“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.
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.
Unless caught red-handed, a judge is unlikely to admit ethical misconduct. Accordingly, courts are preferring circumstantial proof as a more reliable mode of truth-seeking given the advances made in forensic science, recording devices and a growing propensity of witnesses to lie without fear, shame or moral fiber. To hold perjurers liable today would be to fill our jails beyond capacity.
When jurists are the subject of misconduct, however, two species of rules invariably emerge, one for judge defendants and the other for the rest of us. It is an unwritten practice designed to protect the reputation of our judiciary more than it is to achieve justice, see i.e. United States v Cossey, 632 F. 3d 82 (2nd Cir, 2010). We need go no further than this case to prove its existence, again circumstantially.
The DiFiore filing featured a demand for attorney whistleblower protection whenever judges are the government actors retaliating against exercises of critical speech outside the courtroom, see i.e. Garrison v Louisiana, 379 US 64 (1964). This is typically carried out through concocted disciplinary violations which our courts control exclusive of our other branches. In this victim’s case, the actors went to the extreme of sabotaging parent-child relationships in family court.
There has been no official protection for this category of reporters most qualified to expose misconduct at the very core of a properly functioning justice system. In any non-judge case, such a right would be readily acknowledged even if relief was ultimately denied. But here it was met with silence including the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her ensuing denial of an interim stay motion.
This sort of clandestine activity is more prevalent than what is publicized. Witnessed first-hand over a stellar 23-year career in chambers, public venues and country clubs, this attorney finally went public due to the growing harm to countless unsuspecting victims. And as a whistleblower inching closer to conspiratorial activity, I was widely targeted, thereby undermining accountability, discouraging competent investigations, and scaring off news agents.
The record in my civil rights litigation proves this, and it remains unprecedented. On August 14, 2018, the Supreme Court docketed Leon R. Koziol v Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, No. 18-278. Ahead of its time, it sought, among other things, a declaratory judgment granting whistleblower protection. Given the escalating misconduct among jurists, an absolute immunity from civil liability, and the dearth of complaints investigated by authorities, this proved to be a watershed case ripe for review.
But alas, like the other 99% of petitions dismissed, this one fell victim, in part, due to its potential of igniting reputational harm to our judicial branch of government. The following excerpt taken from page six of my petition adds to the rampant nature of circumstantial evidence showing serious misconduct over and beyond that documented in my 12-year record:
An unblemished civil rights attorney (and model dad) was persecuted for exposing corruption and seeking reforms to child custody and support laws, 13-a.
It all began on January 9, 2008 when a judge in Syracuse heard argument during an appeal of four decisions arising from three trial courts regarding his family matters.[1] Petitioner exposed the corrupting of parents and children by domestic courts for fee and revenue purposes. This included an opposing divorce lawyer who was later learned to be a member of the district ethics committee appointed by the same judge’s appeals court, 18-a. On the same day, a first-time ethics prosecution was opened against petitioner under circumstances of illicit directive by that judge.
It featured ten grievances over eight years, six of which were later dismissed on their face but only when a license suspension could be orchestrated through false statements made by the committee’s attorney. That Committee was disqualified in 2010. Replacement lawyers in Albany finished the job using anonymous complaints and solicited ex-clients, 86-a. Three resigned in 2013 for falsifying time sheets.
All discovery requested as early as March 2009 by motion was denied. Over the next several years, it was confirmed through third parties and court records that petitioner’s secretary was solicited in 2008 to tamper with office mail, court calendars and bank accounts to cause ethics violations while concealing file material needed for a proper defense, 70-a. Circumstantial proof strongly suggested that she was granted prosecutorial immunity, 21-a.
Examples include petitioner’s internal report and criminal complaints neglected by county prosecutors and city police until all relevant limitations periods had expired. This secretary was ultimately indicted for crimes committed on later law office employers and sent to jail on multiple felony convictions in 2016, 21-a. Both law enforcement agencies were the subject of successful client cases and civil rights forums, i.e.Patterson v City of Utica, 370 F.3d 322 (2nd Cir. 2004).
I was resoundingly vindicated, albeit belatedly, when circumstantial evidence showed again how judges were perfectly willing to misuse their positions to punish critics behind the scenes. While in office, New York’s top jurist, Janet DiFiore, sent a letter 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.
