Thompson Won't Fight Disbarment in Florida

Controversial anti-gaming attorney Jack Thompson will not seek to have a motion for a rehearing filed on his behalf with the Supreme Court of Florida. Rather Thompson says that he will seek to have the federal courts intervene on the ruling that would disbar him for life. "I will focus on the federal suit and will prevail," Thompson said. "Piece of cake." In his federal emergency motion to stay the Florida Supreme Court Order, dated Monday, Thompson argues that the disbarment should be postponed until the federal courts can hear his arguments and that disbarring him would prevent him from representing new clients and could damage his career. He also writes that his disbarment is without merit and that he can prove it. Last Thursday we broke the news that the Supreme Court of Florida entered a motion that approved the call to permanently disbar Thompson, effective in thirty days. In the motion the judge wrote that Thompson could only have a motion for rehearing filed by another attorney in good standing.IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT IN AND FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA CASE NO. 08-22603-CIV-JUDGE COOKE/MAGISTRATE BANDSTRA JOHN B. THOMPSON, Plaintiff, v. THE FLORIDA BAR, et alia, Defendants. PLAINTIFF’S EMERGENCY MOTION TO STAY FLORIDA SUPREME COURT ORDER OF SEPTEMBER 25, 2008 COMES NOW PLAINTIFF, on his own behalf, and moves this federal court, with Cerification of Emergency attached hereto, pursuant to the applicable Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, for the following emergency relief on the following grounds, stating: 1. All seventy-seven defendants have been served with the complaint herein; thus, they are all fully on notice as to the nature of this suit, the relief sought, and the basis therefor. 2. On September 25, 2008, the Florida Supreme Court entered an order, a copy of which is attached hereto, permanently disbarring plaintiff Thompson, the respondent therein, effective in thirty days. Thus, the clock is now running on those thirty days. 3. Under this order, Thompson is unable to meet, as he is scheduled to do this Friday, with Richard Gorman, who is an inmate in a state prison for the purpose of being retained by him as his lawyer. Mr. Gorman is sitting in his prison cell solely because of the unethical conduct of Assistant State Attorney Matthew Alex Smith, coupled with the decision of The Florida Bar’s Board of Governors of The Florida Bar to pervert the lawyer disciplinary process by a) acknowledging the prosecutorial misconduct of Mr. Gorman’s prosecutor, and then b) pretending it did not happen. More specifically, the attached “Report of No Probable Cause” is a smoking gun document that proves that the entire Board of Governors of The Florida Bar is involved in a cover-up in order to keep this innocent man in jail, all for the purpose of protecting the corrupt Leon County State Attorney’s Office. This formal Florida Bar document proves that the Board of Governors of The Florida Bar is looking the other way from this prosecutor’s “win at all costs” prosecutorial misconduct. 4. This exhibit hereto is the single most remarkable document Thompson has ever seen in his 31-year legal career. It indicts the entire Bar’s disciplinary process which has been for him a travesty but for Mr. Gorman, because of the obstruction of justice of the Board of Governors, has been a means to keep a man in jail despite prosecutorial misconduct that The Bar itself admits in this document. It is little wonder that these same Governors would then do to Thompson what they have demonstrably done over the past four years. They purport to take away Thompson’s ability to earn a living. By criminal act, this same Bar has conspired to take away this young man’s freedom. 5. Mr. Gorman is not alone as a victim of The Florida Bar Board of Governors’ perversion of the entire lawyer discipline process. Attached hereto is the timely and disturbing editorial this last Saturday in the Palm Beach Post lampooning the “revenge politics” of The Florida Bar’s disciplinary process. The undersigned has been a victim of these same “revenge politics,” and in fact the current Florida Bar President Jay White has been deeply involved in the efforts to pervert that disciplinary process to help his firm’s client, Judge Wennet, just as Mr. White has perverted this same process to harm the undersigned. 6. The presumption must now be that the disciplinary process of The Bar is flawed, that it is being used for purposes that have nothing to do with the ethics of its targets, but have everything to do with punishing The Bar’s perceived enemies and protecting its friends. This is precisely what has happened to the undersigned, as The Bar used its “discipline” to protect two corrupted judges, two porn-to-kids entertainment enterprises, and a Bar Referee who was on the bench by virtue of a forged document. 7. Plaintiff herein thus seeks an immediate stay, on an emergency basis, of the Florida Supreme Court’s September 25 disbarment order because a) he can show a substantial likelihood of success on the merits, b) irreparable harm unless the injunction/stay issues, including public damage to his career and to the rights of others, such as those of Mr. Gorman, c) this harm to Thompson far outweighs any conceivable harm to defendants if the injunction issues, and d) the injunction/stay will not disserve but actually serve the public interest. Thompson, this Friday, must be allowed to meet with and be retained by this other victim of The Florida Bar’s “disciplinary system” so that this innocent, imprisoned man can petition, through Thompson, his trial court to set aside his sentence secured by fraud. 8. Further, there are demonstrable, patent errors on the face of the disbarment order itself which provide the basis for the disbarment. 9. Justice Canady, who has hardly had time to have his new judicial robe fitted, could not have reviewed the entire disciplinary record as to Thompson, yet he has nevertheless put his name to this permanent disbarment order on the very day that he was served by Thompson with the federal civil rights action against him. Justice Canady has thus put his name on a permanent disbarment lawyer in a case about which he knows absolutely nothing. This is not a state Supreme Court interested in doing justice. It is a Supreme Court which is the dog being wagged by The Bar tail that is interested in and pursues, according to the Post, “revenge politics.” The Bar put this disbarment order under the noses of the Justices, and they signed it, completely unaware of its baselessness. Thompson can prove just that. WHEREFORE, plaintiff respectfully seeks an order, on an emergency basis, staying the Florida Supreme Court’s disbarment order until such time as an evidentiary hearing, either before Judge Cooke or Magistrate Bandstra, can be secured as to the granting of the preliminary injunction sought in the complaint. I HEREBY CERTIFY that this is an emergency and that this pleading has been provided to all defendants and/or their counsel by various means, including fax and e-mail, this September 29, 2008. JOHN B. THOMPSON, Plaintiff Attorney, Florida Bar #231665