Alameda County DA tramples First Amendment to silence critics

Alameda County District Attorney Thomas Orloff, and Presiding Judge Barbara Miller, have gone far into unethical, even illegal actions to cover up a political scandal.

The backfgound to this story was covered in a previous IndyMedia article. That installment covered how I found out a formerly prominent East Bay attorney, Martin Nakahara, was practicing law without a license, after committing embezzlement. Please read that article.

After discovering the lawyer had resigned the Bar, I revealed that fact to Judge Barbara Miller in her Family Law courtroom.

Nakahara was representing my exwife, and she is Japanese. Miller had been solicitous of her, making sure she understood English before proceeding, but when I tried to explain that Nakahara had been taking her for a ride, Miller made a point of shutting me up, so that Nakahara would be protected.

Some background on the Alameda County courts Almost all of the judges in Alameda County got their jobs through either politics, nepotism, or cronyism. Although judges are elected, in fact, they are much more often reelected -- they get apppointed to a vacant position by the governor, then when the election come,s they are the incumbent. It is very rare that a judge is opposed in an election in Alameda County. For example, in the current election year, 23 judgeships are on the ballot, but there are NO oppposed seats. This is typical of court related elections. For example, Tom Orloff, the DA, ran in an unopposed election, and has not been challenged for reelection> The bottom line is, you become a judge or DA in Alameda by getting appointed to the job, or chosen as the only candidate,