Friday, September 5, 2014

Reporting Accurately About Corrupt Federal Judge Mark Fuller Cost Me My Job--And Now He's Headed For A 24-Week Rehabilitation Program


Mark Fuller

U.S. Judge Mark Fuller (Middle District of Alabama) agreed today to enter a 24-week rehab program designed to evaluate his drug, alcohol, and domestic-violence issues. The program also is designed to help Fuller avoid criminal prosecution and a possible jail term.

The news broke on the same day that the Alabama Supreme Court ruled against State Rep. Barry Moore in his effort to have perjury charges dismissed. That seems to mean that a grand-jury investigation in Lee County, with House Speaker Mike Hubbard and former Governor Bob Riley possibly at the center, will stay on a steady track.

Could a new day be dawning for justice in Alabama? We will not be holding our breath here at Legal Schnauzer. Without serious attention from the Obama Department of Justice, we see little chance that Alabama corruption will be unearthed in a major way. (On a possibly hopeful note, the Obama DOJ landed convictions yesterday in a corruption probe involving former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell and his wife. Our guess is that any sleaze in Virginia is mild compared to what we've seen in Alabama over the past 15 years or so.)

For now, Judge Mark Fuller is front and center, thanks in large part to the Facebook reporting of prominent Alabama attorney Donald Watkins. The Fuller story hits close to home at this blog because I was cheated out of my job as an editor at UAB because of my accurate reporting in 2007-08 about Fuller's corrupt handling of the Don Siegelman/Richard Scrushy case. Now, we all know that Fuller is ethically challeged, that he's had drug, alcohol, and domestic-abuse issues so severe that even his judicial colleagues have called on him to resign, according to Donald Watkins.

In other words, my reporting on Fuller was both accurate and ahead of its time. And evidence at my UAB grievance hearing showed I produced those reports on my own time, away from work. I did not violate university policy in any way, and as a state employee I was protected by the First Amendment to discuss matters of public concern, but powerful legal/political forces backstabbed me because they could not have my posts showing the public that the Siegelman and Scrushy convictions were illegitimate. Sadly, UAB's "leaders" at the time were so weak and ethically challenged, they allowed an unlawful termination to take place.

As for Donald Watkins, he was in Atlanta for today's Fuller hearing and reports as follows:

Criminal defendant Mark Fuller traded his Fulton County Jail attire for a polished Wall Street look as he stood before a Fulton County Magistrate this morning. Without objection from his battered wife Kelli, Fuller, who has no prior arrest for domestic battery, will be entering a 24-week treatment program for his domestic violence. Fuller will also be assessed and treated (if necessary) for alcohol and substance abuse while undergoing his domestic violence treatment. He will not be permitted to have contact with Kelli while he is undergoing treatment.

Fuller is free to select an approved treatment program outside of Georgia. He did not announce today the name and location of the treatment facility he has selected.

Fuller will report back to Court in person on October 14, 2014, to show proof of his enrollment in the court-approved treatment program. His case will be dismissed at that time. If Fuller fails to complete the 24-week program or engages in another act of domestic violence while being treated, his criminal case will be reinstated.

Fuller quickly exited the courthouse after his pre-trial treatment program was announced. Fox TV News (Atlanta) covered the hearing. No Alabama media outlets covered the hearing. Apparently, wife-beating by one of the State's most powerful federal judges is not a newsworthy event.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.globalresearch.ca/making-money-from-addiction-30-million-americans-on-antidepressants-and-20-other-facts-about-americas-big-pharma-nightmare/5399444

Americans were made consumers and the deregulation was greatest to be implemented in George HW Bush Sr.'s Presidency. He says so, and we know he didn't lie.

Republicans are to be in control again, there is this power of politics and the most money wins.

Democrats didn't have the money, the money for Hillary is also from the Koch Brothers. Check the transnational power that the Koch Brothers and of course the family that is married to them, Bushes, are in control of.

