► Cleveland Plain Dealer – 07/21/02 – Columbus man sits in judgment of state’s judges Print E-mail

Cleveland Plain Dealer – July 21, 2002 – Columbus man sits in judgment of state’s judges

T.C. Brown
Plain Dealer Columbus Bureau
 
David Palmer’s latest attempt to embarrass the Ohio Supreme Court fell flat last week when he dropped 24 felony theft-in-office complaints against four justices. But the self-appointed judicial watchdog won’t slink away.
 
He’s still determined to prove that justices misused their state gasoline credit cards, and he plans to come the records once again. That’s his job, as he sees it.
 
Palmer, who once led a quiet life running an Asian grocery and restaurant in Toledo, has caught the eyes of judges across the state by filing nearly 90 criminal complaints since last year.
 
Some judges won’t talk about him, and others are jumpy. After Palmer questioned the Surpeme Court’s use of Federal Express, the court issued a pre-emptive news release denying impropriety and advising the media to call fo an explanation.
 
None of Palmer’s complaints have gone beyond a preliminary hearing, but a dozen retired visiting judges have returned more than $8,000 that they overbilled.
 
Palmer is basically a one-man operation in Columbus known as the Committee to Expose Dishonest and Incompetent Attorneys and Judges.
 
His dogged and sometimes irreverent pursuit of judges has been recounted in statewide media, the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and newspapers in California and West Virginia.
 
At one point, the self-styled “watchdog” topped his letterhead with twin snarling Dobermans. A prolific letter writer, he has been known to notify judges of their promotion from “ethical dwarf” to “ethical elf” for their supposed shenanigans, usually involving what he sees as overbilling fro travel.
 
He even applied for, but did not get, a job with the office in the Ohio Surpeme Court that disciplines lawyers and judges.
 
“The most important thing is I want the system changed,” said Palmer, who would like to see the retired visiting judge program eliminated. “I want to make these people just as accountable as you would a legislator, mayor or policeman.”
 
Palmer’s latest mission is based on his suspicion that Chief Justice Thomas Moyer and Justices Andy Douglas, Paul Pfeifer and Francis Sweeney might have cheated when using their state gasoline credit cards, charges the judges deny. His criminal complaints said that billing records showed the judges put more gas in their vehicles than the tanks can hold.
 
But the justices and their lawyer, Mike Close, say that Palmer, 58, is waging a vendetta against the state’s judicial system and that his investigative methods are sloppy.
 
Palmer ignored the justices’ receipts [never provided to Palmer] showing how much gasoline was put in each car. He used what turned out to be oil company estimates. Based on that, Palmer withdrew the complaints to re-examine the records.
 
The justices are outraged
 
“I just wish he would have taken more care in interpreting those materials before he set about destroying reputations that we have spent a lifetime building,” Douglas said.
 
Palmer is undeterred. His obsession with the judicial system took root in January 1987 in the wake of a traffic accident that seriously injured his wife.
 
Nationwide Insurance offered a $1.4 million settlement. But soon Palmer was in court battling his attorneys, who laid claim to a large chunk of the money. He lost more than $700,000 [actually over $1,050,000] in legal judgments [for attorney fees on the settlement to pay future medical bills].
 
Since then, Palmer has pursued his own brand of justice, relying on court reporter training he received in the Army 30 years ago. But his methods have raised more than a few eyebrows. Targeted enemies, which have included the former chief operating officer of Nationwide and several attorneys and judges, have found their pictures on “wanted” posters in their communities.
 
Retired Judge Richard McQuade, who presided in three judgments against Palmer and his wife [awarded $780,000 to same attorneys; allowing moneys paid by Nationwide for future medical bills to be collected], found his likeness pasted on thousands of fliers that accused him, among other things, of corruption, dishonesty, wife-beating and drunkenness on the bench [all charges proven to be true]. Palmer said he heard about that activity from lawyers. McQuade denied the allegations.
 
“I discovered the best way to get someone’s attention is to embarrass them with the truth,” Palmer said.
 
Palmer once wrote to Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, calling him a “scumbag” and a “piece of garbage,” a tone that generated an alert to the police. [police actually laughed about the matter]
 
Palmer, who suffers from arthritis and is supported by disability pay, works out of a cramped basement office crammed with law books and public records on every judge in the state – about 100,000 pages in all. About half of those have come from the Ohio Supreme Court, costing taxpayers more than $35,000 in employee time, Chief Justice Thomas Moyer said.
 
“The problem with him is he is very anxious to accuse people of doing wrong things,” Chief Justice Thomas Moyer said.
 
“The watchdog title he gives himself is an overstatement. He is trying to wear us down and to embarrass us, bet we simply will not be intimidated,” Chief Justice Thomas Moyer said.
 
Palmer admits he is angry about the system’s treatment of him and his wife. But he shakes off accusations of being on a mission of vengeance.
 
“Nobody would do what I am doing without motivation,” Palmer said. “I am angry because of what is going on. I am not going away.”
 

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