But before she could be exposed by inquiring media, Chief Judge DiFiore resigned, as she had to, faced with an indefensible position that would assure protracted ethics deliberations harmful to the reputation of the same court system she swore to administer. Appointed by disgraced ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo, DiFiore evinced no shame as she was exposed again for her misuse of security after leaving office.
The audacity of this high-level judge, exercised contrary to additional principles of ethics, was not isolated. A predecessor chief judge, Sol Wachtler, may have mentored such elitism with brazen crimes committed 30 years earlier. Appointed by Andrew’s father, Mario Cuomo, Wachtler 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 who ended their affair. He made false reports to the FBI and threatened to kidnap her child under a pseudonym. Ironically, Wachtler was renowned for an opinion wherein he criticized 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 possible run for president and Supreme Court Justice.
From the top down, our nation’s most esteemed public servants are committing misconduct at unprecedented levels. An appeals court judge in Rochester, New York, Nancy Smith, earned the dubious distinction as the first jurist above trial level to be publicly disciplined by a state commission for submitting 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.
These are jurists who have upheld an absolute immunity for themselves that finds no authority in our Constitution. It is routinely applied to civil actions raising the most reprehensible conduct. I sought to limit such immunities in my precedent-seeking case, Parent v State, 786 Supp. 2d 516 (NDNY 2011). However, this valiant effort was derailed by retributions carried out by the very subjects of litigation.
Given the vast number of state agents effectively substituting as parents in our nation’s family courts, I raised a collective violation of our parenting right which the Supreme Court has declared to be “the oldest liberty interest protected by our Constitution,” Troxel v Granville, 530 US 57 (2000). It has become a highly lucrative industry yielding widespread collateral damage which has yet to be exposed.
Conscientious attorneys are justifiably reticent to assume the risk of incurring retributions especially with no financial rewards. That fear has not subsided much since 1980 when attorneys raising advertising rights hid behind a consumers group to achieve some success and then only to advance their profit interests, see Supreme Court of Virginia v Consumers Union, 446 US 719 (1980).
The question then emerges: how many DiFiores, Wachtlers and Smiths are lurking among us?
That number may prove to be staggering. Systemic bias and unconstitutional targeting are 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 expose the wrongdoer. Months later, the insider remains at large with the apparent hope that this will blow over. Instead, it has only bred more distrust.
The late Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, was more public in her violation of judicial ethics. She launched attacks from chambers disparaging a private businessman’s run for president in 2016. Donald Trump was ultimately successful. Yet she betrayed no guilt or shame until pressured by media criticism. Justice Brett Kavanaugh drew similar criticism by attending a 2022 holiday party hosted by Trump supporters.
Such egotism 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. It is a crevice in the foundations set by the framers of our Constitution. We must all join in a demand for that overhaul with the same kind of chastising dispensed by these same jurists from the bench.
[1] In a June 27, 2017 report of the New York Bar Association, the state’s 11-court trial structure was condemned as chaotic and antiquated particularly when compared to our nation’s largest state of California which features one trial court. The bar overwhelmingly supported a constitutional convention, but voters turned it down the same year.
Visit the censored blog site where this column originates at www.leonkoziol.com
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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.
Leon Koziol can be reached at (315) 796-4000 and leonkoziol@gmail.com.
The Parenting Rights Institute has been lobbying Congress, the Justice Department and FBI to open a comprehensive investigation of our nation’s family courts. It is needed to address horrific and widespread corruption which is being censored on social media, ignored by mainstream news organizations, and suppressed by special interests or bar associations.
While victims everywhere continue to waste their time and resources complaining to therapists and the choir on-line, the abuses of our children, careers and earnings escalate in these courts with an ominous impact on future generations. Sources close to key congressional leaders have recognized this epidemic but without any public noise, they have have advised us that there is no problem to address.
Only a few parental advocates, court reformists and government groups are truly acting to obtain change and accountability for the misconduct of judges and lawyers documented in our video series. It was produced by an NBC production crew, and the first segment subtitled “The Lawyer Epidemic” was released in December (highly acclaimed 6 minutes).
The Parenting Rights Institute is one of the few entities doing something about this growing epidemic, and our track record over ten years proves it. If a federal investigation or congressional hearing is granted, you will finally be heard, whatever your concern, wherever your location. Local federal offices will be engaged as opposed to ignoring your complaints. Just imagine the possibilities, the hope that will be generated.
