President, Citizen Commission Against Corruption, Inc.
Unlike other successful reform movements, the parental rights crusade has remained hopelessly swamped. As an accomplished trial attorney, former office holder and parental rights advocate who traveled the country seeking unity behind this vital cause, I can attest to the realities Most, if not all of this dysfunction, can be traced to conflicting interests, funding failures, self-appointed experts, GED lawyers spewing vu-doo advice, and widespread apathy spiced with defeatist attitudes on a fatal level.
One-and-done groups with long-neglected websites dominate this pathetic landscape. It likely explains why Dr. Joe Sorge abandoned his million-dollar investments in Divorce Corp along with Alec Baldwin’s promise to join us years earlier after publishing his book, A Promise to Ourselves. in 2009. My own courageous stand against my profession resulted in horrific retributions that nearly cost me my life due to a lack of support. It is a John Grisham ordeal captured in my 2021 book Whistleblower in Paris
To be sure, I remain outraged by President Joe Biden’s failure to mention parental rights in his State of the Union address two years in a row along with that of his predecessor, Donald Trump, four years in a row. Without public support for “tradition,” the underpinning for its recognition in 1923, the right to parent our children is now poised for elimination by the Supreme Court. This is because, like the abortion right last year, it finds no textual appearance in our Constitution.
Meanwhile the band plays on with corruption-plagued courts, federal funding abuses, severe parental alienation, growing suicides. unprecedented murders, unwanted teen pregnancies, drug addictions, sex-based atrocities, and endless carnage in society. While referencing the Big Pharma, Big Tech, and other “Big” corruption industries, Joe Biden ignored the Divorce Industry and erosion of parental authority in our schools and family courts.
Despite all this, I refuse to believe that our collective efforts were in vain. Therefore, I will now be focused on fundraising behind a public oversight entity with a central office, paid staff and satellite presence across te country. This is an entity which I incorporated as a nonprofit with tax-exempt status granted by the IRS in 2021. Known as the Citizen Commission Against Corruption, Inc., it is dedicated to organizing reform events, filing precedent-seeking litigation and investigating complaints neglected by our judicial commissions, lawyer regulators and other oversight agencies financed by our tax dollars.
This latest reform strategy is explained in greater detail in my “Law Review and News Alert” released on February 8, 2023 and on our website, http://www.citizencommissionagainstcorruption.org. If you would like to benefit from this highly educational 12-page release, simply contact me at leonkoziol@gmail.com or call our office at (315) 864-8176 for your free copy. And kindly consider a donation when you do.
Breaking front page story in Syracuse press citing Leon Koziol as succeesful lawyer in casino lawsuit (right side)
Leon R. Koziol, J.D.
Former litigation attorney
Director, Parenting Rights Institute
President, Citizen Commission Against Corruption, Inc.
This post shows with irrefutable proof how I was ruthlessly persecuted for exposing corruption in New York’s family courts. However, it also shows how a powerful incentive emerged to join that persecution due to my prior successful challenge to the Oneida Indian Nation Turning Stone Casino gaming compact.
It was commenced as a countersuit on behalf of innocent landowners named in a class action lawsuit brought by the Indian Nation to eject trespassing occupants of tribal lands. It led to a judgment in New York Supreme Court in 2004 invalidating that billion- dollar compact. My uncontested divorce, filed later the same year, was then targeted in retaliation for such committed representation.
This post also refutes critics focused on harming me for other illicit or deranged purposes. The ongoing persecution features an attack upon my 23-year, unblemished reputation as a civil rights trial attorney and parenting record which contained no unfit finding or child agency report. In short, the attorney disciplinary process was weaponized against me along with our family courts.
This horrific agenda remains without long-deserved recourse, a veritable “Innocence Project” still awaiting justice. It has been detailed in my book, Whistleblower in Paris, published in 2021, available at Barnes and Noble, Amazon and major bookseller sites.
On February 3, 2023, I released a Law Review and News Alert (12-page summary) intended to generate a mainstream report and docu-series. Already it is under review by a major news medium. A free copy of this highly revealing educational literary work can be obtained by request at leonkoziol@gmail.com or by calling our office at (315) 380-3420. Your assistance in promoting this objective is not only urged but it will benefit victims everywhere. It is an ordeal that cannot be covered up unless we allow it.
The reproduced pages below are taken from official reports published by federal and state courts in New York. As represented in my biographical summaries found on my social and secondary sites, I boldly took on a cause (along with so many others) on behalf of politically disadvantaged constituencies including landowners victimized by the Oneida Indian Nation (class action) land claim in 1998.
As part of my legal strategy, I secured a final judgment invalidating the Oneida’s Turning Stone Casino gaming compact. This opened the door to closure of its billion-dollar, mega-resort. That success required authorization from the federal court where the land claim was pending and state court decision thereafter which declared that compact void. As a sole practitioner, I accomplished both against some of the most elite law firms in America, i.e. Cravath, Swaine & Moore in midtown Manhattan.
The record speaks for itself and months later led to the persecution exposed in my civil rights lawsuits and publications. The first reproduced page shows the federal court decision that denied the Oneida Nation motion to place an injunction upon my state court casino challenge. The two pages below it verify the state court judgment four years later which declared that casino compact void.
