“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.
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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.
The ongoing ordeal of a judicial whistleblower has necessitated an update to the epilogue (concluding summary) of my recently published book, Whistleblower in Paris. If you have already purchased a copy, available at any Barnes and Noble store, Amazon or major bookseller on-line, this update should energize you to demand reform and accountability. It may also prevent you from becoming a victim of abuse, prevent undue fees and educate you to the realities of these courts. If you are learning of the book for the first time, this update might convince you to obtain a copy. It is a highly intriguing insight based on more than thirty years of litigation experience from a former trial and appellate attorney. That concluding summary is reproduced below:
Epilogue
As a civil rights attorney, I spent over two decades litigating for victims of race, gender, religion and ethnic discrimination. This included sexual harassment cases when they were unpopular. Many successful verdicts, monetary recoveries and precedent outcomes resulted. But my crusade for justice was not limited to minorities. It also extended to white landowners wrongfully threatened with eviction in the Oneida Indian land claim. Police brutality cases were similarly prosecuted for diverse victims, and I represented a public safety commissioner, police chief and rank and file officers whenever they were falsely accused.
In short, I was motivated to correct injustices to a point where I managed to have a billion-dollar casino compact invalidated on constitutional grounds in New York Supreme Court. The Las Vegas Sun reported it as a David-Goliath battle won by “the small Utica law firm that won the case.” [66] Among the defense firms was Cravath, Swaine and Moore, one of the most powerful in the nation. These achievements earned me praise from federal and state judges. The court transcripts, headline news and published opinions bear this out.
However, when I turned my energies to correcting human rights violations in divorce and family courts, I was viciously targeted. Suddenly, my arguments were incomprehensible, rambling and frivolous after twenty-three unblemished years. Even I underestimated the wrath of a corrupt regime bent on retaliation for my exposure of corruption involving a judge-lawyer gold mine. In numerous public statements, I cited federal funding abuses and lucrative custody battles that were inciting child murders, veteran suicides and needless parental conflict.
As a consequentially victimized parent, I was then forced to assume the mantra of a judicial whistleblower devoid of legal protection. The horrific ordeal here remains unprecedented in modern times. Among the practices I condemned in chapter two and an earlier book, Satan’s Docket, was the abuse of forensic custody evaluations. Then, in January, 2022, a blue-ribbon panel appointed by New York’s governor voted to eliminate these evaluations altogether. I made a presentation at a virtual public hearing sponsored by that panel asking for this very outcome, but like the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption (where I also appeared), it is doubtful that any genuine reform will be implemented. That is how powerful this gold mine has become.
So, in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, I sponsored a three-day event at our nation’s capital in May, 2019. Its goal was to elicit a Justice Department investigation and congressional hearings into the rampant human rights violations and federal funding abuses which continue to be ignored in these custody and support courts. We featured planning sessions, a lobby day among the offices of Congress, expert speakers at a hotel ballroom, a candlelight vigil in front of the U.S. Capitol, and a march down Pennsylvania Avenue under police escort from the White House to the Supreme Court.
All of this was accomplished without incident on a shoestring budget. At least four necessary permits were obtained together with regulatory compliance. Parents came from all parts of the country to register their peaceful protest against divorce and family court corruption. Yet not a single member of Congress responded. Then-president Donald Trump never materialized in front of the crowd assembled at the White House. Not even a representative was sent. The Justice Department weighed in with the same message that parental rights were not even on their radar. His successor, Joe Biden, proved oblivious to this crisis altogether.
So what is the lesson to be realized from all this? Peaceful protests to benefit parents, children and families of all races, religions and ethnic backgrounds will be ignored. They yield no respect whatsoever while the same politicians beg for our support on election day through such things as a voting rights bill. Therefore, it is time for those struggling against parental alienation, custody abuses and support debtor prisons to take matters into their own hands. Stay away from lawyers and these courts, set aside your custody and support disputes, and keep abreast of fellow victims who need your help. In this way at least, we might succeed in closing the gold mine.
Thinking back to all the craziness I endured for more than a decade under the yoke of this antiquated child custody regime, it still amazes me that not a single inquiry was made by the New York Commission on Judicial Conduct regarding the many complaints I lodged. How could so much corruption become so buried? I am also amazed at all the physical restraint I practiced. Under our form of government, when the courts break down, victims can seek recourse outside the system. Nevertheless, my restraint led to poetic justice in so many ways.
Among the Sadistic Seven, Michael Daley is no longer a judge, having failed to garner enough support for re-election to the bench. His unpopularity was borne out later when he was defeated in an election for his old job as a local prosecutor. Last I heard he was representing traffic clients in Utica city court.
Judge Martha Walsh-Hood continues to serve as a family court judge as does her colleague Michele Pirro-Bailey in Syracuse. Judge Daniel King is still on the family court bench in Lowville, New York, but is up for re-election in 2022. At a minimum, my whistleblower testimony before the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption should be raised by any opposing candidate. The judge collusion inferred by King’s sudden removal of his gag order during my mandamus action in state Supreme Court remains a part of the public record. The manner in which this was all arranged behind closed doors demands a proper investigation.
Regardless, not one of these judges was elevated to higher office. This includes Judge James Eby who no longer presides over my case in Oswego, New York. In the aftermath of his uncorrected bias, innocent third parties were irreparably harmed. During his bombastic antics directed at me, he gave no concern for extended family similarly denied all contact with my daughters. He simply pressed on with his ego-driven agenda of retaliation to maintain favor among colleagues on and off the bench.
To be sure, as director of the Parenting Rights Institute, I continue to receive complaints about him, one from a custodial mother regarding his knack for keeping the fees coming. He makes a mockery of this self-serving rationale of acting “in the best interests” of our children whose basic needs and college funds are raided. Entire families are bankrupted in the process while inciting domestic violence. An adversarial process rationalized by truth-seeking objectives cannot withstand the ultimate injury it yields when children are placed at needless risk compelling parents to resort to uncharacteristic extremes to protect them.
Similarly, Judge Gerald Popeo in Utica is also no longer presiding. He declined re-election prospects following my crusade against him in 2018. The judge censure which he blamed partly on me no doubt played a role in his decision. Magistrate Natalie Carraway continues her routine in support courts of Herkimer County, presumably charting a course for higher judgeship. Meanwhile, I continue to receive unsolicited praise from countless parents who publicly credit me for private changes in attitude among certain well-meaning jurists.
But it may also be said that poetic justice was served beyond the Sadistic Seven. My pedophile custody judge, Bryan Hedges, was permanently banned from the bench by the high court of New York, his colleague in Syracuse, Michael Hanuszczak, was forced to step down for sexual harassment of his court clerks, and Magistrate G. Stephen Getman lost an election for family court judge. His license suspension for mishandling client money caught up to him in that race.
My ex-secretary was jailed for crimes upon later victims. Her scheme with outsiders to orchestrate ethics issues in my office together with her tampering of mail and files resulted in the removal of a $220,000 mortgage claim on my home. It is unlikely that she will ever be hired for another law-related position given her felony convictions and our creation of a pretend lawyer website that features her. She would not have contemplated such crimes unless cloaked with some concealed protection while my office supervision was derailed by the family court battles.
My ex-wife was removed from the millionaire’s home in 2016 after wasting untold resources to pursue a needless parent alienation campaign bent on greed, revenge and jealousy. She too could not have succeeded without the undisclosed backing of many of the judges assigned to our case. But this particular campaign exceeded the worst I have come across. It can only be described as something hatched out of hell itself, a new form of evil. It harmed not only her children and their father but it devastated her own world. Yet she pressed on like the proverbial energizer bunny.
