Edna Jane Favreau and Charlie Crist

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EDNA JANE FAVREAU AND CHARLIECRIST

The Victim and the Impotent Lawyer

By David Arthur Walters

10/14/2010

“Law is what powerful people do, and they do it to legalize their crimesagainst humanity.”



EDNA JANE FAVREAU AND CHARLIE CRIST

Edna Jane Favreau’s case is familiar to many public officials although theywould rather not hear about it. She was disabled by her former husband’smurderous attack, for which he was convicted for domestic violence and let

off easy with probation. The judge in the criminal court ordered restitution tobe paid to the victim for liquidated damages, but Florida’s States Attorneyneglected to follow up despite Jane’s pleas and complaint, so she filed a lienwith the court herself. She was entitled as well to half the marital property.She had expected justice in the Brevard and Volusia County Courts, includingaccommodation for her disabilities, but what she received was re-victimization by attorneys on both sides and by the judges. Her formerhusband had already grabbed the cash, and then she was stripped of whatlittle cash she could borrow from her kids to retain attorneys, so she had torepresent herself pro se, as nearly 80% of one party in family lawproceedings have to do in Florida. She was told her self-filed lien against the

property was not good. The court with the help of its abusive officers turnedover control of her property to her former husband, and then, when he died,to his new wife. Jane was left with her disabilities, now including LAS (legalabuse syndrome), and thoroughly pauperized by the court. The Florida Bardisciplined attorneys on both sides, but the judges continued the legal abusewith the violation of her civil rights including her rights as a disabled victimunder the Americans With Disabilities Act. Her complaints to the JudicialQualifications Commission fell on deaf ears – one of her complaints about

judicial abuse of power was returned to her the very same day she made it,denying its responsibility and stating that the Commission did not have thebudget or support to handle such complaints.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist received a copy of Jane’s story, ‘Fraud on theCourt – Who Will Listen’ on 28 August 2010, with the advice that “beingindependent has it virtues.” Governor Crist is an independent candidate forUnited States Senator because he abandoned the Republican Party shortlyafter swearing he was faithful to it; a poll had indicated that he might win theelection as an independent. The Governor asked his assistant Dustin Fusilloto respond to Jane’s predicament, and he did so on 31 August:

“Thank you for contacting Governor Charlie Crist on behalf of Edna JaneFavreau. The Governor asked me to respond on his behalf. The Florida

Constitution limits the Governor's intervention in matters that should beresolved through the court system. Questions about guilt or innocence, orthe procedural fairness of convictions must be addressed in the courts.

Those who wish to contest judicial rulings may wish to speak with anattorney about what appellate procedures may be available. I encourage Ms.Favreau to continue working with her attorney's to address her concerns.Please understand the Governor's inability to intervene is due to a lack of

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jurisdiction, not a lack of concern. Thank you again for contacting theGovernor's office. We hope this information is helpful.”

The information Governor Crist received made it clear that one of Jane’smain complaints is that she had been stripped of her means of support and

deprived of representation in Florida’s courts, so she could hardly “continueworking with her attorneys.” I responded to the governor on 1 September2010:

“Thank you for your response. As you can see, I am currently reviewingevidence of a pattern of judicial abuse of women and children in the State of Florida, and will mention your letter in my coverage. Of course, citizens havenaturally thought that that subject would be of pressing concern to the headsof their state, and were chagrined to learn that governors have their handstied by policy hence the governor's office is good for nothing when it comesto that subject.”

Again, the governor stated an inability to intervene; this time he said that hemay not lack concern, to which this response was made:

“I have alerted Jane to your statement that Governor Crist may not lackconcern for her predicament, which is, unfortunately, the predicament of many similarly situated women…. Perhaps candidate Rick Scott or Alex Sinkwill be able to effectively contradict the judiciary if s/he becomes head of your executive branch. I am attaching for Governor Crist's perusal a one-page article Jane just wrote, about how the door to justice is closed to manypoor people. Since he is an attorney, I am certain that he is fully aware of that fact, and may be concerned by it, perhaps if he becomes a U.S.Senator.”

