Updated:
I’m not spending much time at the courthouse this week, because I’m deep in data, wading through our biennial evaluation of Sedgwick County District Court judges.
They were published today. The online presentation includes an interactive comparison of the survey.
Many of you are on the edge of your seats, I know, to find out how your judges have performed the past two years, according to the lawyers who appear before them. We also have lawyers rank the judicial candidates, so this has become a strong tool for people before they enter the voting booths. As many know, judicial candidates have their own gag order, so they can’t really campaign. This project is a pretty good barometer of what those in the legal community think.
This year we had 311 lawyers participate, compared to 246 in our initial effort in 2006. That’s a 26.4 percent increase. Can you tell I’m working with data all week?
The Eagle and the Wichita Bar Association partner together every two years to evaluate judicial performance. Lawyers log into the WBA Web site and fill out the survey anonymously.
The results will appear in Sunday’s Eagle and on Kansas.com – and I’m hustling to make deadline.
6 Comments
Where does one view the rankings?
Chessart: Thanks for asking. They will be on a page at Kansas.com. Once they’re published,I’ll update this item with a link.
Hey Ron: I want to thank the Eagle’s editors for respecting the importance of free speech and allowing my posts to be published. As long as I understand that I can be sued for libel or arrested under the Kansas state law for criminal defamation, I think that the Eagle should be willing to publish my allegations (and republish and republish & republish my allegations) of criminal activity including subornation of perjury, subornation of forgery, obstruction of justice and/or various federal criminal acts against citizens constitution rights of due process against the following judges, prosecutors & attorneys including Judge Rebecca Pilshaw, Sedgwick County prosecutor Christine Ladner (WBA Bar Musical Revue choreographer extraordinaire) & Todd Chottamongo, former Sedgwick County Court Trustee attorney Genine Ware, Judge Douglas Roth, Judge Mark Vining, Kansas Bar Association Board Member & Wichita attorney Rachel Pirner (wife of KAKE news director Dave Grant, attorney John Rapp (son of David Rapp chairman of the WBA’s ethics committee), attorney Steve Manke, attorney – Sheila Floodman recently named by her peers in Wichita as one of the Best Divorce Attorneys in America and Ross Hollander – law partner of abortionist attorney – Steve Joseph and joint venture business partner with former mayor Bob Knight, Steve Joseph & MGM Casinos in the failed attempt to build a casino in Sumner County). I have also alleged that several judges & attorneys intentionally violated their to cover up criminal activity of other attorneys & judges and/or to intimidate citizens from complaining (Sedgwick County District Court Judges Tony Powell, Eric Yost, James Fleetwood, Dan Brooks, Tim Henderson, Terry Pullman, Karl Friedel, and attorneys Tripp Shawver (outgoing chair of the KBA’s family law committee), Mark Kahrs (former GOP county chairman), Patrick Walters (current candidate for district court judge), Charlie Harris (long-time chair of the Kansas Judicial Council’s family law committee), attorney Ann Soderberg (who was also named by Best Lawyers in America as one of the best divorce attorneys in Kansas) and attorney Julie Ariagano (ex-wife of former WBA president Steve Ariagano and current wife of WBA Musical Revue show stealer Tim Moore who was one of the 3 finalists last Fall for the Appellate Court position chosen by the Commission of Judicial Nominations chaired by Richard Hite who is your wife’s law partner at HItge Homeman & Fanning). I’d like to think that the Eagle posts my comments because it believes that the free flow of information will prevent government corruption. However the Eagle has refused to investigate the documented human rights atrocities committed by most of the above mentioned judges & attorneys that we involved in the corruption scandals involving Barry Simpson, Todd Wait and Joe Liddle. I think that the only reason why the Eagle publishes my comment is because it knows that I will e-mail copies to State Representative Jim Morrison (chairman of the House Committee on Government Efficiency & Technology), Supreme Court Justice Carol Beier (former Seifkin Foulston law partner, your wife’s best friend and the Supreme Court justice responsible for monitoring the problems in the Sedgwick County for the Kansas Supreme Court, Kelli McBride & Roy Peter Clark at the