In a recent post, we featured a 15 page report and demand for resignation submitted to Syracuse Family Court Magistrate James Gorman. This came only days following a related comprehensive report naming the same magistrate in a complaint filed with the New York Commission on Judicial Conduct. First Amendment retaliation was evident from the text and impact of a support decision by Magistrate Gorman issued within days of this complaint. It went so far as to fabricate a PhD degree for support purposes while admitting to intentional violations of statute. The illegal acts of this magistrate caused Leon Koziol, an outspoken parental advocate, to lose newly secured employment.
Numerous violations of the state’s Judicial Code of Conduct were cited in both complaints. Because a support magistrate is subject to local administrative review, a second complaint was necessarily filed and promptly referred to a referee (“special counsel”). Only one week later, a response letter arrived stating that nothing would be investigated here. This follows additional concessions in another “confidential” forum that the state was in fact targeting the public criticisms of Leon Koziol. In short, the subjects of criticism are going to every extreme to punish the whistleblower. Welcome to America.
Below you will find a two page rebuttal which summarizes this shocking display of retaliation and injustice. An independent Judicial Review Commission has been proposed to overcome the inaction and whitewashing of judicial misconduct. Self regulation of our judiciary is simply not working to benefit the people who entrust such important duties to the public servants in our third branch of government operations. We are presently engaged in soliciting investments and donations behind this cause. We need extensive resources to be able to come into your individual communities and root out misconduct through investigation, report and complaints before the media and related government entities. Please look us up at Leon Koziol.com and make your contribution today.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Office of Leon R. Koziol
Civil Rights Advocate
1518 Genesee Street
Utica, NY 13502
leonkoziol@gmail.com
(315) 796-4000
May 30, 2013
Gerard J. Neri
Special Counsel
Fifth Judicial District
Onondaga County Courthouse
Syracuse, New York 13202
Re: Support Magistrate James Gorman
Dear Mr. Neri:
On May 13, 2013, I submitted a 15-page resignation demand and formal complaint regarding serious ethical misconduct and gross incompetence exhibited by Onondaga County Support Magistrate James Gorman. It was provided to Family Court Judge Martha Walsh-Hood consistent with a procedure outlined by a Family Court clerk. I then received a May 16, 2013 letter from Judge Hood acknowledging my “complaint letters” and informing me that the matter was being assigned to you “for review and response”.
One week later, I received your letter dated May 23, 2013 which concluded the entire matter with peculiar, boiler-plate statements to the effect that “it appears you are objecting to legal decisions made by Support Magistrate Gorman… that this office does not have authority to intercede in litigation or over-turn decisions of the Judges within the District… however, any objections to decisions/orders of the Support Magistrate should be made in accordance with the statutory requirements of the State of New York”.
I am appalled that such text was actually contained in a formal statement under the office letterhead of James Tormey as Fifth District Administrative Judge. To this, I have two questions: who are you, and did you read my submissions? If you are a referee for judicial incompetence and misconduct, the Walsh-Hood transfer notice did not specify this. And if you had read my material, you would have discovered the identity of your immediate supervisor as a related subject of complaint. In that case, consistent with ethical duties of a lawyer or a judge, I am not sure which classification fits your job description, you should have disqualified yourself.
When I submitted my complaint, I did so on the good faith premise that an independent entity was in place to investigate and prosecute violations of our state’s judicial Code of Ethics. It “would appear” that there are no such ethics applicable to this hybrid animal known as a “support magistrate”. Like you, he or she is treated as neither a judge nor an attorney. Therefore these publicly paid officials can go about abusing government authority by simply making up material facts and exploiting them to suppress the free exercise of First Amendment rights.
Is it “competent” to find that I possessed a PhD contrary to anything stated in a court record and then abuse such a fact to orchestrate a jail-able support violation in retaliation for offensive public criticisms? Did you really think that I was unaware of the “objections” and “appeals” process? If you read my submissions, you would have known that I was complaining about gross incompetence and judicial misconduct of Magistrate Gorman derived from matters outside of the court record. As “special” counsel, you would then also have known that such matters are not subject to either “objections” or “appeals”. Even a rudimentary reading would have caused you to conclude that Magistrate Gorman was being grieved for his proximate retaliation upon my filing of a published complaint against him before the Judicial Conduct Commission.
