Judging the Judges: Donna Fields

It has been a difficult task to pick and choose what to use in this post, because there is so much regarding Judge Donna Fields. Below are three separate matters regarding Fields, the first discussing the fact that Judge Donna Fields has received one or more “private reprimands” from the Tennessee Court of the Judiciary. Given the nature of the reprimand(s), and her pattern of behavior that led to the complaints against her (one of which was mine), one wonders how a private slap on the wrist equates to justice.


The three items below are:

The first is a comment to a The Commercial Appeal article regarding a judge and the Tennessee Court of the Judiciary. The comment contains a link to the General Assembly with a video from hearings conducted by the Children and Family Affairs Committee regarding local judges and guardians ad litem. Judge Fields is mentioned several times by several women from Shelby County, which included a local attorney.

The second is a portion of a transcript of telephone conversations between attorney Gail Mathes and a woman regarding Judge Fields. Mathes states, among other things, that “But I -- I -- I totally think what she's doing is so evil and so wrong to people who are in front of her that I -- you know, I am -- I am appalled. She -- listen, in one of my other cases where domestic violence is involved she -- she almost found me in contempt because I was so confrontational. She's determined not to let women in those cases be acknowledged. She -- she has a sick, sick block there and -- and she should not be allowed to sit on the Bench with that kind of impediment.”

The third is a Motion for Recusal that was filed after Judge Fields learned about the proceedings before the General Assembly and then had an assistant obtain tapes of the hearing during which two litigants with active cases in her courtroom testified. Judge Fields refused to transfer the cases to another judge.


FIRST

From: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/apr/17/judiciary-panel-reprimands-shelby-county-judge-bla/

April 21, 2009
3:29 p.m.
Linda_Wagner writes:

There are very serious problems with the TCOJ. For one, the investigators there have been COVERING UP for CORRUPT "judges" for decades. Don Ash has been with the TCOJ as far back as 1999. Why did it take to long for this judge to be reported and disciplined? The sad thing about this judge and the judges Ash has recently reprimanded in Nashville (Channel 5, Don Williams has written the articles) is the fact that these judges have done little compared to the actually CORRUPT judges in this deadly state and I can only speak for civil court. Both the TCOJ and TBPR need to be investigated and Tennessee lawmakers can't claim ignorance when it comes to corrupt Tennessee "judges".

Just click on the links below and you will be able to watch the testimonials of victims from Middle and West Tennessee (the 2/20/08 testimonies begin at about 35:00 into the meeting, the CEO of the Big Brothers Big Sisters is first and is very good). There should have been victims from East Tennessee as well but unfortunately the East Tennessee lawmakers are CORRUPT as well. Victims in East Tennessee have been filing highly merited complaints against the very CORRUPT mockery of a "judge", bill swann, since at least 1993. He is on his fourth or fifth marriage (give or take a marriage) and was found in CONTEMPT OF COURT for failing to pay his own COURT ORDERED CHILD SUPPORT yet he is a "family law judge" presiding over custody and support cases. All of his personal court files are SEALED and it is rumored to protect HIM. This is the link to a press release on him:

http://terryfrank.net/wp-content/uplo...

As for the Memphis area, "judge" donna fields is one of the judges the victims gave testimony on. Four of the victims file formal complaints and all four actually had to re-file a second complaint because "TCOJ cover up champion/investigator", joe riley, "lost" the first formal complaints;all FOUR of them. Each victim received their letters from don ash in which fields was allegedly privately reprimanded. So while the great lawmakers of the deadly state of Tennessee continue to file their worthless bills, innocent children and parents will needlessly continue to suffer. I'm convinced the lawmakers won't take any action against the judicial corruption because it would implicate too many judges and some of them are within the Tennessee Supreme Court. This would rightfully rank Tennessee number one in the nation as far as political corruption goes. The people need to remember this come next election. Enough is enough.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ju...
http://moe.legislature.state.tn.us/Ho...
http://moe.legislature.state.tn.us/Ho...
http://michaelfirestone.org/pdf/bw_20...
http://moe.legislature.state.tn.us/Ho...