The message to Governor Crist also referred to another woman, FlorenceBerger nee Paton, who had had similar experiences with the Brevard CountyCourt, and had personally appealed to then Governor George Bush:

“She said she personally delivered some of her documents to Governor Bushsome time ago, and he expressed his concern and promised to look into thematter, but when she appeared at his office to follow up and see if hehonored his commitment, and asked to see him, she was presumed to bementally ill for showing up, and was escorted out of the office by personnelwho insinuated that she was crazy - the same sort of behavior she and otherlitigants became aware of in Brevard County courtrooms, the most egregiousperson being the late Rambo-tactic lawyer Henry Martocci, who wasdisbarred all too late.”

When Jane was shown the correspondence with Governor Crist, sheresponded simply: Florida’s Constitution requires the governor to see to itthat the laws are faithfully executed, she insisted.

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will of its most influential members for their livelihoods; the bulk of the Barwill stand monolithic when confronted by errant knights. The general publicmay be ignored by The Florida Bar, which is part and parcel of the FloridaSupreme Court, with impunity given the self-conceived inherent powers of the conceited court. May heaven forbid if an attorney goes too hard against

the grain – s/he will be hounded to the gates of hell and beyond. Remember,the power of the legislative and executive branch is in the hands of attorneysbeholden to the Bar for their fortunes. The most that can be hoped is toslightly change its course by finding independent-spirited attorneys willing touse jujitsu technique, employing the Bar’s own weight to alter its grindingcourse.

The fact of the matter is that Attorney General Charlie Crist’s office hadreceived numerous complaints about the justice system in Brevard County.And the more current fact of the matter is that Charlie Crist as Governor of Florida has been well advised by the press about the allegations of

incompetence, neglect, abuses, and corruption in Brevard and other Floridacounties.

Charlie Crist’s responses have been superficial and conditioned by his flightyperception of their effect on the polls during his run for the U.S. Senate.

Journalist Glenn Garvin’s independent opinionated investigation of GovernorCrist’s behavior concludes that “Charlie’s only firmly held belief is that heshould be a U.S. Senator.” The Governor, who is called Senor Chancleta(Mister Flip-Flop) in Hialeah, is notorious for changing his mind according tohow the political wind is blowing at any given hour – we might think that anattorney should have some principles consistently abided by. The Orlando

Sentinel reported that, on one morning, Mr. Crist demanded an investigationof wrongful felony convictions in Brevard County, but reversed his demand inthe afternoon.

It appears that Charlie Crist is the sort of sophist Plato disparaged, one whowould make the worst cause look like the better one if it were to his ownadvantage to do so. Even so, he appears to be a better candidate than hisRepublican opponent, who sums up the ideological faults of the anti-intellectual neoconservatives who brought the nation to the brink of ruin, andwho are now capitalizing on the American electorate’s normal desire forinstant success to replace right with wrong. As many of us observed of

President Richard Nixon, hypocrisy can be a good thing if the wind blowsyour way – just keep your office well secured.

Judges are normally elected in Florida, but given certain conditions of vacancy, governors of Florida have a Constitutional hand in appointing themto the courts, as well as appointing electors to the Judicial NominatingCommission – Governor Crist, for example, appointed his professional

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colleague and political funder, the now notorious fraudster, attorney ScottRothstein, to the Judicial Nominating Commission.

Women often complained about the misconduct of Brevard County Court Judge Bruce Jacobus, whose peers elevated him to Chief Justice of that Court.

Ironically, given the allegations of misconduct and gender bias against Bruce Jacobus, Governor Chris was careful to kick him upstairs to the appellatecourt over the objections of the Central Florida Association for WomenLawyers; alas, the lawyers, always loath to criticize judges for fear of losingtheir licenses, did not mention Judge Jacobus’ gender bias. The story wascovered on 7 August 2010 by Florida Today , a news source that has beendiligently exposing official misconduct in Brevard County for several years.