You would think that this “custodial parent” learned a profound lesson when her relocation scheme to that millionaire’s home was exposed. It featured the “gmai.com” concoction which she and the child attorney tried to pass as proper notice of a new residency. At a minimum, a parent has a right to know where his or her children are residing and with whom so that they can be better safeguarded. But here, despite undeniable proof of deceit upon the father, court and schools, this scheme was accorded no accountability in contrast with money obligations (child support) which were hounded to a point of arrest warrants, jail commitments and even death.
This one-sided persecution had no effect on her commitment to forever end all father-daughter relationships developed since birth. In August, 2021, the newly married Kelly Usherwood contrived an exit from the region on the day after my youngest daughter’s eighteenth birthday. She placed her home on the market and relocated both my girls to an undisclosed residence without even an identity of colleges they were now attending. By text message, she directed that any information was to be exchanged through the maternal grandmother nearby.
As fate would have it, this grandmother deceased only three months later. Meanwhile, circumstances showed that the e-mail exchanges made between father and his daughters were actually being made by the mother. This is how devious the alienator had become to achieve her objective of a family unit completely isolated from the biological father, one who had never even been found to be an unfit parent. It proved to be spite, greed and status which motivated Kelly Usherwood to pursue the unimaginable while the band played on in these corrupt family courts.
None of this should surprise the reader given the content of earlier chapters and the growing horrors of parental alienation throughout the country. The unilateral directives of this deranged mother comported with no court order, but with the long confirmed systemic bias among numerous assigned judges in New York’s Fifth Judicial District, and the deference repeatedly given them by federal court, all courthouse doors had been closed in terms of any civil recourse. If Daniel King could invent a “prohibited alcohol related gesture” (wedding toast) as a reason to suspend child contact, how could I expect any sanity from the judges who replaced him?
The recent concealment of my daughters raises concerns that could warrant an amber alert given the bizarre conduct of the alienator-abductor. It occurred in the aftermath of my extended hospital stay only months earlier. Despite a life-threatening condition, no direct contact was received from my daughters. By the time the realities of brainwashing caught up to them, it would be too late to revisit countless precious moments captured in home videos and photos.
In the end, it begs the question: what kind of evil lurks in the body of Kelly Usherwood? The answer may lie in some sequel of American Greed or a psycho movie. Even my girls were not spared the karma behind their immoral disregard of dad during his hospital stay, the man who made their existence possible. Both daughters were forced to suffer through a pandemic which is continuing. Graduations, proms and other once-in-a-lifetime events were either canceled or subjected to highly diluting regulations.
As for the ethics lawyers who helped facilitate this chaos, they were forced to resign after an investigation into falsified time sheets. Would-be clients continue to be denied qualified representation. Even after eleven years of license suspension, I continue to receive calls from victims who cannot secure basic legal advice. The system justified this by support obligations that cannot be satisfied without the licenses, resources and liberties that were seized.
This so-called disciplinary process was abused to achieve censorship, thereby making its perpetrators complicit in the resulting crimes upon humanity. Despite all this, corruption was exposed on a vast scale after unprecedented numbers of jurists were removed from my originally uncontested divorce. Those removals helped alter the divorce culture in a positive way while exposing the underbelly of a court system hell-bent on revenues and profits.
But I paid a high price. Out of law school in 1987, I was able to secure a restraining order on a $30 million high school project, [67] I won my first interstate divorce appeal two years later, [68] my name appears on two dedication plagues of the Utica city courthouse as an elected councilman and corporation counsel, I was a featured speaker regarding Native American land claims across upstate New York, and I won a $300,000 civil rights recovery against my local Sheriff which may have factored into the later antics. Other high-profile cases are cited at footnotes 7-11.
Today I am unable to get a family judge to order phone contact with my own daughters.
In raw terms, you can kill a targeted person with a gun or accomplish the same outcome with a drawn-out process that chips away at your existence. Parent alienation is such a process. It is more than a psychological syndrome or human rights violation, it is a proven killer of victimized parents. Whether it be a suicide, terminal illness or some other brutal consequence, the needless separation of a loving parent from his or her children is simply unconscionable. And when forcing the victim to pay for the child abduction through support payments under penalty of a debtor prison, it becomes utterly barbaric.
Judges are quick to overlook this reality as they routinely find breaches of various duties in personal injury cases to achieve million-dollar verdicts. But when greater breaches of ethical duties are presented regarding their own conduct, they cloak themselves with judicial immunity on the rationale that such liability would deter qualified candidates from seeking judgeships. Utter nonsense, most lawyers crave these prestigious titles, and a judge complying with job requirements has nothing to fear. If anything, this absolute immunity encourages misconduct while politically-appointed oversight commissions fail us time and again.
This ordeal warrants a Justice Department investigation and congressional inquiry. It would benefit countless moms, dads and families similarly situated. There are tremors of unrest throughout this country which are being ignored. Hardly a day goes by without some child murder, needless suicide or unpredictable homicide traced to these dysfunctional courts. What remains of a stable society is largely made possible by the free exercise of parental liberties and self-governance. It is my fervent hope, therefore, that a powerful movement emerges from my sacrifices that forces our government to pay attention to its own parents.
This literary work is by no means an indictment of our justice system or legal profession. However, it verifies in painstaking detail how a conscientious attorney, model parent and judicial whistleblower can be so ruthlessly punished for his crusade to deliver overdue reforms to our system of family court justice. The people rely on qualified insiders to alert them to corruption in our third branch of government. It accentuates the need for attorney whistleblower protection.
Finally, this book is directed against the divorce industry and the family court predators who are dragging justice down to hell, a people’s courthouse reduced to a giant profit center. All this corruption might compel another victim to resort to violence. But I was able to forbear it and achieve some justice in more constructive ways. My old friend, Sir Walter Scott, gave me sage advice in that regard:
For he that does good, having the unlimited power to do evil, deserves praise not only for the good he performs, but the evil he forbears
66. Michael Gormley, Judge strikes down pact, Las Vegas Sun, June 29, 2004. Peterman v Pataki, 2004 Slip. Op. 51092. The final judgment was affirmed on appeal.
67. In Rome Concerns Citizens v Rome City School District, this restraining order made possible a state-of-the art high school now located at the Griffiss Technology Park. As fate would go, a base realignment commission led to the closure of the former Griffiss Air Force Base after my controversial litigation. It was the region’s top employer. A tech park became its replacement which benefits faculty and students in a myriad of ways today. The former proposed school location could not have facilitated such benefits due to remoteness and land constraints.
68. DeNigro v DeNigro, 152 AD2d 951 (4th Dept 1989)
The alarming video above is unprecedented. It exposes corruption in New York’s court system while addressing the need for overdue reform nationwide. It is being submitted to media and key government officials to demand accountability especially in our divorce and family courts where innocent children and unrepresented parties are most impacted.
The whistleblower here, Dr. Leon Koziol, exposes the abuse of federal funds and human rights in these courts based on more than two decades of litigation experience as a trial attorney and twenty years as an aggrieved parent. You can get a free insight on his book, Whistleblower in Paris, at the book’s website http://www.whistleblowerinparis.com.
Help us publicize this video so that reform may finally become a reality.
As a long time victim of retaliation for my exposure of corruption in our divorce and family courts, I have had little contact with my precious daughters for the past seven years. The exposed judges and lawyers have made this happen by exploiting a vulnerable “custodial parent” to complete a punitive agenda of erasing me from their lives. Their goal, reckless or otherwise, was to deter future whistleblowers while rewarding their parent accomplice.
That accomplice, Kelly Hawse-Koziol, was sufficiently naive to sacrifice her moral fiber in this evil agenda for monetary gain and status. I have never been reported for child abuse or neglect, nor have I ever been found to be an unfit parent. Instead I was subjected to abusive and conflicting conditions to render any child contact impractical. I called it contempt by ambush. It was either surrender my rights or face jail time on concocted grounds.
