BOOK REVIEWS
Bad Minds , High Places America ’ s Archipelago
of Legal Failure by Robert Grundstein
Reviewed by Ken Ditkowsky , Esq .
I persistently call for honest investigations of defective state legal systems . The prevailing question remains : what state actor or agency will conduct them ? Mr . Grundstein ’ s book provides an answer : None of them . In his experience , Ohio and Washington proved that it is possible for a region to deteriorate into a criminal enterprise from the smallest municipal court to the local Federal District . He believes that without a federal intervention , Cleveland , Ohio would have continued to operate like a benign version of Albania . The “ soggy white people ” of Washington State , as Mr . Grundstein refers to them , have established the courts as a private means of income distribution .
Mr . Grundstein has written an entertaining first-person account of how he believes he was persistently prosecuted , pursued and jailed for exercising his First Amendment rights to expose this happenstance . He was extradited from Vermont to Ohio on what he calls falsified charges to a Grand Jury after being exonerated by the same panel . It took an allegedly illegal representment in Cleveland for the County sheriff to get desired results after the author published an editorial about a Cleveland suburban judge . The author has not been wrong yet . In his account , which reads like a crime drama , the FBI confirmed his claims by conducting a huge corruption investigation using 125 agents over 10 years . Arrests are still being made . Not only was the judge about whom Mr . Grundstein wrote subject to investigation and removal , the law director and associate judge in that court were convicted of bribery and activities related to prostitution . The County Sheriff was put
in jail as was the docket clerk who he claims falsified the Mr . Grundstein ’ s court record . The prosecutor was forced to resign and another prosecutor related to his Ohio case was put in jail .
From Grunstein ’ s perspective , the state made sure he had no voice . An order was entered ruling that he was not allowed to file in any Ohio court . The appellate courts would not review his exclusion from their state courts ; all of them . When he went to Federal Court , the local federal court immediately imposed a permanent filing ban against him .
His book is an important book for several reasons ; first , it shows the grass root character failure of America ’ s ethical consensus . Organized failures of this scale aren ’ t likely to occur without the acquiescence of entire administrations and their constituents . Second , Mr . Grundstein shows how the benefits and protection of legal systems and the police power is extended on a selective basis . There is a tiered system and those without the status of personhood get legal behaviors as a lower-tiered member . Personhood is often assigned on the basis of partisan affiliation , income , power and preferential association . Third , the book shows how politicized judicial systems make legal failure possible . Collective failure is not necessarily conspiracy . It can start with illegal agreements , but it is not likely to involve 20 judges , prosecutors and police sitting in a room planning an illegal agenda .
Grundstein argues that there is a different model for how elected judiciaries and unified bar systems fail . Collective failure can occur when parties downstream to an event are faced with the consequences of contradicting or not cooperating with the people who started an event . This is very common in elected judiciaries . Judges , prosecutors and attorneys don ’ t like to offend powerful people by exposing improper agendas and failures . It ’ s not necessarily conspiracy but rather the prudential behavior of a failed system . Fourth , Grundstein shows the irony of how corrupt people love ethical systems and rely on them . Finally , it warns of a national decline and cites alleged failures similar to Cleveland ’ s in Pennsylvania , Arizona and Washington . Mr . Grunstein warns that the Full Faith and Credit clause of the Constitution is being used to export regional ethical failure and because of this notes that we ’ re in trouble .
The book is entertaining and filled with mordant humor , surreal unreality and irony . Most people finish it in one or two sittings . Ironically , it is fun to read even though the story of destroyed virtue and trust in the very system paid to protect this virtue and trust is quite the opposite . However , it needs to be told . Mr . Grundstein made sure the medicine tastes good . We should all take it . ____________________ Ken Ditkowsky has practiced law for over 50 yes , trying cases in state and federal courts , including trying the case of Terrazas vs . Vance before the US Supreme Court . His office is in Chicago . www . ditkowskylawoffice . com .
Your Honor , as My Next Witness , I Call The Parrott : A Review of The
Irving Younger Collection ( ABA Litigation Section , 2010 )
Reviewed by Michael Palmer , Esq .
Shortly after recently placing my order for a used copy of The Irving Younger Collection , I wondered : “ What sort of lawyer sells her copy of this marvelous book to a used book store ? Probably a dead one ,” I thought . “ For only the estate of such a lawyer — and one who has no lawyer heirs — would willingly relinquish this book .”
Among lawyers , Younger was a legend . Not only did he know the law of evidence like few others . He could explain it . Explain it so that you understood it . Explain it so that you could apply that understanding . And thoroughly entertain you throughout .
Younger may never have known that he was the godfather of a company that made great teaching available to millions of people . For it was the video tapes of Younger on Evidence that first helped Tom Rollins pass his evidence course at Harvard ( he had neglected to attend classes ) and then later inspired him to found The Teaching Company .
In law school , I had an experience similar to that of Rollins , though I went to class . Walking past a small room with dimmed lights one afternoon , I heard sounds ,
48 THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • SPRING 2017 www . vtbar . org