A Message from Chuck Estok, the Mayor's Brother

This is the body of the message that I received. I have added, in IN RED, a few corrections and additions only for the sake of clarity. My apology in advance for taking this liberty. My comments will be added as a "COMMENT”. The letter follows.

Subject: “Take A Look At This”

Take a look at a few. You should of showed up there at court and saved the coffee shop rumors.

Willie Ritchie, mother of Suedell Manns, said her daughter (who is Suedell Manns and who is confined to a nursing home) couldn’t read or write, yet Suedell Manns' application and actual ballot bears a signature better than mine. Footnote: Marlene Chambers (wife of candidate Rick Chambers) signed said application for absentee ballot, under penalties of perjury, that she witnessed Suedell Manns sign said application. How does this square?

Mike Summey stated he did not sign any application or ballot in election because he lives in Culver, Indiana and did not vote. Jimmy Summey said he signed his brother Mike’s application for an absentee ballot because Marlene Chambers brought the application to his house and said that he could sign brother Mike’s name to the application and he would not get in any trouble. We still don't know who signed the "actual ballot" because it doesn't match the application signature that Jimmy forged or Mike Summey or Jimmy Summey's signature and Jimmy said he did not ever see the actual ballot. ?

Kenneth VanAsdall, who lives in Ober, Indiana, stated that he got his application from his father Jeff VanAsdall and Jeff Vanasdal stated Marlene Chambers gave him the application, and I believe Jeff stated that Marlene Chambers said that his son Kenneth could vote even if he lived outside the city limits.

Charlie Barnett stated he stated he lived in Walkerton and that he got his application from Rick Chambers’ father Buzz who he has worked with (both Rick and his father) for years.


Chris McFarland said that she received her application to vote absentee from Marlene Chambers who brought it to her house and that Marlene also made a point to inform her not to forget that her brother Bobbie worked for Rick's father Buzz. Chris said she felt bribed.

A Great Day For the Starke County Election Board

The Estok vs Starke County Election Board lawsuit resulted in a very, very close examination of the proceedings of the Election Board. After perhaps hundreds of hours of investigation there was only ONE “possible” problem. ONE Absentee Ballot Application had a signature that didn’t match the voter registration card. Even in this case, the actual ballot had a signature that seemed to match the registration. So this ONE problem is most likely not even moot.

This is astounding! This is GREAT work by our election board. I’ll find out the names and post them later. Or if you know who these people are, please let me know.

A Very Sad Day in Starke Circuit Court

....... Justices of the Indiana Supreme Court .......

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The 2nd day of the Estok vs Starke County Election Board and Chambers was over before lunch. The witnesses for Estok were an unmitigated disaster and Attorney Bedrock had to give up. The defendants, the Election Board and Chambers, were somewhat at a loss as to how to mount a defense because no evidence whatsoever was offered up against them. So the defense rested without calling any witnesses. My guess is that Estok will lose his suit and, furthermore, he will be found guilty of bringing a frivolous action and will be required to pay the legal fees of everybody.

The really sad thing: 50 completely innocent voting citizens, good citizens, were hauled into court, some lost 2 days of work, some old folks were frightened out of their minds. Read the comment posted to the earlier blog, A Hilarious Day In Starke Circuit Court. This witness is pissed and by God he should be! Most of these witnesses swore that they would never vote again. That would be a mistake. Mr. Chambers is a fine candidate for the job of Mayor. Chambers was not in the least little bit responsible for this mess. Please vote for him in the fall election. Please don't let these assholes get you down.

The witnesses might consider action. Mr. bedrock was not prepared for court. He did not have the order of his witnesses prepared. The witnesses had to wait 2 days, and then many were never called. I think that there is certainly the possibility that this could be construed lawyer misconduct.

And if there is any witness out there that was called into court and was interviewed outside the courtroom the day of the trial and then Mr. Bedrock decided not to call you, well…that might be even worse misconduct. In any case if you feel abused, it is because you were. Legally, you were abused.

Please contact:
Indiana Supreme Court
Disciplinary Commission
Donald R. Lundberg, Executive Secretary
115 W. Washington St., Suite 1165
Indianapolis, IN 46204

Or go to : http://www.in.gov/judiciary/discipline/complaining.html

Or click right here and download a Request for Investigation Form.

Back to School Night at Knox High

A beautiful young lady in her first year at university.

Begging your pardon, I’ve decided to start with a digression. 2 days ago a certain Leslie ("The lady doth protest too much, methinks.") accused me of "lik[ing] to hear their (sic) own words, more than anything else". Indeed a serious accusation, to which I must plead guilty in order to maintain my reputation for complete honesty under all circumstances. Now I shall indulge.