The fourth (bottom) page stands out from the others insofar as it shows the shocking number of “persons” and government entities which became a part of my maliciously protracted divorce case after the casino litigation was concluded. Without question an unprecedented due process violation, they were necessarily named in my federal civil rights lawsuit, Parent v State, 786 F. Supp. 2d 516 (NDNY 2011).
Needless to say, both the casino and parent rights litigation outraged highly influential parties dependent on highly lucrative family courts and gaming operations. However, the landowner counter-suit was successful in helping end the land claim altogether in 2011. This was the same year that Parent v State was decided. It is analyzed in my recent news alert. From a circumstantial standpoint, one can easily connect the dots that learned judges blatantly ignored.
The Oneida Nation class action litigation sought to eject innocent landowners (my clients) from a 250,000-acre tract found to have been unlawfully seized by the State of New York in violation of a 1794 treaty. Also, needless to say, this highly unexpected outcome made me a target, and it nearly ended my life in 2020. Yes, this is a real-life John Grisham story if there ever was one.
President, Citizen Commission Against Corruption, Inc.
This post shows with irrefutable proof how I was ruthlessly persecuted for exposing corruption in New York’s family courts. However, it also shows how a powerful incentive emerged to join that persecution due to my prior successful challenge to the Oneida Indian Nation Turning Stone Casino gaming compact.
Litigation I commenced on behalf of innocent landowners named in a class action lawsuit brought by the Indian Nation led to a judgment in New York Supreme Court in 2004 invalidating that billion- dollar compact. My uncontested divorce, filed later the same year, was then targeted in retaliation for such committed representation.
This post also refutes critics focused on harming me for other illicit or deranged purposes. The ongoing persecution features an attack upon my 23-year, unblemished reputation as a civil rights trial attorney and parenting record which contained no unfit finding or child agency report. In short, the attorney disciplinary process was weaponized against me along with our family courts.
This horrific agenda remains without long-deserved recourse, a veritable “Innocence Project” still awaiting justice. It has been detailed in my book, Whistleblower in Paris, published in 2021, available at Barnes and Noble, Amazon and major bookseller sites.
On February 3, 2023, I released a Law Review and News Alert (12-page summary) intended to generate a mainstream report and docu-series. Already it is under review by a major news medium. A free copy of this highly revealing educational literary work can be obtained by request at leonkoziol@gmail.com or by calling our office at (315) 380-3420. Your assistance in promoting this objective is not only urged but it will benefit victims everywhere. It is an ordeal that cannot be covered up unless we allow it.
The reproduced pages below are taken from official reports published by federal and state courts in New York. As represented in my biographical summaries found on my social and secondary sites, I boldly took on a cause (along with so many others) on behalf of politically disadvantaged constituencies including landowners victimized by the Oneida Indian Nation (class action) land claim in 1998.
As part of my legal strategy, I secured a final judgment invalidating the Oneida’s Turning Stone Casino gaming compact. This opened the door to closure of its billion-dollar, mega-resort. That success required authorization from the federal court where the land claim was pending and state court decision thereafter which declared that compact void. As a sole practitioner, I accomplished both against some of the most elite law firms in America, i.e. Cravath, Swaine & Moore in midtown Manhattan.
The record speaks for itself and months later led to the persecution exposed in my civil rights lawsuits and publications. The first reproduced page shows the federal court decision that denied the Oneida Nation motion to place an injunction upon my state court casino challenge. The two pages below it verify the state court judgment four years later which declared that casino compact void.
Needless to say, this result outraged public officials and private investors dependent on casino operations. However, the strategy was successful in helping end the land claim altogether in 2011, the same year that Parent v State was decided. This was the case I brought (unsuccessfully) to secure ultimate recourse as a conscientious attorney and whistleblower. It is analyzed in my recent news alert.
The Oneida Nation class action litigation sought to eject innocent landowners (my clients) from a 250,000-acre tract found to have been unlawfully seized by the State of New York in violation of a 1794 treaty. Also, needless to say, this highly unexpected outcome made me a target, and it nearly ended my life in 2020. Yes, this is a real-life John Grisham story if there ever was one.
President, Citizen Commission Against Corruption, Inc.
This post is committed to further prove how I was ruthlessly persecuted for exposing corruption in New York’s family courts in particular and nationwide in general due to my reform efforts. It also refutes critics focused on harming my reputation for illicit or deranged purposes.
That persecution featured an attack upon my 23-year, unblemished reputation as a civil rights trial attorney and parenting record which contained no unfit finding or child agency report. In short, the attorney disciplinary process was weaponized against me along with our family courts.
This persecution remains without long-deserved recourse, a veritable “Innocence Project” still awaiting justice. It has been detailed in my book, Whistleblower in Paris, published in 2021, available at Barnes and Noble, Amazon and major bookseller sites.
On February 3, 2023, I released a Law Review and News Alert (12-page summary) intended to generate a mainstream report and docu-series. Already it is under review by a major news medium. Your assistance in promoting this objective is not only urged but it will benefit victims everywhere. It is an ordeal that cannot be swept under the carpet or concealed in corrupt manner.
