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GLOUCESTER
Forty Gloucester County residents have been ordered to pay the county $2,000 each for a failed effort to remove four elected officials.
The order entered Tuesday by substitute Circuit Court Judge Westbrook Parker formalizes a ruling he issued in December that found the residents abused the judicial system for political purposes.
The residents had petitioned for the removal of four county supervisors who were indicted on charges of illegally meeting in secret. The charges and the petitions were later dismissed.
The residents claim they were exercising their constitutional right to petition the government and they plan to appeal.
Parker's order also said the county should reimburse the supervisors' attorneys more than $129,000.
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What happened to the Constitution?
I hope these folk appeal this all the way to the Supreme Court. It's one thing for the county to have to foot the legal bill, but quite another to fine citizens for mounting a recall drive. This is just wrong... but then again, it is Gloucester and things have always been a bit odd on stuff like this.
Supervisor Ruling
How Judge Parker felt that all 40 of those people had a political bone to pick with the four supervisors that were in question is way beyond me. The citzens were only doing what they thought was in the best interest of the county. If a board member doesn't like the fact that they can be recalled, DON'T RUN FOR OFFICE!!!! It is a fact of life that recalls are legal, and if you are an elected official and you want to avoid having a recall done, act in the best interest of your constituents. What we learned here is that elected officials can act reclessly, hire an expensive group of lawyers, and then pin the bill on the people who they screwed in the first place. I don't care how good Judge Parker has been in the past, he really messed this one up.
Ruling
I have testified in front of Judge Parker many times and many years ago. I found him to be fair, intelligent and honest. If this was his decison, I wouldn't question it. He has been a circuit court judge for many years, hails from Southampton County and has nothing to gain by siding with the Gloucester officials unless the evidence pointed that way.
Really
Really $129,000.00.Sounds like a bunch of greeddy attorneys looking for a big pay out.Really $500.00 a billable hour.Really since a judge is going to make them pay we will change that to $900.00 an hour .Really.
Hmmmm
This has to be a joke. Did the VA Pilot team up with The Onion too?
Abuse??
I live on the Peninsula and have been following this fiasco from day one. Bottom line is the Supervisors abused their powers on several occassions. Citizens tried all methods to address their concerns only to find the Supervisors resort to holding closed-door sessions, even tossing out those that dared disagree with them during open sessions.
A group of concerned and patriotic citizens decided to use legal means to remove them, even consulting numerous lawyers. The results? A judge siding with the abusive and corrupt Supervisors and fining the citizens for "abusing the judicial system for political purposes". Unreal.