Appearance Alert: on The Father's Rights Movement (TFRM)
Appearance Alert: on The Father's Rights Movement (TFRM)
We discussed how a West Virginia judge is being held accountable for holding a makeshift hearing in a litigant's front lawn.
Earlier this week, I appeared with Ken Rosa on The Father’s Rights Movement (TFRM)
We discussed the new bill in the Missouri state legislature to reform guardian ad litem, but we also talked about an emerging scandal from West Virginia.
In 2020, then Judge Louise Goldston was unhappy with the speed with which personal property was being distributed between litigants in a divorce which she presided.
She decided enough was enough. She went to the man’s home, federal agent Matthew Gibson, and held a makeshift hearing while entering his home with no warrant.
To make sure her authority was followed, she even brought a Sheriff’s Deputy with her.
Gibson filmed the exchange. He then took the video to West Virginia civil rights attorney John Bryan who put it on his YouTube channel.
From there, all hell broke loose. The local media quickly covered the events: Judge Goldston was put under investigation. During that investigation, she admitted that this was not the first time that she held hearings in front of people’s homes.
Goldston admitted the disciplinary counsel’s allegations in a September 2020 agreement and agreed to a censure and $5,000 fine, subject to determinations by the judicial hearing board and the top state court.
Goldston admitted that she had a 20-year practice of going to people’s homes to determine whether disputed marital property was present or to supervise the transfer of disputed property. In most cases, the searches were requested by the counsel and took place during the hearing without objection.
In the instance that resulted in discipline, Goldston initiated the search without a request by the counsel and conducted it over the objections of the litigant.
The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals said a censure, coupled with a $1,000 fine, adequately recognizes the seriousness of Goldston’s conduct.
Bryan also sued on behalf of Gibson.
Normally, Judge Goldston would be bullet proof thanks to horrendous US Supreme Court ruling- Stump V Sparkman.
In that case, a judge, Harold Stump, granted a mother’s petition to have her 15-year-old Linda be surgically sterilized; the petition was granted the day it was filed, in chambers, without a hearing.
Linda was even told she was having her appendix removed; she married Leo Sparkman two years later and when they couldn’t conceive, Sparkman sued the judge, along with her mother, the doctor and others.
But in a controversial 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the case against Stump, upholding a lower court ruling that the judge was immune from suit.
As a result, Pappas said rhetorically: “If a judge can take away a woman’s ability to reproduce without a hearing and get away with it, what can’t they get away with?”
Stump v. Sparkman made judicial immunity so broad it’s just about impossible to sue a judge.
Stump V Sparkman gives judges near total immunity from a lawsuit; only in cases where it is determined they don’t have any jurisdiction do they lose the immunity.
As I told Ken, “Judges would rather run around a courthouse naked than ever rule the immunity doesn’t apply.”
As such, it was a major victory for Bryan when her immunity was not granted: the court ruled that Judge Goldston does not have jurisdiction to be a judge in someone’s front lawn. Below, Bryan explains the decision.
Goldston wasn’t done facing sanctions. Soon, the West Virginia legislature took up articles of impeachment. She resigned rather than being removed from office.
The scandal is still unfolding; it’s recently been learned that Goldston was helped by two other judges in thwarting the initial investigation against her.
Two West Virginia Family Court judges are now facing charges after conspiring to help embattled former Family Court Judge Louise Goldston avoid prosecution after she illegally searched a man’s home during a divorce hearing on March 4, 2020.
Following her announcement, House Speaker Roger Hanshaw released a statement stating that the House would no longer take any further action on the impeachment resolution.
Goldston was previously censured and fined by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals in November of 2021 for her actions.
The judges in question, the Honorable Deanna R. Rock and Glen R. Stotler are both West Virginia Family Court Judges of the 23rd Family Court Circuit which covers Mineral, Morgan, and Hampshire Counties in the eastern panhandle.
Both are facing charges after working together to assist Judge Goldston in avoiding prosecution.
This is not the first time the West Virginia judiciary has faced scandal; in 2018, the five West Virginia Supreme Court justices were all impeached.
Check out the interview Megan Fox and I did with Bryan about this and other matters from 2021.