But you must do your part! Stop assuming that others will protest for you. History has shown, including my own experience as a successful, citizen group litigator, that change can occur if you get involved in a united and meaningful way. Instead, only a feeble number (4 to 300) show up in our nation’s capital (or anywhere for that matter) to voice concerns in a divided manner.
We are a Democracy. That means doing something here and now, instead of scrolling away for more sympathy or distracting entertainment. Call us, make a donation, share this video, expose the trolls who are planted to undermine our efforts, counter the pessimists who do more harm than good, and make plans today to join our Parent March and Lobby on Washington.
If you are still apathetic, learn the seriousness of a parent monitoring process explained at the 3:30 mark of this 10 minute video. Still unmoved? Then keep viewing to the 8 minute mark for a sampling of the serial convictions, imprisonments or removals of family judges ranging from a pedophile to a national disgrace. If you are outraged as all Americans should be, finish up the last two minutes for a plan of action.
Federal Title IV-D funding is being abused to commit these crimes with you and your children as victims. In past lobbying trips, we have headquartered at the Harrington Hotel, a long respected and remarkably low cost lodging facility between the White House and Congress. Maybe we can take over the whole building if we make plans now. No matter the turn-out, we will endeavor to visit all congressional offices.
We predict that impeachment proceedings will be underway by then, and we can exploit the moment with an ideal message against both adversarial parties. They continue to be focused more on political posturing than the people they were elected to serve. If you ignore this call to action and its vital message, you will pay for it tremendously. You will need a second or third job to pay your first, second or third attorney hired to date.
P.S.: Make sure one of your attorneys has a specialty in Bankruptcy Law, because as long as you stay in the comfort of your homes keyboarding to no one who can help, this is what your apathy and excuse-making will earn for you, your children and your society.
Call the PRI Office at (315) 380-3420, our Director, Dr. Leon Koziol at (315) 796-4000 or e-mail him personally at leonkoziol@gmail.com. And keep up-to- date on our March and Lobbying Event in Washington on May 3, 2019 here at http://www.leonkoziol.com.
Unfortunately delayed for nearly two months, an NBC production crew has finally released this second in a series of alarming videos which documents widespread corruption in our nation’s divorce and family courts. It is the product of research and visits to victims across the country by the Parenting Rights Institute. Because judges are being exposed in serial fashion, this delay is no doubt caused by a scrutiny of content for accuracy.
The sampling of judges illustrates just how serious corruption has become in these courts. Many victims place blind trust in their “gods of justice” only to learn too late that they are permanently victimized. These judges were once the same lawyers profiting off of lucrative controversy to cause severe parental alienation, veteran suicides and debtor prisons under the guise of acting in our children’s “best interests.”
The time for talk, keyboarding and sermonizing to the choir is over. The system has become a trillion dollar industry with psychiatrists, counselors, case workers and countless court predators swallowing whole your earnings, savings and college funds to feed an endless greed. Children who once respected and loved both parents are taught to spy, hate and disown them with little or no cause. The alienation here is worse than the ordeals of illegal aliens being protected at our borders.
Outraged parents are wasting their time with complaints to federal and state agencies. Such parents (legally here) are no one’s priority because the state is seizing our childrearing authority as part of a New World Order. Only last month, representatives of our Institute met with a high ranking delegate to the United Nations only to learn that we would get no sympathy there. If you have survived these courts or even if you have never been to one, you are harmed in countless other ways by the societal costs.
That is why we have had enough. These lawsuits, complaints and reports are a waste when our own government does not even have the courtesy of giving a reply to so many. We have to take our case to Washington on May 3, 2019. We are going there to demand a federal investigation of these courts, to support a national shared parenting bill for an end to custody and alienation tactics, and a repeal of Title IV-D funding that is being abused to fill our jails, hospitals and morgues.
WE NEED YOUR AID AND PARTICIPATION! SHARE THIS VIDEO AND THIS MESSAGE FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR FAMILIES AND FUTURE GENERATIONS.
IN THAT REGARD, WE ARE ALL UNITED.
If you would like to be a part of our ongoing organizing efforts, call the PRI Office at (315) 380-3420 or e-mail me personally at leonkoziol@gmail.com.