Poynter Institute . I also e-mail my comments to every judge, court reporter & secretary that works in the Sedgwick County Courthouse to challenge them to sue me for libel or have me arrested for criminal defamation. I appreciate the readers’ patience in letting me conduct my saber rattling. I am sure the Wichita Bar Association members, the judges, the Eagle reporters and interested citizens are looking forward to the results of your survey. However before the results are published I want to advise the readers and the management at the McLatchy Corporation why I think that you, Ron Sylvester are the most intellectually dishonest person in Wichita. We will in exciting times with the Executive Director of SRS alleging that the Sedgwick County prosecutors intimidate his social workers into filing false affidavits to take children away from their families. In the past two weeks, the station manager at the local ABC affiliate (Dave Grant’s boss) was fired, the news director and assignment editor at the CBS affiliate were fired and the news director at the NBC affiliate resigned. I have to wonder if the executives at the stations’ parents companies Marci Burdick & Jason Elkins have gone back over and read some of my e-mails that I sent them last Fall after I spoke with them over the phone. I still think that there is a great business opportunity for Elkin’s chain of local TV stations to conduct a rapid response investigative reporting team. I want to make 3 points to the blog readers: 1) No one has had the courage to post any meaningful comments on your blogs even though we are living in historic times. IMHO this is proof that citizens are afraid that the Eagle will report the names of the bloggers identities so that the fascist criminals in power can retaliate.
2) In your blog post that there was a 26% increase in responses by WBA members who were to submit an evaluation form through the WBA’s internet. The Eagle & the WBA claims that the identities of the respondents will be kept confidential even the database administrators would need to keep track of the respondents to prevent multiple evaluations being submitted by one attorney. You failed to report that less that 25% of the WBA members responded. IMHO this is proof that the WBA membership does not trust their fascist president – Mike Herd the son of former Kansas Supreme Court Justice Hal Herd. For the record I have several e-mails from 2007 in which Herd (which I forwarded to you and the other 26 district court judges) refuses to respond to my claims that in early 2006 the incoming family law judges (Fleetwood, Pilshaw & Wilbert) ordered Dave Johnson, the chairman of the WBA’s family law committee to tell the attendees at the WBA’s 2/2006 annual family law seminar to betray their clients by refusing to attack the results of any custody reports by any court ordered forensic psychologists.
3) The WBA and the Eagle could have conducted and published this survey 2 months earlier so that reform minded attorneys could have networked with each other to decide challenge unethical or dishonest Judges James Brooks, James Fleetwood, Tim Henderson, Terry Pullman or Eric Yost who are all running unopposed. Ron – I am disappointed that I have to inform the experts at the Poynter Institute and your bosses that you have a personal conflict of interest because you have personally profited by the fascism and cronyism in the federal, state & municipal courts in Kansas. Your wife’s close friend and confidant , mega fascist Foulston Seifkin attorney Jack Focht , was selected to be a special court master by a federal judges so that he could order the utility company Westar to pay your wife and the other criminal attorneys hired by former Westar executives David Wittig and Doug Lake millions of dollars in attorneys fees. IMHO this is a quid quo pro payment by the fascist federal judges to reward your wife for serving with Jack Focht as directors of the Kansas Appleseed Foundation and her law partner Linda Parks who is the outgoing KBA president for defending the current merit appointment process of judges and to reward their law partner, Richard Hite, for continuing to promote attorneys and district court judges that will maintain the code of silence though retaliation & intimidation to maintain the criminal racketeering that is condoned and covered up Justice Carol Beier, her former law partner US Attorney Eric Melgren, Governor Sebelius and State Senator John Vrtil the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and member of the Kansas Judicial Council. It should come as no surprise that Vrtil’s ex-wife is a federal judge and Gov. Sebelius ‘s husband is a