So evil was this agenda that its parent accomplice was recommended for an exorcism in a third party affidavit. It happened shortly before our custody judge was banned from the bench after admitting to sexual abuse of his handicapped five-year old niece, Bryan Hedges, 20 NY3d 677 (2013). His replacement, Michael Hanuszczak, was forced to resign after sexually harassing his court clerks. Another replacement, Gerald Popeo, was publicly censured for physical threats and racial slurs made from the bench. It is all a matter of public record.
Although it may have appeared extreme at the time, this recommendation of an exorcism has been justified repeatedly over time. I have spent more than 30 years in these courts, 23 as an accomplished trial attorney, 15 as an alienated “non-custodial parent,” and I have yet to see anything like the evil which enveloped my case. How could a biological mother work so ferociously and so long to kill an exemplary father in favor of her preferred substitutes?
More alarming, how could 40 trial level jurists ultimately disqualified from my originally uncontested divorce overlook this deranged agenda? How could our First Amendment be so mindlessly erased along with my parenting rights simply to avenge opinions that hurt their feelings? The simple answer is that this agenda was never treated as a human rights violation as it should have been. So let us analyze one aspect of this right known as parental alienation.
Syndrome, Symptom or Satanism: How Can Parent-Child Alienation Be Rationally Explained?
This exorcism event may not stand for any legal precedent, but its evolution could help victims better understand parental alienation. A growing outcome of an antiquated child custody system, it has proven to have no remedy or loss compensation in either federal or state court. Many observers, qualified or not, have focused on a complex analysis, but as you should discover here, parent alienation is really quite simple and begging for overdue reforms.
Parent Alienation Syndrome
The needless destruction of parent-child relationships in divorce and family courts was recognized early on by a psychiatrist, Dr. Richard Gardner, during the 1980s. He gave it the name Parent Alienation Syndrome (PAS), and despite its popular recognition, this syndrome was never accepted by Gardner’s profession. Meanwhile, hundreds of conditions in its DSM manuals continue to be employed in custody evaluations for insurance purposes.
Parent Alienation Symptom
Similarly, the same courts have refused to give this horrific condition any meaningful acceptance. To answer this abdication of duty, I have asserted in my reports and legal briefs that parental alienation is neither a psychological condition nor a syndrome of any kind but a symptom of a dysfunctional judicial process focused more on lawyer profits and court revenues than the so-called “best interests” of our children.
Parent Alienation: A Human Rights Violation
Parental alienation is, very simply, the by-product of a toxic and adversarial court system. Our federal government rewards it by the number and size of support orders it issues. Parents are therefore required to name a “custodial parent” as a condition for a lawful separation or divorce not because it advances any child interests but because it yields untold profits and billions of dollars in performance grants under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act. This implicates a number of basic rights.
Fundamental Right of Parenting
Like the abortion right, the parenting right is not found among the textual provisions of our Constitution, but the two have taken opposite paths since their earliest recognition by the Supreme Court. The more recent one that prevents life, Roe v Wade, 410 US 113 (1973) has grown in legal protection whereas the older one that enhances life has been seriously eroded, Meyer v Nebraska, 262 US 390 (1923). This is very evident in divorce and family courts where the latter right is rarely even mentioned.
The notion that judges and their agents can torture that right simply because two parents are separated is little more than propaganda to justify a lucrative enterprise. Profits and revenues do not constitute a “compelling state interest” sufficient to overcome the kind of sweeping destruction which parent alienation clearly produces. However, the strict scrutiny required for such intrusions is routinely sidestepped without so much as a pause in countless cases. Mine is one but compounded by other fundamental rights that are, in fact, stated in our Constitution.
Due Process
The parenting right continues to receive protection by our Supreme Court but analyzed predominantly in modern day contexts, i.e. Troxel v Granville, 530 US 57 (2000). However the federal incentive grants which harm this right have yet to be addressed despite their creation of an inherent or systemic bias which also violates due process, Gibson v Berryhill, 411 US 564 (1973). Put simply, jurists are given the financial incentive to manufacture as many “custodial parents” as possible while ruling against their “noncustodial” counterparts.
Equal Protection
This prejudice, in turn, incites emotional outrage among the inferior parents who rightfully feel discriminated and abused by a decisional process that they are not properly acclimated to by their legal representatives. Such grants are not justified when this two-caste framework is replaced by a shared one where parents are treated equally under our Constitution. But this would produce vast harm to to a bureaucracy built on support collections and court battles.
This all explains why shared parenting legislation is opposed by special interests across the country and why I was so viciously targeted for my precedent-seeking cases. Such opposition is mindless given the collateral damage which the outdated system produces. The arbitrary custody mandate can transform a cooperative child rearing environment into a barbaric contest reminiscent of the Roman Coliseum.
Conclusion
Over time, the antiquated custody mandate can create monsters among parents and children alike. Its source in a parent classification law compels a federal inquiry into funding abuses and human rights violations. In my newly published book, Whistleblower in Paris, I document the carnage with numerous examples of child homicide (i.e. Gabriella Boyd), suicide attempts (Alec Baldwin), murder-suicides (Investigator Joe Longo) and even a self-immolation (Thomas Ball).
Ex-spouse’s present to Leon Koziol during co-parenting years prior to lawyer involvement in a lucrative and needlessly protracted divorce
By Dr. Leon Koziol
Parenting Rights Institute
In a flurry of recent posts, I document the judicial corruption and parental alienation which have remained unchecked in our nation’s divorce and family courts. The coronavirus pandemic has now combined with those dysfunctions to create a perfect storm in today’s society.
With closures, social distancing and home confinements, it has aggravated the alienation of parents from their children particularly in the divorce and separation context. There has not been, and perhaps there never can be, a study which reports on the number of suicides, drug addictions, domestic violence and health impairments caused by this perfect storm. However, a comprehensive review is clearly warranted.
As a civil rights attorney, victimized parent and judicial whistleblower, I have repeatedly called upon our federal government to commence this review through congressional hearings and a Justice Department investigation. It is based on thirty years of experience in these courts. Had this occurred, today’s dire consequences may have been less impactful. Instead I was subjected to severe retaliation with overdue reforms that remain elusive.
Outside observers are easily duped into believing that conflict in these courts are financially and emotionally driven by disgruntled parents. But a closer look leads to a more accurate conclusion that such conflict is typically orchestrated by unscrupulous lawyers, biased judges and a money-driven court system. Service fees and federal Title IV-D funding are key examples.
This website, http://www.leonkoziol.com chronicles more than ten years of persecution endured by me as a result of my stand against this corrupted system. I have witnessed it first hand in a number of relevant capacities and will expose certain trial level jurists who abused public office in my case to retaliate for this public stance. The abuse was pathetically obvious and supportive of my demands for accountability.
In 2009, Syracuse family judge, Martha Walsh-Hood, conducted a four day custody trial that she was unprepared for. The sheer volume of cases may have been one explanation but a predetermined outcome was more likely. For example, she directed me to cease the spontaneous presence of a pen between my fingers during objections because it was intimidating my ex-spouse. There was no complaint from her, nor a similar directive of my opposing female attorney. Coupled with other abuses, it led to a conclusion that this judge was prejudiced against men. The resulting exercise in futility caused me to exit early.
In 2011, after Judge Walsh-Hood stepped down from my ongoing family matters, Judge Michele Pirro-Bailey issued an order granting the ex-spouse my weekend parenting time to accommodate a family event. This was done despite the judge’s admission that she had not reviewed my opposition papers and without even hearing my opposing argument in court. It caused me to exit this hearing early inasmuch as my side of the case was being ignored in violation of due process. After issuing abusive forensic orders in my absence, this judge also stepped down weeks later. The orders were removed by her successor on the same record to show how arbitrary and needless they were.
