74 replies to this topic

[HL]

Today, the Supreme Court of the United States of America has permanently disbarred Jack Thompson from practicing as a lawyer, in its year long trial.

http://kotaku.com/50...mpson-disbarred

[hide=for the lazy]
Supreme Court of Florida
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2008
CASE NOS.: SC07-80 and SC07-354
Lower Tribunal No(s).: 2005-70,305(11F),
2005-71,125(11F),
2006-70,570(11F),
2006-70,766(11F),
2006-70,909(11F),
2007-30,805(11F)
THE FLORIDA BAR vs. JOHN BRUCE THOMPSON
___________________________________________________________________
Complainant(s) Respondent(s)
The referee has filed a corrected report recommending that respondent, John Bruce Thompson, be permanently disbarred without leave to apply for readmission to The Florida Bar. Respondent submitted a petition for review of the referee's report. The Clerk did not accept the petition for review for filing. This action was in accord with this Court's opinion dated March 20, 2008, which sanctioned respondent for abusive filings and barred him from filing on his own behalf. The sanction opinion provided, in pertinent part: "the Clerk of this Court is hereby instructed to reject for filing any future pleadings, petitions, motions, documents, or other filings submitted by John Bruce Thompson, unless signed by a member in good standing of The Florida Bar other than himself." Fla. Bar v. Thompson, 979 So. 2d 917, 921 (Fla. 2008). The opinion also noted: "in sanctioning respondent, we are requiring him to retain qualified counsel so that his arguments might be properly presented through the appropriate procedures in the appropriate forum. We do not limit such counsel's ability to challenge the referee's findings and recommendations on review." Id. at 919.
Ignoring this bar on self-submitted filings, respondent has submitted numerous filings in violation of the sanction opinion, including the petition for review of the referee's report. The Clerk properly rejected each of these submissions. Thus, there being no authorized petition for review filed, and the time period to seek review has passed, the Court has treated this as an uncontested case.

The Court has reviewed the 169-page corrected report of the referee filed on July 16, 2008, for sufficiency and has determined that permanent disbarment is merited on this record. (This report is posted on the Court's public website). The report details the extensive misconduct of respondent and his complete lack of remorse.

In her report, the referee states:
Over a very extended period of time involving a number of totally unrelated cases and individuals, [r]espondent has demonstrated a pattern of conduct to strike out harshly, extensively, repeatedly and willfully to simply try to bring as much difficulty, distraction and anguish to those he considers in opposition to his causes. He does not proceed within the guidelines of appropriate professional behavior, but rather uses other means available to intimidate, harass, or bring public disrepute to those whom he perceives oppose him.

Among the extensive findings of fact presented in the report, the Court takes particular note of the following which occurred during the three-year period at issue in five counts in these cases: (1) respondent made false statements of material fact to courts and repeatedly violated a court order; (2) respondent communicated the subject of representation directly with clients of opposing counsel; (3) respondent engaged in prohibited ex parte communications; (4) respondent publicized and sent hundreds of pages of vitriolic and disparaging missives, letters, faxes, and press releases, to the affected individuals; (5) respondent targeted an individual who was not involved with respondent in any way, merely due to "the position [the
individual] holds in state and national politics;" (6) respondent falsely, recklessly, and publicly accused a judge as being amenable to the "fixing" of cases; (7) respondent sent courts inappropriate and offensive sexual materials; (8) respondent falsely and publicly accused various attorneys and their clients of engaging in a conspiracy/enterprise involving "the criminal distribution of sexual materials to minors" and attempted to get prosecuting authorities to charge these attorneys and their clients for racketeering and extortion; (9) respondent harassed the former client of an attorney in an effort to get the client to use its influence to persuade the attorney to withdraw a defamation suit filed by the attorney against respondent; and
(10) respondent retaliated against attorneys who filed Bar complaints against him for his unethical conduct by asserting to their clients, government officials, politicians, the media, female lawyers in their law firm, employees, personal friends, acquaintances, and their wives, that the attorneys were criminal pornographers who objectify women. The Court concludes that the facts, as even more extensively detailed in the referee's report, support the referee's numerous recommendations as to guilt.

The referee cited various cases indicating that disbarment is an appropriate sanction and recommended permanent disbarment because "[r]espondent has repeatedly stated in these proceedings that he will not change his conduct" and she "finds no evidence whatsoever to indicate that [r]espondent is amenable to rehabilitation, or even remotely appreciates the basis upon which a need or purpose for such rehabilitation is warranted." Indeed, as noted by the referee:
Respondent has repeatedly failed to follow the appropriate rules and orders throughout these disciplinary proceedings as evidenced by the granting of the Bar's Motion for Sanctions and the Supreme Court of Florida's orders of February 19, 2008 and March 20, 2008, wherein the Court found that [r]espondent "abused the legal system by submitting numerous, frivolous and inappropriate filings," despite being warned not to do so. In fact, the referee reported that respondent walked out of her courtroom at the final hearing in this matter because she would not allow him to "to turn the [d]isciplinary proceeding into a press conference." Based on the record before it, the Court agrees that respondent is not amenable to rehabilitation. Further, the Court approves the referee's recommendation that permanent disbarment is the appropriate sanction.