Money, politics, media, food, growing healthy organic seeds, the owners of earth's resources are those that control the masses in life on the round finite planet.

Make lots of bureaucrats to run the operation of what we know as the most sick (Mark Fuller), and our government is not other than a representation of - there really isn't yet a way to describe the USA and globalization.

Alabama was ripe for what the globalists have done. Oklahoma has been also done in, over and over again.

"The Black Wall Street" is a story about how long racism has been in the USA, the biz of genocide.

Indians, African Americans, Thinkers Demanding Higher Intelligence In Century Twenty-one too, the questions we can begin looking into are? can the needs, wants, survival, thriving, can humans find the faith to be all that the human is in truth?

Very scary place - the "South".

The Black Slaves left the South, as many as could flee. Upon getting free they went to get work, in Oklahoma, working in the oil fields.

Michael Bennett said...

What a surprise. One Southern court wrist-slapping another. Heaven forbid that Fuller might be held to a higher standard, that he should have been jailed in Fulton County, that he should have a criminal conviction on his record and perhaps be both disbarred and removed from the bench. Instead, it is country club rehab day for Fuller. Let's see---24 weeks (oh my--almost 6 whole months) in a "program" for anger management. I spent 20 years living in Georgia---this decision does not surprise me, since not only was Fuller a Federal Judge but he was also white. I wonder what would have happened if Fuller had been an out-of-work Black man.

Molli said...

Accurate reporting for years by Legal Schnauzer. Been following your in depth reporting for years on Fuller and countless others of his disgraced ilk. You have always been spot on and have paid the price dearly, unjustly and repeatedly.

Anonymous said...

Part of staying clean is trying to straighten out the mess one made of other peoples lives by your addiction. I would not hold my breath for an apology even from this jerk.

Teri . said...

Staying clean involves making amends to others one has hurt because of addiction. I doubt you would even get an apology from this creep.

Anonymous said...

Good work on Fuller and Fuller is bad but the worst Judge is Randall Cole up in Fort Payne. I don't care is Gen. Strange is guilty of anything or not, watch Cole. He has screwed and protected people for 40 years. He is basically a thug with a black rob on.

Anonymous said...

Love this quote from Fuller's lawyer at al.com:

"He doesn't have a drug or alcohol problem and never has."

If that's the case, why is he in rehab for 24 weeks?

legalschnauzer said...

I wondered that, too, @12:19.

Here is link to article that says 60 to 90 days is considered a long treatment. That's 2-3 months.

Fuller is getting 6 months--but he has no drug or alcohol problems.

http://www.recovery.org/topics/understanding-addiction-treatment-program-lengths/

Anonymous said...

I guess the people at UAB who fired you for exposing Fuller must be real proud of themselves now.

Anonymous said...

It isn't surprising Alabama news media didn't sensationalize Fuller's arrest. It would have reopened the story that Siegelman's prosecution was corrupt and handled by a scoundrel–– a woman-abusing judge. In a strongly God-fearing state as Alabama, why not let the people know what their "unjust judge" is capable of doing? Maybe it's time to look at who controls the media in Alabama. It really isn't fair to keep good people in the dark particularly with things as serious as this.

Robby Scott Hill said...

For real on the 24 week program. Folks up here in Marshall County with some serious problems only get the 10 week program. Pissing clean for 6 months ain't easy my Honky. If I couldn't have a drink or fly to Denver for a toke for 6 months, I'd lose my mind. If I was Judge Fuller I'd be singing to myself, "Y'all gone make me lose my mind, up in here, up in here..." If you like to love different women, get a divorce & love them in Nevada. It's much, much cheaper in the end.

Anonymous said...

The Professional Liability Fund "PLF" is how the lawyers get to go to such long and expensive "Rehabs".

The PLF protects the lawyer class because the job is so stressful.

The job of the circuit circle jerks is to steal all the wealth from the Americans that don't understand the word apartheid.

