Re: Fraud upon court, Sneddon, Wagener

Every single MJ fan would like to see Sneddon pay for what he did to Michael but at the same time I believe we stand to benefit a lot from being realistic.

Soon after Michael’s death Wagener was promising that Sneddon can be indicted for “malicious prosecution” however this was wrong as “malicious prosecution” could have been only brought by Michael and only within a certain time period. When corrected by the fans, Wagener (or most probably his supporters) came up with “fraud” or “fraud upon the court” claims. Fraud claim is also limited to certain time period from “discovery date” which is also passed because the knowledge about what Sneddon did is not new; we knew it since 2005 when T-Mez actually mentioned the fingerprints and such.

That leaves us with “fraud upon the court” which looks really nice on the paper with no statute of limitations and serious consequences that could include fine and perhaps even jail time in addition to firing and disbarment. However it’s not correctly understood (probably due to the fact that it’s highly specialized and quite rare).

Read the definition please

“Fraud upon the court is fraud which is directed to the judicial machinery itself and is not fraud between the parties or fraudulent documents, false statements or perjury. ... It is where the court or a member is corrupted or influenced or influence is attempted or where the judge has not performed his judicial function --- thus where the impartial functions of the court have been directly corrupted.”

Now read it again.

Fraud upon the court is NOT – again NOT – fraudulent documents or false statements. So from this definition you see that false fingerprints are not fraud upon the court.

Fraud upon the court is when the court cannot be impartial.

Here comes the MOST important question: How can you argue the court could not perform its impartial functions, when the verdict was “not guilty”?

The answer is simple: You can’t. Your basic common sense and logic should tell you that you can’t really argue that the court was corrupted and could not perform its impartial functions when the verdict was “not guilty” and indeed an innocent man was found innocent because the court was able to do its job.

That’s why the online lawyers Mary Brookins contacted told you that a “not guilty” verdict will hold because there is no basis for a fraud upon the court claim in this scenario.

What the people said about the fraud upon the court principles and how the judgment would be voided was also true and all you need is again your common sense and basic logic to realize that this is the truth. If the court is corrupted to the point of not being able to be impartial, that would void any and all decisions of that court as everyone is entitled to a fair trial. This is clear in the legal wording as well which says “"Fraud upon the court" makes void the orders and judgments of that court. Under Federal law, when any officer of the court has committed "fraud upon the court", the orders and judgment of that court are void, of no legal force or effect.”

Furthermore “fraud upon the court” can only be brought by the person who has been damaged by such fraud – which was Michael. That’s why you aren’t seeing a complaint to the court because neither Wagener nor the fans have any legal standing. Wagener only talked to County Supervisors hoping that they would start an independent investigation.

So where all of this leaves us? Nowhere to be honest. What Wagener did was to take the stand at a meeting where anyone from the public can talk and mentioned his suspicions. You are hoping that the supervisors will take it seriously and start an investigation themselves otherwise you have no legal standing to bring any complaint. You are then hoping that your claims would hold and it would uncover something and then hoping that it would result in a consequence which is more serious than firing and disbarment which has no meaning to the blissfully retired Sneddon. That’s a lot of hoping and a lot of dreaming. I’m even hearing that Wagener participating in blog talk radio saying that nothing will probably happen and/or there needs to be law changes for Sneddon to be held responsible. To me it seems like even Wagener is aware that this is just a dream. Furthermore if you have been a long time fan, active during 2005 trial and know the 16+ cases that have been filled against Sneddon when he was the DA and you would also know that nothing came out of those that would punish Sneddon for what he did. At most some lawsuits were dismissed and the verdicts were overturned but Sneddon continued to be the aggressive and corrupt prosecutor. As one of fans mentioned during their speech, it’s highly unlikely that any county supervisor would even start an investigation of Sneddon especially given the fact that you don’t have a complaining victim (Michael), the victim is dead, Sneddon is retired and it’s been over 7 years. So these are the sad but true facts.

I can understand if some have an emotional response and feel like they need to at least try this effort but they also need to understand that having a realistic approach and saying “well probably nothing will come out of this” is not being a hater or being a fake fan. Again I’m absolutely sure that every MJ fans would love – LOVE – to see Sneddon being held responsible for what he put Michael put through but if realistically this is not possible then our time is better spent on focusing on other things. Furthermore to be brutally honest, this unrealistic approach is what causes MJ fans to have a reputation of being “crazy” or “delusional”. Just the comments under the local news story include “Mad MJ fans”, “Do these people have any lives what so ever?” and “A number of people with a lack of purpose in their lives showed up”. Is that how we want to portray the MJ fan base?

Honestly sometimes I wonder how much of this attempt of trying to indict Sneddon is done for Michael and how much of it is based on Wagener’s own history with Sneddon. I believe Michael Jackson was the only person that could bring charges against Sneddon for judicial fraud, malicious prosecution and prosecutorial misconduct but he didn’t and the statue of limitations has run its course.

But that’s not the only thing, there’s Wagener’s documentary. Again we all know his position and reporting during the 2005 trial and thankful for it. So getting the story of the 2005 trial out, exposing evidence tempering, changing the public perception, expressing Michael’s innocence seems to be a far better effort for Michael’s legacy. You know, it’s possible to convict Sneddon in the court of public opinion.

I want to end this by saying that everyone is entitled to their opinion and can decide on what to support or not. My position is to be realistic and focus on stuff that I know can actually make a difference. I wish everyone all the best in what route and effort they wish to take.

PS: Please let’s all of us stop with this “hater” and “fake fan” bs, it’s called a difference of opinion and most adults can respect a person’s right to an opinion even though it’s totally opposite of their opinion.

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