Lawyers

Jana Monroe had a distinguished 22-year career in the FBI, including in the FBI Behavioral Science Unit. She knows in depth the disturbing depths of human depravity that FBI agents must cope with. In her book, "Hearts of Darkness,” Monroe covers a variety of topics and issues, including her dismay over the often-light sentences given to guilty lawyers, judges, and cops.

For a brief period of her time, Monroe was placed in charge of the FBI’s Financial Institution Fraud department in San Diego. They had received reliable information that there was blatant public corruption in the local courts. After two years, the tireless work of FBI agents and federal prosecutors resulted in the indictments of two local Superior Court judges and a prominent local attorney.

However, Monroe was deeply disappointed by the lenient punishments. One judge and the lawyer received 41 months in prison, and the second judge received 33 months. Monroe writes:

When those sentences were handed down, I immediately thought of all the people doing hard time in serious prisons for being stupid enough or otherwise desperate enough to rob at gunpoint a convenience store where a good haul might be a hundred bucks.

No matter how the money gets stolen - at the point of a gun or by cooking the books - there are repercussions that the law is too ready to ignore when the crook works in a paneled corner office and belongs to all the right clubs.

I strongly believe in ethics. Those to whom law enforcement and justice have been entrusted - police officers, FBI agents, district attorneys, especially judges - are obligated (serve) with integrity and honesty. When they don't, they deserve no better treatment than a guy who tries to knock over a 7-Eleven.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Monroe is right. Lawyers, judges, and law enforcement officers represent government, law and order, righteousness, and indirectly God (Rom. 13:1-7), and must therefore be held to high standards when they blatantly disobey laws and are guilty of crimes.

U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon asked an unusual question to attorney Janet Hoffman during the sentencing phase of a recent case. “Do you want me to refer to your client as Mr. Pearce, Mr. Doe or Mr. Casper?”

Normally a defendant’s name is one of the first established facts in a criminal proceeding, but in this case, it was a mystery behind the whole thing. Hoffman’s client was a well-known attorney who went professionally by the name Roger A. Pearce Jr. He had spent more than three decades practicing law in Oregon and Washington. Now, at age 77, he was living a comfortable life, having retired with his wife to a million-dollar condo on Lake Washington in Seattle. But recently authorities discovered that he’d been living a lie. Roger A. Pearce Jr. was not his legal name.

The ruse was discovered in 2022 when the State Department flagged his passport application because he applied for a new social security number as an adult. So, prosecutors indicted him as “John Doe,” after he was arrested on a warrant. After pleading guilty to misdemeanor identity fraud, the judge asked his courtroom deputy to have the defendant state his name for the record.

He said, “My birth name was Willie Ragan Casper Jr.” Casper, a.k.a. Pearce, explained that he went to college at Rice University in Texas, but made a series of poor choices, dropping out of school, then quickly marrying and splitting apart. In desperation, he engaged in petty theft and check-kiting schemes.

He said, “I was a young person, confused, depressed. I felt the failure. I was ashamed that I had wasted a lot of my parents’ money supporting me in a distant city they couldn’t really afford. My marriage had fallen apart. I had no real career prospects.”

So, he illegally changed his name as a way of finding a fresh start. He purchased the birth certificate of a baby who’d died, then used that certificate to apply for a social security number.

Assistant U.S. attorney Ethan Knight said, “Every person is responsible for and owns their own history and really the shadow that that casts and the consequences that ultimately may bear out. The defendant’s choice in this case really is an abdication of that basic principle.”

The defendant intends to legally change his name to Roger A. Pearce Jr. and resume the remainder of his years under that name. He also has a chance to mend old fences with the family he left behind so many years ago. He said, “Perhaps paradoxically, this prosecution may give me the chance to recover some of what I’ve lost.”

Possible Preaching Angles:

1) Identity in Christ - While the defendant sought to create a new identity for himself through deception, the Bible teaches that true identity and renewal come through faith in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17); 2) Forgiveness; Second Chance - The story suggests the possibility of forgiveness and a second chance (Lam. 3:23;1 John 1:9); 3) Accountability - The prosecutor's statement about owning one's history and facing consequences illustrates personal accountability (Rom.14:12).

One of the lasting byproducts of the worldwide pandemic is the fact that many face-to-face institutional interactions of modern life have been conveniently relegated to virtual meetings. Among those institutions affected are our beleaguered court systems.

So, in late May, when social media feeds across America featured a clip of a man attending court via Zoom, the novelty was not in the platform itself, but about what the man was doing. Corey Harris appeared before the Honorable Judge J. Cedric Simpson on Zoom, while driving.

Harris told the judge, "Actually, I'm pulling into my doctor's office actually, so just give me one second, I'm parking right now.”

The judge said to the Harris’ public defender, Natalie Pate, "Maybe I'm not understanding something. This is the driving-while-license suspended (case)? ... And he was just driving and he didn't have a license?"

“Those are the charges, your honor, yes,” said Pate.

At this point in the video, Judge Simpson becomes quite incensed, and orders Harris to turn himself in or face arrest. People online got a good laugh at the man who appeared to be so flagrantly disobeying the law, virtually appearing in court driving while his license was suspended. Harris eventually spent two nights in jail over the offense.

