Yours truly filed a motion for contempt against Hinds County yesterday after the county failed to turn over a copy of the Motorola settlement agreement. I filed a public records lawsuit against Hinds County after Motorola sought to seal the agreement. Judge Larry Buffington ruled in my favor and ordered the county on June 4 to turn over the agreement.
The county still has not provided a copy of the settlement agreement. No appeal or motions to reconsider were filed by Hinds County or Motorola. The docket is clear since Judge Buffington entered his order. I also learned the county does not have a copy of the agreement. Attorney Precious Martin has the only copy on the county side of things.
Mr. Martin apparently thinks he is above the law, or since this is Hinds County, he creates the law. Unfortunately for Mr. Martin, there is a world beyond Hinds County and this website is not afraid to hold him accountable. If that means throwing Mr. Martin in jail, oh well, won't bother me one bit.
This affair started when Hinds County sued Motorola over the use of the radio towers. Supervisor Robert Graham got the Board of Supervisors to hire Nathan Hargrove and Stacy Stowers to "audit" the radio system. They "found" that Ridgeland and Madison were "bootlegging" off of the system. Nothing of the sort took place, as Captain John Wilson of the HCSO and project manager for the EOC negotiated with Motorola for several governments so they could all use the same system. Law enforcement experienced problems for years when they had to cross county lines and couldn't use their radios. Ridgeland and Madison had full approval from the EOC to use the system.
However, never let the facts get in the way of a good lawsuit. The county used this as an excuse to sue Motorola. They found some expert who said Hinds County was going to lose over $10 million thanks to the bootlegging. The county didn't sue Madison or Ridgeland. Interesting because if they were the thieves, then they should have been sued, right? They also would have fought back in court, something Hinds County probably did not want to see take place.
The Supervisors voted to allow Precious Martin (his wife was the board attorney but she had no vote nor could she select Mr. Martin) to sue Motorola on a contingency fee contract. Mr. Martin pursued the suit and settled the lawsuit after it went to trial.
The fact it went to trial is crucial, as it increased Mr. Martin's fee. The board authorized a standard contingency fee contract of 25-40-50. Now the fun starts. The contract states Mr. Martin was to submit all settlement funds from Motorola to the county and then place a lien on the funds for his compensation. What instead took place was Mr. Martin kept the money for himself and then submitted only to the county its share of the settlement. Thus no one ever truly knew what Mr. Martin ever made from the lawsuit. The county ledger shows it received $1.5 million from the settlement.
This correspondent thinks you have the right to know what your employees make and make no mistake, Mr. Martin is your employee if you live in Hinds County. Motorola filed a petition to seal the settlement agreement after I filed a public records request for the agreement. That is their right to do so under the law and I do not begrudge them their rights. However, the law also allows me to challenge the sealing, which I did.
I filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit and request to deny the petition to seal in May 2011. The case was assigned to Chancellor Dewayne Thomas. The Chancellor was still a lawyer on a case he worked before he came judge- the Microsoft case. The fees were not yet awarded and it was Judge Patricia Wise who was awarding the fees- Mr. Martin's mother-in-law. Mr. Martin was also a lawyer on the case and awaiting the fees as well. Judge Thomas refused to grant a hearing, despite the fact the law states he has to provide the first available date on the docket for a public records lawsuit. Motions to schedule were filed, no luck. We finally moved to recuse after six months and the case wound up in Judge Buffington's lap.
Motorola never opposed my motion to intervene nor did it appear in court the day the case was argued. It informed the court it would stand on its petition. The only opposition came from Precious Martin. Mr. Martin filed objections to my motion to intervene. He filed frivolous responses. He claimed in court that if I got these records "anyone could get them." Yes, Mr. Martin, that is the purpose of a public records statute. See, these records belong to the people. The people have a right to know what you made representing them. If you are big enough to make big money, then you are big enough to take any criticism or scrutiny that comes with such actions. In other words, it comes with the turf. Unfortunately for the taxpayers of Hinds County, Mr. Martin thinks you have no right to know what he makes representing you or what he does for you in your name. Unfortunately for Mr. Martin, not everyone is as ethical as he is.
Judge Buffington ruled in my favor and ordered Hinds County to turn over the entire settlement agreement. I have asked for all possible remedies, including incarceration, as well as attorney's fees and court costs. Even the $150 filing fee. ;-) Attorney Curt Crowley filed the suit for me. Stay tuned.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Contempt!
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26 comments:
If this doesn't receive major media coverage it is only because they are jealous of some actual reporting. The Clarion Ledger and all three local networks should be howling about this.
Gotten no help from the media whatsoever. Same for MPA. They can't be bothered. Well, they won't let me join so I'm not surprised. Fossils.
Thanks for the hard work on this. These efforts are why I donate.