The Court approves the corrected referee's report and John Bruce Thompson is permanently disbarred, effective thirty days from the date of this order so that respondent can close out his practice and protect the interests of existing clients. If respondent notifies the Court in writing that he is no longer practicing and does not need the thirty days to protect existing clients, this Court will enter an order making the permanent disbarment effective immediately. Respondent shall accept no new business from the date this order is filed.

Judgment is entered for The Florida Bar, 651 East Jefferson Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2300, for recovery of costs from John Bruce Thompson
in the amount of $43,675.35, for which sum let execution issue.
Case Nos. SC07-80 and SC07-354

Not final until time expires to file motion for rehearing, and if filed, determined. The filing of a motion for rehearing shall not alter the effective date of
this permanent disbarment. Consistent with this Court's sanction order, no motion for rehearing will be considered unless signed by a member in good standing of The Florida Bar other than respondent.

QUINCE, C.J., and WELLS, ANSTEAD, PARIENTE, LEWIS, BELL, and CANADY, JJ., concur.
A True Copy
Test:
cic
Served:
HON. DAVA J. TUNIS, JUDGE
JOHN F. HARKNESS, JR.
KENNETH LAWRENCE MARVIN
SHEILA MARIE TUMA
BARRY S. RICHARD
JOHN BRUCE THOMPSON[/hide]

He has 30 days to close up, then he's done. The end.

No more BIG LAUGHS.

Although he'll still be on Fox News, so there's hope yet!

[Artis Leon Ivey Jr]

to those of you not willing to read legalese, this is what he got disbarred for:

(1) respondent made false statements of material fact to courts and repeatedly violated a court order; (2) respondent communicated the subject of representation directly with clients of opposing counsel; (3) respondent engaged in prohibited ex parte communications; (4) respondent publicized and sent hundreds of pages of vitriolic and disparaging missives, letters, faxes, and press releases, to the affected individuals; (5) respondent targeted an individual who was not involved with respondent in any way, merely due to "the position [the
individual] holds in state and national politics;" (6) respondent falsely, recklessly, and publicly accused a judge as being amenable to the "fixing" of cases; (7) respondent sent courts inappropriate and offensive sexual materials; (8) respondent falsely and publicly accused various attorneys and their clients of engaging in a conspiracy/enterprise involving "the criminal distribution of sexual materials to minors" and attempted to get prosecuting authorities to charge these attorneys and their clients for racketeering and extortion; (9) respondent harassed the former client of an attorney in an effort to get the client to use its influence to persuade the attorney to withdraw a defamation suit filed by the attorney against respondent; and
(10) respondent retaliated against attorneys who filed Bar complaints against him for his unethical conduct by asserting to their clients, government officials, politicians, the media, female lawyers in their law firm, employees, personal friends, acquaintances, and their wives, that the attorneys were criminal pornographers who objectify women. The Court concludes that the facts, as even more extensively detailed in the referee's report, support the referee's numerous recommendations as to guilt.

i love numbers 7 and 10.

[HL]

yes for the people who didn't follow this, he gave the supreme court guys gay porn in his filings.

not even joking

[Artis Leon Ivey Jr]

it was in the form for political cartoons.

SUPREME COURT

ME ~JUSTICE JUST GOT BLINDED HARHARHAR

[Bill Murray]

Maaan. The JT himself..

[Marcus]

I'm surprised there isn't a thread about this on 4chan.

I'm actually sad to see him shut down.  The guy had little to no respect even from the groups he tried to appeal to and it's great having a bumbling idiot as an enemy because you don't have to worry about anyone competent screwing you over.

[Vellfire]

oh no who is going to warn us about counter strike: half life now????



that was the best thing he said because if there really was a counter strike: half life it would probably be the most popular game in the world

[headphonics]

anyone who professionally trolls the shit out of faggot gamers deserves my respect. it's sad to see him go.

man you really take SELFHATING GAMER thing to a new level.  i hate most of them too but maaaaan, do you really respect jack thompson?  like you know he wasnt trolling right??

[Artis Leon Ivey Jr]

also no lawyer wants to be disbarred. whatever thompson's motives (and I doubt it was EXPOSE FAGGIT GAMERS) that's gotta suck.

[HL]

i wouldn't say he trolled gamers, he just legitimately hates them and actually believes games are like the devil or some shit that is ruining society. He's just really stupid and overzealous, he isn't even smart enough to troll gamers. Plus yeah, he get disbarred. He's pretty much a joke now. Well, he was anyways, but now he's more of one!

