Fen Phen Diet Drug Claims Another Victim, This Time It's Fraudster Lexington Lawyer Seth Johnston Who's Off To Prison.

A jailed Lexington attorney who helped collect a judgment for
victims sickened by the diet drug fen-phen pleaded guilty
Wednesday to six federal charges.

Seth Johnston pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud,
one count of wire fraud, conspiracy to obstruct justice,
conspiracy to distribute synthetic marijuana and tax fraud,
according to Kyle Edelen, a spokesman for the U.S.
Attorney's office. He entered the plea Wednesday in U.S.
District Court in Lexington.

Johnston had been the focus of a federal investigation into
his financial holdings. The attorney had been jailed on
criminal charges involving synthetic marijuana — the
catalyst for the federal investigation into his finances.

Among the items subject to forfeiture are a horse,
Woodland Dream, and its foal, which has been ordered to
be sold at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
Also subject to forfeiture is the Glenn's Creek Beer Exchange
on East High Street, and the Glenn's Creek Brewer's Union
on McCracken Pike in Woodford County, according to court
documents.

The guilty plea involves allegations that he defrauded Angela Ford,
an attorney in Lexington, who represented plaintiffs in a civil law suit
in Boone Circuit Court.That lawsuit alleges breach of fiduciary duties
related to fraud in handling the settlement obtained as a result of a
class-action lawsuit against the manufacturers of the diet drug Fen-Phen.
Ford obtained summary judgment against three attorneys in the lawsuit.This summary judgment award was subsequently reversed in part and is
currently pending appeal in the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Ford hired Johnston to assist in the collection of assets to satisfy the
judgment, according to a court document.

Prosecutors said in a court document that Johnston perpetrated a scheme
to defraud Ford, the attorney representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, by
failing to report his collection of funds for purposes of satisfying the judgment
obtained to benefit plaintiffs, and instead used the funds for his benefit.

Johnston was also accused of using assets of an estate that he was hired to
distribute for his own benefit.

He represented that the estate contained cash assets of approximately
$731,601.38. In reality, he was aware that the estate consisted of
approximately $1.8 million in cash assets, prosecutors alleged in
court documents.

On other count, Ford hired Johnston to create three limited liability
companies. Ford was to be the sole member and manager of the LLCs,
and the LLCs were to be created solely for her benefit. Ford and Johnston
set up bank accounts for the three LLCs, and Ford deposited, caused to
be deposited, or intended to be deposited, a combined total of approximately
$3.5 million into the three bank accounts. Johnston was not to spend, invest,
or move the money without Ford's further instruction. Johnston was to bill
Ford for the time he spent creating the LLCs and any accompanying
formation documents.

Johnston also acknowledged a scheme to defraud Angela Ford and
misappropriated some of Ford's funds without her knowledge He provided
documents to hide the scheme regarding the status of her money, prosecutors
alleged.

He also pleaded guilty to filing false income tax returns.

Johnston was being held at the Fayette County Detention Center.

Some of the offenses carry a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Johnston's attorney Bernard Pafunda declined to comment.
(Follow story source here.)

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/10/30/2903427/lexington-attorney-pleads-guilty.html#storylink=cpy

Happy Halloween, From ObamaRomneycare "Experts"!

Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary Of Health And Human Services, Is Testifying Live On ObamaRomneycare. Watch And Be Happy -- Or Sad!

LOL.

Former Bowling Green City Commissioner, Brian "Slim" Nash Arrested For DUI.

BOWLING GREEN, KY A former Bowling Green city commissioner is arrested for DUI.

Bowling Green Police say Brian "Slim" Nash was pulled over for making an improper turn onto the 31W Bypass around 12:40 a.m. Sunday.

Officers say they saw Nash standing in the middle of Park Street with what appeared to be a beer bottle in his hand.

They say the four-term city commissioner then got into his car with two other people and made the improper turn.

Police say Nash had bloodshot eyes, was unsteady on his feet, and failed the field sobriety test.

Nash's attorney, Alan Simpson, says among the things wrong with the police report are:
Nash was not in the middle of the street. He was in the house.
There were three other people in the car, not two.
And the reason he was unsteady on his feet is, he has terrible knees.
Simpson also says Nash did not take a breathalyzer test or a blood test on his advice.