“For all his righteous indignation about the lack of diversity among judicialnominees, Gov. Charlie Crist passed up an excellent opportunity this week torepair that problem with his appointment to the 5th District Court of Appeal

in Daytona Beach. But perhaps in the governor's mind, diversity isn't agender thing. How else to explain Mr. Crist passing up two women who wereamong the six nominated for the post? Instead, Mr. Crist chose Bruce

Jacobus, a 65-year-old circuit judge from Brevard County. Keep in mind thatthis is the same judicial appointment that Mr. Crist was willing to go to warover to make a point about diversity. Even though he didn't have a legal legto stand on, the governor rejected that list of nominees late last yearbecause it didn't include any black candidates. One troubling detail: Mr. Cristdoesn't have the authority to reject such a list, which is compiled by anominating commission. The commission correctly refused to produce a newlist of candidates more palatable to the governor. The standoff prompted

Robert Pleus of Windermere, the judge whose resignation created theopening, to file a lawsuit that would force the governor to choose. Along theway, the Central Florida Association for Women Lawyers filed a legal brief,which made the interesting observation that the last woman appointed tothe 5th District Court of Appeal was nearly 20 years ago. The 12appointments to the court since then have all been men, the brief said, oneof whom was African-American. The dearth of female appointees to thatcourt stands in sharp contrast even to the U.S. Supreme Court, whose ultra-exclusive ranks will include two women following Thursday's Senateconfirmation of Sonia Sotomayor. The association's brief also noted that Mr.Crist himself had declared early on that the nominees "should reflect the

racial, gender and geographic diversity of the people they serve." Thegovernor was only partially correct in contending that the list he laterreceived didn't have that diversity. It lacked racial diversity, yes, but itcleared the gender bar. Last month, the Florida Supreme Court sided withMr. Pleus and ordered the governor to do his duty and pick a judge. Did Mr.Crist choose diversity? No. He chose Mr. Jacobus, a longtime circuit-court

judge. In doing so, he bypassed Belle Schumann, a Volusia County judge and

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former assistant attorney general; and Angela Flowers of Ocala, a board-certified appellate lawyer.”

Judge Bruce Jacobus and his colleague, a “Rambo attorney” named HenryMartocci, are described by Florence Paton, formerly Florence Berger, in a

book she is writing about her experience in the Brevard County courts:“Judge Jacobus was jolly as he entered the courtroom for the first time onthis case. ‘Good morning, Henry,’ he greeted his colleague Henry Martocci,attorney for my estranged husband Francis Berger. ‘How are you? Nice tosee you,’ he remarked as he sipped his mug of coffee.

“And then Judge Jacobus allowed Martocci to proceed with his lies and submitfalse documentation to the court. Jacobus refused to enforce the orders of

Judge Warren Burke, and allowed my husband to continue to disregard childsupport orders I was surprised; I didn’t know courts were like this.

“Due to my husband’s failure to pay support, I was forced to sell my home. Judge Jacobus ordered half the proceeds to go to him although the moneybelonged to my parents as a home loan. Jacobus then continued to allowperjury, false documentation, and the frivolous and fraudulent proceedingsinitiated by Martocci. And the judge continued to allow the outrageous,intimidating, vulgar and abusive behavior of my husband and his attorney toproceed.

“Judge Jacobus did not follow the laws; he denied me and my children dueprocess and protection. On many occasions he laughed loudly when Martocciscreamed in open court that I was a ‘nutcase’ and ‘nothing more than avindictive woman.’ He also demonstrated humor in the fact that my husbandFrancis Berger was being proceeded against in another court on charges of grand theft, violation of an injunction for protection, and other charges. The

judge was well aware that his good friend presiding over that case, Judge Tonya Rainwater, would quickly dispose of the charges.

“And Judge Rainwater disposed of the charges, Francis Berger and hisattorney Henry Martocci acted with a vengeance, battering me in the courtsand abusing the children while informing the community that I was a‘nutcase.’ They screamed at me in the court’s hallways, threatened me as Iapproached the court room or deposition room.

“Not only Judge Jacobus, but the bailiffs and clerks found humor in the awfulbehavior. Rather than intervene and end the abuse, they would simply standby and laugh. They could see that I was frightened by it all; however, theirresponse was to say, for example, ‘Oh, that’s just Henry Martocci. Don’tworry about it.’ It was unbelievable to me that the judges would run acourthouse this way, allowing such unethical, obnoxious and violent behaviorto be exhibited within. One bailiff, ‘Wilson’, enjoyed the show so much that

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he would sometimes pat Martocci on the back while they laughed together...My attorney said Martocci’s behavior could be reported to The Florida Bar,but advised me that I should not do that until the case was over.”