Cynthia Nixon, candidate for New York governor is calling on incumbent Andrew Cuomo to initiate a probe of corruption in state government. This comes on the heels of guilty verdicts involving SUNY Polytech Institute ex-president Alain Kayloyeros and developers connected to the Buffalo Billions Scandal.
As a former student body president at Polytech’s Utica-Marcy campus and a victim of corruption in nearby New Hartford, New York, I applaud the gubernatorial candidate in her calls for reform. However, nowhere in her public statements outside of a Manhattan federal courthouse does she mention that third branch of government known as the judiciary.
Fresh from her successful endorsement of Ocasio-Cortez in an upset primary victory over long time Congressman Joseph Crowley, Nixon is hoping to do the same against Cuomo. A long shot at best, Nixon might still shock the world if she wins upstate together with a probe which, like the 2013 Moreland Commission on Public Corruption, implicates the governor in the scandals around him.
As a judicial whistleblower speaking at the Moreland Commission hearings, I exposed corruption in New York’s divorce and family courts. Within three months of that presentation, I lost contact with my daughters and was denied reinstatement of my law license. During the same year, ethics lawyers in Albany engaged in the witch hunt against me were allowed to resign quietly for falsifying their time sheets without any criminal or ethics prosecution brought against them.
This past week I obtained a sworn statement from a former client disclosing certain lawyers in Utica who participated in the 2008 witch hunt that led to my first license suspension after 23 unblemished years of practice. They sought him out at his place of employment to testify falsely about a case I successfully litigated during the nineties.
This former client was recently the victim of a sting operation by federal marshals at his brother’s home for child support delinquencies. Yes, you read that correctly. He nearly died of kidney failure after spending six months in county jail for a child support debt. Another father, Walter Scott was shot dead in the back five times unarmed while fleeing a child support debt. Meanwhile, Cuomo and other liberals are protecting illegal immigrant parents from being separated from their children.
This is the extreme to which our judicial branch has gone to destroy legal parents, veterans and especially dads in a gender biased “system.” The Census Bureau continues to report that 85% of all parents paying child support are men, and nearly one out of every five inmates in our nation’s prisons are “dead beat dads” (a still advertised sexist slur).
As a civil rights attorney, I won many race and gender discrimination cases, even representing a former president of the National Organization for Women. But when I turned my energies to end father discrimination in the same courts, I was subjected to severe retaliation. I sought to protect all parents from corruption of the worst kind, like my family court judge, Bryan Hedges, removed from the bench after admitting to sexual abuse of his handicapped five year old niece.
On Friday, July 13, 2018, Governor Cuomo sought to distance himself from the Buffalo Billions convictions much like he sought to distance himself from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Leader Dean Skelos after they were similarly convicted following their exposure at the Moreland Commission hearings (which the same Cuomo prematurely closed). Here is what New York’s current governor had to say:
Can you stop people from doing stupid things? No. Can you stop people from doing venal things? No. But you can have a system in place which that says, if you do something wrong, we will be as aggressive as the law allows in prosecuting you?
Seriously Andrew? Tell that to all our family and divorce court victims, the ones repeatedly thrown out of those same federal courts after seeking recourse for constitutional violations. Tell that to suicide victims, persecuted whistleblowers and alienated parents.
If you want to prosecute for stupidity, tell that to the state’s Commission on judicial Conduct which merely slapped the wrist of Utica City Judge Gerald Popeo in 2015. He was found guilty of wrongful incarcerations using such threats from the bench “to wipe that smirk off” a litigant’s face. He was excused of a so-called joke to an African-American attorney that downstate blacks refer to upstate blacks as “country niggers.”
And now this criminal judge has somehow managed to become assigned as an “Acting Family Court Judge” to my child support case. It is part of an ongoing scheme to incarcerate me on false pretenses after 39 prior judges were disqualified or removed from my originally uncontested divorce case, a national record by most accounts. A stand-off is forthcoming as I refuse to submit to this kind of judge and judicial “system.” I may even end up like former Georgia Senator Nancy Schaefer.
If Cythia Nixon is truly sincere in her convictions and not just a politician little different from her opponent, she will look into judicial corruption and the failed Moreland Commission which also led to a quick cover-up of Cuomo’s child support issues. She should read the case involving the administrative judge in Syracuse who assigned all those judges to my case, including Popeo. In that case, a chief family court clerk recovered $600,000 due to unlawful retaliation for her refusal to engage in political espionage, Morin v Tormey, 626 F.3d 40 (2nd Cir. 2010).