Northern Kentucky Father Cleared Of False Child Sexual Abuse Charge, Fights Kentucky's GESTAPO To Get His Name Off CAN List!

Read more here.

Barack Obama Stars In "I Spy".

What Happened In Benghazi, Libya? Watch Video.

Do you want more? Go here.

Words To Live By, Words Of Wisdom, And Words To Ponder.

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. -- James 4:8

Barack Obama's Legacy: ObamaRomneycare Roll Out Disaster!

More On ObamaRomneycare Roll Out.

ObamaRomneycare Tech Site And Tech Team.

ObamaRomneycare "Comedy Of Errors"!

The irony of ironies that rivals #ShakespeareComedyofErrors is that amidst all the criticisms and cries of woes that preceded #ObamaRomneycare, the darn healthcare plan rolls out to a complete technological disaster , thereby giving more ammunition to critics, who compare the plan's rollout to the merits of the plan itself!

I don't think Shakespeare could have conceived of such a dubious result!!

ObamaRomneycare Roll Out! LOL!!

Cruz Control?

Question: Are You A Republican?

Is This The New GOP's Campaign Tactic?

Democratic Party: The Party Of Po' Folk. Wink.

That's All, Folks!

#ChildreninCONgress "solve" Temprorary Problem, Await Real Long Term Ones!

Aha! Barack Obama's Half Brother Admits Living In Kenya. Wink To Idiots Everywhere! Watch.

Bonus Cartoon: Republicans Surrender In DC!

Republicans Try New "Hostage" Tactic. LOL.

Popular Culture And The American Presidency.

Scott Jennings | New book offers look at pop culture and the presidency

Do American presidents watch the same TV shows and movies that we do? A new book looks inside the White House to answer fascinating questions about presidents and pop culture.

Dr. Tevi Troy, a high-ranking policy adviser in the Bush 43 White House who later became deputy secretary of Health and Human Services, has written “What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted: 200 Years of Pop Culture in the White House,” a wonderfully sourced exploration of how pop culture has shaped the presidency, and how American presidents themselves returned the favor.
“I was surprised at just how influential culture has been on almost every administration, from Teddy Roosevelt reading two to three books a day in the White House, to Carter seeing 480 movies as president, to President Obama continuing to watch a lot of television in the White House residence,” Troy told me.

Troy is uniquely positioned to write this book, the rare presidential historian who also observed the presidency from the inside. Having worked on both sides of the window, Troy captures insights that might be lost on writers who lack his broad experience.

A fascinating political point about presidents and pop culture is the constant push-and-pull of how they try to use cultural references to connect with the American people without looking ridiculous. In one humorous passage Troy details President Barack Obama’s discussions of Snooki, a character on the reality TV series “Jersey Shore.” He went from mentioning her in his White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech to telling a daytime talk show that he didn’t really know who she was. Mitt Romney, for his part, professed himself a “Snooki fan.”

The question for both men was whether mentioning Snooki could be perceived as beneath the dignity of the Office of the President. Both decided it was worth the risk, although it is hard to imagine either of them watching Snooki and her empty-headed running buddies have conversations that must seem like a foreign language to a great many Americans.

This book will spawn an interesting discussion of whether Democratic or Republican presidents better keep up with pop culture. Troy told me that “Obama and Clinton were big consumers of culture, [but] both Bushes needed more briefing from staff on popular culture.” In 2016, the Republican presidential field looks decidedly younger than the Democratic so perhaps the GOP will close the recent gap.

Troy points out that President George H. W. Bush’s reported befuddlement about a supermarket price scanner crafted an out-of-touch image that contributed to his defeat in 1992. It is virtually impossible to keep up with normal, everyday stuff when you are trapped in the bubble of security and staff that surrounds the president; the commander-in-chief just doesn’t do his own grocery shopping. If you were reasonably up on American culture the day you got elected, count on being decidedly not cool when you leave office four or eight years later.

