchdog group kicked off the campaign against Cohen with a post at the Davis Patch website. Click here to view the post.

Click to visit Sacramento Family Court News on: Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Scribd, Vimeo, and Twitter. For additional reporting on the people and issues in this post, click the corresponding labels below:    

Sacramento County Court Corruption: Judge Pro Tem Attorney Caught in Cover Up of Judge Misconduct - Shifts Blame to Disabled Victim of Illegal Courtroom Arrest

Part-Time Judge Gives False Testimony, Blames Victim for Judge Matthew Gary Misconduct and Abuse of Disabled, Unrepresented Pro Per Litigant

The Historical Revisionism of Sworn Temporary Judges Richard Sokol and Elaine Van Beveren - Part 2
A Special News and Analysis Series by Pelican Briefed

This is Part 2 of our series "The Historical Revisionism of Sworn Temporary Judges
Richard Sokol and Elaine Van Beveren." To view Part 1, click here.

A court reporter transcript obtained by Sacramento Family Court News records divorce attorney Richard Sokol making demonstrably false statements at a court hearing before Judge Thadd Blizzard. 

Sokol's apparent motive was to demonize and discredit the opposing party in a family court child custody dispute. Sokol is a Sacramento County Superior Court sworn temporary judge and Sacramento Bar Association Family Law Section member. 

Sokol is caught on court reporter transcript giving a false account of a prior court hearing before controversial Judge Matthew Gary in the same case. At the previous hearing, Gary had Robert Saunders, the disabled, unrepresented pro per opposing party, arrested and jailed for contempt of court. 

Saunders also was charged with resisting arrest by Gary's courtroom bailiff, Sacramento County Sheriff's Department Deputy J. Strong. As Sacramento Family Court News reported in 2012, two outside, independent judges who later reviewed the incident found that Gary was at fault, and cleared Saunders of all charges. 

Gary was involuntarily disqualified, and banned from hearing further proceedings in the case by San Joaquin Superior Court Judge Xapuri Villapudua. 

To continue reading, click Read more >> below: 

Sacramento Superior Court Corruption: Part-Time Judge Caught on Transcript Lying About Illegal Courtroom Arrest of Disabled Parent

Judge Pro Tem Divorce Lawyer Caught in Cover Up of Judge Matthew Gary Misconduct 

The Historical Revisionism of Sworn Temporary Judges Richard Sokol and Elaine Van Beveren - Part 1
A Special News and Analysis Series by Pelican Briefed

One form of historical revisionism is the “illigitmate distortion of the historical record such that certain events appear in a more or less favorable light,” according to Wikipedia. The distortion of history to deny historical crimes is sometimes called negationism. 

Historical revisionism is often associated with after-the-fact justifications for, or denial of war crimes, such as the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide. 

Some countries have laws making it a crime to disseminate revisionist material, such as Holocaust denial propaganda. Revisionist tactics include deception, denial and trivialization. 

A court reporter transcript obtained by Sacramento Family Court News shows that the same tactics have recently been used in Sacramento Family Court by judge pro tem attorneys Richard Sokol and Elaine Van Beveren. Van Beveren currently also is an officer of the Sacramento County Bar Association Family Law Executive Committee. 

The transcript records Sokol and Van Beveren disseminating subtle and overt falsehoods, deceptions, denials and trivializations about the unlawful 2009 assault and arrest of indigent, disabled litigant and family court watchdog Robert Saunders, in the courtroom of Judge Matthew Gary. Both Sokol and Van Beveren were eyewitnesses to the incident. 

In April, 2012 SFCN published an in-depth, investigative report on the debacle and subsequent events, including the vindication of Saunders by two outside, independent judges. Click here to read our report.

To continue reading, click Read more >> below... 

Hon. Sharon A. Lueras Misconduct: Link To Second Child Death Revealed On Nancy Grace in Sarah Ann Stephens - Ryder Salmen Case

Judge Sharon Lueras Blamed in Infant Death in Case Covered by Nancy Grace and Headline News

"Well I hope the judge is happy tonight, because the baby's dead," Nancy Grace.

UPDATE: A UC Davis graduate student has started a petition at Change.org to ask the California State Auditor and Commission on Judicial Performance to investigate Judge Sharon Lueras for misconduct in connection with the deaths of Ryder Salmen and Matthew Hernandez. To view the petition, click here.

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Sharon Lueras has been linked to a second child death during her two-year assignment to Sacramento Family Court. In an interview with Nancy Grace, Al Salmen, the grandfather of infant Ryder Salmen, disclosed that Lueras denied the family's request for custody of 8-month-old Baby Ryder. At the Sacramento Family Court hearing in the case, Judge Lueras ignored a dirty urinalysis test showing the mother, Sarah Ann Stephens, was on drugs and a threat to the health and safety of her baby, according to Al Salmen. Baby Ryder subsequently died from the ingestion of drug-laced breast milk. Stephens was arraigned August 9 on charges of second-degree murder and two counts of felony child endangerment. 

