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The Indiana judiciary is back to its sleazy corruption once again as concealment and cover up and protectionism of a former judge and former lawyer is alive and well in the Hoosier state judiciary.

It was reported on February 3, 2022, that a litany of 18 criminal charges including felony corrupt business influence, several counts of felony theft, felony forgery with intent to defraud, felony obstruction of justice, felony perjury, and deception were filed against former Jasper County Judge and former attorney Robert V. Montfort in Jasper Superior Court in Rensselaer, Indiana by special prosecutors.  The charges were related to estate matters that Montfort handled in litigation in Jasper Superior Court in Rensselaer where reportedly Montfort thieved a substantial amount of money from two estates.  https://www.newsbug.info/rensselaer_republican/news/monfort-faces-18-charges-refiled-by-special-prosecutors/article_65156415-5e35-59a0-9a8b-7f52df7e4089.html.  In August 2018 the Jasper Newton Foundation filed a lawsuit against Montfort and his law office and legal assistant Terri Hardin after they discovered that a will had been changed and in various proceedings and filings it was revealed that Montfort and his partner in crime Hardin had taken funds from the estate.  In addition to the criminal charges and the lawsuit, Montfort was accused by the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission in a complaint in engaging in criminal acts and "conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation" among a litany of other ethical charges filed by the Commission on April 27, 2020.  He resigned from practicing law in June 2020 after a disciplinary hearing was filed with the Indiana Supreme Court for unethical handling of the estates.  https://city-countyobserver.com/former-judge-accused-of-defrauding-estates-resigns-from-bar/.

After all of this I was curious as to whether this guy was locked up in jail or whether there might be any shenanigans going on since he was a former judge and lawyer.  I started smelling a rat a few days ago when I noticed that the criminal case was not shown on the Indiana state court website "mycase.in.gov" which typically publishes filings, orders, and so forth.  I did some investigating on my own and on November 1, 2022, I contacted the special prosecutor John Meyers and asked him about the status of the case.  He emailed me back asking me "Who are you and what is your intimacy the case?"  His response was not only out of line as it is none of his business as to who I am, but his grammar was quite suspect in asking "what is your intimacy the case?"  Certainly not the writing of a Rhodes Scholar.  But nevertheless I emailed him back and told him I was a concerned citizen and journalist.  He then emailed back and told me that Montfort's case was set for trial in White Circuit Court (Monticello, Indiana) in March.

The next day on November 2, I sent a message to the judge of the White Circuit Court, Jason A. Thompson, on facebook, and told him that it was my understanding that the Montfort case was transferred from Jasper County to the White Circuit Court and that no information about the case was showing up on the state's website, and that I would like him to provide me with information as to how I may access the publicly allowed information from the case.  Thompson messaged me back and told me that he is not the judge in the case, that a Judge "Vazquez" is the presiding judge.  I could not locate any information about a Judge "Vazquez" and I messaged White Circuit Judge Thompson back and asked him for a first name for Vazquez and which court he (Vazquez) presides in, city and county —but Judge Thompson did not answer the question.  Something wasn't feeling right and I began to wonder why wouldn't the White Circuit judge (Thompson) want me to know the first name of the judge presiding over the Montfort case after I told him I couldn't locate any information about any Judges named Vazquez in Indiana.  I then emailed the special prosecutor, John Meyers, and told him that Judge Thompson gave me a last name for the so-called Judge "Vazquez" but then wouldn't tell me the first name and what court he presided in, city and county, and I asked Meyers to tell me.  And then things got really heated and I knew I struck a nerve when Meyers emailed me back and said "Why are you contacting judges?"  It was a very stupid question to ask since he should have clearly realized that I was trying to get information about the case.

The fact that the case information wasn't showing up on the state's website was a red flag that there was something nefarious going on —which was becoming more evident by the moment.  I emailed Meyers back and told him the reason was because there is no information shown about the case on the state's website that would be considered public information, such as the information that is typically shown on the state's website such as filings, orders, and so forth.  I told him that people have a right to this type of information, and for some strange reason the information was not being published to the public, and that it is a cause for alarm.  I also told him that the fact that there is such concealment about the information about the Montfort case raises substantial concerns. The nerve was struck again because Meyers emailed me back and said 'I am definitely not going to assist you in contacting judges. That you think it is proper to do that is "cause for alarm."'  But through his obvious nervousness about what was going on, he got it all wrong as I wasn't asking him to "assist" me in "contacting judges", I simply asked him to tell me the name of the judge presiding over the case, and which court the judge presided in, so I could track down the information from the Montfort case —information that is supposed to be public information according to the law.  I emailed Meyers back and told him that the public has a right to know who the judges are in court cases, and the fact that he wouldn't disclose to me who the judge is in order that I could look up the information about the case is definitely cause for alarm.  Meyers then emailed me and said "What in the world are you talking about?”  I emailed him back and told him "Unless you are really stupid, you know exactly what I am talking about. It is more than clear."  He then sent me an email diatribe of 278 words saying he was "angry" and that "You called a judge even though you know that is improper" and that "you can find the information that you want in less than a minute through MyCase. Or if you simply check Google, you will find that Montfort practiced in Jasper County. That is enough info that you can find the case numbers of the original venue in MyCase, again, in less than one minute. I would expect an apology but not from someone like you."  He was obviously very nervously shaken up as this was a very irrational response because I had already told him that the information about the Montfort case wasn't showing on the state's website. And his throwing in his diatribe that a simple google check would show that Montfort practiced in Jasper County was irrelevant to the information I was looking for, I didn't ask him if Montfort practiced in Jasper County, I obviously already knew that. The funny thing is, all this guy, the so called "special prosecutor" Meyers, had to do was send me the first and last name of the presiding judge in the Montfort case and the city and exactly what court, city and county, the judge presided in.  He could have done that in 4 or 5 words which would have taken care of the issue, but he instead decided to send a diatribe of nonsense that quite frankly was irrational.  Because his diatribe was uncalled for and mean spirited I emailed him back and told him "You have no class and I am not going to dignify your pitiful message with a response as it was all garbage."  Ironically, just as I am writing this, I received an email from "Mr. Special Prosecutor" John Meyers, he said "Do not ever contact me again."  I emailed him back and said to him "Who do you think you are? For your information you work for the people. I pay your salary. You aren't my boss, and if you think you have some kind of power to dictate orders to me, you are very very wrong!"  Clearly he is nervous and probably sensing that I am onto their game.