Language is for those that speak that language "Color Of Law".

I've followed you also Schnauzer and your reporting took the Alabama corruption and fully exposed the X-RATED. That was an act of visionary of you. Visionaries often get killed, you were and are a lucky Schnauzer.

Here is how America's fall is going: pun and play on words intended -- North American Treaty Organization "NATO" (also called "North American Terrorist Organization"), wants to attack Russia. Russia was doing the best that Russia could to get Europe to not join the USA in "The Wars Of Terror" ("TWOT"). That didn't happen so Russia and China are joining and the money Russia gets from China isn't as lofty a sum as what was happening with the partners of the west and Russia. It seems the "FIAT" money is being rejected and as this happens, well we know that Iraq was a mistake, too. And so was all the Middle Eastern countries that have been also decimated.

You paid a price for outing the really deep rot corruption. How do you get restitution?

When America got dictated into being the worst tyrant ever to be an earth "leader", the time was about how to cure that ill.

Did the United States of America choose to be in the modern time and be an actual power to be honored? No.

What we have in the USA, the system of courts and all the other militant policing, the fleecing of every which way. And, to recycle all the humans and their wealth, the plan.

America's a melting pot of experimentation.

Alabama South is proving to be seriously criminally insane never to be sane. The entirety of failing falling USA are the "government". Paid "FIAT" (virtual criminal fraud) money. Retirement? Ouch.

Restitution. The Alabama South "government" owes you the virtual digital stuff that's also paying for Fuller's rehab!

Get your abacus into doing the "maths", and remind those that owe you, "FIAT" is not going to by any stretch of their lies, going to restore what happened to you and your family.

Anonymous said...

In a much-reported study, the Russell Sage Foundation discovered that median household wealth in this country fell by 36 percent in the 10-year period ending last year. …. Our bout of hard times … has accelerated the unraveling of the middle class itself. Now, you can blame the risible, Ayn Rand-reading Tea Party types for this if you like, and you can also blame the George W. Bush Administration. They both deserve it. But sooner or later you will also have to acknowledge that there are two parties in this country, not just one; that the Democrats held significant power during the period in question, including (for much of it) the presidency itself; and that even when they are not in the White House, these Democrats nevertheless retain the capacity to persuade and to organize. For a party of the left, dreadful news like this should be rocket fuel. For the Dems, however, it hasn’t been. Why is that? Well, for one thing, because a good number of those Democrats have not really objected to the economic policies that have worked these awful changes over the years. … [A] lot of them also believe in the conventional economic wisdom of the day. They don’t really care that union power has evaporated and that Wall Street got itself de-supervised and that oligopolies now dominate the economy. But they do care – ever so much! – about deficits and being fiscally responsible. Bring up this obvious point, however, and you will quickly discover what a dose of chloroform the partisan style can be. There’s a political war on, you will be told; one side is markedly better than the other; and no criticism of the leadership can be tolerated.

And it seems to me that in this interview, Warren is doing exactly what Frank describes. Back to Warren, further along in the interview:

WARREN: … We’re going to make sure Americans get a fair shot. We’re going to get out there and fight for America, and these are ways that we can do it. And we’ve all stood up behind that.

First, I am very weary of the “we’re going to fight” trope, about as weary as I am of the “Tell X Y” snowclone, or “Stand with X.” Endless fighting doesn’t matter. Winning does. Second, I think “fair shot” and “level playing field” and “equality of opportunity” are bollocks. The game is rigged, so nothing is fair or level of equal. So I care about equality of outcomes, at least to a minimum baseline of human decency ...

.. continued ....