Edna Jane Favreau was also continually battered by the crude “bomber

tactics” of Walter Favreau’s attorney Henry Martocci, behavior that wasallowed, condoned and encouraged by Judge Bruce Jacobus – we shall reportthe full extent of this abuse elsewhere, including disparaging remarkstargeting a female Puerto Rican attorney. Not only did Jane suffer mental andphysical disabilities of her husband’s abuse culminating in his attempt tomurder her by strangulation, she was re-victimized by the legal system shethought she could rely on for protection; she was abused by the judges andby the attorneys on both sides, who stripped her of her cash, maritalproperty and civil rights, pauperizing her and leaving her to fend for herself pro se while she was further incapacitated by their malicious misbehavior. Inaddition, then, to her original post-traumatic stress, she suffers to this very

day from Legal Abuse Syndrome, a syndrome that many legal-systempatriarchs find laughable although they have learned to laugh in private.Karin D. Huffer, in Overcoming the Devastation of Legal Abuse Syndrome(LAS) , chronicled twenty years of research and clinical work with LAS, a formof post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). LAS is a psychic injury, not a mentalillness. It is a personal injury that develops in individuals assaulted byethical violations, legal abuses, betrayals, and fraud. Abuse of power andauthority and a profound lack of accountability in our courts have becomerampant, compounding an already stressful experience.

Jane always wanted a good attorney, and she still wants one, but she cannot

find one to stand up against the judges, to assert her claim that there hasbeen a fraud on the court by the Bar hence her cases should be reopened.While having several strokes, she found herself involved in divorce, tort, andprobate court, with judges playing musical chairs. It is no wonder that shewas thoroughly confused, but she still put up quite a fight for over a decade.Now she is left to nurse her wounds and do the best she can to warn othersof what is really going on in the court system.

“No local attorney was willing to help me with the tort case against myformer husband,” Jane stated, “allowing Judge Jacobus to do many thingsthat were clearly wrong. The good attorneys in town said they were too busy

to take my case. They were afraid to deal with the attorney on the other sidein Judge Jacobus’ court, and the paper had published my account of how thecourt was mistreating crime victims. I wanted and needed a good attorney.Except for Edward Tietig, who really tried to help me but whom Judge

Jacobus would not listen to, the attorneys I did get took my money andabandoned me, finally forcing me to represent myself. I can point out on thetranscript where the opposing attorney laughed at me, a woman impaired byher former husband’s violent crime. The attorney emphasized the “if” when

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saying, “IF she can get an attorney to represent her,” and then chuckledknowingly, knowing about the expose in the newspaper.”

“Judge Jacobus violated my rights as a victim of domestic violence in thedomestic violence tort case when he refused to allow my attorney, Mr. Tietig,

to show that an order to disclose the value of the family assets had not beengiven to me and the order had not been complied with. Judge Jacobus justignored my attorney! In fact, the dissolution of marriage case was still notfinished lawfully because the assets were never valued or dispersed to theparties.”

“Judge Jacobus signed deficient orders leaving me vulnerable andunprotected against the whim of my abusive former husband and theunethical attorney, Henry Martocci, leaving me without my half of maritalproperty. And he met ex parte with Attorney Martocci; together they allowedmy former husband to walk away with money that should have been given to

me.”“Judge Jacobus said he was allowed mediate my case while he was still my

judge in the case. He said he would give me an order of protection. I wantedthat protection made permanent and perpetual, but that never came! Judge

Jacobus helped my former husband’s attorney trick me. He promised anorder for protection would be issued after the hearing. The order issued andwritten for the judge by the opposing attorney did not reflect what was saidin the hearing.”

A transcript of the Proceedings of the court verifies Jane’s account in respectto the judge acting as mediator:

THE COURT [Judge Jacobus]: So what we’re doing here we’re just trying – I’mbeing a mediator instead of a circuit judge. Like I said, you still have otheroptions. You can have other options. We’re going to do it today. I mean,we’re going to be done with that part.