To continue reading, click Read more>> below...

Vance W. Raye Third District Justice and Judge Peter McBrien Turn Over Court Operations to SCBA Family Law Section Lawyers

Leaked Transcript Indicates Vance Raye & Judge Peter McBrien Enabled Family Law Bar Control of Court in 1991

Vance Raye and Peter J. McBrien were the
architects of the current family court system.

In 1991, as a superior court judge, current 3rd District Court of Appeal Presiding Justice Vance Raye partnered with controversial family court Judge Peter J. McBrien and attorneys from the Sacramento County Bar Association Family Law Section in establishing the current, dysfunctional Sacramento Family Court system, according to the sworn testimony of McBrien at his 2009 judicial misconduct trial before the Commission on Judicial Performance. 

Behind closed doors and under oath, the judge provided explicit details about the 1991 origins of the present-day family court structure. 

In essence, McBrien and Raye agreed to effectively privatize public court operations to the specifications of private-sector attorneys in exchange for not having to run the court's settlement conference program. The SCBA Family Law Section agreed to run the settlement program provided they were given effective control over most court policies and procedures, including local court rules. 

As a result, the public court system was restructured to the specifications of local, private-sector attorneys, according to McBrien's testimony. To view McBrien's detailed description of the collusive public-private collaboration, posted online exclusively by SFCN, click here. To view an example of the same, current day collusion, click here. 

The 1991 restructuring plan began with a road trip suggested by the family law bar:   

"[T]he family law bar, and it was a fairly strong bar here in Sacramento, initiated the concept of a trip to Orange County and San Diego County to pick up some ideas about how their courts were structured. And myself and Judge Ridgeway and two family law attorneys made that trip and came back with various ideas of how to restructure the system," McBrien told the CJP. Click here to view.

Sacramento Family Court judges and local, Sacramento Bar
Association attorneys openly acknowledge their close relationship.

But before his sworn 2009 CJP testimony, McBrien gave the public a different account of the road trip and who restructured the family court system in 1991. As reported by the Daily Journal legal newspaper, McBrien dishonestly implied that the new system was conceived and implemented by judges alone after they made a county-paid "statewide tour" of family law courts. 

The judge omitted from the story the fact that the trip was initiated by the family law bar, and included two private-sector family law attorneys who took the county-paid tour with McBrien and the late Judge William Ridgeway. As the Daily Journal reported: 

"Around 1990, McBrien and a few other Sacramento judges went on a statewide tour of family law courts. At the time there were continual postponements of trials.

 'This is how we came up with the system today,' McBrien said. 'It was probably the best trip Sacramento County ever paid for.'

The judges changed the local system so that family law judges presided over both law and motion matters and trials, which used to be sent to a master calendar department and competed with criminal trials for scheduling.

'Now, if you're ready and unable to settle, chances are 99.9 percent that you are going out [to trial] the first time,' McBrien said. 'A lot of that is attributable to the willingness of the Sacramento bar to work as settlement counselors.'" Click here to view the Daily Journal report.

To continue reading the rest of this article, visit our special, updated 3rd District Court of Appeal page. Click here. For more on the alleged collusion between judges and attorneys who also serve as Sacramento Superior Court temporary judges and work as settlement counselors, visit our special judge pro tems page. For additional posts about the people and issues in this report, click on the corresponding labels below.   

Divorce Lawyers RoadDog Satire: Special Holiday Edition Sunday Funnies - Sacramento Family Court Rare, Collectible Internet Memes

RoadDog Commemorates Fourth of July with Collector's Edition Series of Family Court Meme Posters

Sacramento Family Court watchdogs and whistleblowers have
documented that the court effectively is operated by and for
 the Sacramento County Bar Association Family Law Section.

Sunday Satire by RoadDog

No lie: Civics was RoadDog's favorite class in high school. The Fourth of July is the Dog's favorite holiday. In recognition of the fact that the Sacramento Family Court system is most def not like what RoadDog learned about the Judicial Branch of government in high school civics, the Dog has commissioned a special commemorative series of family court meme posters. High school civics teachers are encouraged to download, print and thumbtack the posters to the classroom bulletin board to help students gain a reality-based understanding of how the real world Judicial Branch functions. 

To collect the full set, click Read more>> below...

Divorce Lawyers at Sacramento County Bar Association Family Law Section Reap Consequences in New Law - RoadDog Sunday Funnies

Judge Pro Tem Divorce Attorneys at SCBA Family Law Section Beneficiaries of New Self-Help Legislation

Sunday Satire by RoadDog

Newly enacted Family Code § 3050 authorizes self-help remedies in Sacramento Family Court 

cases meeting a specific criteria.

