Former Judge Convicted of Five Felonies Related to Painkillers and Sex Scheme, Facing Three Years in Prison For Each
Former Knoxville County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner was found guilty of five felony charges related to purchasing prescription drugs from a mistress whom he helped get out of various legal troubles, including a failed urine test. Federal prosecutors took Baumgartner’s deeds very seriously. There is a war on drugs going on after all, you can’t have a federal judge purchasing “controlled” substances. Only undercover cops can do that, sometimes while shaking down drug dealers. From local TV station WVLT:
"The facts of this case were highly publicized and clearly tarnished the image of the criminal justice system in the eyes of the public," U.S. Attorney William C. Killian said in a statement after the verdict. "This conviction demonstrates that those in public office who violate the law and abuse the public trust will be held accountable for their actions."
So how long did the judge get for flouting the laws he sent other people to prison for? Back to WVLT:
Baumgartner faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for each count when he is sentenced March 27, but sentencing guidelines usually set lighter punishment for first-time offenders.
That came immediately after the very serious U.S. attorney brought up the very serious idea of scapegoating a bad apple to improve the image of a rotten fruit. The ease with which Baumgartner was able to purchase prescription drugs had little to do with his being a judge, and everything to do with how easy it is to buy all kinds of drugs. There’s a lot of money spent enforcing drug laws, so those doing the spending to enforce them have to keep the appearance, against all interpretations of reality, of succeeding. More drug violence in Mexico? Drug war’s working. More people in prison? Drug war’s working. Apparently, what the system can’t abide is judges getting high.
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I don't care if i am racist.
That man looks like a chimp.
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Why do you hate white people, Corning?
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One word:
Mayonnaise.
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More gorilla than chimp.
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At least he's not an orangutan.
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May Zaius forgive you.
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Alt-text: I'm thinking I should take my stinking paws off of me.
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I gotta kind of decrepit Dafoe feeling.
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Why? Are you eating enough?
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Not me personally. He reminds me of Willem Dafoe, if he were, well, damaged somehow.
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Very damaged. Like, fell out of a 2nd story window damaged.
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I defer to your assessment, since you have a subscription to the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
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He still looks prettier than Maggie Gyllenhall.
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On the fence about this...
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Holy mother of... he is the bringer of death!
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He looks like Stephen King...after getting hit by the car.
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Which one is Maggie Gyllenhall?
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If you knew about the case he was judging when this affair popped up, your Leftist opponents might indeed call you racist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.....her_Newsom
A White couple was carjacked, kidnapped, robbed, raped (the male sodomized with an object) and arguably tortured, allegedly by a group of five Black people (Vanessa Coleman, Eric Dewayne Boyd, Letalvis D. Cobbins, Lemaricus Davidson and George Thomas).
A jury found those accused in State court guilty, but "chimpy" Baumgartner was the presiding judge and when this drug and sex misconduct was revealed, the convictions were kicked.
In additional antics, one judge Blackwood decided to be the retrial judge and was recently removed.
I am not sure if this was one of the events Dr. Sowell was talking about in his article entitled Are Race Riots News? but it fits right in.
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He should hire Rush Limbaugh's lawyer.
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I really liked this story, especially the bit about the legless MADD lady being pleased with what happened in the courtroom.
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"Judge Richard Baumgartner was found guilty of five felony charges related to purchasing prescription drugs [...] Baumgartner faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for each count when he is sentenced"
Fifteen years. Hmmm. Sandusky (the other one) faces 10 years to life for weed?
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Sandusky is little people.
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Federal prosecutors took Baumgartner’s deeds very seriously.
I'm guessing TN judge - was he elected to that?
You do have to admit it is nice to know how much the DoJ cares.
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What's it called when you abuse your power to do good things? Oh, right: abuse of power. Fuck.
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...flouting the laws he sent other people to prison for?
And that's why none of them deserve sympathy.
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Too bad he'll only go to special "Judge prison" with the token bad cops and bureaucrats.
Maybe one of his fellow inmates will shank him.
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Covered all week.
It was an accidental discharge. We should withhold judgement until the facts are in. Procedures were followed. Tasers discharged.
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Covered all week.
Oh OK, I'm late to the party...
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troll-o-meter: .02
btw, i said the exact opposite,. i said he should be fired and criminally charged, but don't let facts interfere with your trolling
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Were you taking into consideration the TOTALITY OF CIRCUMSTANCES and fact patterns?
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You may have said that, but you know as well as any of us that it will not happen.
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lol, sounds like your average judge to me.
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Dr. Feelgood or: how I learned to stop worrying and love Anonbot
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But, but...
Your precious bodily fluids! -
You're going to have to answer to the Coca-Cola company.
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I forgot that line...
Warren B is gonna be *pissed*! -
OT:
"Fragile infrastructure highlighted
Sandy points up issue that's received little attention."
http://www.sfgate.com/business.....001695.phpThe obvious lesson is that tax money should have been spent on infrastructure, not freebies , generous benies and 'development projects'.
But, of course, that's not what the article finds. You can guess... -
There's an estimate of $2.2 trillions. What that'll be is probably $5.5 trillions, out of which $4 trillions will be spent on federal, state & municipal "administrative oversight" -- including topping up unionized public employees' retirement funds.
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The comments section of the SF Chron is notoriously whacko, but this one is trying to lower the bar.
