top of page

Judge Marilyn Huff *

​

Johnson v. Altamirano | Malicious Prosecution, Conversion, etc (Federal)

* By far the most blatant display of judicial bias and misconduct on record

 

After Johnson voluntarily dismissed the malicious prosecution lawsuit in California court due to Judge Bacal's due process violations, he refiled it in federal court. This time, the complaint included a claim against David Huffman, Richard Turner, Manuel Altamirano and David Kinney for converting his $475,000 of company earnings to their personal equity accounts, and he added the Procopio attorneys, Paul Tyrell and Sean Sullivan, as malicious prosecution defendants.  He also added a claim against "Storix" for failing to compensate him for his copyrights under the "oral contract" that Judge Huff decided in the Copyright Suit was used to transfer ownership of his copyrights. to Storix.

 

Incredibly, after the case was assigned to a new judge (according to the rules of court requiring random case assignent), Judge Marilyn L. Huff somehow got wind of the new lawsuit and had the case transferred to her court without cause.  Her judicial abuse then became childishly blatant as she ignored every law and court procedure, refused to allow any hearings, argued the case on the defendant's behalf, and dismissed 7 of the 9 claims with prejudice on absurd grounds that Johnson was given no chance to dispute. Judge Huff then stayed the remaining two claims (against  Management) pending the outcome of the state appeal, unlawfully directing them to raise a res judicata defense (meaning the same claims were previously litigated) after the appeal was decided. The case remained pending for 16 months while she refused to identify any claims or issues relevant to this lawsuit that were previously litigated or decided (because there were none).
 

Pay special attention to the motion to recuse Judge Huff (where she refused to allow another judge to decide and then denied herself without addressing any issues) and the motion for reconsideration (that called her out for arguing the case for the defendants). Of course, she denied both, again without addressing any facts or arguments. Finally, after the state appeal was decided, Judge Huff asked for a third round of briefing, then again ignored all facts and law when dismissing the last two claims - and again by raising new arguments on the defendants' behalf.

​

Never before has a judge exhibited such blatant judicial bias, legal abuse, and misconduct in violating due process in so many ways. She literally argued the case for the defendants - all while continuing to ignore the litigation misconduct of the same attorneys that she ordered Johnson to pay an abusive $555,000 in fees in the Copyright Case.  She managed to drag out a simple motion to dismiss for "failure to state a claim" for two years before finally dismissing all claims with prejudice, without a single hearing, and without any reference to the facts in the complaint, thereby preventing any evidence from ever being presented. Any such evidence against the Procopio attorneys would equally reveal the judicial bias in the copyright case she sought to conceal.

​

​

​YELLOW = most relevant pleadings and appeal briefs in which Johnson brought to each court's attention clear legal errors and intentional omission of facts, issues and arguments in the orders, judgements and opinions.

GREEN = most relevant orders and opinions of the courts showing the judges' continued refusal to address any of Johnson's facts, issues or arguments.

​

  * Some of the documents contain comments added by Johnson as he prepared his responses and appeals,
     and some may contain insults or foul language, but were retained since they provide context as to the absurdity of
     the opposing arguments and the court's decisions.

​

​

​

Judges Sydney R. Thomas, Richard Paez & Kenneth Lee


The Ninth Circuit Appeal

The judiciary finally disposed of all Johnson's claims in the most blatant judicial abuse and bias by a Ninth Circuit panel on record. You need only look at the well-drafted and supported briefs by Johnson and the pitiful responses by the Procopio and Wilson/Elser attorneys to see how strong his case was and how biased this appellate panel was against him.

 

There is no better example of how the appellate courts summarily dispose of a strong appeal by ignoring every issue, fact and argument -- even when they are required by law to peform a de novo review (meaning that every issue must be determined without considering the lower court's decision).

 

The panel made no attempt to disguise their own bias in discarding Johnson's entire appeal and simply summarizing Judge Huff's absurd rulings. They ignored the fact that she argued the case for the defendants and that they were required by law to decide the case de novo. They also ignored that not one of the grounds Judge Huff used to dismiss all of Johnson's claims were even allowed on a motion to dismiss. Importantly, the panel summarily ruled that there was "no merit" to Johnson's assertion of bias against "the district court judge." They don't mention her name since all orders are published on Google.

 

As usual, the Ninth Circuit's Memorandum (summary opinion) was so brief  that no one reading it would even know what the claims were about. This was intentional since addressing the actual issues would have required a reversal of every one of Judge Huff's absurd decisions. There is no better example of an appellate court choosing to affirm a clearly bad ruling rather than shed light on the bias and incompetence of the lower court judge.

 

Johnson didn't expect the Ninth Circuit to correct its error (given how blatantly biased it was), but nevertheless filed a petition for rehearing (by the same panel) and rehearing en banc (by all circuit judges) asking them to reconsider the appeal based on facts and law that were clearly overlooked. Not a single judge in the Ninth Circuit voted to allow the appeal to be reheard despite Johnson's showing that the panel ignored every important fact that would clearly require reversal.

 

This blatant judicial abuse finally disposed of all claims by Johnson and ensured he would never receive a fair trial or compensation for his 8 years of legal harassment and millions of dollars of losses. They knew of the millions of dollars of embezzlement and tax fraud perpetrated by Johnson's former employees, and they made their decision to ensure their big-law attorneys at Procopio and Wilson/Elser would never have to face trial for their malicious prosecution and litigation misconduct.

​

​

​

​

bottom of page