SECOND

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF TENNESSEE
FOR THE THIRTIETH JUDICIAL DISTRICT AT MEMPHIS
______________________________________________

KURT ARTHUR MUELLER,

Plaintiff,

VS.                  No. CT-006651-03
                        Div. VII
MELANIE CAROL (CROSBY) MUELLER,
Defendants.

______________________________________________
TAPE TRANSCRIPTION
OF
GAIL MATHES and CAROL CROSBY
January 24, 2007
...
MS MATHES: … But, you know, what I'm going to say to
18 you is: If -- if -- if I were unique in the
19 circumstances of this Judge [JUDGE DONNA FIELDS] I would agree with
20 this evaluation, but I'm not. Her treatment of
21 women who are victims of domestic violence is
22 consistent. It is consistently in denial that
23 the women are the victim. And all I'm going to
24 say is something happened in her life where she

1 can't admit it. I think her patterns are very
2 clear. I mean, I know of four cases where she
3 has ignored the domestic violence and claimed it
4 didn't occur.
…

MS. MATHES: … Well, I think she [JUDGE DONNA FIELDS] has
8 some personal incidents that have occurred in her
9 life that she's either in denial about or
10 whatever. I truly do, Carol. I think she -- I
11 don't know what's happened to her. See, I told
12 you she waited for years to marry and didn't have
13 children. And, I don't know, maybe she couldn't
14 have, but I don't know what her story is. But
15 I'm telling you that she is treating other women
16 the same way she has treated Melanie.
…

5 MS. MATHES: And she did. And I'm
6 telling you she [JUDGE DONNA FIELDS] is -- there is something really
7 wrong with her, and it's very disturbing the
8 power she has and what she's doing to women and
9 children.
…

MS. MATHES: We had a Judge who wouldn't listen and she
14 focused on the same kind of bogus stuff that the
15 Judge did in the He case [JUDGE ROBERT CHILDERS]. And, you know, when
16 you've got a Judge who does that, who is
17 determined to create a result that is
18 inconsistent with the proof, there's nothing you
19 can do. I mean, it wouldn't have mattered what I
20 had proven, in my opinion. It would have come
21 out the same way. But we proved the real guts of
22 the case and the Judge [JUDGE DONNA FIELDS] totally ignored it.
…

MS. MATHES: What I'm trying to say
14 to you is that you can't -- I mean, it's like in
15 the He case, if you focus on the things that the
16 stupid Judge [JUDGE ROBERT CHILDERS] focused on, then the Hes would lose.
17 I mean, the fact is that the Judge [JUDGE DONNA FIELDS] paid no
18 attention to the proof in this case. She wanted
19 the result that came about.
…

MS MATHES: … But I -- I -- I totally think
10 what she's doing [JUDGE DONNA FIELDS] is so evil and so wrong to
11 people who are in front of her that I -- you
12 know, I am -- I am appalled.
13 She -- listen, in one of my other
14 cases where domestic violence is involved she --
15 she almost found me in contempt because I was so
16 confrontational. She's determined not to let
17 women in those cases be acknowledged. She -- she
18 has a sick, sick block there and -- and she
19 should not be allowed to sit on the Bench with
20 that kind of impediment.


THIRD

(My scanner is not working properly.  As soon as I have the problem resolved, I will post the actual motions).

After Judge Fields learned of the testimony of several women at the General Assembly (mentioned in the first section, above), she had an assistant contact the General Assembly and ordered tapes of the testimony. Two of the women had active cases in her courtroom. Judge Fields made flippant comments from the bench in open court regarding the two women's appearance at the General Assembly. At this point, Judge Fields should have had the two cases transferred to another judge because of the appearance of bias. Judge Fields REFUSED to transfer the cases.