[HL]

well i mean, the industry is still actually in its infancy, i mean shit since it's revival it's only been going for 25 years, plus the time before the crash! I think a lot of people are still really defensive of it, especially those who know how bad off it is right now. Yeah he annoys a lot of people but there are definitely a lot of people who definitely want to keep the industry locked down even though it's slowly dying as time goes on. Obviously gamer's don't like that because it really is an INFANT industry which means there is going to be a lot of people who are OVERLY defensive of it. I'm sure if the greatness of Mozart or Beethoven (not the greatest example, music itself wasn't infancy back then, but back when it REALLY took off, which gaming has started to, even if its performing poorly.) had a bunch of people trying to lock it down or really slow it down or hinder it's growth with a lot of bad press, etc etc etc, there would be a lot of musicians back then doing the same thing, same for film, and so on.

i mean i obviously don't condone death threats or anything, but gaming is really really censored as it is, both in the US and world wide, and is really just this new thing that is starting to hit the average consumer as a popular past time and you have a bunch of idiots badmouthing it and getting legit bad press. granted fox news is pretty shit, but well, the average american watches it and its the average american that is pretty much getting into gaming right now. like i said i don't condone the level of threats he received, but i definitely don't see it as ODD or even FUNNY or even respectful in any way to basically try everything in your power to bring a rather new industry down with a bunch of lies (this wouldn't be so bad if he didn't get so much PRESS that the average (DUMB) american parenting family will believe). of course gamer's get pissed! they want their shit to keep going. a lot of people still get angry at the ESRB etc, and Australian laws, and tons of other shit related to gaming. i still find it kind of sad that AO games are not allowed in America at all. no store will sell them because they basically get told if they sell one they won't get support. like what the fuck is that. like damn you can't go buy a porn movie in a lot of general stores (Wal-Mart, etc) either, but there's at least places for these where these make a lot of money. no one is interested in this for game's it seems and even the companies back away because stuff like the ESRB and stores have them so strangled on the matter. it kinda sucks. i wouldn't buy one but it still sucks to have such a level of censoring in a videogame of all things, to the point that you can't buy it anywhere. so yea, if people can still be angry over the ESRB, them being angry at a guy trying to bring them down even further isn't too surprising either. we're all a bit defensive of stuff we really truly like and want to succeed. or at least i'd hope we are.

[ATARI]

thompson.... keepin it real

[Marcus]

I dont respect him as a person since hes probably a dick irl but I respect his ability at pissing off millions of anime loving neckbeards over stupid shit that nobody in the real world cares about.

Although Thompson himself was hated by most of his own peers, he was one of the driving forces behind getting Take 2 to redistribute San Andreas (which probably influenced Zenimax to redistribute Oblivion once they found out it contained nipples) costing the company millions of dollars.

If it weren't for successful games like BioShock and Grand Theft Auto, Take 2 would have probably been boughten out by EA or even worse taken over.

[tuxedo marx]

jack thompson has been banned from gaming world

[Boulvae]

This inspires me to open an Adult Only shop and take in Adult Only games ( PLUS OTHER GAMES OF COURSE) from Indie people and distribute it. Oh sure I won't get support but think of all the press!!!

Of course i'll probably have to deal with hell when it comes to the Government who will try and stomp me out at every turn... bring it on CANADA!!!

[baseball19225]

finally.......i can game free. "let my people go" -gamer bible

[headphonics]

I dont respect him as a person since hes probably a dick irl but I respect his ability at pissing off millions of anime loving neckbeards over stupid shit that nobody in the real world cares about.

uhhh i care about it a lot and i think it is a little ridiculous that you would dismiss shit as childish/unimportant just because it has to do with videogames on some level.  like do you not see how this is just a branch of a much larger problem having to do with idiocy in the media (do you remember the coverage that mass effect nudity bullshit got?)/censorship/religious zealotry/a bunch of other shit that people should probably care about?  jack thompson all by himself isn't that big a deal because a lot of people don't take him seriously, but ENOUGH people do that he's really pretty troubling.  yes it has to do with stupid videogames but it ties into so much other stuff and it is pretty short-sighted to write this off as insignificant, because these are the very same people who spend their time on a lot of other causes, and have a huge impact on things that are actually important.  so yeah i think the videogames vs jack thompson thing is important, if only because it connects to a much larger ideological struggle that has quite a lot of significance in the "real world".

[Boulvae]

Thats right, heack it's like the struggle with movies when they first came about. Not viewed as art or expression and just an industry where it was watered down to some muddled sub-par levels, it's pretty much the same thing different arguments for Video Games. But I will say that the industry may be in it's infant stages but it sure isn't forgiving.

[headphonics]

*takes off hat and holds to chest, gazes at flag*

[headphonics]

i mean, those groups who didn't get HEAVY METAL taken off the shelves are still linked pretty closely to the same people that get a lot of other stuff done and are relatively influential.  i don't mean like SHAPDOW ORGANIZATION....... but yeah like just because they didnt successfully demonize pokemon doesnt mean they don't do a lot of other garbage.  a fair amount of shit is still done or not done or just changed to appease these people.  i don't go on crusades against jack thompson, but i take anyone who gets air time about this stuff at least vaguely seriously, because regular old idiots listen to people like him without even blinking, and that has an effect on public perception which ultimately can have a huge bearing on things.  that's kind of a big stretch it seems like but i'm basically just saying this stuff can be pretty important in the grand scheme of things even if it doesnt seem like it, i think, or even if it's spearheaded by someone who's clearly an idiot