The dominant medium for most people alive today — television — gets a fascinating examination. The passages detailing Richard Nixon’s rollercoaster relationship with television illustrate a politician who correctly understood the power of the medium but ultimately failed to control it as his image was destroyed. TV saved Nixon in 1952, destroyed him in 1960, saved him again in 1968, and then destroyed him again during Watergate and beyond. On Nixon’s rocky relationship with television journalists, Troy writes: “Nixon’s experience also serves as a reminder to politicians that journalists are the only people on the planet more sensitive to criticism than the politicians themselves.”

For the professional (or armchair) political operative, Troy’s appendix “Rules for President’s Engaging in Pop Culture” provides a set of lessons 2016 candidates ought to study. On what Troy calls “Ford’s law,” he says “comedians are more dangerous than producers or reporters.”

It’s remarkable how much pop culture and technology changes in four or eight years. President George W. Bush didn’t send an email in the White House (although he joked with staff at his presidential library opening earlier this year that he looked forward to reading all of ours). President Obama famously carries around an iPad. How the next batch of presidential candidates deals with changes in the pop culture marketplace will be interesting to say the least.

Take television, for instance — a recent article in the Los Angeles Times details a report by analyst Todd Juenger who believes that by 2015 over half of all television viewing will be done by people over the age of 50. Jon Steinberg, the head of Buzzfeed, a popular news and social content website, says that no new television viewers or newspaper subscribers are being born in America.
How do future presidential candidates reach younger people for whom television ads simply aren’t a thing? Troy’s book spurs important discussion about such questions as we approach the 2016 election.

For the political junkie, the pages in this book won’t turn fast enough. For those interested in how the menu for consuming culture has exploded from basically just books and theater in the time of Washington to unlimited multimedia offerings today, the book is equally as satisfying.

Scott Jennings is a partner in RunSwitch Public Relations, and former deputy White House political director under President George W. Bush. He was a staff member on Mitch McConnell’s ‘02 and ‘08 re-election campaigns. His column appears every third Wednesday. He can be reached at scott@runswitchpr.com.

Corrupt Grayson County Sheriff's Detective, Terry Blanton, Sentence To One Year In Prison For Stealing Drugs, Etc., From Evidence Locker. Watch.

Watch below: You can read more here.

ObamaRomneycare And The GOP. LOL.

Newly Released Warrants Shed More Light Into Triple Homicide In Danville, Kentucky, Allegedly By "Pastor" Kenneth A. Keith.

Warrants provide more details in Danville triple homicide

Kenneth A. Keith

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DANVILLE — Search warrants and affidavits for warrants provide new information about how police were led to arrest and charge a Pulaski County minister last week with three counts of murder and one count of robbery.

Kenneth Allen Keith, 48, is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Boyle District Court. He is charged with murder in the shootings of Michael Hockensmith, 35, and his wife, Angela Hockensmith, 38, both of Stanford; and gold broker Daniel Smith, 60, of Richmond. The three were killed Sept. 20 at ABC Gold Games and More in Danville, a store co-owned by the Hockensmiths.

The shootings happened in the presence of the Hockensmiths' 9-year-old son and 14-month-old daughter. The boy called 911 shortly after 9 a.m. to report that his parents had been shot.
"The child further explained that a man had entered into the business and asked for money," according to an affidavit filed by Danville police detective Kevin Peel. "The child described the man as being a white male wearing a blue hat, a fake beard, dark glasses and a long green coat. The child informed the dispatcher that his parents were dead, lying on the floor, and that the man who had shot them had left the business."

When officers arrived at the store, they found the front door locked, the affidavit said. Personnel at the dispatch center, who still were on the phone with the boy, told the child to unlock the front door. When the boy was unable to, officers broke the front glass door to get in.

Police secured the children and began processing the scene. Peel's affidavit said the "investigation also revealed that a metal briefcase belonging to Daniel Smith was missing from the scene. This briefcase was believed to have contained an estimated $40,000 in cash."
In the days immediately following the robbery and homicides, "no apparent substantial information was developed," the affidavit said.

A customer at a rental car agency across the street from the pawn shop told police about seeing a man talking on his cellphone and walking around the parking lot of ABC Gold Games and More. The man, in his 40s or 50s and wearing a green "Army-type" jacket, "appeared to be arguing with someone," this witness told police.

