Jack tompson... Epic Failure

[Xemnas]

This info came from Gamespot.com

Florida attorney Jack Thompson has made a name for himself crusading against violent games, to varying degrees of success. He helped author a Louisiana law that would have banned the sale of obscene games to minors (it was signed into law but eventually struck down), and he forced Take-Two Interactive to show the PlayStation 2 game Bully to a federal judge before release in order to prove it wasn't a public nuisance (the judge ruled it wasn't).
Along the way he also ran afoul of the Florida Bar, which accused him of violating professional standards of conduct, disobeying a judge's orders, and other transgressions. Earlier this week, a referee in the Bar's case against Thompson concluded that the lawyer was guilty of 27 rule violations, including improperly practicing law in Alabama, making false statements to tribunals, and disparaging and humiliating litigants and other lawyers, according to a report on Law.com. The referee, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Dava Tunis, did not explain the reasons behind her recommendations, but a sanctions hearing in the matter is set for June 4.
Thompson is trying to have Tunis removed from the case, arguing that she has a personal grudge against him. According to a Florida State Attorney's memo filed by Thompson in a separate complaint against the Florida Supreme Court, Tunis' signature on a 2000 loyalty oath was forged. The report said Tunis had never been presented with the oath in the first place and, upon discovering the problem, signed a valid oath in February. Thompson argues that Tunis' recommendations that he be found guilty are intended to punish him because he "blew the whistle" on her and that any orders she issued prior to the February signing are now void.
Meanwhile, this week Thompson also obtained a stay of proceedings in another suit he had outstanding against the Florida Bar. Saying he hasn't had time to practice law given his fight with the Bar and personal issues, Thompson said he offered a compromise to the Bar. According to Thompson, he offered to spend the next two years representing only indigent clients to avoid further legal wrangling with the Bar, but he has received no response to the proposal.


"These people don't want a resolution," Thompson said in a court filing. "They want Thompson's career, or what is left of it."

Bout time this guy got what came to him.

[Salvage]

Haha, Nobody likes him anyway.
He deserves it

[DoctorOrpheus]

Don't worry. Give him 2 years and he will be back on gamer's backs like a bloodhound.

[Xemnas]

Originally Posted by DoctorOrpheus

Don't worry. Give him 2 years and he will be back on gamer's backs like a bloodhound.

Its gonna be a little longer then that, he has to get his lawyers degree back. and thats gonna take a LONG time i'm afraid

[gl0cks]

haha epic failure for sure.

[Xemnas]

**UPDATE**

From GameSpot (Report: Thompson facing 10-year disbarment - Xbox 360 News at GameSpot)

For over a decade, Florida attorney Jack Thompson has been one of the most public--and vociferous--critics of video games. After helping spark a regulatory crackdown on radio shock jock Howard Stern and Miami rap group 2 Live Crew, he turned his sights on violent titles he termed "murder simulators." One of his first targets was the id shooter Doom, which he said was to blame for the 1999 Columbine massacre.

Anti-game activist Jack Thompson.
Thompson is most famous for his acrid criticism of Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto series. He represented the families of several police officers shot by a teen who professed to be an avid player of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. His most vociferous attacks came after the uncovering of sex minigames hidden in the code of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which was eventually recalled from retail.

Besides his tit-for-tat lawsuits with Take-Two--which were finally settled in April 2007--Jack Thompson has engaged in numerous other legal maneuvers against the game industry. In federal court, he unsuccessfully attempted to have another Take-Two game, Bully, labeled a public nuisance. He also coauthored a Louisiana bill banning the sale of obscene games to minors--a bill that was briefly made law before being struck down.

Now, though, it appears Thompson's crusade against games may be coming to an end--in the legal arena, anyway. A Kotaku correspondent on the scene reports that today, the Florida Bar requested in court that Thompson be given an "enhanced disbarment." According to 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida spokesperson Eunice Sigler, the measure--if imposed--would prohibit Thompson from practicing law in the state of Florida for the next 10 years.

