Linda L.
Kennedy |
Whistleblower Puts Virginia Supreme Court on Trial
by Ed Truncellito, JD
June 5, 2003
Yesterday, seven justices of the Virginia
Supreme Court were put on trial in their own court by attorney Linda
Kennedy who was disbarred last year.
The justices had the spotlight turned around on them when Kennedy
addressed them from the podium. Kennedy was there to appeal her disbarment
for violating the First Unwritten Rule of Virginia Legal Ethics: Do not
embarrass the Virginia Bar by blowing the whistle on white-collar crimes
they commit against an unwitting Virginia public.
Kennedy began by throwing Chief Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell, Sr.
off guard. She complimented him by saying she heard him preach the Gospel
of Jesus Christ at Regent University. Maybe he momentarily forgot that a
similar tactic was used by the Apostle Paul to subdue King Agrippa. The
justice straightened up and beamed with pride as he was reminded of the
distinction that Regent bestowed upon him in the eyes of his black
community by honoring him as a professor of law and theology.
Next, Kennedy quoted a second one of the justices, a woman, who was
published as stating that nobody wins when legal process is not always
above suspicion. Kennedy thanked her for the statement but added that the
message apparently had not yet reached the Virginia Bar.
Kennedy silenced a third justice by interrupting his question and
asking that the justices not ask her any more questions. She said they had
a copy of her written brief, and she wanted to use her entire 15 minutes
to explain to them in person how their legal system had become
disgracefully corrupt. And if that did not convince them that arguing the
law was fruitless, then nothing ever would.
Nonetheless a moment later a fourth justice, another woman,
interrupted to ask if she understood correctly that Kennedy did not want
to answer their questions, perhaps implying that Kennedy had something to
hide. But Kennedy rebuked her. Kennedy said it could not have been made
any plainer: “No questions.”
Kennedy added that if the justices believed that it was acceptable for
one of their judges and the prosecutor from the Virginia State Bar to
materially alter the transcripts in the lower court, then they might as
well disbar Kennedy right then, because she cannot help people if that was
the case. The Justice pushed herself back in her chair showing
consternation, but she had nothing more to say. Having silenced the
justices, Kennedy then proceeded — shall we say “earnestly” — to “chew
their butts” as plain folk in Virginia would call it.
Good for you, Kennedy, because the buck stops here. These justices are
the senior officers of the Virginia Bar whose lawyers are trying to cover
up the fact that Kennedy caught them red-handed, falsifying the very court
record that the justices had sitting right there under their noses on the
bench. The legal process that brought them the case record was not merely
suspicious. It was blatantly fraudulent.
Kennedy had fished through the culprits' trash cans and found
handwritten notes on her transcripts that clearly showed that the trial
judge had approved falsifications of the trial record to cover up perjury
by the head of the Virginia Bar Ethics Department — changes that were
being proposed by the Bar prosecutor.
Kennedy had audiotapes that prove what the ethics leader really said,
in his own recorded voice. But the trial court changed the parts of the
record where the trial judge refused to allow those audiotapes to be
played. Ironically, the trial judge's comments were falsified in the
record claiming he said he would have exonerated Kennedy if only she could
have proved what the audiotapes in fact do prove.
Talk about smoking guns. But this is just one of the more
glaring cases.
It is an open secret that records are being falsified routinely in
cases all over the state and all over the country while the high courts
hear them with a deaf ear. Zed McLarnon, a forensic audio-visual expert,
has documented that transcripts in Massachusetts courts are altered with
the knowledge of court personnel. In Indiana, Rebecca Rohrs has
conclusively documented literally thousands of alterations in hearing
transcripts in a child custody case. “This is criminal misconduct,”
attorney Eugene Wrona says of similar practices in Pennsylvania, “and
these people belong in jail.”
Further, it is notorious that lawyer whistleblowers can expect to
share Kennedy's fate. Law students are misled like the public, being told
in law school that law is an honorable profession. Not until they begin
practicing do they discover how money really changes hands. Only after
they have invested years in their law school education are they taught
that they must maintain an unwritten code of secrecy. Then they shut up —
or they are disbarred.
After Kennedy's 15 minutes, Chief Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell, Sr.,
told her the time was up. Kennedy announced that there was no need for her
to listen to her opponent's excuses or comment on them. Then she walked
out with some 30 of her supporters including pastors and lawyers.
The justices in this case will pronounce a verdict on themselves. If
they order a full investigation and overturn Kennedy's disbarment, then
the justices will have pronounced their innocence. Otherwise, Regent
University ought to reconsider whom they allow to preach to our
youth.
— End —
Truncellito's report was distributed immediately following Kennedy's
disbarment hearing and subsequently was reproduced in the June 9, 2003
issue of the J.A.I.L. News Journal and June 14, 2003 issue of the
Idaho Observer. Truncellito himself had been disbarred for
aggressively challenging the way no-fault divorce laws were being applied
in the Texas courts.
In July, 2003, the Virginia Supreme Court affirmed Kennedy's
disbarment (Record No. 022782; Circuit Court No. C-02-48). The U.S.
Supreme Court declined to review her case. Kennedy continues her
crusade for judicial fairness from the perspective of its origins in
traditional Christian principles.
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