“I would love to come off this bench and wipe that smirk off your face!” Judge Gerald Popeo to a litigant in his city courtroom. Despite such physical threats and racial comments with lawyer witnesses, i.e. “country niggers” and “cigar store Indian,” the Commission on Judicial Conduct allowed him to continue now as an “Acting Family Judge” in Koziol v Hawse-Koziol case.
“You come off that bench Gerry, and I’ll knock you out of your black dress.” Photo of a Judge Popeo Family Court litigant, Civil Rights Advocate, Dr. Leon Koziol, taken in 75 degree Central Park, February 21, 2018
Many of you are friends, others are bent on revenge, and most are seeking information or assistance. If you’re new to this site, opened in 2010, you’re in good company with more than 6,000 followers from Europe to Hawaii. This will be a “breaking news” post you will want to make viral because it is yet another shockingly true story. As we have assured time and again: “You just can’t make this stuff up.”
Judge Gerald Popeo is a racist and pompous judge who managed to keep his job in an upstate New York city court despite a battery of ethics charges brought against him by a prosecutor, public defender, an African-American lawyer and court victims before the New York Commission on Judicial Conduct. Because its proceedings are secret, we cannot tell you how many complaints he has faced during nearly two decades on the bench.
On February 12, 2015, Judge Popeo was merely censured by that Commission instead of removed, although to his credit, the Commission Chair, Thomas Klonick, dissented. He voted to sustain the findings made by a hearing judge concerning those charges of using racial slurs as a judge. They included at least two depictions of a prosecutor acting like a “cigar store Indian” and another, to an African-American attorney no less, where Popeo “joked” that New York City black people refer to upstate black people as “country niggers.”
That’s not all, the charges and findings that were accepted included temper tantrums and serial contempt citations without the requisite warnings and due process protections. In one case, evidently copying some of the movies that Gerry has watched (i.e. “My Cousin Vinny”), Judge Popeo sentenced a man to five successive thirty day periods in jail for each facial gesture or comment about the lack of justice in his courtroom. Only after getting a phone call from his chief administrative judge, James “Bond” Tormey, did he reduce the 150 day sentence.
But among the “injudicious” acts which the Commission did accept for public censure, the one which was most disturbing is a violent threat from the bench made to another litigant in his courtroom. After noting a grin on his face, Judge Gerald Popeo, evidently assuming the mantra of judicial Rocky Balboa, warned that he “would love to come off the bench and wipe that smirk off your face.” The Commission could not excuse this street thug remark because those in the same court could hear it clearly and it was recorded by a court stenographer.
But it gets better (or worse depending how entertained you are by Judge “Rocky” Popeo). After the litigant was excused and exiting the courtroom, a different kind of grin caught Judge Rocky’s attention. So he summoned him back for a contempt sentence because, in his delusional mindset, this poor sap “gave (Popeo another) nice big smirk …. as if to say, blank-you judge.” Seriously Sylvestor? Even the real Stallone might have you committed to a mental institution.
As a lawyer and litigant in Popeo’s kangaroo court and many others over a thirty year period, I have made all sorts of grins, objections and human expressions which could fall in the Popeo contempt playbook. And now this judge has been assigned to my custody and support cases as an “Acting Family Judge” in a court he was never elected to. How’s that for domestic violence prevention and our children’s “best interests?” You women better not grin in Gerry Balboa’s boxing court.
Yes you read that correctly. After my family court matters were assigned to remote courts at Lake Ontario and near the Canadian border, with 150 mile round trips to receive decisions already written, Judge James Bond has now assigned a judge only a few miles from our (parent) homes who threatens violence. Welcome to Trial Judge #41 assigned since my originally uncontested divorce was filed 12 years ago in 2006, a judicial record by most accounts.
It occurred after the Oswego and Herkimer judges recently stepped down. Judges #39 and #40 gave no reason, and I was given no notice of their disqualifications, but they came after my complaints to oversight authorities. Those published complaints focused on their unauthorized back room involvement in each other’s separate cases to orchestrate unlawful service of a support summons threatening as much as seven (7) years in jail. That’s more than violent felons and child molesters get. My pedophile custody judge Bryan Hedges (look him up) got no prison time!
