Mark’s Soap Box

Judge Halverson, who I told you about earlier has now claimed that she has witnessed ticket fixing in HER court. Well if there was ticket fixing happening, then were you not also a part of it? It is your court.

Judge Halverson dropped a bombshell this week when she alleged to the Eyewitness News I-Team that she had evidence of a ticket-fixing operation inside her own office at the courthouse. Halverson says she found a thick file of traffic citations that had been processed by her former clerk.

So what names are in the file? Ileen Spoor, the fired clerk, had no business whatsoever handling parking tickets and certainly no reason to have a file of 150 citations in her office. It’s not exactly clear how she helped these people or what — if anything — she got out of it, but Judge Halverson’s suspicions appear to be right on the money. Eyewitness News can’t show the file, but will reveal the names.

Did you note how the “I-Team” accused the clerk and then threw in they didn’t know how she could help them? Yea, how nice. This is a typical “I-Team” tactic. Now am I mistaken in assuming that clerks in courts handle paperwork, like oh I don’t know …………. TICKETS! Any clerks wish to chime in? [MARK: if you email, give me a number to verify your actually employment, yes, and your full name.]

“All I know is it was found on top of the desk about yay thick,” said Elizabeth Halverson.

The file Judge Elizabeth Halverson spoke of in an Eyewitness News exclusive interview was left behind in her office by the judge’s clerk, Ileen Spoor, who was fired by Halverson. Halverson says the file contained 150 traffic citations — not parking tickets as Spoor has claimed — citations that had somehow been settled with Spoor’s help.

Whoa! How do they know that? Remember Judge Halverson was reading the email of her clerk without a warrant or permission. She was also expelled form the Justice Center, and appears to be so incompetent that here case load was removed by the Chief Justice who had fired her a few years before. So how do we trust her?

Halverson said, “They are in a folder that says ‘quick fix’ reports. When you open them up, they show you each of the tickets. They show you how it’s done.”

Earlier this week, the fired Spoor returned to Halverson’s office accompanied by two court administrators and three bailiffs to search for what she called her personal items. It was pretty clear what they really wanted to find.

Oh really? She was looking for material that would make the Judge appear the incompetent she must be? Or maybe she was returning from vacation to find that she had been fired without notice or cause as far as anyone can tell.

“Okay the file is not here,” said Spoor. Which file is that? “The file with the traffic tickets in it,” said Spoor. “I did not locate in my office my personal file that is about 2-3 inches thick of various tickets from personal friends and family.”

“I-Team” does not say how they know this is what is said. Did they ask the bailiffs?

Have they seen the tickets?

The pile of tickets has not been released by Halverson to anyone, but the I-Team has learned many of the names included therein. The offenses range from speeding, to lack of insurance, to parking in a handicapped zone.

Considering the lengths Halverson has gone to hurt people in the past (After being fired by Kathy Hardcastle she ran against Hardcastle’s then husband for a family court Judgeship, she lost.) can we honestly believe that this is an accurate account? Considering the hyperbolic rhetoric of the “I-Team” it is clear they are being used and loving it.

Finally we get some “facts”.

District court, which has employed Spoor for a decade, does not process traffic tickets at all, so what role does she play in handling tickets for friends and family? Spoor declined to be interviewed by the I-Team on-camera but freely admitted she’s been helping people she knows with their tickets for the past 9 years. She said that people can call the Ticket Buster, the people on the billboard, or they can call her. A lot of them did.

Wow! Someone helping friends I am so NOT shocked by this. The “I-Team” does love to whip up the hysteria. I am still not sure how this constitutes anything illegal or un-ethical.

Even if Spoor’s one-woman ticket service is legal, the fact that she processed the citations during her regular workday, using Judge Halverson’s official court letterhead in faxes and correspondence without the judge’s okay, has got to be a concern to court administrators. They’d like to see the files.

Did she? Where is the proof? Lots of accusations being bandied about as fact. Very poor reporting.

Michael Sommermeyer, a District Court spokesperson said, “We’re not in the business of greasing justice to help our friends, so we are concerned that if this is primary activity of an employee, we want to say that’s not allowed, that violates the code of conduct.”

Nice spin. “Primary?” And spare me the we don’t help friends b.s.

From what Eyewitness News can tell, Spoor would forward tickets to young attorneys who would handle them for no charge, both as a favor to what they perceived as a District Court judge, and as a way to build a future clientele. Sometimes they had the citations eliminated altogether. Sometimes, a moving violation would be reduced to a parking ticket. 

What they mean is, this is the way they can spin it. If she is forwarding the tickets then how is she “fixing tickets”, and where is the manual that allegedly exists that no one but Halverson has seen but is reported as fact by the “I-Team” in this so called news report?

Little proof, a disgraced Judge with an attitude and who failed to act lawfully from what I tell (why did she not report this alleged crime?), and hyperbolic media; wow! it’s so NOT cut and dried. It also does not change the fact that Judge Halverson still appears to be incompetent.

Questions to ask:

1. Why did Halverson NOT report this activity?
2. Why is it just now coming out?
3. What else is going on in her courtroom?
4. Why is the “I-Team” so quick to side with her flimsy version of things?
5. Does the reporter have an Axe to grind with Hardcastle, Bell, or the other Judges?
6. Where is the state Police?
7. Where is the FBI in all of this?
8. Who actually saw the file on the clerk’s desk?
9. Why did the Judge seize it and not turn it over to the proper authorities?
10. Why does “I-Team” not ask any of these questions?
11. UPDATE: Why is Halverson running to the media? Hmm
12. UPDATE: Where is the manual to fix tickets (I want one)?

Previously on the Island

Judge Halverson Banned from Justice Center