On Sept. 24, four days after the robbery and homicides, a Michigan man, who wishes to remain anonymous, told police he had contacted a man he identified as Allen Keith about the crimes. The Michigan man, who formerly lived in Danville, had learned about the homicides through the Facebook posts of acquaintances in the Danville area and had contacted Keith for more information. Although this source is not named in court documents, police said they were able to corroborate the veracity of his statements.

The Michigan caller said that he knew the Hockensmiths and that he was familiar with them and Keith through church ties. He also knew them from when he lived in Danville.
"According to the Michigan caller, Mr. Keith stated that he was devastated, and did not hear about the robbery and homicides until later in the day" of the shooting. The Michigan caller said Keith, unsolicited, then began to give details about his whereabouts.

Keith told the Michigan man that, on the morning of the shootings, he had been at the Veterans Affairs hospital (presumably in Lexington) until about 8:30 a.m. Keith said he then went to a pharmacy in Danville to fill a prescription for his wife. Keith said the prescription had to be filed in Danville because the medication was not available in Somerset, closer to his Burnside home.

"The Michigan caller stated that Mr. Keith knew that the deceased gold broker (Daniel Smith) came to the store to do business on Fridays, and it was not uncommon for the broker to have $30,000 to $40,000 in a briefcase," the affidavit said.

"The Michigan caller stated that Mr. Keith offered a scenario as to what he believed occurred, stating that it was a 'hit' on the gold buyer and the Hockensmiths happened to be there," the affidavit said. "The Michigan caller stated that he asked Mr. Keith if he thought the Hockensmiths were innocent bystanders. In response to this, the Michigan caller stated that Mr. Keith 'flipped the switch' and responded that they (the Hockensmiths) weren't innocent, and that they 'cost him a lot of money.' The

Michigan caller stated that Mr. Keith explained that the loss of money was due to some unspecified workers compensation negligence and that he had made the last $600 payment to settle the case approximately two weeks ago."

Keith had entered into an agreement with Steve Divine, co-owner of ABC Gold Games and More, to buy the building from Divine or to form a partnership, the affidavit said. "This venture allegedly fell through and Divine formed a business partnership with Mr. and Mrs. Hockensmith," the affidavit said.
The Michigan man told police Keith also owned a pawn shop in Somerset. Police later identified it as Gold Rush Gold Buyers, where a search warrant was executed last week. Search warrants also were executed at Main Street Baptist Church in Burnside, where Keith is pastor, and the parsonage next to the church.

Danville police were familiar with Keith because they had routine contact with him when he owned King's Corner Pawn Shop, which had formerly occupied the building of ABC Gold Games and More.
Keith had no previous criminal history but has a permit to carry a concealed deadly weapon, the affidavit said.

Police learned that Keith filed paperwork with the city of Danville to dissolve King's Corner Pawn Shop in May. In documents provided to the city, Keith indicated that the reason was an "illegal eviction" and that the current owners had changed the store locks.
ABC Gold Games and More was jointly operated by the Hockensmiths and Divine.

Police recovered surveillance video showing Keith at a Danville pharmacy at 9:24 a.m. Sept. 20, the day of the shooting. Pharmacy staff identified Keith as the person receiving the prescriptions.
Investigators learned that Keith paid a civil penalty in the amount of $765.22 to the Kentucky Department of Workers Claims. "This was a result of a visit by an inspector with that agency who spoke with Michael Hockensmith while he was an employee of Kenneth Keith's," the affidavit said.

"Mr. Hockensmith had been unable to provide proof of worker's comp insurance to the inspector, and then referred him to Kenneth Keith."
Investigators learned that Keith had a VA hospital appointment on Sept. 19, the day before the shootings but did not show up. Another appointment was scheduled for Oct. 21.

On Monday, defense attorneys Mark and Bethany Stanziano filed documents asserting Keith's right to refuse to talk to anyone but his defense team.

Greg Kocher: (859) 231-3305. Twitter: @HLpublicsafety.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/10/14/2876672/warrants-provide-more-details.html#storylink=cpy

LOL.