On January 14, 2014, a judge who replaced the latter (without reason given) conducted yet another custody hearing during which he was caught orchestrating a record to support a second set of punitive forensic orders. Judge Daniel King resurrected them in retaliation for my testimony before the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption four months earlier. There I exposed his fabrication of college degrees to elevate my child support obligations. Specifically he directed me to cease making objections (two of five were already granted) regarding my ex-spouse’s irrelevant, defamatory and hearsay testimony under penalty of being removed from the courthouse. A transcript supports his misconduct. To avoid a “contempt by ambush” I was forced to again exit early.
In 2018, a child support violation hearing was held before more assigned jurists, Natalie Carraway and Gerald Popeo. There I exposed a scheme to double my obligation for contempt incarceration purposes. A social services attorney, free for my ex-spouse, committed malpractice by failing to offer a support summary into evidence at the conclusion of her lone witness testimony. It was admitted anyway over my objections and then reversed when I discovered a $45,500 support amount paid in 2015 which had been omitted from that summary. In this way, an attempted fraud was concealed from the record.
Both Carraway and Popeo later denied me a transcript of that hearing to show not only serious error but also a fraud in the Title IV-D funding program. It caused me to avoid a clear set-up at a confirmation (contempt) hearing conducted by Popeo. This led to an unlawful support warrant, secret bulletin and “shoot on sight” threat from a traffic cop to mirror the 2015 Walter Scott shooting in South Carolina. That transcript has yet to materialize despite recourse sought in both federal and state appellate courts.
In these and other proceedings over the years I was forced to take extreme measures to protect myself. This included an absence from my daughters’ school events with an ex-spouse threatening a contempt petition each time I attempted contact. I had never been found to be an unfit parent or even accused of any abuse, but a jail term without a jury, pretrial discovery or heightened standard of proof, was not an option. With each early exit, these and other assigned jurists were able to use the ex-spouse’s unchecked testimony to issue one-sided orders that made me to appear incompetent as a parent.
Such orchestrations were rampant over my fourteen year ordeal that led to the destruction of my wonderful father-daughter relationships and ultimate harm to my health and professional career. The joint misconduct was well hidden in a voluminous record and presumptively credited due to the high regard typically associated with any person bearing the title of “judge.” In truth, it was a pretext for punishing my First Amendment rights as a whistleblower outside the courtroom.
My daughters cannot be expected to understand the complexities of this misconduct which forced me out of their lives. We had such a wonderful relationship for more than ten years, but all that was erased by a “custodial” mother and court system hell bent on money interests over parental rights. I lost so many opportunities to experience various phases and crucial events in my girls’ lives that can never be recovered. And I was forced to pay for the kidnapping with over a quarter million dollars in tax free child support paid to date despite an income capacity destroyed by draconian support practices.
This is the price paid by an attorney with the qualifications to challenge a corrupt court system. It is a price which allows the system to live on even during a pandemic, thereby harming countless parents, children and families. It is an epidemic protected by powerful interests, one that wreaking havoc upon our society as a whole. Although my sacrifices were many, they were properly directed against this system. Hopefully others will join my crusade so that those sacrifices were not in vain.
For more information, I may be contacted at leonkoziol@gmail.com or (315) 796-4000. Kindly share this post to overcome the censorship we are experiencing.
“I would love to come off this bench and wipe that smirk off your face!” Judge Gerald Popeo to litigant in his courtroom
By Dr. Leon Koziol
Parenting Rights Institute
Why is judicial accountability so crucial to democracy? The answer is simply this: too much power vested in a single person invariably leads to corruption. We see this everywhere today. As it is said, tyranny begets anarchy, and when judges fail to honor the rule of law established by the people, the natural consequence is to take the law into one’s own hands. This is the very underpinning of American society and how our country came to be.
However when judicial power is usurped in domestic relations courts, a more serious form of corruption emerges. This is because families and parent-child relationships have long been considered sacred, private matters. Unfortunately, despite a constitution that created a form of government divorced from the mother country, a judge-made doctrine in feudal England managed to evade our Bill of Rights by finding its way into these courts.
That doctrine, known as Parens Patriae, has been relied upon to invade our privacy rights in ways never before imagined in a free society. As an accomplished civil rights attorney who became a victim of this doctrine, I set out to expose the corruption it caused to me and fellow victims. I sought to convert family court from a lawyer-friendly system to a parent-oriented one. Over time it cost me my professional career, father-daughter relationships and ultimately my very health.
When my ex-wife and mother of my children began to see the consequences of my principled stand, she took advantage of the retaliation by filing petitions that received the favor of judges seeking to suppress my First Amendment rights. Indeed in November, 2015, that ex-wife, Kelly Hawse-Koziol, filed yet another family offense petition having an ulterior goal of removing me from my daughters’ lives. Over the years, all her offense petitions were thrown out, but this one featured a gag order disguised as a protection order on this whistleblower website, http://www.leonkoziol.com.
The illicit scheme was profoundly exposed when I obtained a court order in New York Supreme Court challenging it. Despite motions denied over a six month period, the presiding family judge who issued that gag order (Daniel King), cancelled his hearing on the offense petition and vacated (removed) his own gag order. Weeks later, the same Judge King stepped off the case entirely after three years of harm to my father-daughter relationships. He never ceased his retaliation for my 2013 whistleblower testimony before the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption. There I exposed fabricated college degrees used to elevate my child support obligations for incarceration (contempt) purposes.
Throughout this crusade, my daughters and law license were used as ransom to elicit my silence. For her part, rather than honor the sacred interest in a father-daughter relationship, Kelly Hawse-Koziol exploited the clear retaliation by asserting one false accusation after another which I was forced to defend. I did so to an extreme of seeking constitutional protection in federal courts. But by then the fix was in, the record too tarnished, and any basic rights I might have once had were ignored or shamelessly violated. Hawse-Koziol was never held accountable for her perjuries and abusive petitions.
That favoritism was made possible by a judge made doctrine known as judicial immunity. Under that doctrine, judges can actually abuse public office by maliciously targeting a critic. To illustrate its absurdity, Michigan family judge, Wade McCree, was removed from the bench after his adulterous relationship with a litigant was exposed. It featured an adversary father that McCree placed on a child support monitor to appease his paramour. The father sued for civil rights violations in federal court but was denied recourse based on immunity, leading to the bizarre conclusion that sex in chambers with a litigant is now a protected judicial act.
This website, Leon Koziol.com chronicles more than ten years of efforts to reform this system and the retaliation which has yet to earn an Innocence Project outcome. Critical to my ordeal was a willingness of biased jurists, acting without a jury, to ignore perjury in the petitions and hearing testimony of Kelly Hawse-Koziol. Anything that could be used against me quickly found its way into decisions and orders that systematically destroyed proven father-daughter relationships. The judge prejudice was so extreme on one occasion that I was ordered to cease objections to such testimony under penalty of being removed from the courthouse (Family Judge Daniel King, January 14, 2014 transcript).
That willingness to ignore perjury was well demonstrated at a June, 2016 hearing where I was challenging a city marshal who claimed service of a support violation petition upon me at a local restaurant (known as a traverse hearing). After his sworn service document and testimony were introduced by Hawse-Koziol’s lawyer (one of many she retained), I cross examined him on a segment which claimed recitation of veteran status during the service of the petition. Knowing of an upcoming witness of mine in the waiting area, the marshal admitted that he never gave such a recitation. He then admitted that he had lied on the sworn document and in his testimony before the court.
Although the petition was consequently dismissed, no referral for perjury prosecution was made to the Syracuse district attorney. Such lack of accountability became potentially fatal when a scheme was hatched one year later to have an Oneida County deputy sheriff acting in the capacity of court security to serve the next violation petition upon me during a custody hearing. Unlike all other court litigants, Hawse-Koziol was not charged for this service as prescribed by law and the deputy sheriff was acting outside the scope of his security duties. So disruptive was this unlawful act that it caused yet another assigned judge to step down from my case.
