10/26/98 -- JUDGE ISSUES BOGUS COURT ORDER
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 26 -- In an extraordinary move, Judge John H. Bayly, Jr. of the D.C. Superior Court issued an order freezing the funds of a heritage group but failed to file the signed order in the court record, as required by law.
John Edward Hurley, president of the Confederate Memorial Association, said that the had obtained a copy of the bogus court order and described it as a blatant attempt to influence the election of officers and directors of his association at the CMA board meeting, which is scheduled for 1 p.m. at the National Press Club on Tuesday.
According to Hurley, this ploy by Judge Bayly was coupled with the fact that lawyers friendly to the judge had insisted that individual board members - all of whom are volunteers - pay their own legal expenses despite the fact that a board resolution existed that all legal bills be paid by the assocition.
"This is part of a continuing cycle of corruption that has flourished in this case because the rule of law is being ignored," Hurley said. At the same hearing on October 13, Judge Bayly said that he was "inclined to grant" a $52,000 petition for attorneys fees against Hurley.
The bills were also bogus, Hurley said, and showed that contacts were being made by Richard T. Hines at his Alexandria, Virginia consulting firm office which, according to Hurley, had arranged for $50 million in computer contracts with the Department of Justice. Hines is a major political contributor and gave $50,000 in tax-deductible contributions to the Judicial Selection Monitoring Project, one of the most powerful coalitions of activists on Capitol Hill.
Hurley said that Judge Bayly had jailed him in December of 1996 and had only released him on the promise he would pay $30,000 in contempt fees. Several days later, $21,879.46 was returned to him without explanation.
The lawsuit, which began in 1988, closed the century-old Confederate Memorial Hall museum and library in downtown Washington. Hurley said that "it is sad that the venerable old museum closed, but it was preferable that it close rather than serve as a base for political activities." It was ironic, he added, that "the museum is now serving in memory as a lasting tribute to the importance of resisting an inexorable tyranny, such as that being demonstrated in this court case."
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