Kentucky State Supreme Court Justice Will T. Scott, Is Among Those Targeted By Eastern Kentucky Disabilities Lawyer Eic C. Conn's Con!

State Supreme Court justice says he didn't ask E. Ky. lawyer Eric C. Conn for campaign money

Kia Hampton, Miss Kentucky 
USA 2011, was hired by Conn 
as his public relations 
director for $70,000 a year.

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In early 2012, Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Will T. Scott repeatedly drove to the Floyd County office of disability benefits lawyer Eric C. Conn, which is a chain of interconnected trailers along U.S. 23, fronted by a one-ton, 19-foot-tall statue of Abraham Lincoln.

Scott, who represents Eastern Kentucky on the high court, was on his way to raising $332,390 for a bruising re-election battle that fall. Conn was a multi-millionaire facing at least two federal investigations and a fraud lawsuit for allegedly rigging medical records and steering hundreds of his check-seeking clients to a judge who improperly approved their claims. A U.S. Senate committee spent five hours last week criticizing Conn's law practice at a nationally televised hearing.

The men thought they could be useful to each other.

Scott put Conn on his campaign committee and talked with him and two other lawyers in Conn's firm about money that they could raise for him, according to Scott himself and one of the other lawyers, David Hicks, who later spoke with investigators for the state attorney general's office.

In an interview last week, Scott said Conn initially approached him, not vice versa.
"They kept calling me and asking me, 'Please come by, we'd love to see you, we want to support you,'" Scott said. "I cannot turn my back on the people of Kentucky when I'm running for election."
After that conversation, Conn gave Scott's campaign $1,000, the maximum allowed by state law. So did one of Conn's lawyers, John Earl Hunt.

Then Conn tried to funnel $10,000 more to the campaign through $1,000 money orders under the names of 10 of his office employees. Conn got the money from a safe-deposit box at a Prestonsburg bank where he kept about $250,000 in cash, one of his employees, who accompanied him, told investigators.

The payments were coordinated by Kia Hampton, Miss Kentucky USA 2011, Hampton told investigators. Conn had hired Hampton for $70,000 a year as his public relations director and leader of his "Conn Girls," attractive young women who starred in his television commercials and public events.
"Mr. Will T. Scott, let me first say that (it) is an honor to be able to participate in your campaign," Hampton emailed Scott on Jan. 6, 2012. "Us at the Eric C. Conn law firm are very excited. Looking forward to meeting you next week!"
"Thanks, Kia. I'm just Will T.," Scott replied. "When I get over my sickness, tell Eric and John and all I'll stop by for a chat. I'd be embarrassed to get around them with my cough now."

Hampton told investigators that Scott came to Conn's office and gave her a batch of campaign envelopes to be used for donations. (Hampton added that she didn't know who Scott was, but she was instructed to help him.) Scott confirmed last week that he dropped off his campaign envelopes. They were pre-addressed to "Scott for Supreme Court" at the same post office box he lists as his Pikeville address on the court's website.

The Kentucky Code of Judicial Conduct, approved by the Supreme Court, prohibits judges and judicial candidates from soliciting campaign funds in person. The court has argued that, more than most politicians, judges are in a unique position to pressure people who might appear before them — especially lawyers. Judges and judicial candidates must appoint committees to request money on their behalf, keeping an arm's length between them and potential donors.

But Scott said he wasn't asking anyone at the Conn law office for money — he simply wanted their help raising money, and that's an important distinction.
"I don't go up and ask people for money, and I don't take money from people," Scott said.
Scott soon returned the donations to the Conn office employees at their individual homes. He explained in his signed letters that he could not accept money orders, only personal checks, and he invited them to attend an upcoming Pikeville campaign reception that would raise $53,425 for him.

Conn tried to get some employees to write personal checks to Scott's campaign using the returned money, but instead they kept it. Conn already had fired several of the workers — his office had a high turnover rate, employees told investigators — and he didn't try to retrieve the money from them. The scheme appeared to fizzle at that point.

