Bruce Jenner interview (mini rant)

[Calligraphette_Coe]

Instead, I grew up with pieces in the newspapers like this one, misgendering and all:

HIV-positive transsexual loses appeal of judge's order to leave hometown

forever

November 16, 1998

By Laurie Asseo, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A transsexual who says a Pennsylvania judge banished him from

his hometown for life after he tested positive for the AIDS virus lost a

Supreme Court appeal today.

The justices, without comment, turned down Raul Valentin's argument that he

should be allowed to pursue a federal civil rights lawsuit against the judge.

Lower courts said the judge enjoys total legal immunity.

Valentin was arrested in Lebanon, Pa., in 1987 after an altercation at a local

swimming pool. A transsexual who had been taking injections to enhance his

breast size, Valentin was wearing a bikini at the time.

A local magistrate sentenced him to 30 days in jail for disorderly conduct.

While in jail, he was tested and found to have the human immunodeficiency virus

that causes AIDS.

Valentin said he then was taken before Court of Common Pleas Judge G. Thomas

Gates, who ordered him to leave town and never come back.

According to Valentin, the judge said that if he ever returned, Gates would

find other charges to bring against him and would see that he was sent to state

prison.

Valentin said police took him to the bus station and gave him a one-way ticket

to New York City. He remained there and now lives in a hospice on Staten

Island.

Valentin filed a civil rights lawsuit against Gates in 1997, but a federal

judge in Pennsylvania threw it out. Judges have absolute immunity from being

sued over judicial acts they take in matters over which they have jurisdiction,

the judge ruled.

The state judge's "general jurisdiction over criminal matters'' was enough to

give him immunity, U.S. District Judge William Caldwell said.

Because Valentin "complains about being sentenced, he must have dealt with the

judge in his judicial capacity,'' Caldwell added.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling.

In the appeal acted on today, Valentin's lawyer said Gates lacked the authority

to act because he was not presiding over any case involving Valentin. The 3rd

Circuit court "has set a new standard for judicial immunity,'' his lawyer

argued.

The case is Valentin vs. Gates, 98-526.

I know this is off topic for Jenner, but I'm really confused about that case! 1) A judge can ban someone from their hometown forever for a disorderly conduct charge? Or was the eviction based on "you have HIV, so we want you out of town," which raises a different series of legal issues? 2) A judge can threaten to throw someone in prison for returning to said town? They are not claiming, for instance, that this defendant has an outstanding arrant against them and so they have the right to take the defendant into custody upon return, they are literally making returning to a town a crime in its own right. O.o

I understand judicial immunity, and I can see why a suit against the judge personally would fail, but what the judge here did looks on its face to be an overstepping of his authority in sentencing, thus forming the basis for an appeal on those grounds.

I'm a lawyer. I have never once heard of a case of a judge banning someone from their hometown (let alone permanently), for ANY conviction, including the most heinous of crimes. Even the sex offender cases get really dicey in terms of what restrictions can legally be placed on where they may live.

I'm very confused.

You'd be amazed at the skeletons clanking around in the judicial closet in this area of the country. I'm sure you know the two definitions of the term "Philadelphia Lawyer"? This area's shenanigans are what gave the term its second, negative connotation.

Recently, a friend of mine had to appear in court, and told me that a local judge openly threatened a female defendant with a contempt citation for having the unmitigated gall to not be wearing a bra in his courtroom.

This is the what it was like growing up being different in a place that has zero tolerance for difference. Things like this would never come out of an interview on tee vee. How cops and judges were (and in some cases, still are) a law unto themselves when it comes to LGBT people, and how the media regularly looked the other way.

[dash]

Recently, a friend of mine had to appear in court, and told me that a local judge openly threatened a female defendant with a contempt citation for having the unmitigated gall to not be wearing a bra in his courtroom.

/blink/

Wow. That is so messed up. :(

Philadelphia lawyers (and judges) indeed. :(