MS. KALBAC: She’s going to bring up something else.

MS. FAVREAU: Your last order said my option to recover what was reallymine was to bring a tort.

MS. KALBAC [laughing - Ed.]: IF she can and an attorney to represent her. THE COURT: We want to dissolve the divorce, period.

MS. FAVREAU: Can I have the order of protection that I’ve asked for?

MS. KALBAC: You can have it.

THE COURT: Tell me what you want.

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MS. FAVREAU: The one that’s in the file that’s permanent and perpetual,forever, that I put in before.

“Ms. Kalbac” was Melanie M. Kalbac-McMannis, Walter Favreau’s attorneyprior to Henry Martocci. According to Jane, Ms. Kalbac altered what the Judge

Frank Pound had ordered in the divorce case, in reference to the division of marital properties: the Transcript of the Proceedings reads, “Now as to the joint property which consists if the home place down in Melbourne, as to therental property, the three mortgages and notes from Mr. Ingram, that’s all

joint property and it will be partitioned and the Parties will share equally inthe proceeds; which is not a satisfactory method to dispose of it, Iunderstand, but that’s the way it is.” The ordered division was notsatisfactory because a trade between two of the properties would have lefteveryone better off; ultimately Jane would be cheated in that regard.

“When his attorney wrote the judge's orders,” Jane said, “she changed that

and wrote in that my half would go to her client, Mr. Walt Favreau. I neveragreed to that at all. Never; in fact, there was never any settlement done,not even started. There was no hearing about this being changed and nocopy came to my side or to me.

“I discovered the judge was mistaken about mediation. Judges are notsupposed to be a mediator from the bench, for the Florida Supreme Courtsaid they can’t do that. But the judge did it anyway. Here judges seem tomake their own laws from the bench. When I informed the JudicialQualification Commission, they just ignored my letter as they had done in thepast, and sent me a form letter saying they would not be investigatinganything I mentioned. The JQC failed to even address the fact the judge saidhe was going to take off his black robe and be a mediator from the bench.See the transcript and you will see how Judge Jacobus mislead me intothinking he would be a mediator and protect me. If judges are not allowed totake mediate from the bench why did my judge do that? He did harm to mycase that day. He also sent away the court reporter I hired to take notes of what went on in the room. I had to pay her for just showing up but hebanned her from the room. That was wrong but the JQC failed to look at theevidence I sent to them.

“Judge Jacobus denied me reasonable accommodation for my disabilities. Heeven refused to look at or consider the American With Disabilities Act of 1990. I sued Judge Jacobus, but Judge Tonya Rainwater just dismissed thecase without a hearing.”

Since Jane was confronted with many Brevard County judges playing musicalchairs in her cases, I asked her to identify the worst judge of all. She saidthat, to be fair, she could not say which one was the worst, as the judicialculture at the courthouse had rendered them all bad. For example, shementioned Judge Edward M. Jackson’s feeble attempt to maintain an

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Many complaints and inquiries against various attorneys were ignored ordiscipline was deemed unwarranted, so investigations were not opened at allor the investigative files were destroyed along with all records of theexistence of the complaints, pursuant to a Supreme Court policy that allowsits “arm”, The Florida Bar, to conceal an apparent pattern of misbehavior,

and, especially, to protect the practices of powerful attorneys by saying theyhave no history of disciplinary action. Nonetheless, some complaints againstHenry Martocci, who was, after all, notorious throughout Brevard County’slegal community for his atrocious behavior, resulted in mild disciplinaryaction over the years, until the Bar had had enough, and Martocci wasdisbarred even though one investigating lawyer had said he was a goodattorney.

“I came to court expecting fairness, justice, rules to be validated and lawsupheld,” Jane wrote. “I knew the officers of the court took an oath to upholdthe laws, go by the rules of court, and abide by the Constitution; I found that,

even though citizens are put under oath to tell the truth, and the officers of the court already took an oath to tell the truth, the court seems to havesomehow overlooked these officers’ oaths. The attorneys do not seem to beunder oath to tell the truth in court. They can say and do anything to win orconfuse the issues. When I asked The Florida Bar about this, I was told, ‘Yes,it’s a dirty business.’ After being in the court system for over eighteen yearsnow I am persuaded that the problem with the ‘system’ is that the judges donot do the things that should be done to their professional brethren, becausethey too are members of the same Bar. And this affects the poor of the stateof Florida.”