More than 40 trial level jurists were assigned to my family matters over a 14 year period, a national record by most accounts. That alone warrants a federal investigation. There was no disciplinary action taken by this deputy’s superior, Oneida County Sheriff Robert Maciol, and no investigation by the state judicial conduct commission or attorney general, proving clearly that the state courts are unable to police themselves. The unlawfully served petition ultimately led to a “shoot on sight” threat from a traffic cop purporting to enforce a violation warrant issued by Utica City Judge Gerald Popeo. He was assigned to replace the one who stepped down and to avenge a public censure of that judge.
The corruption here was so rampant and unchecked that it forced me to take a bold stand against this irreparably infected process. Law enforcement would be well served by looking into such corruption because it puts them needlessly in harm’s way. One of Sheriff Maciol’s deputies was fatally shot during a stand-off with a parent trapped in a garage during a domestic incident. Had the officers who had him surrounded let time and talk take its course, that deputy might still be on duty today.
Throughout my ordeal in this corrupted family court system, I was proven justified time and again. To cite only a few examples, I filed a motion to remove one of my custody judges from my case and to prevent a private meeting with my young daughters in chambers. Opposing lawyers condemned it as an assault on a judge whose reputation was “beyond reproach.” Only months later, that judge, Bryan Hedges, was permanently removed by New York’s high court after Hedges’ public admission to sexual abuse of his handicapped five year old niece.
Judge Hedges’ replacement, Syracuse family judge Michael Hanuszczak, was forced to resign after a state judicial commission had found that he sexually harassed subordinate court staff. Judge Gerald Popeo, as stated, was publicly censured (when he should have been removed) by the same judicial commission for making racist remarks, jailing litigants for such conduct as a “smirk,” and threatening violence from the bench to remedy such indiscretions. The ethics lawyers who also targeted me were allowed to resign after falsifying their time sheets. These removals are all a matter of public record.
While this is only a partial list, it underscores the problem I set out to correct. A mother truly committed to her daughters and a co-parenting environment that was once so promising would counsel them on the righteousness of my cause. Instead she exploited the clear misconduct for selfish gain. My parenting liberties were so monitored that nothing I did was acceptable. Conditions were imposed that were not only contradictory, something I described as a “contempt by ambush,” but they forced me to avoid all contact with my precious girls.
This ordeal is detailed, in part, in my published book, Satan’s Docket, available on this site and http://www.parentingrightsinstitute.com. I am asking all court victims to carry on this cause so that my sacrifices are not in vain. For more information, you can contact me directly at leonkoziol@gmail.com or (315) 796-4000. Kindly share this post to overcome continued censorship and suppression.
ABOVE: These two dedication plaques on the lobby wall of a city courthouse commemorate the efforts of officials who came together to build a public forum for dispensing justice. Long time civil rights attorney Leon Koziol was instrumental in two capacities. As an elected city councilman, he secure a majority vote for construction funding after years of indecision by earlier council members. He then participated in dedication ceremonies when the courthouse was opened years later as the city’s corporation counsel. New York’s chief judge presided. Ironically a later judge of this city court, Gerald Popeo, was assigned to Attorney Koziol’s family court matters in 2017 to avenge a public censure against that judge which included racist commentary and physical threats from the bench.
Attorney Koziol’s career successes, exemplified by these courthouse plaques, would make any daughter proud. But they were destroyed when a deranged mother, Kelly Hawse-Koziol, made a single call to an unethical divorce lawyer in 2006. He influenced her to start a court battle against this dedicated dad using his daughters and law license as ransom. It escalated to the present day. The increased child support she demanded was never awarded to her. Instead the monthly amounts agreed upon prior to lawyer involvement were retained in a 2008 support order that remains the same today. It was deemed fair and compliant with federal and state support laws. But by then, the damage was done.
Leon Koziol’s ordeal is a John Grisham true story published, in part, in a 2017 book entitled, Satan’s Docket, available at http://www.parentingrightsinstitute.com.
By Dr. Leon Koziol
Parenting Rights Institute
Twelve (12) years of targeting by lawyers and government agents in retaliation for my public stand against family court corruption finally took its toll when I was admitted to the emergency room on December 22, 2020. During my four week stay at the hospital, I learned that another support violation petition had been filed against me by “custodial parent” and mother of my daughters, Kelly Hawse-Koziol despite having my earnings capacity destroyed by draconian family court practices. I also learned that she had stalked another millionaire father replacement after several earlier failures. She was finally getting married a second time.
Rather than direct our girls to a simple phone call to their only dad in the hospital, the soon-to-be Kelly Hawse-Usherwood was apparently busy competing with brides half her age in a “Say Yes to the Dress” competition in New York City. In another world free of court conflict I would have wished her luck and congratulated the new union. But unfortunately the better title for this one would be “Say Yes to the Mess” caused by greed, envy and downright stupidity. This website chronicles over ten years of parent controversy that destroyed everything good about a formerly cooperative childrearing environment.
Had Kelly Hawse-Koziol simply left me alone, our daughters would be enjoying an environment of hope, stability and happiness far greater than the mess that is rampant in their lives today. The psychotic brainwashing and parent alienation she inflicted were off the charts and sadistically facilitated by a so-called “family” court bent on punishing a judicial whistleblower. What rational daughter would ignore their own father, one that not only made her existence possible, but sacrificed everything to remain a part of her life against all odds? How could a model father-daughter relationship be erased from existence after years of wonderful interactions?
Beyond that, how could any new partner of such an evil mom not see how he could become a future victim? A single argument with this woman could easily erupt into a domestic violence call that would require the arrest of Lou Usherwood regardless of his innocence under the current VAWA laws. A successful businessman could have his hard earned reputation irreparably destroyed overnight. There is precedent here in my ordeal. And how is it that a father himself cannot see a serious problem in the situation he is inheriting?
I never asked for the anonymous letters from within my daughters’ school district that warned of a Lou Usherwood playing substitute dad for my daughters. But they cannot be ignored in light of the severe alienation that has the only father here without a phone call from his girls on Christmas and New Year’s Day while hospitalized. Those girls would want for nothing today had Kelly Hawse-Koziol not committed perjury time and again to destroy a lucrative law practice. All her family offense petitions and protection orders were thrown out for lack of evidence over the years, yet nothing was done to hold her accountable for the damage she caused.
My ordeal is the quintessential example of court corruption which begs for a judicial ethics investigation and more. And I am far from isolated. Indeed divorce and family court corruption is common among countless cases being covered up today. There remains a serious lack of accountability for lawyers and judges who orchestrate lucrative and needless controversy among parents and families in these courts.
To be sure, during my reform efforts across the country I was hired to investigate many horrific cases. They include a doctor in Manhattan who spent over $5 million in lawyer fees in a divorce that nevertheless cost him access to his three children, a university professor with a PhD from Yale who spent over $2 million in a divorce with no custody or support issue because his three children were adults at the time, and a stay-at-home mother who successfully raised four children to maturity only to be accosted by them after divorce with the most vulgar of language.
I have seen the evidence first hand and the cases are so widespread that an investigation by the Justice Department is long overdue. Federal Title IV-D funding is being abused on an escalating scale to separate good parents from their children while government priorities remain misplaced on protecting illegal aliens and criminals at our borders. It is a cause championed during the three day Parent March on Washington which I sponsored in 2019.
Help me secure justice and accountability for all victims of this growing epidemic. Let not my sacrifices be in vain. Contribute to our cause on this site and spread the word so that a unified front could be made for change in Congress and our courts. Contact me personally at leonkoziol@gmail.com or call me directly at (315) 796-4000.
We continue to be suppressed and censored, so your part in making this message viral is crucial.
“You know what downstate blacks call upstate blacks?
Country n____rs.”