So what we have is a former judge/former lawyer who allegedly thieved a great deal of money from estates who was eventually criminally charged, the judges from the county where the thievery took place, Jasper County, recused themselves, special prosecutors were brought in and the case is transferred to another court.  And what we also have is one of the special prosecutors, John Meyers, telling me the case was transferred to White Circuit Court —which is in Monticello, Indiana.  And we have the White Circuit Court Judge Jason A. Thompson telling me that he is not the judge in the case, that a Judge "Vazquez" is the judge, but when I checked I couldn't locate any such judge.  And then when I asked the White Circuit Judge Thompson for Vazquez's first name and asked what court he presided in, city and county, Thompson didn't tell me.  And we have the so-called special prosecutor, John Meyers, refusing to tell me the name of the judge and what court the judge is located in, and even ridiculously telling me in his diatribe that I could access the information from the state's "MyCase" website when I had already told him the information is not on there.  And very importantly, we have a state court website that is supposed to contain all of the filings in the court cases in order that the public can access the information, but the information from the Montfort case is inexplicably not shown on the state website.  This all leads to the obvious conclusion that they are trying to hide things and that the fix is in!

It is clear the special prosecutor, John Meyers, is nervous about my questions, and he has reason to be.  But he needs to learn a few things about the law if he is going to play prosecutor.  First off, he shouldn't be asking a citizen who he is and what his interest is in a case when a citizen is trying to access public information records that he is entitled to under the law.  And as for his question to me about why I was contacting judges, he should understand that judges are not Gods, they are simply lawyers dressed up in costumes, i.e., black robes, and are public employees being paid on the taxpayers dime, and that when there are judicial shenanigans going on, as there clearly are here, the people have a right to contact judges and inquire about records that they are entitled to, but are deprived of their access due to judicial chicanery —which is clearly taking place here.  And since the so-called special prosecutor, John Meyers, and whoever the currently unknown judges are who are involved here, apparently either don't know the Indiana Rules of Court and/or have chosen to intentionally violate them by concealing the records of the Montfort prosecution, they need to learn the rules.  Rule 2(A) of the Indiana Rules of Court explicitly states in relevant part "All persons have access to Court Records as provided in this rule,…”  The "Commentary" applicable to Rule 2 states "Subsection (A) provides the general rule that all persons, including members of the general public, the media, and commercial and noncommercial entities, are entitled to the same basic level of access to Court Records. Access to Court Records is not determined by who is seeking access or the purpose for seeking access,…."  Rule 3(F) states "Public Access" means the process whereby a person may inspect and copy a Court Record.  So it would behoove special prosecutor John Meyers and any other minions involved in the cover up going on in the Montfort case to learn about the governing rules and follow them instead of being indifferent and belligerent to people who know the rules and are entitled to the information.

Clearly there are some nefarious things going on with the Montfort case that the "system" is trying to conceal from the public.  That is more than clear by the actions of concealing the case from the state's "MyCase" website and by the White Circuit judge's refusal to state the name and court of the judge who is supposed to be presiding over the case, and by special prosecutor John Meyer's shakiness in refusing to state the name of the presiding judge and exactly what court it is in.  The concealment of all of this information is very telling, and unfortunately it appears that the fix is in, so the people need to keep a close eye on things here.  What Montfort did was reprehensible and he should be sent to prison for a long period of time, and if that doesn't happen, we will have a very clear understanding of why these judicial miscreants are going out of their way to violate the established governing rules and operate in secret fashion in order to conceal their reprehensible activities to the point that they don't want the people to know anything about what is going on in the case including even who the judge is and what court it is in.  The evidence is clear, the fix is in!
                                                                                   "The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse"
                                                                                                                               ~Edmund Burke