Today's post provides a summary of Judge Livingstone's formal response to the first 2 of 6 charges against him as outlined in the post entitled Judge Threatens Tenant With Eviction dated 1/2/08 .
Reading the full text of his response can be confusing. It is clear he is working very hard to avoid discipline and to keep his job. He is often contradictory and clearly skilled at providing the right answers, or seeming to.
For example, by seeking an advisory opinion from The Committee on Judicial Ethics concerning real estate activities, he appears to be striving to do the right things ethically. Later in the document, he spends inordinate time detracting from the intent of the content of the advisory opinion by focusing on minutia such as how specific text may or may not have been highlighted in the opinion. Apparently if the opinion didn't highlight matters in a certain way, he didn't feel responsible for reading that text. Simultaneously it appears as though he chose to read the positive comments, ignored the negative. Oh, by the way, the document is uniformly not highlighted except for section titles and case names.
Go figure the minutia.
In other words... if you or I should know that driving under the influence is a potentially bad thing, could kill somebody, and is illegal, yet we seek a formal written opinion re: drunk driving laws just to confirm and we don't see highlighted text confirming this action would be illegal - we are somehow not going to be responsible if we get drunk, drive and get caught? Ignorance is bliss wouldn't cut it in court for us. It remains to be seen if it works for our Judges.
Decide for yourself, in his formal response to these 2 charges alone Judge Livingstone:
1. Admits to the business relationship with Mr. Hotte.
2. Admits to the fact a contractor brought suit against the business seeking a balance due.
3. Admits to filing a "Motion to Quash/Motion to Excuse his Presence" at the trial.
4. Indicates that since his partner, Mr. Hotte signed the contract for the work when Mr. Hotte was sole property manager.
5. Admits to filing the affidavit swearing he had not been actively involved in the property management for years.
6. Asserts he had no knowledge of the date for his motion to be heard which was the same date as the initial trial and subsequently rescheduled but believes the facts alleged are true. (Huh?)
7. Denies he made false statements.
8. Denies he'd been involved in managing the propert(ies), paying bills etc.
9. Admits to sending the threatening letter to his tenant.
10. Denies avoiding his business responsibilities to see that legitimate debts were paid.
11. Denies his failure to appear in court violates any Judicial Code of conduct asserting no obligation upon himself to follow up on the status of his case.
12. Denies his threatening letter, if followed through, would have constituted a crime.
13. Confirms that statements re MA laws regarding landlord's obligation to provide utilities appears to be correct. (avoiding comment on text of his letter threatening to not pay utility bills.)
14. Denies that his letter making the improper threat is more serious given that he's a Judge.
15. Asserts the wording of his letter may have been inappropriate...
16. Acknowledges seeking and receiving an advisory opinion from The Committee on Judicial Ethics concerning real estate activities which indicated some of his dealing were "within the bounds of what is permitted" because he had delegated management to his partner. It further indicates some activities "move into prohibited areas".
17. Asserts that when he resumed management duties he felt he had no choice because his partner abandoned him.
18. Denies he made any threat in his letter to the tenant.
For complete text of charges and response go to www.ma.gov/cjc You may have to type the /cjc part a second time. Click on Press Releases scroll to the section re: Judge Livingstone, click on the 10/20/07 release re charges. It's 53 pages of provocative text.
Please comment, and let us know what you think. Should he stay or should he go?
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