The New Last Refuge of Scoundrels
January 27, 2016 at 12:02 am
(This post was last modified: January 27, 2016 at 12:46 am by Jenny A.)
Wrapping yourself in the flag used to be the method of choice for excusing scandal and fraud. Judge Vance Day is following the new trend and claiming Christian martyrdom instead.
This local judge (my county here in Oregon) has been under investigation since 2014 for a bizarre variety of misconduct including: giving firearms to felons during thier probation; using felons to do unpaid work on his house; intimidating referees at sporting events with his judicial ID; soliciting funds for a collage including Hitler for his chambers and then fraudulently keeping those funds and taking state reimbursement for them after returning the collage; and more including repeatedly lying to the judicial commission. http://www.kgw.com/news/marion-co-judge-...s/22697539 Yesterday the judicial commission recommended he be removed from office for misconduct.
Most of the charges revolve around a Navy Seal on a special probation program for veterans referred to as BAS in the commission's report. Judge Day used him as free labor, showed him off at a wedding, had him teach his son to use a rifle, came uninvited to his house, and otherwise attempted to use his judicial power to make a kind of pet of the man. It reads like a preditory gay crush. Which is ironic because
Judge Day is playing the Christian mayrtr card, claiming that he's being persecuted for refusing to perform gay marriages. And to my annoyance looking through my FB feed it appears to be working in the court of public opinion.
Just one problem with that. He was under investigation long before gay marriage became legal in Oregon, and refusing to perform gay marriages is not one of the reasons for the commissions recomendation. Nor has anyone ever asked him to perform one. Yet the headline is judge who refused to perform gay marriages to be removed from office.
This local judge (my county here in Oregon) has been under investigation since 2014 for a bizarre variety of misconduct including: giving firearms to felons during thier probation; using felons to do unpaid work on his house; intimidating referees at sporting events with his judicial ID; soliciting funds for a collage including Hitler for his chambers and then fraudulently keeping those funds and taking state reimbursement for them after returning the collage; and more including repeatedly lying to the judicial commission. http://www.kgw.com/news/marion-co-judge-...s/22697539 Yesterday the judicial commission recommended he be removed from office for misconduct.
Most of the charges revolve around a Navy Seal on a special probation program for veterans referred to as BAS in the commission's report. Judge Day used him as free labor, showed him off at a wedding, had him teach his son to use a rifle, came uninvited to his house, and otherwise attempted to use his judicial power to make a kind of pet of the man. It reads like a preditory gay crush. Which is ironic because
Judge Day is playing the Christian mayrtr card, claiming that he's being persecuted for refusing to perform gay marriages. And to my annoyance looking through my FB feed it appears to be working in the court of public opinion.
Just one problem with that. He was under investigation long before gay marriage became legal in Oregon, and refusing to perform gay marriages is not one of the reasons for the commissions recomendation. Nor has anyone ever asked him to perform one. Yet the headline is judge who refused to perform gay marriages to be removed from office.
If there is a god, I want to believe that there is a god. If there is not a god, I want to believe that there is no god.