This decision came only days after the publicized event, more than six months since our support hearing concluded, and five months after the same decision was promised on the record. The delay alone was bad enough. To reiterate aspects of my complaint, Magistrate Gorman admitted to intentional violations of “statutory requirements of the State of New York” in his decision copied upon you. This is not simply an issue for appeal. It is an unethical and unlawful act which caused me to lose a new job. An appeal of his decision will not get the job back. It is furthermore unethical for you to “shoe-horn” my complaint within the convenient confines of a support case in order to insulate a colleague in the same courthouse from accountability. This is a complaint showing numerous violations of ethical code requiring a truly impartial and detached review.
Only today, the Syracuse Post Standard and Syracuse.com featured a civil rights case by a professor against SUNY Institute of Technology for First Amendment retaliation resulting in a $600,000 verdict, or the same amount obtained against your boss for violating similar rights of a Family Court clerk. A support magistrate may attempt to claim immunity from monetary recovery of this kind, but he or she is not immune from ethical accountability for the same unlawful act. Otherwise there would be no purpose to any code of ethics, conduct commission or your “office” for that matter. Please do the right thing here by disqualifying yourself so that a proper “review and response” can be made in connection with this very serious matter.
The public has a right to expect some kind of accountability in our third branch of government operations. A truly impartial “support magistrate” would not only honor our ethical codes but he would commence every case with notice to the litigants that they are being subjected to a tax as well as a child support obligation in any final order. I have explained the logic of this in my submissions but that would of course impair the same magistrate’s overall impartiality due to a financial stake in the outcome (principally impairing fathers and non-custodial mothers). This is all part of my continuing effort to alert you of an escalation in tensions and violence arising from this kind of bureaucratic cycle of abuse, harming good parents, families and innocent children.
Very truly yours,
Leon R. Koziol
Cc: Martha Walsh-Hood
Judicial Conduct Commission
U.S. Justice Department
Syracuse Post Standard
There is something very Femi-Fascist going on in the US Department of Justice. Their “policies” are are being implemented to overide LAW, and peoples lawful rights to due process. We are all with you Leon and Godspeed.
Reblogged this on wethefamilies and commented:
http://www.bradenton.com/2013/05/06/4510886/society-family-courts-must-empower.html
Family courts and feminism have stripped men of their ability to be authority figures. Men who express any type of authority are labeled as mean, uncaring, and even abusive.
Their role as father has been reduced to nothing more than that of a helpless bystander who can no longer parent with any authority.
We are headed for absolute disaster if we do not start changing the message now and start teaching fathers that it is OK to be authoritative and teaching them to lay down the law with their children.
We need to let men know that being a father is OK, and that having their child cry or be punished for acting badly does not make them some sort of monster.
Fathers have lost their place in the family and are now left confused and powerless while their children walk all over them and become the misguided leaders of the family. It’s a recipe for disaster.
It’s time to give fathers back their power as parents. Society and family courts need to wake up and see the irreparable damage being done to our children. Family courts have hindered a father’s ability to parent effectively.
Children need rules, direction, and authority in order to thrive. Children need to fail, to fall down, to get hurt, to cry, and to see consequences to their actions in order to be healthy and well-adjusted.
Third-party “experts” who are not qualified to control their own family life have no place in our family lives. Jury trials would assure that.
If society and family courts would spend as much time and money putting the family back together instead of separating them we as a nation would be better off.
Glen Gibellina
Bradenton
Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2013/05/06/4510886/society-family-courts-must-empower.html#storylink=cpy
go leon go,, let me know where to line up for the revlovelution
Speechless…. Could not have said it better. Fathers, real fathers, good fathers need to be given back their God given right to rear and raise their children. Society has suffered the consequences from lack of such alienation of fathers and their children.
Reblogged this on Children's Rights.
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