After hearing all the evidence, a judge appointed by the New York Commission on Judicial Conduct determined that Utica city court judge, Gerald Popeo, made this remark with a black attorney present during judicial activities. However that Commission refused to accept his finding and issued a mere slap on the wrist in the way of a public censure in 2015.
If that was all, it might be excused by the people served, but Judge Popeo went on to exact revenge on those he believed to be involved in the censure, thereby violating additional provisions of the ethical code in New York. One of his targets was Leon Koziol, the former civil rights attorney for Stephen Patterson. Judge Popeo presided over Patterson’s case in 2010 leading to a suicide attempt in the city lock-up.
Neither this attempt nor a shocking ordeal which followed came before the state commission. Consequently, in light of today’s racial crisis with Judge Popeo still on the bench, Mr. Koziol is lodging a complaint against Popeo with the same Commission seeking removal and a permanent ban from any judicial office. The content published here is designed to secure public support behind this initiative.
The above news interview features Stephen Patterson, the first African-American Commissioner of Public Works in Utica, New York. He was wrongfully fired, leading to a jury verdict of $330,000 obtained by long time civil rights attorney Leon Koziol. It was argued before Justice Sonia Sotomayor in a federal appeals court prior to her elevation to U.S. Supreme Court, see Patterson v City of Utica, 370 F. 3d 322.
A second recovery of $90,000 was obtained for Steve’s dad, a pastor, when retaliation occurred to his church through an abuse of code violations. That retaliation continued for many years after Steve opened a social club using the monies recovered against the city. A barrage of charges followed, resulting in an arrest warrant for non-appearance and first time incarceration. They were thrown out by a jury, yielding yet another civil rights case in 2009.
This news conference (both clips above and below) describes the trauma that Steve endured with a suicide attempt when a belt was placed in his cell that night. Steve was rushed to the hospital and actually arraigned there on the nuisance and code charges by city judge Gerald Popeo. Judge Popeo was later found guilty of using racial slurs during judicial duties by a judge of the state’s misconduct commission.
However Judge Popeo was merely censured and not removed, allowing him to exact revenge against Mr. Patterson’s civil rights attorney, a vow made during a bar conversation witnessed by a marine veteran in 2017. Six months later, Popeo managed to have himself assigned as a city judge to Koziol’s personal family court matters. He started with a nonappearance warrant.
When that was corrected, Popeo persisted with a support warrant based on a fraudulent, concealed record to achieve incarceration. It resulted in a “shoot on sight” threat by a traffic cop in 2018. Mr. Koziol was forced to take a stand against this warrant consistent with his rights of self-defense. In reports, he compared himself to the Rodney King beating with “fists and batons replaced by orders and edicts.” Either can achieve a fatal outcome.
This news clip adds to the ongoing problem of retaliation and lack of diversity in Utica city government. The Black Lives Matter movement has taken aim against racial injustices in this city, but as this highly followed news conference shows, nothing has changed. If anything, given this week’s racial incident involving Jakeila Phillips, the divide may have gotten worse since this 2010 news conference occurred. That shocking incident is detailed later.
There were multiple civil rights cases underway against the City of Utica and Town of New Hartford when Attorney Koziol was suspended as part of a witch hunt in retaliation for his many successes including a $300,000 recovery in a race discrimination case against the Oneida County Sheriff Department. That suspension caused at least four such cases to be dismissed or abandoned, including those by Stephen Patterson and Casey Stuckman in this interview.
In this week’s racially charged incident to be addressed below, video taker, Jakeila Phillips, complains of racial discrimination in the community. She was denied entry to a white-owned bar based on black stereotypes as trouble-makers. Both Patterson and Casey Stuckman operated a prominent bar and social club in Utica to make up for this. Both went out of business due to city harassment.
In Mr. Stuckman’s case, he was gang tackled and body-slammed to the ground, face down, before handcuffs were applied. And it occurred as a victim of a domestic incident shooting. When police arrived, the assailant was a woman holding a gun. Casey was the obvious, hapless victim of both race and sex discrimination. His depiction brings to mind images of George Floyd.
In this clip, Mr. Stuckman describes the racial divide between city police and the black community. In articulate manner, despite his false arrest and injuries, he does not condemn his attackers. He outlines a plan for change to make Utica a great city again, change that Ms. Phillips is seeking 10 years later which has yet to materialize.
In this clip of the same news conference, Attorney Koziol announces a public forum, one of many he sponsored over the years to influence change. It was well attended with numerous testimonials submitted to the Justice Department seeking an investigation into racist city practices.
To this day, there has not even been an acknowledgement of this report, including those recently hand-delivered to members of Congress and discussed personally with prominent national leaders. Today, we learn of movements erupting from the George Floyd murder focused on both police and judge accountability.
However, as this publication proves throughout, the responses from our governments are mere window dressing to detract from a much larger crisis in race relations. Will Black Lives Matter be patronized as these victims and their attorney were? Why lodge misconduct complaints when our public servants go to private extremes to ignore them, discredit them and literally kill the messenger?
Cornell Maye was the first African-American Public Safety Commissioner for the City of Utica, New York, placing him in charge of the police and fire departments. He was an aggressive commissioner and former city marshal quickly responding to numerous crime scenes.
One night he came upon a traffic stop in which a white patrolman was placed in serious danger. He came up undetected on the opposite side of the vehicle and prevented the passenger from using a concealed weapon. It turned out to be a drug bust but Mr. Maye turned up with charges against him for a misuse of firearms by local prosecutors.
As a civilian, it was alleged that he was not authorized to use his gun, despite the fact he may have saved his subordinate’s life. The gun charge was obviously a pretext for removal followed by a piling-on of additional charges. These included “misuse of city stationery” when Mr. Maye presented a written defense to the gun charge before a county judge. All the charges were ultimately dismissed (“no-billed”) by a grand jury.
Contrary to attorney recommendations of non-appearance before any grand jury (because of a prerequisite waiver of constitutional rights), Maye’s selected attorney, Leon Koziol, boldly advised the opposite because the charges were too absurd and retaliation so obvious. A civil rights action followed but dismissed on grounds of judicial immunity, prosecutorial immunity and police quasi-immunity, issues that are current after the George Floyd murder.
Only three years later, a city patrolman was murdered after a similar stop and drug bust without back-up on the scene. With his employment record saved, Mr. Maye went on to a successful career with the Raleigh, North Carolina Police Department. He is now happily retired and still married to the woman once employed as a minority codes enforcer with the same City of Utica.
Persecution of a civil rights attorney
As Mr. Patterson warns, retaliation is very real in civil rights cases and used to suppress change, free speech and whistleblowers such as his attorney.
The above news clips depict the final series of civil rights cases prosecuted by attorney Leon Koziol after 23 years of practice. That was in 2010 when he was targeted, subjected to false ethics charges, and punished with an ongoing 10-year suspension of his law license. It all came in retaliation for his filings, public forums and conscientious stand against draconian child support collection practices.
Like Susan B. Anthony who refused to pay her fine for the crime of voting, and Dr. Martin Luther King who opposed his release from Birmingham jail, Mr. Koziol risked his life and livelihood in a cause for fair treatment in our nation’s family courts. In retaliation, he was ultimately deprived all contact with his daughters, even denied notice of a 2020 graduation ceremony at the New Hartford Central High School.
The unwarranted and excessive punishment led to at least five applications for reinstatement since a 6-month suspension was completed in 2013, a term imposed due to an insider secretary influenced to tamper with office calendars. She was belatedly imprisoned on felony convictions in 2016. A sixth application is currently underway.
An ethics committee in Albany has opposed every reinstatement to date based largely on whistleblowing activity cited from this website, Leon Koziol.com. Its chief attorney and deputy attorneys engaged in the witch hunt against him were terminated by the ethics court after an inspector general exposed their falsified time sheets.