federal magistrate. It should also come as no surprise that Park’s husband is Randy Brown who managed the Eagle editorial board for several years before he resigned last year after the scandals became too embarrassing. I feel so sorry for your editor, Sherry Chissenhall, because she is going to look like such an hypocrite. I enclosed an article from earlier this year about her support for open government. Per usual your reader can e-mail me at kiakahahaha@yahoo.com & I will e-mail them to their anonymous yahoo accounts scanned documents supporting my allegations. They can also call me at 316 293-6079. I will also send them copy of our e-mail correspondence from May 2006 which proves that I came up with the idea for the attorney surveys in response to the sexual harassment scandals involving Judge Wilbert & Judge Ballinger (who interestingly is also running unopposed). It just proves that the feminist attorneys & judges in Wichita & Topeka condone misogyny and sexual harassment of women because they are so eager to prove their loyalty to the fascist good old boys. Bill McKean
http://www.wichita.edu/thisis/wsunews/news/?nid=138 Why is it sometimes so difficult for the public to get access to public information? Why are so many local governments around Kansas running afoul of the state’s open meetings law? Those are two key questions for a statewide television broadcast on the Power of Open Government at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 12, at the First United Methodist Church, 330 N. Broadway in downtown Wichita.
The panel discussion will be carried live on Cox Channels 22 in Wichita and Topeka, as well as KWCH.com and radio station KFTI 1070. It will be rebroadcast on KPTS TV Channel 8 at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 3, and around the state on the Public Broadcast System. Kansas recently failed an open government test by the Better Government Association, an independent nonpartisan government watchdog group based in Chicago. Among other things, the BGA researches solutions that promote transparency and accountability in government. “The threat today is real,” said Randy Brown, executive director of the Kansas Sunshine Coalition for Open Government. “We are seeing closed government problems popping up around the state. Some local governments are doing well. But for Kansans who understand that open government at all levels is essential to democracy, things are getting worse, not better.” In recent months, open government violations have been reported or formally charged in Topeka, Lawrence, Thomas County and Chanute. Panelists include State Sen. Tim Huelskamp of the Dodge City area, Wichita Vice Mayor Sharon Fearey, Kansas Attorney General Stephen Six (invited, but not confirmed), Wichita Eagle Editor Sherry Chisenhall and broadcast and print journalist Nickie Flynn. Moderators will be Brown and Susan Huxman, director of the Elliott School of Communication at Wichita State University. The panel discussion is free and open to the public. A reception will follow at 8 p.m. Audience members, who will be able to ask questions, should be seated by 6:45 p.m. Sponsors are the Kansas Sunshine Coalition for Open Government and the Wichita Metro Chapter of the League of Women Voters.
Ron:
I want to thank the Eagle for respecting the importance of free speech. Hopefully if I continue whacking the pinata (specifically you, your wife, Gaye Tibbetts o-director of Kansas Appleseed Foundation, her girl friend – Supreme Court justice Carol Beier, KAKE New Director Dave Grant, his wife – Rachel Pirner (KBA Board Member), former Eagle opinion page editor – Randy Brown & his wife – outgoing KBA president, Linda Parks) we can get an out of state newspaper to expose all of the corruption & fascism that has been covered up for decades by the Eagle and its sister paper, the KC Star.
The only good news is that the problems are just as bad or even worse in Johnson County where judges are merited appointed. IMHO Judges Jim Beasley (Wichita) & Janice Russell (Johnson County) have achieved statewide notoriety and can challenge former Sedgwick County Distirct Court Judge & Attorney General Bob Stephan for being the most dysfuncitonal misgonistic corrupt jurists in Kansas history. (although I would welcome other nominations from the readers about former Judge Sanborn). OOPS I forgot. People who post comments can be sued for slander. Of course there are worse things than being sued for slander: (Just ask Mike Lehr) Like being set up and disbarred for having the courage to defend the constitutional rights of citizens who complain about the dishonesty of prominent attorneys & case managers.
