My Kind of Federal Judge!

Sure we have Scott Rothstein and his lovely Tom James clothier Romina Sifuentes, but Louisiana has ED LA judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr.:

A federal judge from Louisiana who had run up big gambling debts routinely solicited money and gifts from lawyers with cases before his court, Congressional investigators said Tuesday as the House opened impeachment hearings in the judge’s case.

The judge, G. Thomas Porteous Jr. of Federal District Court, had more than $150,000 in credit card debt by 2000, mostly for cash advances spent in casinos, investigators said. Judge Porteous’s requests for cash became so frequent that one New Orleans lawyer said he started trying to dodge the judge.

“He began to use excuses that he needed it for tuition, he needed it for living expenses,” the lawyer, Robert Creely, told a House Judiciary Committee task force. “I would avoid him until I couldn’t avoid him anymore.”

Mr. Creely said he and his law partner, Jacob Amato, gave Judge Porteous an estimated $20,000 over about 10 years starting in the 1980s, usually in cash. That includes $2,000 stuffed in an envelope just before the judge decided a major civil case that earned their firm $500,000 to $1 million.

Can you imagine?

I love this comment by the judge's attorney:

The judge’s lawyer, Richard Westling, acknowledged that some of his client’s decisions “in the light of day, looking backward, might have been handled differently.”

“I think what you’ll find is that there has never been an argument that what happened in Judge Porteous’ courtroom was anything but fair,” Mr. Westling said.

In other words -- corrupt, but fair.

The Judge has an interesting argument on immunized testimony you can read about here.

Ok, let's get back to Romina, whose Facebook page is (currently) here.

You know, I buy suits from Tom James on occasion, yet my sales guy looks nothing like Romina.

Then again, my suits don't look anything like what Scott used to wear either.