Shelby County – Rules for Thee But Not For Me

Shelby Co. (ECWd) –

Today was a status hearing for the Temporary Restraining Order case filed by Chris Boehm.  Once again, things under the big top in Shelby County should concern everyone who believes in an honest and fair judicial system.

A motion to intervene was filed by Rob Hanlon and rejected for failing to fully comply with Supreme Court Rule 131.d1.  It is our understanding it was the Circuit Clerk who rejected the filing and informed the Judge of the deficiency.  It was noted by the Judge there was a recent Supreme Court ruling on the matter, however, he did not cite the case he was relying on so we can’t speak to that case but the current language in the rules, as amended through September 23, 2024, is below:

(d)Name, Address, Telephone Number, Facsimile Number and E-mail Address.
(1)Attorneys. All documents filed or served in any cause by an attorney upon another party shall bear the attorney’s name, business address, e-mail address, and telephone number. The attorney must designate a primary e-mail address and may designate no more than two secondary e-mail addresses. (emphasis added)

Normally these types of things are corrected on the spot as they are ministerial and fixing them is a straightforward process that does not affect the actual case, but not in Shelby County today.

As if we have not seen the scales of justice tipped before as exposed in this article, once again those scales have a foot on them.  Now don’t get that statement wrong. We agree compliance with the rules must be first and foremost, but so too should equal enforcement of those rules.

Ruth Woolery filed her motion to appoint counsel in this same case and surprise, surprise, her filing was not compliant with Supreme Court Rule 131 (d)(1), yet neither the Circuit Clerk nor the judge rejected her filing.

So, the State’s Attorney can fail to fully comply with the same rule on her filings and its silence from the circuit clerk and the judge, but when other filings are deficient for the same rule they get rejected?

It appears the judicial system in Shelby County enforces rules selectively which should concern everyone who believes our justice system is supposed to be blind and applied equally across the board.

All appearances point to the scales of justice having a heavy foot being applied and it should petrify those who understand the importance of our trusting our judicial system.

Stay tuned for exposure of violations of law that took place today in the courtroom that once again moved a case forward without the county board having any representation and a court that appeared clueless of their obligation on the matter.  Couple that with a State’s Attorney who has admitted a conflict to the board yet failed to express that conflict today during key discussions. It is clear people are not reading the actual law.