It's all the fault of the Repubs who won't pass Obama's spending wish list, doncha know... -
China's second stealth fighter jet was unveiled this week is part of a programme to transform China into the top regional military power, an expert on Asian security says.
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Nuts, can't link the specific image; it compares US and China military budgets, which ignores such other qualities like experience.
Think I'll worry about this in, oh, 20-30 years. -
Though I would be worried if I were Vietnam or the Phillippines (who deserve whatever they get for booting us out of our bases).
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Other than providing a chance for GIs to get cheap Filipina poon, there wasn't much use for military facilities in the Philippines.
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Other than providing a chance for GIs to get cheap Filipina poon, there wasn't much use for military facilities in the Philippines.
1.) Don't discount the important of R&R.
2.) We'll be wishing we had them when Indonesia and/or Malaysia go full on Islamist-crazy. -
How islamo-crazy can a society go before those who prefer 21st century living get pissed?
I mean Afghanistan, Trashkanistan, etc; those sorts of places seem to favor the dark ages; Indonesia and Malaysia seem to favor some approximation of the modern world. -
Indonesia - meh, see also Sukanrno/Suharto, bleah.
Malaysia, I think they may dodge the Islamist flu.
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Malaysia, I think they may dodge the Islamist flu.
Really? I think they're in the incubation period right now.
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I doubt it. There are large non-Muslim minorities there, and the people by and large don't seem prone to radicalism.
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Maybe if those SE Asian Buddhists would stop picking fights we could have peace in the region.
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Back in the 1980s, probably not. Now? It would be nice to have the PRC have to deal with us before they make the SCS into their own Gulf of Mexico.
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Considering their region, that's not saying much. This is just another cheap knockoff of Western technology...I'll be scared when they actually do something innovative.
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I guess that might give some pause to people on THAT side of the Pacific.
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Judges need more oversight and less immunity.
When a judge is caught, for any moderate or worse felony, he should go to jail for the rest of his natural life.
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Proving that narcs are the absolute dumbest fucks on the force.
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Idiots missed all the meth in the first search and the landlord showed them up in front of the fed. He probably called ICE first because the county cops acted like assholes and idiots the last time.
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This guy was super corrupt, and no example to try to pin drug freedom to. He should burn like those he sentenced.
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Romney is really going balls to the wall on the local Pgh news ad buys tonight. Holy cow.
Also, good to see Rick Earle, aka Steel City Stossell, taking on the Federal Maritime Commission.
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Romney? That's nothig. the anti gay marriage ads on Minnesota TV are very disturbing.
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For starters, in early 2013 unlike in early 2012 we'll actually have Barack Obama's full lineup of Federal Reserve Governors in place. His sluggishness in getting this done has been a fiasco and the Senate Republicans' lack of cooperation a scandal but it's done now. But even better, the rotating cast of regional Federal Reserve Bank presidents is going to include Eric Rosengren from Boston and Charles Evans from Chicago—probably the two American central bankers most determined to act forcefully to help the labor market. Evans has been covered extensively on this blog, but though Rosengren has been less outspoken he's always said smart stuff and gave an excellent speech yesterday at Babson College concluding that zero interest rates should persist until unemployment falls to 6.5 percent or so.
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"Senate Republicans' lack of cooperation a scandal"
Shame, shame on them for not kneeling in awe!
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Well you can understand the confusion on the part of the Democrat toadies - they have no problem kneeling before The One.
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Kneel before Zod!
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If Obama is somehow reelected, the Republicans would be wise to become complete obstructionists to anything other than the dismantling of government.
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Unintended consequences of school closings in Chicago:
Chicago has seen a 20 percent surge in the number of murders this year, and people in crime ravaged neighborhoods worry that closing schools might force students to cross gang boundaries and increase urban violence.
Yes, we must make sure that each gang has its own public school in its territory.
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Monty Burns endorses... Romney
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It's amazing how less funny the Simpsons get when they go one-sided political -- especially because when they don't choose sides, they come up with such classics as "Don't blame me, I voted for Kordos."
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I noticed the same thing with tonight's episode of Tim Allen's comedy Last Man Standidng where the entire episode is spent juxtaposing Allen's character's Romney-supporting, Tea Party views with those of his liberal Obama-supporting daughters. Only his views were treated in a farcial matter while the daughters' views on Obama were taken at face value.
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Question for the overnight crew: will it really be a hurricane that destroyed GW Bush's second term, but saves a second term for Obama? And is this evidence of climate change or divine intervention?
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http://www.foxbusiness.com/gov.....head-home/
Union horeshit in New Jersey causes Alabaman rescue team to leave
Despite devastation and millions of power outages in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, a utility crew from Alabama said it has been unable to help a ravaged New Jersey shore town due to a union dispute.
Officials from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers presented Alabama-based Decatur Utilities with documents that “required our folks to affiliate with the union,” Ray Hardin, general manager of Decatur, told FOX Business on Friday. “That was something that we could not agree to. It was our understanding and still is that it was a requirement for us to work in that area.”
Hardin said most of his six-man, four-vehicle crew was stuck in Virginia on Thursday instead of helping the N.J. shore town of Seaside Heights recover due to the bureaucratic tie-up. Eventually his crew ended up heading back home to Alabama because of the disagreement.
“We chose we could not agree to those documents and began looking for other areas that could use our assistance without those conditions,” Hardin said.
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Stay unyieldingly awesome, NJ.