Though Thompson and the Florida Bar have clashed before, today's disbarment recommendation follows last month's hearing in which Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Dava Tunis concluded Thompson was guilty of 27 rule violations, including: Improperly practicing law in Alabama, making false statements to tribunals, and disparaging and humiliating litigants and other lawyers, according to a report on Law.com. At that time, Thompson tried to have Tunis removed from the case, claiming Tunis forged a signature on a 2000 loyalty oath and harbors a personal grudge against him.

According to both Kotaku and the blog GamePolitics, Thompson responded to today's flourish with even a greater amount of ardor. After declaring the judge had no authority over him, the agitated attorney stormed out of the courtroom, according to witnesses. Before leaving, he filed a 14-page, 4,500-word objection with the court, in which he blasted the proceedings as a "non-hearing sanctions 'hearing'" and--in a rare move--referred to himself in the first person.

In his objection, Thompson accused Judge Tunis and the Florida Supreme Court of being complicit in a Watergate-esque cover-up of forged loyalty oaths, citing a new oath signed in February as proof. Delcared Thompson: "The consequence of all of this post facto oath-taking is that all that the Florida Supreme Court has done in this case is invalid and will be voided, and if you think I will not accomplish that end then a) you do not understand the lawsuit already filed, and b) you don't know Jack."

Thompson's objection also dismissed the enhanced disbarment ruling as invalid since it did not specifically spell out his offenses. "I have said it before, and I will say it again to you, and of course you will not listen, but the record must be made clear: You can't charge a lawyer and you can't charge a rapist with anything unless you tell him in the charging document with specificity--with facts alleged--what he has done."

In what may be one of his last acts for some time as a Florida lawyer, Thompson went on to accuse two law firms and former Florida governor Jeb Bush as being the hidden hands behind the court's move to disbar him. He named the firms Blank Rome, which represents Take-Two Interactive, and Tew Cardenas, former employer of one of Thompson's clients.

"I am to be punished for trying to save lives, over the objection of Blank Rome, which gives more money to the Bush family than any other law firm in the world," said Thompson, addressing the Judge Tunis and the Florida Supreme Court directly. "This is the Bush family that put you on this bench and whom you have protected by refusing to give me a subpoena that puts Jeb Bush under oath about his personal, financial relationship with the two law firms that are behind all of these Bar complaints, Tew Cardenas and Blank Rome. You are Jeb Bush's protector and shield from Jack Thompson, and you have discharged your sordid task in that regard effectively."

Finally, after comparing Judge Tunis and the Florida Supreme Court to earthworms, deeming the proceedings a "Star Chamber kangaroo court," and invoking the horrors of the Nazi Third Reich, Thompson compared his plight at the disbarment hearings to the infamous 1991 confirmation of US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

"Clarence Thomas, at his Senate confirmation hearings, spoke of those proceedings as 'a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the US Senate rather than hung from a tree.'"

"The US Senate, Referee Tunis, has nothing on you and your high-tech lynching of the uppity Christian who stands before you."

Hes now Banned from being a Lawyer for the next 10 years. WOW

I also Apologize for this "bump", but i think everybody deserves to hear this grand news upon us.

[SmJe]

Very good news indeed.

[cpnichol]

He reminds me of quite a few of these type of "moral" crusaders. They start out reasonable and may even have a decent point but end up obsessive, desperate and increasingly divorced from reality as their campaign takes over their life. His more recent legal actions against game companies and others just made him look like a loon.

Doing what you believe is right and taking on the rich, influential and powerful is something that I do respect, even if I don't agree with the reasons. The point where I lost all respect for him was after the V-Tech shootings, he straight away blamed violent computer games, despite there being zero evidence that the killer had ever played them. Using a massacre to forward your own personal agenda by lying and misleading the public is utterly reprehensible.

That's why I hope we've heard the last of him, but somehow I doubt it.

[deathscythe04]

too bad there is no such thing as perma ban in rl for ppl like that!

games are not the problem it is the state of mind of the person. people need to figure that out or there will be no f***ing end to this issue that games cause violence, the saying violence leads to violence doesn't apply as that deals with real violence leads to real violence

well atleast this nutjob wont be able to do what he was doing for 10 years