Last week, Scott said he returned the money orders because he was suspicious. It seemed unlikely that 10 of Conn's employees, some of whom probably did not earn large salaries, simultaneously would give him $1,000 each, the justice said. He also removed Conn from his campaign committee, he said. In March 2012, after the attorney general's investigators questioned him about the money orders, Scott returned Conn's own donation.
"Every action on my part was honorable and professional," Scott said last week. "Had he been on the up-and-up, I would have been glad to keep him on the committee."

Giving campaign money under someone else's name — a "straw donation" — is illegal in Kentucky.
Thanks to a whistle-blower in Conn's office, a woman who was supposed to be one of the straw donors, the attorney general began to investigate. Conn soon faced a Class D felony charge in Franklin Circuit Court, punishable by up to five years in prison and the automatic suspension of his law license.

Last month, Attorney General Jack Conway dropped the charge to a misdemeanor in exchange for Conn's guilty plea. Conn received a year in jail, conditionally discharged for two years. That means he did no time and kept his law license.
"Our office believes that the charge and the penalty in this case were appropriate considering the facts," Conway spokesman Daniel Kemp wrote in a prepared statement last week.
Scott was not charged because "there is no evidence Justice Scott was involved in the scheme, and once he received the attempted donation, he returned the money orders in question," Kemp wrote.

It's unclear why Conn risked so much to assist Scott. Conn refused to talk to the attorney general's investigators about the case. He referred the Lexington Herald-Leader last week to his attorney, Kent Wicker, who said, "That matter is closed as far as Mr. Conn is concerned, and we don't have any further comment on it."

Typically, Conn practices before administrative law judges at the Social Security Administration, where Scott holds no power. Scott had, at the end of 2011, written an important Supreme Court decision making it easier for black-lung cases to proceed through the workers compensation system, and Conn's firm has represented coal miners claiming damages from black lung disease. But Scott said Conn expressed no interest in that to him.

Melinda Martin, who was Conn's Social Security case supervisor, told investigators her boss was motivated by concern for his law license. The Supreme Court and its independent arm, the Kentucky Bar Association, can move to disbar attorneys for violations of ethics rules. Conn knew he faced multiple probes into the ethics of his disability benefits work.
"She said that Conn had told her they needed to be very nice to Scott because Scott could take his law license in a second," investigators wrote in their report.

Even without Conn's money, Scott managed to raise several hundred thousand dollars and soundly defeat his challenger, Kentucky Court of Appeals Judge Janet Stumbo, in the fall election.

Kentucky Disabilities Lawyer Eric C. Conn's Con.

Conn story: What does it take? Lawyer not disciplined in Ky. despite over a decade of issues, reports

Kentucky lawyer Eric Conn
invoked his right not to testify
when he appeared Monday
before a Senate committee in
Washington, D.C.

Lawyer not disciplined in Ky. despite over a decade of issues, reports

Last Monday, the U.S. Senate's Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs released a report on a two-year staff investigation titled, "How Some Legal, Medical, and Judicial Professionals Abused Social Security Disability Programs for the Country's Most Vulnerable: A Case Study of the Conn Law Firm."

Released in concert with a five-hour hearing that day on its findings, the lengthy, detailed report into the workings of the Eric C. Conn law firm in Stanville, Ky., reads like an Elmore Leonard novel.
There are secret lists, pre-paid cell phones, buxom beauties, tons of cash, thousands of pounds of shredded documents, "whore doctors" who sign diagnoses cut and pasted from the Internet, secret surveillance and manufactured evidence to discredit a whistle blower, Conn law-firm computer hard drives destroyed with hammers and scorched grass in the back yard where computers were burned.

The day of the Senate hearing, Herald-Leader reporter John Cheves asked Thomas Glover, chief bar counsel at the Kentucky Bar Association, about the status of Conn's license to practice law in Kentucky. "If what is being said is true, that could affect his license. It's too early to say," Glover responded.

We'd be inclined to agree if Monday had been the first time the slightest whiff of corruption arose from the doublewides that house Conn's thriving practice.

But, in fact, Conn's record is so dicey that, among all the other questions his story gives rise to, one that begs to be answered is this: What does it take to lose your license to practice law in Kentucky?
Conn, a military veteran, opened his law practice in Stanville in 1993. In the early years he practiced before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. He switched to Social Security disability after he gave up his right to practice before the Veterans Claims Court in 2002, in the wake of an investigation into professional misconduct.