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/09/elizabeth-warren-bill-moyers-better-democrats-least-republicans.html

Anonymous said...

follow-up to nakedcapitalism Bill Moyer interview with Warren

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/08/28/elizabeth-warren-speaks-israelgaza-sounds-like-netanyahu/

Warren was able to get her daughters' student loans cancelled, and that is what the real deal is about in "politics" - America is not exceptional in the crashing of an economy for the owners' of America. Mark Fuller is simply one of the best the no money buys. Warren never addresses the "virtual evil" (no money but computer digits with usury interest her daughters' were opted out of), that she also participates in receiving as a "Senator". Ah, as though a crown top hat to wear on top of the thorns all those Pelosi Democrats wear too!

LOL "there's not a dime's worth of difference". Fuller-Warren. So maybe Karl Rove and Don Siegelman aren't so different?

Schnitzel_Republic said...

Twenty-four weeks is a pretty long period. Makes me wonder what the laundry list included. Can't just be alcohol or anger issues only.

Unknown said...

Lawsuit in Ohio seeks accountabilty

LAWSUITS CLAIM TAXPAYERS SUPPORT TORTURE

Medical and legal malpractice complaints were filed November 24, 2014 in the Ohio Court of Claims and November 25, 2014 in the Franklin County Common Pleas Court by the attorney for John J. Rohrer, a 34 year old author and musician who is currently confined at a state psychiatric facility. According to the suits, Rohrer has been confined since September 1, 2009 in state facilities where he has been subjected to assaults and forced drugging - without there first being evidence that he was mentally ill.

Named in the suits are two public defenders, a handful of government psychiatrists, two common pleas court judges and several government agencies, including the former Ohio Department of Mental Health. Rohrer’s attorney, David L. Kastner, states in the complaints that he only discovered earlier this year that the original order confining his client in January, 2010 was not a lawful commitment order because, among other rights violations claimed, it was based on a proceeding in which no evidence was presented.

The complaints state that Rohrer was forcibly injected with Risperdal Consta for more than 3 ½ years although the drug is known to cause irreversible brain damage. The manufacturer of Risperdal has been found in several other multi-million dollar lawsuits around the country, to have been criminally responsible for having fraudulently marketed the drug. The Rohrer suits claim that the forced drugging with Risperdal and other drugs was done without legal or medical justification.


The Rohrer suits attack the former Department of Mental Health, now known as OMHAS, for promoting non-scientific theories to justify excessive drugging of patients and medicare billings. The suits cite published studies and an affidavit from Pulitzer prize-winning science reporter Robert Whitaker, to conclude

“more than half of people studied who continue to take psychotropic drugs as prescribed, will become permanently physically and/or mentally disabled and a burden to taxpayers.”

The 25 studies cited in the suits suggest that patients who reduce their pharmaceutical drug intake fare significantly better than those who take them as prescribed.

The Rohrer suits contain more than 400 paragraphs of allegations, including statements accusing two state hospitals, Twin Valley Behavioral Healthcare and Appalachian Behavioral Healthcare [ABH], of refusing to provide a safe treatment environment, leaving patients prey to assaults by others. ABH has been a named defendant in two other recent lawsuits filed by patients. In 2010 Amy and David McCualsky initiated litigation against ABH for improperly drugging Mrs. McCualsky and then negligently leaving her vulnerable to being raped. The McCualsky matter is going to trial in the Court of Claims in March, 2015. In 2011, attorney Richard V. Zurz filed a complaint in Athens County Common Pleas Court naming ABH and several of its employees in connection with an alleged sexual assault and excessive drugging at ABH. One of the defendants in that case pled guilty to a lesser felony after he was charged with sexual misconduct at ABH.
.
Unlike the other patients who sued ABH after they left the institution, John Rohrer is still a patient there. According to one of the Free John Rohrer supporters, “we are very concerned about more retaliation while the suit is pending, but his attorney was forced to file it now because of the statute of limitations.” Judge Leonard Holzapfel, one of the named defendants in the Rohrer suit, issued decisions on November 3, 2014 in Ross County Common Pleas Court in which he terminated the forced drugging against Rohrer but declined to order his release from ABH confinement. An appeal is expected.

Anonymous said...

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