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September 2, 2010 |
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| March 21, 2008 |
By: Alana Roberts |
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mbattled Coral Gables attorney Jack Thompson was sanctioned Thursday by the Florida Supreme Court, which won’t accept any more filings from him without the signature of another Florida Bar member.
Thompson, who is fighting potentially career ending Bar disciplinary charges, could face contempt of court proceedings or other sanctions if he disobeys the order, the court warned. The crusader against pornography and violent video games filed numerous documents with the court while actively fighting the Bar complaint.
“We do not limit such counsel’s ability to challenge the referee’s findings and recommendations on review,” the court said in its order. “What we cannot tolerate, however, is Thompson’s continued inability to maintain a minimum standard of decorum and respect for the judicial system to which all litigants, and especially attorneys, must adhere.”
He denied his filings have interfered with other people’s legal access. He said he’ll refrain from filing anything further with the Florida Supreme Court but added he may file a motion for rehearing, which the order allows.
“I obey court orders,” Thompson said. “I’m going to beat them in the federal court and not in their kangaroo court.”
He later filed a motion seeking oral arguments on the high court’s order.
Thompson filed a federal suit March 4, accusing The Florida Bar of illegally promoting a political agenda favoring gay rights and the distribution of obscene and sexually explicit materials.
The Supreme Court warned Thompson twice last year to stop filing frivolous motions with the court in his disciplinary case and issued a show cause order Feb. 19 to explain why he shouldn’t be sanctioned.
Thompson has said he has the right to file whatever he wants.
In the February order the court described one of Thompson’s filings in detail. He dubbed it a “children’s picture book for adults,” interspersing images with text in his motion due to “the court’s inability to comprehend” his arguments.
Images included “swastikas, kangaroos in court, a reproduced dollar bill, cartoon squirrels, Paul Simon, Paul Newman, Ray Charles, a handprint with the word ‘slap’ written under it, Bar Governor Benedict P. Kuehne, a baby, Ed Bradley, Jack Nicholson, Justice Clarence Thomas, Julius Caesar, monkeys, a house of cards,” the order said.
Since then, Thompson filed 28 documents with the court. The court dismissed Thompson’s filings as “rambling, argumentative and contemptuous” and concluded his “frivolous and abusive filings must immediately come to an end.”
The Florida Bar filed two complaints against Thompson early last year based on the allegations of several judges and other lawyers who say he sent letters, e-mails, faxes, news releases and court filings peppered with misstatements and falsehoods about them in violation of the Florida Bar’s rules of professional conduct. One referred to his actions as “emotional stalking.”
Thompson alleges the Bar is conspiring with others to have him permanently disbarred and that he has a First Amendment right to criticize judges and lawyers.
Thompson wrote U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey after the show cause order was issued, saying it was a criminal and retaliatory act imposed while he was seeking relief from the court.
The state’s high court pointed to previous decisions in Florida and by the U.S. Supreme Court allowing sanctions against “abusive litigants.”
The Florida justices also noted Thompson’s access to the court has been limited but not denied.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Dava Tunis heard the disciplinary proceeding against Thompson and is scheduled to submit a report to the high court by April 21.
The Supreme Court issued another order Thursday against convicted killer Julio Mora, a state prison inmate who risks disciplinary action from the state Corrections Department if he submits any more “frivolous and abusive filings.”
Before his death sentence was commuted, Mora was the oldest death row inmate in Florida. He was convicted of killing pregnant attorney Karen Starr Marx and Moro’s former boss, Clarence Rudolph, during a 1994 deposition.
Alana Roberts can be reached at aroberts@alm.com or at (305) 347-6648.
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