The reproduced pages above are taken from official reports published by federal and state courts in New York. They are intended to back up my record and resulting retaliation. As represented in my biographical summaries found on my social and secondary sites, I boldly took on a cause (along with so many others) on behalf of politically disadvantaged constituencies including landowners victimized by the Oneida Indian Nation (class action) land claim in 1998.
As part of my legal strategy, I secured a final judgment invalidating the Oneida’s Turning Stone Casino gaming compact. This opened the door to closure of its billion-dollar, mega-resort. That success required authorization from the federal court where the land claim was pending and state court decision thereafter which declared that compact void. As a sole practitioner, I accomplished both against some of the most elite law firms in America, i.e. Cravath, Swaine & Moore in midtown Manhattan.
The record speaks for itself and months later led to the persecution exposed in my civil rights lawsuits and publications. The first (top) reproduced page shows the federal court decision that denied the Oneida Nation motion to place an injunction upon my state court casino challenge. The two pages below it verify the state court judgment four years later which declared that casino compact void.
Needless to say, this result outraged public officials and private investors dependent on casino operations. However, the strategy was successful in helping end the land claim altogether in 2011, the same year that Parent v State was decided. This was the case I brought (unsuccessfully) to secure ultimate recourse as a conscientious attorney and whistleblower. It is analyzed in my recent news alert.
The Oneida Nation class action litigation sought to eject innocent landowners (my clients) from a 250,000-acre tract found to have been unlawfully seized by the State of New York in violation of a 1794 treaty. Also, needless to say, this highly unexpected outcome made me a target, and it nearly ended my life in 2020. Yes, this is a real-life John Grisham story if there ever was one.
“I would love to come off this bench and wipe that smirk off your face!” Judge Gerald Popeo to litigant in his courtroom
Dr. Leon R. Koziol
Former litigation attorney and founder
Citizen Commission Against Corruption, Inc.
NSA WHISTLEBLOWER EDWARD SNOWDEN has weighed in on the presidential document scandal by citing lawyers in the Department of Justice (DOJ) as the real culprits given their select treatment of influential officials. Along with a hopelessly divided Congress, their focus remains on career advancements and notoriety to the detriment of those exposing court corruption.
In contrast, low level whistleblowers face immediate prosecution and punishment. As one such victim, a civil rights attorney who fled to Paris for asylum in 2014, I blew the whistle on criminal activity in our justice system. Yet no one to date has reported on my shocking ordeal repeatedly litigated and made public at www.leonkoziol.com.
Help us do the job which our oversight officials are not by supporting our nonprofit organization, Citizen Commission Against Corruption, Inc. Visit our website at http://www.citizencommissionagainstcorruption.org.
And spread the word.
About the Author
Leon R. Koziol, J.D. practiced law for more than two decades in federal and state courts. A former city councilman, school board attorney and corporation counsel, he developed a diverse professional background to become ideally suited to exposing corruption. He appeared on the CBS program 60 Minutes for his defense of landowners targeted for eviction by Indian tribes alleging violations of ancient treaties. In 2004, he secured a judgement in New York Supreme Court invalidating the billion dollar Turning Stone casino gaming compact.
His recoveries feature substantial jury verdicts for victims of government abuse. Case citations include, Koziol v Hanna, 107 F.2d 170 (NDNY 2000); Patterson v City of Utica, 370 F.3d 322 (2nd Cir.2004); Oneida Indian Nation v County of Oneida, 132 F. Supp. 2d 71 (NDNY); Peterman v Pataki, 2004 NY Slip Op 51092(U); Currie v Kowalewski, 842 F. Supp. 57 (NDNY 1994) and Parent v State, 786 F. Supp. 2d 516 (NDNY 2011).
The latter was a consolidated case intended as a class action on behalf of parents defrauded in domestic relations courts. It was part of a bold and complex challenge to judicial and sovereign immunity which yielded severe retributions upon the author’s licenses and parent-child relations. The horrific ordeal which led to a near death climax was captured in his book, Whistleblower in Paris, published in 2021.
TODAY, LONG ISLAND DIGNITARIES RANGING FROM STATE SENATORS TO LOCAL REPRESENTATIVES HELD A STANDING-ROOM-ONLY NEWS CONFERENCE TO DEMAND THE RESIGNATION OF THEIR NEWLY ELECTED CONGRESSMAN GEORGE SANTOS.
THEIR PUBLIC MESSAGE FOCUSED ON THE BAD EXAMPLE SET BY A DERANGED FRAUDSTER WHO HAD BECOME THE LAUGHING-STOCK OF THE WORLD.
SANTOS HAD SO DRENCHED HIMSELF WITH IRREPARABLE LIES ABOUT HIS BACKGROUND DURING HIS CAMPAIGN THAT HE WAS NOW DISABLED FROM GOVERNING.
BUT UNDERLYING THAT MESSAGE WAS THE BIGGER ISSUE OF HOW SANTOS GOT OVERLOOKED BY SO MANY VETERAN POLITICIANS PRIOR TO ELECTION DAY?
DID THEY ALL BRING THIS UPON THEMSELVES, AND DESERVEDLY SO, DUE TO A GROSS LACK OF DUE DILIGENCE, SELF-ABSORPTION AND ULTIMATELY BLIND ENDORSEMENTS TO EARN THEM THE DUBIOUS DISTINCTION AS A NATIONAL DISGRACE?