Attorney Charlie Crist, either in his capacity as Governor, could have referred Jane to his Judicial Qualifications Commission instead of “attorneys” she didnot have and could not afford because of the state’s systematicdiscrimination against poor and disabled persons, especially defenselesswomen and children. But she had already gone down that road severaltimes, and she got the usual form letter in response – if only the medievalchurch had taught people how to think and therefore read and write forthemselves instead of inventing form letters to cover their incapacity!

Now the Judicial Qualifications Commission is a purportedly independentagency, stacked with judges and other lawyers, created by the Florida

Constitution solely to investigate alleged misconduct by Florida state judges.It is not a part of the Florida Supreme Court or the state courts and operatesunder rules it establishes for itself. Neither the Supreme Court nor its Chief

Justice has any authority to investigate alleged misconduct by state judgesor to investigate the Judicial Qualifications Commission.

We understand the Legislature’s zeal to create yet another independententity to curb abuses of power, but we rue the fact that its independence has

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rendered it arrogant to such an extent that it can callously ignore a poorelderly lady’s claims that she is being grievously abused by judges and

judicial staff who are not providing her with due process according to thelaws and court rules. Thus the deliberately underfunded Judicial QualificationCommission amounts to mere lip-service to the cause of justice.

For example, on September 17, 2004, Brook S. Kennedy, Executive Directorof the Judicial Qualifications Commission responded to one of Jane’scomplaints as follows: “Your recent correspondence is being returned to youwith this letter. As we have advised on earlier occasions, your concernsrelate to the legal and procedural aspects of court cases. Unfortunately theCommission also lacks the budget or support staff necessary to continuingcorrespondence about matters which are outside its jurisdiction.”

“She did not read what I sent,” stated Jane, “for it was back in the mail thenext day at my mail box. I am sorry I cannot write well but I do try hard. I

tried to explain to her it was misconduct of the judges but they pretend notto understand things.”

No, the unjust conditions of Brevard County’s justice system are nothing newto former Attorney General and now Governor Charlie Chris. On 24November 2008 Florida Today called for investigation into Brevard County:“On Sunday, the editorial board of Florida Today called for Governor Crist tolook into the actions of the Brevard County District Attorney’s office, whichreek of misconduct and corruption. They called for: A state probe ordered byGov. Charlie Crist into possible repeated miscarriages of justice at the StateAttorney’s Office, including in the cases of Dillon and Wilton Dedge,convicted of rape in 1981 but freed in 2004 after DNA evidence proved thePort St. John man’s innocence… And of Juan Ramos, who was tried andsentenced to death for rape and murder in 1983 in Brevard, although nophysical evidence linked him to the crime. Ramos was acquitted in 1987. Theeditors added: ‘Prosecutors’ mishandling of the cases follows an ugly patternof incompetence and impropriety that cries out for investigation.” Florida

Today correctly observes that there is ‘overwhelming justification’ for aprobe. But the evidence goes beyond justification to the creation of animperative: It would be negligent at this point for the Governor to ignore hisduty to the public to make sure that the laws and the Constitution arefaithfully enforced. Today, reasonable people are making the conclusion that

Brevard County systemically engages in corruption and collusion. Wepreviously called for an investigation when Dillon was granted a new trial.Governor Crist ought to step up and call for a thorough investigation of thosepractices that put Dillon and other innocent people behind bars. Justicedemands it.’”

Experienced Attorney Charlie Chris could have referred Edna Jane Favreau toa court administrator, or even written a letter himself recommending that

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the administrator see to it that disabled persons such as Edna Jane Favreauare accommodated. But she had already been down that road: Her daughterElizabeth contacted Mark Van Bever, Court Administrator for the Eighteenth

Judicial Circuit, and he promised he would get back to her – he never did. Jane had been impressed by Mr. Bever’s published article on judicial ethics,

and thought that he might have something done about the fact that she wasbeing abused by judges and lawyers in his courts and denied her civil rightsincluding rights under the ADA. We see that Mr. Bever has also hadpublished in June 2002 an article on accommodating disabled persons,entitled, ‘Implementing the Americans With Disabilities Act.’