Under the agreement Conn avoided further investigation but also gave up the right to ever be readmitted to appear before that court.

Conn was the subject of another investigation in 2011, this one by the Wall Street Journal, which published a story that May about the relationship between Conn and David B. Daugherty, an administrative law judge in the Huntington, W. Va. Social Security Office of Disability Adjudication and Review. The judge handled a huge volume of appeals, many filed by Conn, and granted benefits in almost every case.

The article reported that staffers and other judges had complained about the relationship between Conn and Daughterty, and that the Social Security Inspector General's Office allegedly had begun an investigation.

Last year, Conn was charged with a felony violation of Kentucky's campaign-finance laws for illegally funneling contributions to the successful 2012 re-election campaign of Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Will T. Scott. Conn pled guilty to a lesser misdemeanor charge.
Sunday night, just before the Senate hearing, CBS' 60 Minutes broadcast its damning account of the Conn-Daugherty relationship.

So, the current count is: dismissed from one federal court; charged with a felony in Kentucky pled down to a misdemeanor; the subject of a painstaking and devastating investigation by a Senate committee as well as a major story by a well-respected publication, and another by television's longest-running investigative news program.

And it's too early to say if this could affect his license?

The Kentucky Supreme Court makes the rules that govern legal discipline in the state. Those rules require a shroud of secrecy that prevents the public from knowing if the KBA has looked into Conn — or any attorney — and administered only a private slap on the wrist, or has simply not looked at all.

The rules protect lawyers who are unjustly accused or who made a mistake, were warned, and held to the straight and narrow ever after.

But this long, messy story makes it seem the system is equally, if not more, likely to protect lawyers who step over the ethical edge knowing few will be the wiser.

Read Senate report on Conn Law Firm at Kentucky.com/opinion.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/10/12/2873768/conn-story-what-does-it-take-lawyer.html#storylink=cpy

Disabilities Lawyer Eric C. Conn's Con.

Words To Live By, Words Of Wisdom, And Words To Ponder.

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. http://bible.com/547/rom.8.38.kjva

Romans 8:38 King James Version, American Edition

Why CONgress Is Getting Paid!

"We Will Not Negotiate"!

Why No One In The NFL Sees Anything Wrong With The Name "Redskins"!

It's All About Freedom! LOL.

lol.

Ted Cruz's ObamaRomneycare!

Affordable Care Act Versus ObamaRomneycare.

Hi Siri. Hi Susan Bennett.

Ha! Ha!!

The Best Way To Judge Your Auto Insurance Company Is When You File A Claim, So Avoid Strange Grange!

You heard me. Wanna hear more? hit me up via comments. no strangers from grange insurance, please.

Affected by the #KidsinCONgress who gave us #Federalgovernmentshutdown because of #ObamaRomneycare? #AppleITunesRadio Becons!

Affected by the. #kidsinCONgress who gave us #federalgovernmentshutdown because of #obamaRomneycare?

Head over to the #ITunesRadio and tune into. #BobMarley station or #RootsRockReggae or any reggae station and start to feel. #irie.

#Jah is still in control. Be #foreverlovingJah.

#Rastafari

Man's Inhumanity To Man: The Herman Wallace Story.

Herman Wallace: Surviving 40 years in solitary

 

Herman Wallace is suffering from liver cancer

The murder conviction of a prisoner who has spent 41 years in solitary confinement has been overturned by a judge in the US state of Louisiana. What is it like being kept in total or near total isolation?

Herman Wallace worked out, read Black Panther literature and fought the system. This week "the Muhammad Ali of the criminal justice system" was released.
Wallace was in a nursing clinic at Hunt Correctional Centre in St Gabriel, Louisiana, on Tuesday morning when he heard the news - and was understandably sceptical.
"I said, 'Herman, you are a free man,'" says Carine Williams, one of his lawyers. A judge had reversed his 1974 conviction for murder.
"He said, 'No, I'm not. I know where I am,'" she says. He looked around the room at the prison.