MORE TROUBLING, HOW MANY MORE FRAUDSTERS LIKE SANTOS ARE LURKING AMONG US IN PUBLIC OFFICE?
THIS LATEST SCANDAL, EMERGING AMONG SO MANY OTHERS IN THE DAILY NEWS THESE DAYS, SUPPORTS THE WORK OF THE CITIZEN COMMISSION AGAINST CORRUPTION, INC,
THIS IS A NONPROFIT ACTION GROUP FORMED IN 2021 TO DO THE JOB THAT OVERSIGHT OFFICIALS ARE NOT.
AFTER ALL, IT WAS THE PURE FATE OF A NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE THAT EXPOSED GEORGE SANTOS IN THE FIRST PLACE. OTHERWISE, THE AMERICAN PUBLIC MIGHT STILL BE UNAWARE OF HIS MASSIVE BACKGROUND FABRICATIONS THAT OFFENDED SO MANY CONSTITUENT GROUPS.
Contact Author at (315) 796-4000and leonkoziol@gmail.com
It goes without saying that any lawyer who regularly exposes judicial misconduct will eventually be targeted. But none more than I was after exposing corruption ranging from my pedophile child custody judge (Bryan Hedges) to a city court jurist found guilty by a state commission of making racial remarks, physical threats and wrongful incarcerations from the bench (Gerald Popeo).
In the end, due to resulting systemic bias, my health, unblemished law practice and nearly my life were taken from me in retaliation. It mirrored the kind of persecution endured by human rights attorneys such as Chen Guangchen who secured refuge in the United States after he was targeted for his criticisms of the Chinese government.
Accordingly, I took on a cause to make systemic bias more transparent. It led to a form of “Innocence Project” that remains unfinished. In whistleblower cases, such bias is highly elusive from a proof standpoint. Public critics are made to appear incompetent and subjected to a form of gang assault. It is routinely dismissed as a fringe accusation devoid of support.
To debunk this myth, I have endeavored to secure legal protection for conscientious whistleblowers beginning with a precedent-seeking case filed with the Supreme Court under docket no. 18-278 and captioned Leon R. Koziol v Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, et. al. Ahead of its time, it sought to permit circumstantial proof as a conventional means for establishing unlawful retaliation by judges.
Fearless reporting by those most qualified to expose corrupt jurists would be incentivized by carving out an exception to the court-created doctrine of judicial immunity. To be sure, unless caught red-handed, a judge is unlikely to admit wrongdoing. Inasmuch as courts have long preferred circumstantial proof as a more reliable mode of truth-seeking, there is no reason to avoid application of this rule to judge misconduct cases.
Presently, when jurists are the subject of misconduct, two unwritten rules of evidence invariably emerge, one for judge defendants and the other for the complainants. Under the first, damning evidence is blocked in both overt and discreet ways ostensibly to protect the reputation of our judiciary, i.e. United States v Cossey, 632 F. 3d 82 (2nd Cir, 2010).
The DiFiore filing sought to remedy this dichotomy, representing a check on the persecution of attorney whistleblowers. The protracted and depraved manner in which unlawful retaliation was carried out necessitated my alarming memoir entitled, Whistleblower in Paris. As detailed therein, the attorney disciplinary process was weaponized to achieve illicit outcomes.
But my disclosures were so justifiably offensive that the wrongdoers went to the unconscionable extreme of sabotaging parent-child relationships in simultaneously pending family court proceedings. My petition for declaratory relief eventually fell victim to the Supreme Court’s practice of denying roughly 99% of all that are filed. Proceedings included a stay motion denied by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Despite all this, my crusade lives on, having been vindicated when the main defending party, New York Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, was forced to resign after being investigated by a state judicial commission for misconduct. DiFiore was reported by a non-lawyer for a letter she sent to a disciplinary judge seeking the harshest outcome against the head of the court officer’s union. She did so in retaliation for his criticisms of her safety practices during the pandemic.
This audacious act shows how readily a judge will misuse authority behind the scenes to punish public critics. It is far from isolated. A predecessor chief judge, Sol Wachtler, may have mentored such elitism with brazen crimes committed 30 years earlier. He served a mere seven years in a medium security facility after being arrested for extortion, racketeering and blackmail.
Like DiFiore, Wachtler used high office to interfere with a licensing process of the attorney exposing his misconduct. It featured Wachtler’s debutante mistress. Under a fictitious name, he made false reports to the FBI and threatened to kidnap her child. Ironically, Wachtler was renowned for an opinion criticizing prosecutors who could “indict a ham sandwich” if they so targeted.
Wachtler was reinstated after his disbarment, hired as a law school professor, and rewarded with book royalties from his prison memoir, After the Madness. In it, he defended his misconduct because judges are supposedly trained to think of themselves as gods. This was a man being groomed for a Supreme Court appointment.
Yet another example lies with a middle-level appeals court judge, Nancy Smith, who earned the dubious distinction as the first jurist above trial level to be publicly disciplined in New York. It featured a glowing reference to benefit a prisoner convicted of vehicular manslaughter resulting in the death of two people. Not long after, Judge Smith was elevated to presiding justice of that court.