I had been challenging service by mail on the face of that summons and petition because it leads to innocent non-appearances or fatal law enforcement for money collection purposes. A sensationalized example is an unarmed African-American shot dead five times in the back while fleeing a support warrant at a traffic stop in South Carolina (Walter Scott).
When I became one such victim of a non-appearance, an earlier support magistrate corrected the human error over the phone in 2012. But not Gerry Balboa. He was on some kind of mission given to him by his boss Judge James “Bond” Tormey who assigned all the other 40 trial jurists to my family court cases. He did so in a manner which mirrored the retributions inflicted on a chief family court clerk which resulted in a $600,000 recovery against “Bond, James Bond” in federal court for her refusal to engage in Tormey’s “political espionage.”
Again we don’t make these things up here at Leon Koziol.com. Look it up at Morin v Tormey, 626 F.3d 40 (2nd Cir. 2010). Shameless Tormey was neither removed from his position nor did he resign from the bench. With my full page advertisements and editorials published over the past few months in Syracuse, Utica and Watertown, New York mainstream newspapers, testimony before the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption, and continued exposure of rampant judicial misconduct nationwide, the retaliation elevated to unprecedented levels in Oneida County Family Court on March 3, 2018.
On that day, I made it clear that Gerry had better not threaten me with violence and most assuredly, he had better stay put on his bench. For the reasons that follow, I knew this was beyond question a contempt by ambush and an unlawful act of attempted imprisonment which a citizen has a right to defend against in such an extraordinary case. Think of it as a Rambo One movie with the corrupt cops replaced by corrupt judges.
In my reports I compared the judicial gang assault inflicted upon me for so many years to a Rodney King beating with the fists and batons replaced by orders and edicts. If Gerry decided to confront me physically and unlawfully under the protection of our court security, it raised the real question of who they should taser. Who was the real criminal here with this focus on domestic violence in these (family) courts? What would Sylvestier Stallone do if he was real in this environment?
While depicting my discrimination and First Amendment motion papers as “rants” without so much as a first court meeting or argument, Rocky Popeo joined his predecessors in denying me parent-child contact since my 2013 testimony before the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption. He did so without any finding of unfit parenting, criminal charge or child protection report. Meanwhile “rehabilitated” heroin addict moms and life term prisoners were being reunited or allowed contact with their children.
Not mentioned was Popeo’s conversation at a golf and country club during one of my client cases or the unsolicited “rant” he gave me in the presence of a key witness last summer at a local bar. He accused me of some involvement in that censure prosecution. I had no such involvement, no obligation to answer his “rant” anyway, but he was obviously moved by my history of litigation success on behalf of African-American victims in his court, federal court and Utica city government.
That history included former “black” Public Works Commissioner Stephen Patterson and his pastor father who I represented and recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of law enforcement targeting and wrongful discharge, i.e. Patterson v City of Utica, 370 F.3d 322 (2nd Cir. 2004). Judge Popeo was obviously making a connection between my civil rights advocacy to the racial slurs which nearly caused him his judgeship.
In another case, Mr. Patterson, who had never seen a jail cell, was imprisoned by Judge Balboa in 2010 for non-appearance on a series of nuisance and city ordinance violations. I was not able to represent him then due to the ethics witch hunt already in place, so Steve got front page news after attempting suicide upon discovering that a belt had been placed in his cell while dazed and asleep.
Ultimately he was found “not guilty” on all charges by a jury, and I won yet another ruling for him in a federal civil rights case later that year for police and city harassment. As hard as it may be to believe, I won it while suspended because the papers were prepared by me beforehand and no qualified substitute lawyer could be found.
Rocky Popeo persisted in his beliefs that I had somehow influenced his public censure. He even inquired whether I had filed a complaint against him regarding his eviction ruling upon my former law office the same year as that censure. The current judge assignment should never been offered or accepted on grounds of revenge and prejudice alone. Such persecution has now required resort to natural laws for my protection. I am no Rambo, but I finish the fights that others start without provocation or genuine lawful authority.
You will find background news articles on this post and others together with professional services we offer on this site, Leon Koziol.com. Please contribute to our cause for the sake of parents, children and court victims everywhere. My book, Satan’s Docket, continues to be purchased and commended, a useful tool for self-representation as well. And share this post with those who need to know what is truly occurring in our courts. I can be contacted at our office at (315) 380-3420 or personally at (315) 796-4000.
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