The California Legislature last week authorized a unique, jurisdiction-specific set of self-help remedies in family court cases which meet a designated criteria. To meet the criteria, a family court case must originate in the State Capitol jurisdiction of Sacramento County. 

In addition, the parties to the case must consist of an unrepresented, indigent or financially disadvantaged litigant against an opposing party represented by a member of the Sacramento County Bar Association Family Law Section who also serves as a judge pro tem in the same court, or works at a law firm with a judge pro tem. The criteria also requires issuance of a "no contact" child custody order prohibiting the unrepresented litigant from all contact with the child or children of the parties.

To continue reading, click Read more >> below:  

Sacramento Divorce Attorneys Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner & Salinger $1 Million Legal Malpractice Case Again Referred for Trial and Settlement Conference Dates

Judge David Brown Denies Status Conference Request - Orders Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner & Salinger $1 Million Legal Malpractice Case to Trial Setting Process, Again

D. Thomas Woodruff and his firm Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner

and Salinger are accused of legal malpractice in a lawsuit

alleging over $1 million in damages.

In a tersely worded order, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge David Brown has denied a status conference request by attorneys in the legal malpractice case against prominent Sacramento family law firm Woodruff, O'Hair, Posner and Salinger, firm president D. Thomas Woodruff, and real estate attorney Howard Stagg. On June 3, Robert Johnson, an attorney with the law firm representing Woodruff and his firm, made a written request to Judge Brown on behalf of all attorneys in the case for a Status Conference "at your earliest convenience." Click here to view the request letter. 

In a minute ordered issued a week later, Judge Brown summarily denied the request and re-referred the case "to the Trial Setting Process for selection of trial and MSC dates." The denial inferred that the parties had violated a prior order issued by the judge on October 30, 2012 in which he ordered the same referral for trial setting and Mandatory Settlement Conference. Click here to view Judge Brown's order. As we previously reported, court records show that a Civil Settlement Conference was scheduled for April 4, 2013 in Department 59, and a Long Cause Civil Trial Assignment was calendared for hearing on May 14 in Department 47. The case docket appears to indicate that those events did not take place.

To continue reading, click Read more>> below... 

Sacramento Superior Court Judges Violate State Law & Code of Judicial Ethics In Temporary Judge Conflict of Interest Disclosure Controversy

Sacramento Family Court reform advocates say the tattered flag that flies above the courthouse is emblematic of the systemic rule of law breakdown - including serial conflict of interest disclosure violations - which they assert has taken place in court proceedings.

Judges Fail To Make Conflict Disclosures: Systemic Legal Error Taints Countless Cases

UPDATE: Supreme Court Committee Confirms Temporary Judge Conflict Disclosure Violations

In hundreds of cases, Sacramento Family Court judges have failed to make critical conflict of interest disclosures required by state law and the Code of Judicial Ethics, according to a courthouse whistleblower. 

The disclosure omission is ongoing and infects additional cases each week. The legitimacy of orders and judgments in cases tainted by the error are subject to challenge by trial court set-aside motions or costly appellate court review.  

In most of the cases, one party is unrepresented and indigent - substantially reducing the chances that relief will be sought, but nonetheless requiring taxpayers to foot the bill in the event of subsequent proceedings due to the error. The potential public financial liability is significant. The current cost to taxpayers for a single appeal is between $8,500 and $25,500, according to recent appellate court decisions.

New court records leaked by a whistleblower and posted online exclusively by Sacramento Family Court News, including a conflict of interest disclosure filed by a civil court judge, and another filed by a federal judge, show that other Sacramento County Superior Court judges - and federal judges - do comply with conflict laws.

To continue reading, click Read more>> below...

Sacramento Divorce Lawyers & Attorneys - Family Court Judges - New Expanded Coverage at Google+

SFCN Expands Coverage of Jessica Hernandez Case, Sacramento County Bar Association Family Law Section, Judge Matthew J. Gary and More to Google+

We've been busy working to expand our coverage of Sacramento Family Court issues to new, dedicated pages on Google+. The Google+ pages will have additional court records, reporter's transcripts, photos, video and exclusive internal court policy and procedure documents you won't find anywhere else. The work is still in beta, but what we have planned can be previewed at the links below:

• Jessica and Matthew Hernandez case: click here. 
• Sacramento County Bar Association Family Law Section Watchdogs and Whistleblowers: click here. 
• Judge Matthew J. Gary: click here.  
• Sacramento Family Court News Google+ page: click here. 

We'll be setting up additional pages for each of the most popular subjects here at Sacramento Family Court News. And we've got groundbreaking articles in the works that will be posted here shortly. We're always looking for new Sacramento Family Court cases, causes, and issues to write about. If you have a story idea, send us an email using our contact page or just click here.