Taken together with more than 40 trial level jurists removed from my case for diverse reasons, this undeniable record provides sufficient circumstantial proof of systemic bias against those who criticize our judicial branch of government. However, such a record would not be admissible in any single case. The question then emerges: how many DiFiores, Wachtlers and Smiths are lurking among us?
That number may prove to be staggering. Misconduct is only a matter of what a violator can get away with. In Dobbs v Jackson, No. 19-1392, 597 US ____ (2022), the abortion rights case, Roe v Wade was overturned. A version of this opinion was leaked followed by commitments to apprehend the wrongdoer. Months later, no progress has been announced with the apparent hope that this will blow over.
Such elitism sets a poor example for lower judges, attorneys and litigants. It calls for an overhaul of our justice system beginning with oversight and judiciary committee hearings in Congress. This is not a gender, race or political issue but a profound effort to repair a crevice in our constitutional framework.
About the Author
Leon R. Koziol, J.D. practiced law for more than two decades in federal and state courts. A former city councilman, school board attorney and corporation counsel, he developed a diverse professional background to become ideally suited to exposing corruption. He appeared on the CBS program 60 Minutes for his defense of landowners targeted for eviction by Indian tribes alleging violations of ancient treaties. In 2004, he secured a judgement in New York Supreme Court invalidating the billion dollar Turning Stone casino gaming compact.
His recoveries feature substantial jury verdicts for victims of government abuse. Case citations include, Koziol v Hanna, 107 F.2d 170 (NDNY 2000); Patterson v City of Utica, 370 F.3d 322 (2nd Cir.2004); Oneida Indian Nation v County of Oneida, 132 F. Supp. 2d 71 (NDNY); Peterman v Pataki, 2004 NY Slip Op 51092(U); Currie v Kowalewski, 842 F. Supp. 57 (NDNY 1994) and Parent v State, 786 F. Supp. 2d 516 (NDNY 2011).
The latter was a consolidated case intended as a class action on behalf of parents defrauded in domestic relations courts. It was part of a bold and complex challenge to judicial and sovereign immunity which yielded severe retributions upon the author’s licenses and parent-child relations. The horrific ordeal which led to a near death climax was captured in his book, Whistleblower in Paris, published in 2021.
Accountability Pursued for Unrestrained Judicial Misconduct and Whistleblower Retaliation
Release Date: January 8, 2023
Contact Author at (315) 796-4000and leonkoziol@gmail.com
It goes without saying that any lawyer who regularly exposes judicial misconduct will eventually be targeted. But none more than I was after exposing corruption ranging from my pedophile child custody judge (Bryan Hedges) to a city court jurist found guilty by a state commission of making racial remarks, physical threats and wrongful incarcerations from the bench (Gerald Popeo).
In the end, due to resulting systemic bias, my health, unblemished law practice and nearly my life were taken from me in retaliation. It mirrored the kind of persecution endured by human rights attorneys such as Chen Guangchen who secured refuge in the United States after he was targeted for his criticisms of the Chinese government.
Accordingly, I took on a cause to make systemic bias more transparent. It led to a form of “Innocence Project” that remains unfinished. In whistleblower cases, such bias is highly elusive from a proof standpoint. Public critics are made to appear incompetent and subjected to a form of gang assault. It is routinely dismissed as a fringe accusation devoid of support.
To debunk this myth, I have endeavored to secure legal protection for conscientious whistleblowers beginning with a precedent-seeking case filed with the Supreme Court under docket no. 18-278 and captioned Leon R. Koziol v Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, et. al. Ahead of its time, it sought to permit circumstantial proof as a conventional means for establishing unlawful retaliation by judges.
Fearless reporting by those most qualified to expose corrupt jurists would be incentivized by carving out an exception to the court-created doctrine of judicial immunity. To be sure, unless caught red-handed, a judge is unlikely to admit wrongdoing. Inasmuch as courts have long preferred circumstantial proof as a more reliable mode of truth-seeking, there is no reason to avoid application of this rule to judge misconduct cases.
Presently, when jurists are the subject of misconduct, two unwritten rules of evidence invariably emerge, one for judge defendants and the other for the complainants. Under the first, damning evidence is blocked in both overt and discreet ways ostensibly to protect the reputation of our judiciary, i.e. United States v Cossey, 632 F. 3d 82 (2nd Cir, 2010).
The DiFiore filing sought to remedy this dichotomy, representing a check on the persecution of attorney whistleblowers. The protracted and depraved manner in which unlawful retaliation was carried out necessitated my alarming memoir entitled, Whistleblower in Paris. As detailed therein, the attorney disciplinary process was weaponized to achieve illicit outcomes.
But my disclosures were so justifiably offensive that the wrongdoers went to the unconscionable extreme of sabotaging parent-child relationships in simultaneously pending family court proceedings. My petition for declaratory relief eventually fell victim to the Supreme Court’s practice of denying roughly 99% of all that are filed. Proceedings included a stay motion denied by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Despite all this, my crusade lives on, having been vindicated when the main defending party, New York Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, was forced to resign after being investigated by a state judicial commission for misconduct. DiFiore was reported by a non-lawyer for a letter she sent to a disciplinary judge seeking the harshest outcome against the head of the court officer’s union. She did so in retaliation for his criticisms of her safety practices during the pandemic.