They were the standard bearers of lawyer ethics charged with a duty of preventing lawyer over-billing practices. Unlike Mr. Koziol’s highly discriminatory treatment without any criminal wrongdoing or malpractice, these “ethics” lawyers were allowed to return to private practice with no public charges, see Robert Gavin, Oversight lawyers quit amid inquiry, Times Union (Albany, New York) July 11, 2013.
In contrast, the indefinite license suspension has prevented Mr. Koziol from continuing with these and other civil rights cases. They were ultimately dismissed in the hands of lesser qualified counsel or abandoned altogether due to a lack of interest or affordable representation.
To illustrate the absurdity, Attorney Stanley Cohen was reinstated in 2018 only two years after his release from federal prison for tax evasion on some $3 million in unreported fees and income. These were felony convictions that routinely lead to a seven-year disbarment. However he somehow incurred a short term suspension instead and was known for representing cop-killers, drug dealers and terrorists.
In contrast, Mr. Koziol was punished more severely for representing true victims of racial injustice and a conscientious stand against corruption. He issued a series of reports since the one depicted in the front page story above. A 2015 report predicted his potential demise following the Walter Scott murder in 2015.
At the Walter Scott funeral in South Carolina, Mr. Koziol addressed national media, civil rights groups, Al Sharpton and Congressman James Clyburn, among others. He did so because this particular black lives victim was a father shot dead five times in the back while fleeing unarmed from a child support warrant uncovered during a traffic stop.
His report the same year was submitted to then Attorney General Loretta Lynch who testified along with Mr. Koziol, Preet Bharara and other invitees at a hearing of Governor Cuomo’s Moreland Commission on Public Corruption at Pace University in 2013. His prediction was realized in 2018 when a “shoot on sight” threat was made by a traffic cop to a driver of Mr. Koziol’s vehicle at a toll booth in Albany, New York.
As fate would have it, Mr. Koziol was not present in the vehicle, but a sworn statement, traffic report and court record corroborate the incident. Another consequential report that year was discussed personally with Senate Judiciary Chair Lyndsey Graham. It asks for a Justice Department investigation of this horrific ordeal supported by a peaceful, three-day lobby initiative and March on Washington.
As race related protests continue across America, leaders are praising peaceful demonstrations over violent ones. But as Mr. Koziol has experienced, his peaceful protests have earned no reforms. This one in 2019 featured a police escort from the White House to the Capitol and a lobby day when 600 reports were delivered by parents to members of Congress and Justice Department.
The “shoot on sight” threat was based on a secret bulletin attached to a child support warrant leaked to local media to further discredit Mr. Koziol and his message, not unlike attorney whistleblowers in China. Local Sheriff Robert Maciol admitted that the leak was unlawful and has yet to respond to a misconduct complaint against his deputy who triggered it.
The support warrant was issued by Utica City Judge Gerald Popeo. He was appointed under suspect circumstances to Mr. Koziol’s family court matters in 2017 to avenge a public censure issued against him by the state’s judicial conduct commission in 2015. Its startling racial aspects are presented below.
All recourse was closed off by federal and state judges abusing judicial immunity and other judge-created obstacles to be detailed in a later post. Ultimately a conditional filing order was orchestrated by federal judge Gary Sharpe despite an earlier order by a higher court which removed him from a case based on his use of a human gene in a sentencing decision, one that would not be discovered for “another fifty years,” see United States v Cossey, 632 F.3d 82.
Such Hitleresque decision-making is easily concealed, and it warrants removal from any American bench. But Judge Sharpe refused to step down from Mr. Koziol’s personal case, and impeachment is the only means for achieving removal for life appointments in the federal system. Such a rare process has shown to be prohibitive and costly this year. The filing order was to be challenged at a federal appeals court in Manhattan but put off due to the pandemic.
This is only some background needed to further understand the outrage among groups such as Black Lives Matter. If a civil rights attorney can be persecuted in this way, victims of racial abuse are denied recourse and accountability. When our justice system breaks down as evidenced here, the natural response is to take the law into one’s own hands.
Mr. Koziol’s ordeal is also critical to events relating to Jakeila Phillips in Utica, New York, victim of a race-laced, verbal assault in downtown Utica, New York this past week. That connection is now explained for the benefit of victims, reform groups and genuine accountability in government.
By Dr. Leon Koziol
Civil Rights Advocate
On July 1, 2020, headline news in upstate New York featured a racist video gone viral. A pregnant, black woman managed to capture a road rage incident four days earlier in downtown Utica. What Jakeila Phillips recorded as a pedestrian by-stander was beyond shocking at a time when racial tensions are skyrocketing.
According to the local Observer Dispatch newspaper in Utica, New York, a white passenger in a vehicle was engaged with a person in the one ahead of him. Attention then turned to the by-stander with her unnoticed camera activated.
That passenger actually, if not moronically, identified himself in the video as Barry Wardell while accosting Ms. Phillips with racial slurs and offensive statements such as “Black lives don’t matter.” The victim then calmly asks: “Anything else?” The offender answers by declaring that “Blacks should be slaves, give me back my property,” and further, that “he hangs n_ _ _ _ rs on the weekends.”
Yes this actually occurred in the geographic heartland of New York State during a nationwide crisis focused on the police murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, a horrific event which ignited mass, violent protests. It triggered protests in Utica and suburban New Hartford where the racist passenger lived. Joined by local black leaders at a recent news conference, Ms. Phillips is seeking “change” and justice as police investigate whether any crimes were committed.
But what Ms. Phillips and her supporters are likely unaware, any charges, i.e. harassment, hate crimes, may come before the city court’s longest tenured judge, Gerald Popeo, who was charged with using racial slurs while in office. According to Syracuse.com and a February 12, 2015 decision of the New York Commission on Judicial Conduct, this is what Popeo was accused of saying:
“You know what downstate blacks call upstate blacks? Country n____rs.”
Of course, that “country” classification would include Ms. Phillips and the black leaders who accompanied her at this week’s news conference. Unlike the road rage incident at the core of that conference, the Popeo slur could not be defended as an emotional outburst. It was premeditated, witnessed in court (not on a street) and conveyed in the presence of a black attorney .
Predictably Judge Gerry denied all this as he did other ethics charges such as a young prosecutor “standing there like a cigar store Indian.” He jailed litigants for such things as a “smirk” and threatened to come off the bench to assault the one who gave the routine facial gesture. His demeanor and arrogance were off the charts, and he was simply censured instead of removed altogether by the Commission.
Today, we see Black Lives Matter and other protesters tearing down statues and taking aim at events occurring decades, even centuries ago. But these are symbolic aims that mean nothing to perpetrators that are long gone. In Popeo’s case there is a critical opportunity to take aim at a racist who is still on the bench. Specifically I am submitting a formal complaint to the same judicial conduct commission which issued that “slap on the wrist.”
I am also seeking an action which permanently bans Popeo from seeking any future appointment or election as a judge in any court. Such recourse has precedent in the case of ex-family judge Bryan Hedges in Syracuse. He was among the 40 trial level jurists removed from my originally uncontested divorce since 2006.
I filed a motion to remove Judge Hedges from my custody case because such judges were allowed to interact with children in chambers without the parents present. I was chastised by lawyers on grounds that this judge had a reputation beyond reproach. But I had two young girls to protect who were my utmost priority.
To my surprise, Judge Hedges granted my motion due to “an appearance of impropriety,” and as fate would have it, Judge Hedges resigned abruptly one year later after being caught in an admission that he sexually abused his handicapped five-year old niece decades earlier.
The judicial commission was unmoved by the resignation and proceeded further with a permanent ban from any judgeship. Hedges appealed to New York’s high court but was slapped with a scathing opinion which left the ban in place, see In re Bryan Hedges, 20 NY3d 677 (2013). Judge Popeo’s misconduct is not decades old and it cannot be tolerated in the current racially charged environment. To ignore Judge Popeo is to ratify his racism in public office.