There was only one problem: Harris’ license had actually been reinstated back in 2022, but because of a clerical error, the judge was not aware of the reinstatement. Harris was driving because he assumed that they knew his licensed had already been reinstated, and was surprised by the judge’s harsh reaction.

According to USA Today, the charges against Mr. Harris have been settled. As a result, many of the people who poked fun at him now owe Harris an apology for jumping to conclusions. Among them is Nate Burleson, co-host of CBS This Morning, who took a whole segment on the show to explain the situation for viewers.

“We’re sorry,” said Burleson, with co-host Gayle King nodding in light penitence. “You were right all along.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

We can show the love of Jesus to people by extending grace to them and not always assuming the worst about their actions or intentions.

After he died attempting to cross a collapsed bridge in his vehicle, the family of a local man is suing Google because its Maps app directed him to do so.

Philip Paxson was using Google Maps to navigate while driving home from his daughter’s ninth birthday party when the app directed him across a bridge that had collapsed nearly a decade prior, but lacked any kind of warning of the danger. Paxson family attorney Robert Zimmerman said:

For years before this tragedy, Hickory residents asked for the road to be fixed or properly barricaded before someone was hurt or killed. Their demands went unanswered. We’ve discovered that Google Maps misdirected motorists like Mr. Paxson onto this collapsed road for years, despite receiving complaints from the public demanding that Google fix its map and directions to mark the road as closed.

In addition to Google (and its parent company, Alphabet), the Paxson family is also suing two local companies who it claims were responsible for maintaining the bridge and failed to put up any warning signage or safety barricades.

Paxson said, “I still can’t understand how those responsible for the GPS directions, and the bridge, could have acted with so little regard for human life. No one should ever lose a loved one this way.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

1) Consequences; Irresponsibility - When we put off or refuse to do the right thing when given a chance, the Lord will sometimes allow calamitous circumstances to unfold as the natural consequence of imprudent inaction; 2) Danger; Direction; Destruction – Ultimately, we must each take responsibility for the “road” we choose and not depend on others to make that choice for us (Prov. 16:25; Matt. 7:13)

When Bernard Robins saw the three officers eyeing him from their department cruiser, it was a familiar look. He’d been stopped by police multiple times before as a teen and young adult, but previously chalked up those encounters to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was also familiar because he’d logged plenty of time in a cruiser himself, as a member of the LA Police Department.

So, he conducted himself as he always does in these scenarios – he kept things polite, kept his hands in plain view, and informed the officers that he also wore the badge. None of that mattered to these officers, who still handcuffed Robins, despite no wrongdoing on his part.

Off duty that day, Robins had been spending time in pursuit of his passion, filmmaking. Having just come from a shoot for a film he’d written, Robins was chatting with a lighting tech that he knew. Police eventually detained Robins because they suspected the tech of criminal activity, but failed to release him even after he supplied them with identification confirming his status as an officer.

Robins says that after returning to work, his supervisor and many of his colleagues were generally supportive. Nevertheless, he wondered if his fellow officers would have his back out in the field, particularly after he discovered rumors that he was gang affiliated, a charge he vehemently denies. Robins eventually sued the department, accusing members of a gang unit of racially profiling him.

Robins said the incident shook his faith in policing, causing him to reconsider whether he could still participate in the organization he’d been so excited to join just three years prior. During his mandated sessions with a police psychologist before his return, Robins had been encouraged to just put on the uniform and see how it felt. It was the same unform that he’d previously been proud to wear. Robins said, “All I did was put the uniform on, but it just felt too uncomfortable.” And after that, he told his supervisor that he was done.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Sometimes taking a stand for what is right involves relinquishing power and position. It also means telling the truth, even when it comes at a cost to one's career prospects.

In 2020 Christian leader John Perkins interviewed the lawyer, Bryan Stevenson. Perkins, the son of a sharecropper, was born in poverty in Mississippi. Stevenson was born two years after Perkins’ conversion to Christ, in a poor, black, rural community in Delaware. Stevenson eventually graduated from Harvard law school and founded the Equal Justice initiative. He represents people who have been sentenced to death on flimsy evidence or without proper representation.

Stevenson told Perkins the story of his first visit to death row. As a law student intern, he’d been sent to tell a prisoner that he was not at risk of execution in the coming year. Stevenson felt unprepared. The prisoner had chains around his ankles, wrists, and waist. Stevenson delivered his message. The man expressed profound release. They talked for hours. But then two prison guards burst in.

Angry that the visit had taken so long, the guards reapplied their inmates’ chains. Stevenson pleaded with the officers to stop. He told them it was his fault they overrun their time. But the prisoner told Stevenson not to worry. Then he planted his feet, threw back his head and sang:

I’m pressing on the upward way,

New heights I’m gaining every day;

Still praying as I am onward bound,

Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

Everybody stopped, Stevenson said, “The guards recovered, and they started pushing this man down the hallway. You could hear the chains clanking, but you could hear this man singing about higher ground. And in that moment God called me. That was the moment I knew I wanted to help condemned people get to higher ground.”