I posted the following comment on your article about the judges responses. I plan to e-mail a response to every candidate to challenge them to openly acknowledge the reality of the corruption. If every one starts accating like big boys & girls, the Eagle can start something really historic. I am very disappointed in Judge Bruce Brown’s response. Judge Brown is a graduate of Oral Roberts University and attended the 8/2007 Pachyderm meeting where Rep. Jim Morrison (Chairman of the House Committee on Government Affairs & Technology) stated that he had a 12″ stack of documented allegations of corruption by Wichita atotnreys & judges. I know that Jim Beasely’s reputed girl friend, Sheila Floodman, was on the nomination committee to choose municipal judges. Does Judge Brown want to the voters to assume that he is city attorney’s Gary Rebendorf’s boy??
Ths is soooo embarrassing. When will the Eagle interview Jim Morrison, Joe Liddle & Todd Wait???
MY COMMENTS ON TODAY’S ARTICLES:
WE ARE LVING IN GLORIOUS TIMES. THIS IS A GREAT REASON WHY THE VOTERS IN JOHNSON COUNTY SHOULD PASS THE REFERENDUM SO THAT VOTERS CAN ELECT JUDGES. ONCE THE CRIMINAL ACTS BY MANY JUDGES & ATTORNEYS WHO ARE RUNNING FOR OFFICE IN THE BARRY SIMPSON, TODD WAIT & JOE LIDDLE SCANDALS ARE PUBLICIZED, THE AUTHORITIY OF THE COMMISSION ON JUDICIAL QUALIFICATIONS AND THE OFFICEOF JUDICIAL ADMINSTRATION TO DISCIPLINE JUDGES & ATTORNEYS WILL BE TAKEN AWAY BY HE LEGISLATURE. THESE SCANDALS WILL PROVE THAT THE KANSAS SUPREME COURT AND ITS SUBSIDAIRY OFFICES CONDONE & COVER UP CRIMINAL ACTIVITY BY JUDGES & PROMINENT ATTORNEYS IN WICHITA. I POSTED THE FOLLOWING COMMENTON ON THE OTHER ARTICLE BY RON SYLVESTER.
I suggest that we take this discusson over to Ron Sylvester’s or Sherry Chissenhall’s blog. If you e-mail me at kiakahahaha@yahoo I’ll respond to your anonymous yahoo account with scanned documents documenting criminal allegations against Judges Henderson, Roth, Friedel, Vining & Rachel Pirner wife of KAKE New Director Dave Grant & former GOP Chairman Mark Kahrs, Trip Shawver Charlie Harris & many other other attorneys. The judges who got the lowest ratings were deamed to be the weakest poltically and had opposition tomake room for new fascists & nepotists. They needn’t worry – they will be back ont he bench like Judge Kennedy serving as judge pro temps. The most corrupt judges (Yost, Fleetwood, Pullman, Henderson, J. Burgess) had no opposition. Why? Because attorneys can not trust the WBA or Slyvester to keep their comments anonymous. Too bad a national organization like the ABA did not do the survey.
I was greatly amused that now Pilshaw has set up her own web site. The facts cannot and have never been disputed. Rebecca Pilshaw,Laura Roberts(Pilshaw’s aide),Christine Ladner,and a former SG county employee named Calene Binns knowingly and with malice violated Federal & Kansas Law.
These four believed themselves above the LAW. I endured the falsely sworn & falsely suborned oaths of this quartet for over seven years. Let any of this element,who violated the LAW and the Constitution stand against me or stand publicly where there wrongful conduct under the color of law can be examined.
These persons do not deserve any power or control over any person in any setting. They are corrupt and without ethic or even lawful conduct. They are the enemy of all people who yearn to breathe free.
Hi, Bill: I figured you might be showing up here. Why not start your own blog? Then anyone interested in what you have to say could follow you. You could post documents without people having to email you. Just a thought.