On that day in the clinic - he has liver cancer - he maintained his composure. It is a survival skill that he has honed over decades in prison.
He was serving a sentence for armed robbery in Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. He and another inmate, Albert Woodfox, were convicted in the stabbing death of a prison guard, Brent Miller, in April 1972.

 

Wallace was released - and taken to a hospital

Wallace and Woodfox were placed in isolation - Wallace was first in Angola and later in St Gabriel. It is a punishment that "devours victims incessantly and unmercifully", according to Alexis de Tocqueville, the author of Democracy in America.

It remains part of the prison system. More than 81,000 prisoners are held in solitary confinement in the US, said Senator Richard Durbin in a June 2012 hearing on the subject, citing a report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Some prisoners are placed in solitary confinement because they have assaulted or killed another inmate or a guard. Others are held there because they are gang members - and are considered dangerous.

Prisoners in solitary confinement are held in their cells on "average 23 hours a day", according to Craig Haney, a University of California professor who testified at the June 2012 hearing.
"Prisoners go for years - in some cases for decades - never touching another human being with affection," he said. "The emptiness and idleness that pervade most solitary confinement units are profound and enveloping."

The emptiness and idleness that pervade most solitary confinement units are profound and enveloping”

Craig Haney University of California

Some prisoners in solitary confinement commit suicide. Others hurt themselves. One man in New Mexico, said Haney, "used a makeshift needle and thread from his pillowcase to sew his mouth completely shut".

Last summer 30,000 California prisoners went on a hunger strike to protest against solitary confinement. State lawmakers said they would examine the issue - and the strike was cancelled. Years ago, inmates at the Angola prison were disturbed at the way that Wallace and others were treated in their isolated cells.

Wilbert Rideau, who was an Angola inmate at the time, says: "We knew there was a place called CCR", an acronym that stood for Close Custody - Restricted, the place where Wallace and others were held.
"We just didn't know how long they were in there," says Rideau.

Rideau, the editor of a prison magazine called The Angolite, did some research. He discovered Wallace had been isolated for more than 15 years. The Angolite published a feature about him and others in solitary confinement, says Rideau.

 

Wallace created this for a film called Herman's House

Until that point, Wallace and the other men in solitary confinement were basically "unknown to the world", says Rideau, the author of a memoir, In The Place of Justice. Wallace told one of his lawyers, George Kendall, that "this is the cruellest thing one man can do to another".

Wallace's friend Woodfox, who is still in solitary confinement, helped him fight the loneliness. "He told him, 'Remember our motto: always far apart but never not together'," Williams says.

In a six-by-nine-feet cell - just under three metres by two - Wallace stayed in shape by lifting weights that he constructed out of old newspapers. For a film entitled Herman's House, Wallace created a dream house he would someday live in. He read material about the Black Panther Party, a 1960s revolutionary group - and anything else he could get his hands on, and kept up with current events.
"I would say, 'What's going on in the Middle East?' and he would say, 'OK, which country do you want to talk about?'" says Kendall.

Wallace replied to letters - he got a steady stream of mail - and worked on his appeal. "This man is the Muhammad Ali of the criminal justice system. He just would not quit," Williams says.

By many accounts, the evidence against him and the other inmate was weak. They did not leave fingerprints at the place where Miller was killed, for instance. Even Miller's widow, Teenie Verret, said she had doubts about the case against them - and hoped they would be treated fairly.

This is the cruellest thing one man can do to another”

Herman Wallace

"If they did not do this, I think they need to be out," she said on NBC Nightly News in March 2008.

In recent weeks, Wallace has begun to feel increasingly weak. When Kendall visited him in the medical clinic, he noticed a three-inch stack of letters on a food tray.
"He said, 'I need to write them back.' He felt very bad about that," says Kendall.

On Tuesday evening, Williams rode with Wallace in an ambulance to the edge of the prison grounds. It pulled up to a stop sign. She told him she was going to get out - and would see him later that evening.
"I'm like, 'Are you all right?' He said, 'I'm good. Just get me out of here.'"

He was taken to an emergency room at LSU Interim Hospital in New Orleans. By that time he could barely talk. "You could see him struggling," says Williams. "Every word was precious."
He had something he wanted to say, though. "He said, 'I'm free'", she recalls. "He said it again three or four times."