"Attorney Precious Martin has the only copy on the county side of things."
Just a thought, KF. Motorola also has a copy of all docs. If Motorola is given a copy of the order from the Judge, wouldn't they turn over a copy? Its something I would definitely try.
Clarification: Mr. Martin is the County's agent by law as retained outside counsel. He is not an employee of the County. I don't believe that this makes any difference in the outcome of what you're doing, KF, which I support, but it's worth mentioning.
employee agent representative Great Khabuki, whatever. The sumbitch works for us.
There is not a law requiring them to do so and frankly, the county should obey the law.
Good luck collecting. Jerk owes me $1500.00.
Am I incorrect, or did I read that the judge 'ordered the county' to turn over a copy? If that's true and the county does not have a copy, what is there to compel "The Precious One" to turn a copy over? Or Motorola for that matter?
Excellent pursuit..... please keep it up and force transparency
concerning county affairs that are
public's interest.
The county's attorney holds the documents on the client's behalf. if the county is ordered to produce, that is binding on its counsel.
Or, at least it is in the real world.
While they've been flapping their gums in Fondren all these years about open records and transparency, talk and a tiresome self-promotion without results is all they've ever delivered.
Jackson Jambalaya is where the rubber truly meets the road.
Anyone who hires Crowley as a lawyer really has no room to criticize any other lawyer.
Curt did a damn good job on this case. Did what he was supposed to do and won.
Anyone named "Precious" has got more problems than just a lawsuit. Gender confusion comes to mind.
KF, I understand the Judge's order would not be compelling for Motorola but here's my thinking:
Dear Motorola, Judge said I can be given a copy of settlement/unsealed. I'm requesting a copy of the settlement. Motorola can either say 1) ok, here you go or 2) we don't have to, go away!
If they choose 1), great, you've got a correct copy of the agreement. If they choose 2), then we, as consumers, would sure want to know why...
And you're correct, the county should obey the law.
12:43, get over yourself. KF hired atty, he did his job. And tell your husband that Judge Buffington said to turn over the documents.
If he did his job then why haven't you received your "precious" document? (Pun intended)I
To Kingfish and Curt Crowley...thanks for being our pit bulls. The other "news" media hardly rates as high as a skinny poodle with the flu.
I'd make some lame comment about this being precious but what's the point?
Who is this financial advisor? Are there any unused teats?
Hinds Supervisors plan to scrutinize all county contracts
?"In order to get some funds, we're gonna need to go through the fiscal year without any problems, we're really gonna have to renegotiate some contracts and reduce some of them as recommended by our financial advisor," he says.
No specific contracts were named during the meeting, but we have investigated in the past about contracts that seem excessive. A startup company called Airwave, LLC earns about $730,000 per year for upkeep of the county's radio system.
If the matters these clowns (BOS)deal with weren't serious and their decisions so devastating to Hinds Co., and the Jackson, area they would be comical. What legitimate business would want to transact business with the dumbasses? Everything they enter into is unilateral, and subject to change at their whim. Where was the financial advice in the past?
If the county attorney is incarcerated and placed among the general population, what are the odds Bubba and Octavion will make fun of his name and order him to pull his britches down? Then what?
The county has a better deal after this suit. The relationships of the Attorney Martin are suspect to a proper case. I appreciate the transparency on this website and your Kings taking up the matter. The Hinds County taxpayer is a winner like Precious though. Communications cost big money and the users should pay for their use.
Nice try. Larry Fisher told me over and over it didn't cost the county anything.
Matter of fact, here is what DID happen after this crap went down. Since Hinds pulled this little stunt, the other jurisdictions turned off their towers to Hinds County. SO two years ago there was a firefight in Utica involving two deputies. They couldn't call for backup as their radios were out of range of the towers. There is a tape of the incident.
Before Motorola suit, they would have been able to call for help. After Motorola, they were on their own. Thankfully they were not harmed.
Matter of fact, when they decided to jump to the MSWIN system and leave Hinds, George Smith and Nathan Hargrove showed up at the Wireless commission to prevent them from leaving. So much for stealing.
When you go to the Wireless Commission website and try to get their press releases you get this message:
Oops! Google Chrome could not connect to www.governorbarbour.com
Strange. Hinds Sheriff's Dept is currently using a stove pipe system for communications?
This is paydirt. This contract was so expensive. I hope these jokers were involved with the Stokes Klan and they will all be indicted. None of them can spell indicted 3 times in a row but they can count kickback!
The Governor can order Hinds County to do the communications for the neighboring jurisdictions. Then order the City of Jackson to provide the water and sewer for the neighbors. When the Capitol City goes bust, they can go hat in hand to the State and the Feds for money. Then the suburbs can control the city from their safe perch on the Ridge.
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