This audacious act shows how readily a judge will misuse authority behind the scenes to punish public critics. It is far from isolated. A predecessor chief judge, Sol Wachtler, may have mentored such elitism with brazen crimes committed 30 years earlier. He served a mere seven years in a medium security facility after being arrested for extortion, racketeering and blackmail.
Like DiFiore, Wachtler used high office to interfere with a licensing process of the attorney exposing his misconduct. It featured Wachtler’s debutante mistress. Under a fictitious name, he made false reports to the FBI and threatened to kidnap her child. Ironically, Wachtler was renowned for an opinion criticizing prosecutors who could “indict a ham sandwich” if they so targeted.
Wachtler was reinstated after his disbarment, hired as a law school professor, and rewarded with book royalties from his prison memoir, After the Madness. In it, he defended his misconduct because judges are supposedly trained to think of themselves as gods. This was a man being groomed for a Supreme Court appointment.
Yet another example lies with a middle-level appeals court judge, Nancy Smith, who earned the dubious distinction as the first jurist above trial level to be publicly disciplined in New York. It featured a glowing reference to benefit a prisoner convicted of vehicular manslaughter resulting in the death of two people. Not long after, Judge Smith was elevated to presiding justice of that court.
Taken together with more than 40 trial level jurists removed from my case for diverse reasons, this undeniable record provides sufficient circumstantial proof of systemic bias against those who criticize our judicial branch of government. However, such a record would not be admissible in any single case. The question then emerges: how many DiFiores, Wachtlers and Smiths are lurking among us?
That number may prove to be staggering. Misconduct is only a matter of what a violator can get away with. In Dobbs v Jackson, No. 19-1392, 597 US ____ (2022), the abortion rights case, Roe v Wade was overturned. A version of this opinion was leaked followed by commitments to apprehend the wrongdoer. Months later, no progress has been announced with the apparent hope that this will blow over.
Such elitism sets a poor example for lower judges, attorneys and litigants. It calls for an overhaul of our justice system beginning with oversight and judiciary committee hearings in Congress. This is not a gender, race or political issue but a profound effort to repair a crevice in our constitutional framework.
About the Author
Leon R. Koziol, J.D. practiced law for more than two decades in federal and state courts. A former city councilman, school board attorney and corporation counsel, he developed a diverse professional background to become ideally suited to exposing corruption. He appeared on the CBS program 60 Minutes for his defense of landowners targeted for eviction by Indian tribes alleging violations of ancient treaties. In 2004, he secured a judgement in New York Supreme Court invalidating the billion dollar Turning Stone casino gaming compact.
His recoveries feature substantial jury verdicts for victims of government abuse. Case citations include, Koziol v Hanna, 107 F.2d 170 (NDNY 2000); Patterson v City of Utica, 370 F.3d 322 (2nd Cir.2004); Oneida Indian Nation v County of Oneida, 132 F. Supp. 2d 71 (NDNY); Peterman v Pataki, 2004 NY Slip Op 51092(U); Currie v Kowalewski, 842 F. Supp. 57 (NDNY 1994) and Parent v State, 786 F. Supp. 2d 516 (NDNY 2011).
The latter was a consolidated case intended as a class action on behalf of parents defrauded in domestic relations courts. It was part of a bold and complex challenge to judicial and sovereign immunity which yielded severe retributions upon the author’s licenses and parent-child relations. The horrific ordeal which led to a near death climax was captured in his book, Whistleblower in Paris, published in 2021.
Accountability Pursued for Unrestrained Judicial Misconduct and Whistleblower Retaliation
Release Date: January 3, 2023
Contact Author at (315) 796-4000and leonkoziol@gmail.com
After more than two decades as a civil rights attorney, I left the profession to engage in a very unique line of work exposing judicial misconduct. Predictably, this incited horrific retributions from highly influential agents which cost me my health, unblemished reputation and nearly my life in 2020.
In response, I have endeavored to secure legal protection for attorney whistleblowers beginning with a precedent-seeking case filed with the Supreme Court under docket no. 18-278 and captioned Leon R. Koziol v Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, et. al.
Ahead of its time, it sought to permit circumstantial proof as a conventional means for establishing unlawful retaliation by judges against conscientious attorneys. Fearless reporting by those most qualified to expose corrupt jurists would be incentivized by carving out an exception to the court-created doctrine of judicial immunity.
To be sure, unless caught red-handed, a judge is unlikely to admit wrongdoing. Inasmuch as courts have long preferred circumstantial proof as a more reliable mode of truth-seeking, there is no reason to avoid application of this rule to judge misconduct cases. This is especially true given the advances made in forensic science, recording devices and public awareness.
Presently, when jurists are the subject of misconduct, two unwritten rules of evidence invariably emerge, one for judge defendants and the other for the complainants. Under the first, damning evidence is blocked in both overt and discreet ways ostensibly to protect the reputation of our judiciary, i.e. United States v Cossey, 632 F. 3d 82 (2nd Cir, 2010).
The DiFiore filing sought to remedy this dichotomy, representing a check on the persecution of attorney whistleblowers. The protracted and depraved manner in which unlawful retaliation was carried out necessitated my alarming memoir entitled, Whistleblower in Paris. As detailed therein, the attorney disciplinary process was weaponized to achieve illicit outcomes.
