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The Other Paper - Columbus, Ohio By Molly Willow - Sept. 26, 2002
Watchdog goes Hollywood
Tom Moyer may want to send a sympathy card and fruit basket to Ronald George, one chief justice to another, warning him what's coming his way this Thanksgiving.
That's around the time David Palmer, the self-anointed judicial watchdog who has been yapping at the heels of Ohio's top court for years, plans to leave Columbus for California. But annoying the California courts will only be one of Palmer's new pastimes. The 58-year old grandfather is also hoping to break into show business.
Palmer has two daughters in California. One lives in Sacramento, the other in Los Angeles.
The California Supreme Court is based in San Francisco but has two branch offices. One is in Sacramento, the other in Los Angeles.
What's a watchdog to do? A little bit of everything it seems.
This is one man who isn't content just to be called "an angry man" with a "vendetta" by the chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court.
With the help of his L.A.-based producer-director daughter, he's hoping to be called a lot more than that, preferably on his own radio show. "I've submitted some stuff," Palmer said.
"I'd be a sounding board, if you will," Palmer said, "with a little comedic relief."
Yes, that's right. David Palmer fancies himself a funnyman.
He's got a bit about a lawyer in Ohio who was reprimanded for having sex with a female client in his office. "In mitigation he said he wasn't billing her," Palmer riffed.
And those two overweight kids who are suing McDonald's for their condition? Don't even get started. "Good. We'll put scales in there now that say: 'Fatty, fatty, fatty alert! And little signs come out."
Trust him, this stuff kills with the other judicial watchdogs.
"I can come up with that stuff, one-liners, all day," Palmer said.
And when he's not busy working on his routine, he'll still be keeping an eye on judges and lawyers--in California and Ohio.
"I don't have to be here to do what I'm doing, no more than I have to be in California or New Jersey or Florida or Texas, with the Internet and the mail and everything," Palmer said.
Though it's clear his head is already in Hollywood, Palmer promised he won't forget about his frequent targets in the Ohio courts.
"They'll hear from me," Palmer said. "They won't maybe see me in person--I know that might be depressing to them. I'm more than happy to send them updated photos."
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