The next time Robert McKenna III celebrates a recent victorious court case in front of coworkers, he’d be wise to prevent anyone from filming his exultation. That’s because McKenna was part of a defense team that successfully fended off a wrongful death suit for a local gastroenterologist.

He was recorded on video at a company function describing the situation as “a guy who was probably negligently killed, but we kind of made it look like other people did it. ... We actually had a death certificate that said he died the very way the plaintiff said he died, and we had to say, ‘No, you really shouldn’t believe what that death certificate says, or the coroner.’”

As a result, the judge who presided over the case vacated the verdict, ordering all parties involved to return to court. At a hearing for the new trial Superior Court Judge James Crandall said, “I think I have to protect the system and say plaintiffs deserve a new trial.”

When asked for his reasoning, the judge elaborated. “When he says on video a ‘guy was probably negligently killed,’ probably is more likely than not. Then he goes on to say, ‘But we kind of made it look like other people did it.’ That seems like an admission of negligence. Seems like an admission the plaintiff should have prevailed.”

The judge went on to call McKenna “an excellent lawyer,” with a reputation for “honesty and integrity. ... But good men make mistakes.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

We shouldn't get so caught up in boasting of our own accomplishments that we lose sight of our own fallibility and the truth.

In nearly a decade on the bench, Judge Roy Ferguson has done a lot presiding over the 394th District in Texas. But just as 2020 held plenty of surprises for us all, so did 2021. In February, Judge Ferguson was presiding over a hearing via the teleconferencing platform Zoom, and was waiting for attorney Rod Ponton to connect. Suddenly, an image popped up in Ponton’s video quadrant. But it wasn’t Ponton’s face; rather, it was the moving image of a grey tabby cat.

The incident was immortalized on YouTube, where it’s been viewed over ten million times. Judge Ferguson says, “Mr. Ponton … I believe you have a filter turned on.” Obviously flustered, Ponton tries to persuade the court of his legitimacy and his awareness of the problem. “Ahh … we’re trying to … can you hear me, Judge? … I don’t know how to remove it, I’ve got my assistant here, she’s trying to, but …” And then Ponton utters words that will live on in infamy: “I’m here live … I’m not a cat.”

Eventually the cat filter was removed, and the hearing continued normally. And after receiving worldwide attention for the blunder, Mr. Ponton remained in good spirits: "If I can make the country chuckle for a moment in these difficult times they're going through, I'm happy to let them do it at my expense."

Possible Preaching Angle:

In a society where it's easy to manipulate images, we must be diligent not to just accept superficial evidence but to look deeper for the real truth of the situation.

Walmart is no stranger to interesting characters—there's even a calendar featuring its eclectic clientele. But a recent Texas patron went to his local Walmart for a very specific purpose: to be knocked unconscious. According to Global News, Manuel Garcia "stood underneath a dangling sign outside of Walmart's pharmacy for two days," in the hopes that one of the sign's letters "would fall and knock him out."

Why? Garcia posted about his endeavor on his Facebook page, alongside photos of himself standing outside the store. The caption read: "waiting for the P to fall and knock [me] out to be able to sue Walmart."

After no letters fell the first day, Garcia returned once more, posting again to Facebook: "Day 2 still waiting." Again, his lawsuit efforts proved fruitless—but his social media presence triumphed, as "his photo earned 18,000 likes and 44,220 shares."

Potential Preaching Angles: Perhaps not many of us have stood under a broken sign, hoping it'll fall on us. But perhaps we do seek out behavior we know is destructive, thinking it will somehow reward us.

For years, an anti-lawsuit group from Michigan has held "The Wacky Warning Label Contest" to show the effects of lawsuits on warning labels. A warning sticker on a small tractor that reads "Danger: Avoid Death" took home the top prize in 2007. Kevin Soave, a resident of the Detroit suburb Farmington Hills, submitted the winning label. Carrianne, Jacob, and Robby Turin of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, won second place—and a $250 prize—for a label they found on an iron-on T-shirt transfer that warns: "Do not iron while wearing shirt." Richard Goodnow of Lancaster, Masschusetts, earned the $100 third-place prize for a label on a baby stroller that featured a small storage pouch that warns: "Do not put child in bag."

"On the basis of my academic and professional experience, I believe that no felony is committed more frequently in this country than [crimes within] the genre of perjury and false statements," says Harvard Law School's Alan Dershowitz.

A recent survey of more than 50 U.S. state and federal judges, as well as lawyers and academics, conducted by the ABA Journal, found that most of the judges interviewed said that increasingly "lawyers appearing before them are bending the truth, not telling the whole truth, or just plain lying."

Recently, I was walking the streets in San Mateo, a small town on the San Francisco peninsula. I met an attorney I knew from a local evangelical church.

I said to him, "What are you doing?"

He said, "I'm looking for a job."

I said, "You've got to be kidding."

He said, "No, last week I walked out the front door of that corporation and told them, 'You can hang in on your beak. I'm no longer going to write contracts that you and I both know are illegal and illegitimate.'"

That man is regarded as one of the top five corporate lawyers in America, and he's unwilling to sell his value system for a mess of pottage. We need a larger core of lawyers like that.