“Courts achieve equity,” Mr. Bever wrote, “by providing reasonableaccommodations to disabled people in order to level the playing field.” Hestates that the Act significantly affects the state courts, and that the purposeof his paper is to discuss access to public services. The act provides, he says,that “no qualified individual with a disability shall, by reason of such

disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of theservices, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subject todiscrimination by any such entity.”

He points out that one in five people have disabilities, and that the ratio willincrease as the population enjoys longer lives. He goes on to describe theprovision of wheelchairs, accessible telephones, ramps, counter heights,lapboards for writing, Braille etc, water fountains, disposal bins, diabeticscan’t sit long. He claims that the Eighteenth Circuit “goes the extra mile” inthat regard. Yet, “No matter how diligent a court is in its compliance efforts,a customer may have a grievance. To handle complaints, a court needs a

written grievance procedure.”And, “Courts should deliberately plan to provide for disabled persons thesame access that is available to persons without disabilities. It is ourresponsibility to respond with expert help and humanity. Remember, aproactive approach is preferable to one that is reactive.”

He has suggestions: “Here are a few suggestions to help your court begin asuccessful compliance effort. Take time to plan. Invite all the appropriatecourthouse players together to discuss concerns and uncertainties.Participants should include individuals from court administration, the localBar Association, the state prosecutor’s office, the public defender’s office,the clerk’s office, the law library, and the sheriff’s office.”

His plan does not include receiving the advice of disabled persons outside of the legal system, disabled litigants, expert advocates for disabled people,psychiatrists, psychologists, and the like. But Mr. Bever said the court waslucky to get the advice of a disabled lawyer: “In addition to a survey by courtstaff, the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit was fortunate to receive the assistanceof a local attorney who is disabled and knowledgeable about the ADA. His

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pro bono review of our facilities and services was very beneficial. Theattorney’s expertise and first-hand knowledge of the barriers people withdisabilities encounter provided a valuable perspective.”

Mr. Bever’s concept of disability is apparently limited to obvious physical

disabilities. He does not mention dealing with the various psychologicalsymptoms of disabilities associated with post traumatic stress syndromesuffered by battered women, who have been deemed “crazy” and“nutcases” and “hysterics” in his court; i.e. those psychological disabilities,which often have physical causes, are not “real,” thus the victims, given theinherent power of the court, may with impunity be discriminated against andre-victimized by the court, as was Edna Jane Favreau, who was stripped of her assets, pauperized and thus deprived of counsel, left to representherself, and, ultimately, told that her filings with the court would by order of the court be shredded on receipt as a damn nuisance.

The only mention of a psychological condition, sometimes evident inpersistently battered and therefore terrified women, in the courtadministrator’s report is agoraphobia: “The Eighteenth Circuit has assistedindividuals who suffered from agoraphobia and were afraid to leave theirhomes. Their unique needs were met by sending a court official to theirhomes, where they were duly sworn and allowed to participate in courtproceedings via telephone.”

Such is the physical extent of the “extra mile” paved in 2002 by the BrevardCounty Court Administrator, the court official who failed to respond to Jane’sgrievances as promised, and who did not respond to our request for his sideof the story.

Such is the arrogance of the powerful in the State of Florida, where the mostrespected and trusted lawyers and law firms in the state run roughshod overthe laws, depriving the weak and poor of justice, providing a pittance forlegal aid, while defrauding many wealthy people of hundreds of millions of dollars to boot.

In the final analysis, lawyers are no better than the people they represent, sothere is plenty of blame to spread around, especially in this reign of greed.And there are many conscientious lawyers who do fight for the underdogsand win from time to time. Yes, there are improvements. Nevertheless, it canstill be said by the positivists, that, “Law is what powerful people do.” Andthey still do it to legalize their crimes against humanity.

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Edna Jane Favreau and Charlie Crist