But my disclosures were so justifiably offensive that the wrongdoers went to the unconscionable extreme of sabotaging parent-child relationships in simultaneously pending family court proceedings. It reflected the kind of persecution inflicted upon human rights lawyers by tyrannical regimes. Chinese attorney, Chen Guangchen, who fled to the United States in 2011, is only one example.
At the very core of a properly functioning justice system is the mandate of impartiality. In any non-judge case, whistleblower protection would be readily acknowledged as a means for advancing fair outcomes even if relief was ultimately denied. But here silence prevailed as evident in the denial of a stay motion by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the DiFiore case.
My petition for declaratory relief eventually fell victim to the Supreme Court’s practice of denying roughly 99% of all that are filed. But my crusade lives on, having been vindicated when the main defending party, New York Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, was forced to resign after being investigated by a state judicial commission for misconduct.
DiFiore was reported by a non-lawyer for a letter she sent to a disciplinary judge seeking the harshest outcome against the head of the court officer’s union. She did so in retaliation for his criticisms of her safety practices during the pandemic. In contrast, lawyers exercising First Amendment rights have had to conceal their identities through third parties, i.e. Supreme Court of Virginia v Consumers Union, 446 US 719 (1980).
This audacious act shows how readily a judge will misuse authority behind the scenes to punish public critics. It is far from isolated. A predecessor chief judge, Sol Wachtler, may have mentored such elitism with brazen crimes committed 30 years earlier. He served a mere seven years in a medium security facility after being arrested for extortion, racketeering and blackmail.
Like DiFiore, Wachtler used high office to interfere with a licensing process of the attorney exposing his misconduct. It featured Wachtler’s debutante mistress. Under a fictitious name, he made false reports to the FBI and threatened to kidnap her child. Ironically, Wachtler was renowned for an opinion criticizing prosecutors who could “indict a ham sandwich” if they so targeted.
Wachtler was reinstated after his disbarment, hired as a law school professor, and rewarded with book royalties from his prison memoir, After the Madness. In it, he defended his misconduct because judges are supposedly trained to think of themselves as gods. This was a man being groomed for a Supreme Court appointment.
Yet another example lies with a middle-level appeals court judge, Nancy Smith, who earned the dubious distinction as the first jurist above trial level to be publicly disciplined in New York. It featured a glowing reference to benefit a prisoner convicted of vehicular manslaughter resulting in the death of two people. Not long after, Judge Smith was elevated to presiding justice of that court.
The question then emerges: how many DiFiores, Wachtlers and Smiths are lurking among us?
That number may prove to be staggering. Misconduct is only a matter of what a violator can get away with. In Dobbs v Jackson, No. 19-1392, 597 US ____ (2022), Roe v Wade was overturned. A version of this opinion was leaked followed by commitments to apprehend the wrongdoer. Months later, no progress has been announced with the apparent hope that this will blow over.
Such elitism sets a poor example for lower judges, attorneys and litigants. It calls for an overhaul of our justice system beginning with hearings in Congress. This is not a gender, race or political issue but a profound effort to repair a crevice in our constitutional framework.
About the Author
Leon R. Koziol, J.D. is a human rights advocate who practiced law for more than two decades in federal and state courts. He appeared on the CBS program 60 Minutes for his defense of landowners targeted for eviction by Indian tribes alleging violations of ancient treaties. In 2004, he secured a judgement in New York Supreme Court invalidating the 1993 Turning Stone casino gaming compact.
His recoveries feature substantial jury verdicts for victims of government abuse. Case citations include, Koziol v Hanna, 107 F.2d 170 (NDNY 2000); Patterson v City of Utica, 370 F.3d 322 (2nd Cir.2004); Oneida Indian Nation v County of Oneida, 132 F. Supp. 2d 71 (NDNY); Peterman v Pataki, 2004 NY Slip Op 51092(U) and Parent v State, 786 F. Supp. 2d 516 (NDNY 2011).
The latter was a consolidated case intended as a class action on behalf of parents defrauded in divorce and family courts. It was part of a bold challenge to judicial and sovereign immunity which yielded severe retributions upon the author’s licenses and parent-child relations. The horrific ordeal which led to a near death climax was captured in his book, Whistleblower in Paris, published in 2021.
Accountability Pursued for Unrestrained Judicial Misconduct and Whistleblower Retaliation
Release Date: January 3, 2023
Contact Author at (315) 796-4000and leonkoziol@gmail.com
After more than two decades as a civil rights attorney, I left the profession to engage in a very unique line of work exposing judicial misconduct. Predictably, this incited horrific retributions from highly influential agents which cost me my health, unblemished reputation and nearly my life in 2020.
In response, I have endeavored to secure legal protection for attorney whistleblowers beginning with a precedent-seeking case filed with the Supreme Court under docket no. 18-278 and captioned Leon R. Koziol v Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, et. al.
Ahead of its time, it sought to permit circumstantial proof as a conventional means for establishing unlawful retaliation by judges against conscientious attorneys. Fearless reporting by those most qualified to expose corrupt jurists would be incentivized by carving out an exception to the court-created doctrine of judicial immunity.