FYI: Both Hedges and Popeo were represented by former Utica Supreme Court Judge Robert Julian, currently a prominent personal injury attorney and former chairman of the Oneida County Legislature. If you would like to join my complaint for the removal of Gerald Popeo, contact me at (315) 796-4000 or e-mail me at leonkoziol@gmail.com. In the meantime, let’s make this viral for the sake of true justice everywhere!
After Dr. Leon Koziol, the father of two young girls, filed a motion for removal of Family Judge Bryan Hedges from his child custody case, lawyers appointed for the children and retained by the mother chastised Koziol in open court for daring to challenge a judge whose reputation was “beyond reproach.” Only months later, that same judge resigned from the bench after admitting to sexual abuse of his handicapped 5-year old niece. To prevent future judge appointments, Hedges was permanently removed by the state’s high court in 2013, see In re “the Honorable” Bryan R. Hedges, 20 NY3d 677. On September 25, 2018, the administrator and counsel for the judicial commission which prosecuted this case published an editorial in the Washington Post featuring Hedges as an example of decades-old misconduct which can be used against sitting judges. It was directed to the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. But Hedges was never prosecuted criminally unlike Roman Catholic priests. Imagine your nine and ten year old girls going into pedophile chambers without their parents for interrogation purposes? The adult victim in the Hedges case called Dr. Koziol after finding this site, http://www.leonkoziol.com, to thank him for his judicial whistle blower sacrifices.
By Dr. Leon Koziol
Parenting Rights Institute
After twenty years of litigation experience in federal and state courts, and twelve years exposing corruption, I continue to receive shocking stories of moms, dads and entire families victimized by lawyer abuses, ethical misconduct and legal malpractice. I won a number of attorney malpractice cases including one involving a divorce lawyer who later became a family court judge.
Unfortunately there are too many lawyers abusing family court candidates and litigants these days who receive the protection of attorney grievance committees and bar associations. Vintage culprits include those who grab your retainer monies at the outset and then neglect your crucial matters due to an overflow of clients they are unable to service adequately and competently.
The greed for money over ethical duty has created a “turn ’em and burn ’em” epidemic, law offices filled with predators masquerading as concerned professionals. You would never know that until it is too late. The majority of victims who contact me for justice and accountability have been through multiple lawyers until bankruptcy leaves them unrepresented against a hostile court (lawyers on the bench).
The number of victims and magnitude of harm overwhelm me time and again. This is why the Parenting Rights Institute which I founded in 2010 is now offering attorney search services to lessen the risk of you becoming another victim. Nothing is guaranteed of course as we can never detect a sociopath, but we can certainly monitor an attorney that we have evaluated and referred. Then you are not alone should that attorney fail you (sort of an insurance policy).
The standard way of searching for lawyers on the net or phone books is over. You need an advocate unafraid of the system and one who has proven to be resistant to retaliation or pressure, one who knows how to expose those who harm parents. We have confidential lawyers, marketing experts and even a forensic psychologist for the sophisticated search process you need and deserve.
Our rates depend on the complexity of assignment but they are surprisingly affordable according to those who have already hired us. The right attorney can save you tens of thousands of dollars in needless lawyer and forensic (evaluation) fees. Any lawyer who fails our referral clients may face postings, videos, reports and publicity which depict his or her misconduct. A review of our website verifies how serious we are about protecting unsuspecting parents from lawyer abuses.
If you would like to explore this valuable service, call our office at (315) 380-3420, or Leon Koziol directly at (315) 796-4000. Let the experts find the right attorney for you in your area. All calls are confidential and our retainers are tailored to your budget and conditions. You can also e-mail directly at leonkoziol@gmail.com.
IMPORTANT: For the sake of all parents, children and families, share this post and prevent those you love from becoming future victims.
“I would love to come off this bench and wipe that smirk off your face!” Judge Gerald Popeo to a litigant in his courtroom
By Dr. Leon Koziol
Parenting Rights Institute
As they say, every dirty dog has his day. You can abuse judicial office and get away with it for a long time. But the day will come when you will be held accountable, and what a sweet day that will be for the victims.
That day for Judge Gerald Popeo has arrived. And like so many who ganged up on me (we’ll just call them junk yard dogs), justice will finally be served when he is removed from the bench by a stellar candidate who announced his campaign to seek Gerry’s judgeship in 2020.
Oneida County Assistant District Attorney Joe Saba announced that he will seek the judgeship for City Court of Utica, New York this week. Scary Gerry has not yet announced and was no doubt hoping to be unopposed. But like another member of the “Get Leon” clan, Judge Mike Daley, I am predicting a sound defeat of incumbent Popeo should he decide to run.
After “Cowboy” Daley abused his judge assignment to my family court case in 2010, he could not get the support of his political party when he sought re-election shortly afterward. He could not even get support for his old job as Herkimer County DA. He was soundly defeated by another assistant district attorney.
Judge #42 has now replaced Popeo after all his revenge work was completed against me. Assigned out of Syracuse, her name is “Martha Mulroy” who simply joined the junk yard team by denying everything I requested, even simple phone contact which life term prisoners get. That is how deep the venom runs after all the corruption I exposed.
I have never been charged with a crime, reported for abuse or found to be an unfit parent. I am the victim of a so-called “custodial parent” (Kelly Hawse-Koziol) who abused her own title through brainwashing and severe parental alienation to get a millionaire father replacement. She failed in at least two of her scams and is now working on her third victim according to an anonymous letter received last month.
It may be too late to save my father-daughter relationships, but hopefully I might get major compensation and precedent to benefit others in my state supreme court case which was recently moved to federal court by the New York Attorney General. Scary Gerry is now the lead defendant named in that action after the State of New York was necessarily dropped due to 11th Amendment sovereign immunity.
I will now recruit voters in the city which I once served as an elected councilman and corporation counsel. Mr. Saba saved me a full page dedicated to seeking candidates to run against Popeo. It should not be difficult to remove Gerry after that Public Censure he got from the New York Commission on Judicial Conduct (issued on February 12, 2015).
In that decision, you will find how Gerry was found guilty of making racial jokes to an African-American attorney in city court. He was censured for a threat to do violence to a litigant by threatening to come off the bench to “wipe a smirk off (his) face.” He could not lie about that one, like he denied the racial misconduct, because his threats were recorded by a court stenographer. Now let’s face it, that is one DUMB judge.
Scary Gerry was also punished for throwing guys in jail in violation of their due process rights whenever someone rubbed him the wrong way. Now that’s EGO MANIA on steroids! Come on Gerry, this isn’t a street fight. You have the protection of court security, and you gotta wonder who they would restrain if Gerry did come off the bench to wipe out smirks. They would certainly not be necessary if he attempted that on me.
There were so many cases of wrongdoing that you gotta wonder how Gerry was allowed to remain on the bench at all. This is the same guy who bellied up to me at a local bar in 2017 to accuse me of involvement in the “witch hunt” against him. I now wish I was involved but informed him truthfully that I was not. Evidently paranoid for some irrational reason, he did not buy it.
Somehow he got himself assigned to my family court case six months later. Now, all else aside, you gotta ask yourself a common sense question: what is a racist, violent and egotistical judge doing in family court which features domestic violence cases and sensitive family matters? He was obviously appointed to even the score for his paranoid suspicions. That alone is a serious violation of the Judicial Code of Ethics.
Judge Gerry then orchestrated a support violation warrant which got out of control when a traffic cop claimed that he could “shoot on site” because somehow that warrant was secretly modified into high alert status. All of this is now the subject of my federal case. Yeah, as I stated, every dirty dog has his day. You can’t change the spots on a leopard, but you can change a scary situation by voting a dog out of office.
If you would like to help the movement to throw “Scary Gerry” off the bench, call our office at (315) 380-3420
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