Thompson v. The Florida Bar

Filing 23

Plaintiff's MOTION to Appoint Mediator and for Status Conference by John B. Thompson. Responses due by 8/9/2007 (Thompson, John)

Thompson v. The Florida Bar

Doc. 23

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA JOHN B. THOMPSON, Plaintiff, v. THE FLORIDA BAR and DAVA J. TUNIS, Defendants. PLAINTIFF'S EXPEDITED MOTION FOR STATUS OR CASE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE AND FOR COURT-ORDERED MEDIATION COMES NOW plaintiff, John B. Thompson, hereinafter Thompson, as an attorney on his own behalf, and moves this court, pursuant to Rule 16, FRCP, as follows: 1. Plaintiff has been seeking a mediation of this dispute between him and The Florida Bar for quite sometime, for well over a year, in fact. 2. There was a "mediation" which was not even close to a mediation within the last month unattended by a Bar representative, because The Bar claimed that the state court judge, acting as the referee, could not order a mediation and thus attendance of a representative for The Bar. No such impediment exists to bar this court from ordering a real mediation. 3. The aforementioned faux "mediation," in fact, was enlivened by The Bar's criminal extortion of Thompson. The Bar demanded that Thompson submit to a forced psych evaluation or face permanent disbarment. That was the "deal." Such a demand violates not only state and federal criminal extortion laws but it also violates Bar Rule 32.5, which provides a specific procedure by which The Bar can secure a temporary suspension of a lawyer it believes is impaired pending an assessment. Case No. 07-21256 (Judge Adalberto Jordan)

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4. The notion that The Bar would demand of an alleged mentally ill lawyer that he agree to an examination while he lacks the mental capacity to agree to anything calls up the ironic premise of Joseph Heller's satirical Catch-22, except that The Bar's update of that fictional work is neither fictional nor funny. Thompson has met with lawyers in the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office regarding The Bar criminal extortion of Thompson with this threat made, in bad faith, in the midst of a "mediation." This is not the first time The Bar has done this. When it first made the effort to pathologize Thompson's faith and activism, The Bar's carrier had to cough up damages. This latest lunacy stunt, by the way, must find its way into the plaintiff's moved-for amended complaint. 5. Somebody with some sense, on behalf of The Bar, needs to attend a real mediation of this entire dispute so as to be able to assess where an out-of-control prosecutor in Orlando is taking us all, including this court. 6. Barry Richard, the accomplished and able record counsel for The Florida Bar herein, has, in the last week, informed undersigned plaintiff that even the new President of The Florida Bar, Miami attorney Frank Angones, knows nothing about this case. 7. Fine. It is high time Bar President Angones did, since the Board of Governors, which he leads, is charged, in our Bar Rules with overseeing the discipline of Florida lawyers. Mr. Angones would be a fabulous choice to sit in a room with Thompson and his own Bar counsel and learn, first-hand, of The Bar's criminal extortion of Thompson, of the fact, not the surmise, that the "designated reviewer" who has assured the "fairness" of all of these proceedings is Bar Governor Ben Kuehne, who has been served with a Department of Justice "target letter" for his alleged criminal acts in laundering Medelling

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cocaine cartel money (Thompson met with Justice Department officials on this, in case The Bar wants to trot out its lunacy ploy again), and of the fact that The Florida Bar Governors need to hear a settlement proposal from Thompson that they have never heard, as Mr. Barry Richards' comment proves. WHEREFORE, plaintiff moves, on an expedited basis, for a status conference to discuss the desirability of mediation, particularly in light of a looming "disciplinary" trial which will cause irreparable harm not just to Thompson but to The Bar as well. Plaintiff so moves while he labors, according to The Bar, under a mental defect that renders him disabled. Possibly the court should assess for itself just how "crazy" the plaintiff is. A status conference would be a nice opportunity for the court to do just that. I HEREBY CERTIFY that a copy hereof has been served upon the defendants, through their counsel, via the court's electronic filing system, this 26th day of July, 2007.

/s/ JOHN B. THOMPSON, Plaintiff Attorney, Florida Bar #231665 1172 South Dixie Hwy., Suite 111 Coral Gables, Florida 33146 Phone: [phone] [e-mail]

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