To be sure, unless caught red-handed, a judge is unlikely to admit wrongdoing. Inasmuch as courts have long preferred circumstantial proof as a more reliable mode of truth-seeking, there is no reason to avoid application of this rule to judge misconduct cases. This is especially true given the advances made in forensic science, recording devices and public awareness.
Presently, when jurists are the subject of misconduct, two unwritten rules of evidence invariably emerge, one for judge defendants and the other for the complainants. Under the first, damning evidence is blocked in both overt and discreet ways ostensibly to protect the reputation of our judiciary, i.e. United States v Cossey, 632 F. 3d 82 (2nd Cir, 2010).
The DiFiore filing sought to remedy this dichotomy, representing a check on the persecution of attorney whistleblowers. The protracted and depraved manner in which unlawful retaliation was carried out necessitated my alarming memoir entitled, Whistleblower in Paris. As detailed therein, the attorney disciplinary process was weaponized to achieve illicit outcomes.
But my disclosures were so justifiably offensive that the wrongdoers went to the unconscionable extreme of sabotaging parent-child relationships in simultaneously pending family court proceedings. It reflected the kind of persecution inflicted upon human rights lawyers by tyrannical regimes. Chinese attorney, Chen Guangchen, who fled to the United States in 2011, is only one example.
At the very core of a properly functioning justice system is the mandate of impartiality. In any non-judge case, whistleblower protection would be readily acknowledged as a means for advancing fair outcomes even if relief was ultimately denied. But here silence prevailed as evident in the denial of a stay motion by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the DiFiore case.
My petition for declaratory relief eventually fell victim to the Supreme Court’s practice of denying roughly 99% of all that are filed. But my crusade lives on, having been vindicated when the main defending party, New York Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, was forced to resign after being investigated by a state judicial commission for misconduct.
DiFiore was reported by a non-lawyer for a letter she sent to a disciplinary judge seeking the harshest outcome against the head of the court officer’s union. She did so in retaliation for his criticisms of her safety practices during the pandemic. In contrast, lawyers exercising First Amendment rights have had to conceal their identities through third parties, i.e. Supreme Court of Virginia v Consumers Union, 446 US 719 (1980).
This audacious act shows how readily a judge will misuse authority behind the scenes to punish public critics. It is far from isolated. A predecessor chief judge, Sol Wachtler, may have mentored such elitism with brazen crimes committed 30 years earlier. He served a mere seven years in a medium security facility after being arrested for extortion, racketeering and blackmail.
Like DiFiore, Wachtler used high office to interfere with a licensing process of the attorney exposing his misconduct. It featured Wachtler’s debutante mistress. Under a fictitious name, he made false reports to the FBI and threatened to kidnap her child. Ironically, Wachtler was renowned for an opinion criticizing prosecutors who could “indict a ham sandwich” if they so targeted.
Wachtler was reinstated after his disbarment, hired as a law school professor, and rewarded with book royalties from his prison memoir, After the Madness. In it, he defended his misconduct because judges are supposedly trained to think of themselves as gods. This was a man being groomed for a Supreme Court appointment.
Yet another example lies with a middle-level appeals court judge, Nancy Smith, who earned the dubious distinction as the first jurist above trial level to be publicly disciplined in New York. It featured a glowing reference to benefit a prisoner convicted of vehicular manslaughter resulting in the death of two people. Not long after, Judge Smith was elevated to presiding justice of that court.
The question then emerges: how many DiFiores, Wachtlers and Smiths are lurking among us?
That number may prove to be staggering. Misconduct is only a matter of what a violator can get away with. In Dobbs v Jackson, No. 19-1392, 597 US ____ (2022), Roe v Wade was overturned. A version of this opinion was leaked followed by commitments to apprehend the wrongdoer. Months later, no progress has been announced with the apparent hope that this will blow over.
Such elitism sets a poor example for lower judges, attorneys and litigants. It calls for an overhaul of our justice system beginning with hearings in Congress. This is not a gender, race or political issue but a profound effort to repair a crevice in our constitutional framework.
About the Author
Leon R. Koziol, J.D. is a human rights advocate who practiced law for more than two decades in federal and state courts. He appeared on the CBS program 60 Minutes for his defense of landowners targeted for eviction by Indian tribes alleging violations of ancient treaties. In 2004, he secured a judgement in New York Supreme Court invalidating the 1993 Turning Stone casino gaming compact.
His recoveries feature substantial jury verdicts for victims of government abuse. Case citations include, Koziol v Hanna, 107 F.2d 170 (NDNY 2000); Patterson v City of Utica, 370 F.3d 322 (2nd Cir.2004); Oneida Indian Nation v County of Oneida, 132 F. Supp. 2d 71 (NDNY); Peterman v Pataki, 2004 NY Slip Op 51092(U) and Parent v State, 786 F. Supp. 2d 516 (NDNY 2011).
The latter was a consolidated case intended as a class action on behalf of parents defrauded in divorce and family courts. It was part of a bold challenge to judicial and sovereign immunity which yielded severe retributions upon the author’s licenses and parent-child relations. The horrific ordeal which led to a near death climax was captured in his book, Whistleblower in Paris, published in 2021.
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