I used the word “arras” as a vocabulary teaser in the introduction to that blog. My first encounter with arras was as a quite young lady, playing hide and seek, pirate style, sword in hand, with my father. I had taken up a clever ambush behind some floor-length draperies. Being both quite adept at discovering my hiding places and well-read in Shakespeare, he nearly instantly poked his foil into my midsection exclaiming, “How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead! I’ll stab her through this arras!” Daddy was nearly right on, except that the weave in question was jacquard not tapestry. (certainly, at best, a quibble)

Decades later and ago I found myself babysitting one of those required and exceedingly dreadful freshman English composition courses at a private university here in Indiana. Hamlet was required reading. Heaven Forfend! (btw from Othello and also a rare example of the optative mood). Shakespeare wasn’t a class favorite believe you me. To make up for the difficult reading, we avoided making the students write. So the test was multiple-choice. Defining “arras” was one of the brilliant questions devised by the English department to test Shakespearian competence. Most students chose b) “a ceremonial sword”. Of course most students choose b) when they don’t know the answer so I didn’t take that to mean they actually thought it was a sword. c) “a wide curving staircase” was also a big hit, but then again, c is always a popular choice, just behind b in fact. I remember a young man, bright and shiny-faced expressing his disgust with being expected to know such a thing as arras. He had guessed b and got a d. I was amused. And I remain as much these many years later. Evidently his father wasn't a Shakespearean swashbuckler as was yours truly.

Digression over: back to Back to School Night at Knox High School. A father of an incoming 9th grader made the unwise choice of taking his child to this evening event. He was disgusted. The facility was dirty. The Principal was hostile. The teachers were not engaged. This father, having come up through private schooling, was expecting teacher presentations, syllabi, and a rulebook. One teacher did hand out a sheet of paper directing the students to bring pencil and paper to the first class. (Indeed! I think that is a good idea!) Perhaps if the school administration puts their heads together they might imagine some better scenario for this event. In any case, welcome to Knox High, home of the Redskins.

A Hilarious Day In Starke Circuit Court

Sometimes a man who deserves to be looked down upon because he is a fool is despised only because he is a lawyer. Montesquieu, Persian Letters, XLIV, 1721

Our forefathers built a massive and imposing courthouse, a neo-Gothic monument of immense monolithic sandstone blocks, towering far above the swamps and prairies, fully intending to awe the ‘bacco-slobbering proletariat farmers and their God-fearing womenfolk with the grandeur of the primacy of law in our great republic’s grand constitutional scheme. Of course, politics being what it was and still remains, they had to throw in a few bas-relief sculptures of idealized Yankee soldiers and some silly decorative mythological bric-a-brac, to satisfy the tastes of some pompous politician’s wife. So the message got a bit diluted. But it didn’t matter really; those aforementioned proletariats were not going to be much impressed given that the tenants of the building were the usual mix of small town politicians and their patronage buddies, and that the place swarmed with pettifoggers intent on flailing these self same proletariats (which were well-aware of the general scheme of things). Yesterday, yet again, and hopefully for a long time to come, this archetypal American drama was played out.

Yesterday began Mayor Estok’s lawsuit against the Starke County Election Board and Mr. Chambers, his one-time police chief and later mayoral opponent. I was quite amused to see that this played out exactly as one would expect. Mr. Bedrock (treated in yesterday’s blog), is the lead attorney for His Honor. It seems Bedrock has a truly astounding 50 or so witnesses to call. The courtroom set-up is a little bit unusual as there are 3 attorney tables, 1 each for His Honor, Mr. Chambers, and the Election Board. This is a bench hearing so there is no jury.

Early on the Election Board requested the order of witnesses from the plaintiff’s attorney (Bedrock). This is routine courtroom stuff. The defending attorneys need to have their papers in order and plan cross-examination, etc, just to keep things moving. Well Mr. Bedrock had no evident plan for calling witnesses other than jumble of paperwork for 50-some witnesses. BTW, this didn’t seem to be some clever pretense of incompetence as one might expect in an ancient B&W Perry Mason episode. Remember, there is no jury to impress with the bumbling. And indeed it seems that this bumbling will cause the trial to go on extra days.

One typical witness called by Estok/Bedrock:
Q. When do you have to leave for work?
A. 6:15AM
Q. So why did you cast an absentee ballot? You could have voted at 6:00AM.
A. Well I thought there might be a line and it might take more than 15 minutes.
Q. So you committed a fraud! You could have got in line at 5:00AM and been first in line. You did not need to vote absentee.
A. Gosh. I have always done this in every election and nobody said anything before.

Another witness:
Q. You don’t sleep in Knox do you?
A. No. I am caring for my sick mother at night, out of town.
Q. So you live with your Mother.
A. Well, I guess. But I used to live with my Father in Knox and my stuff is at his house. And I come home to Knox every day and spend the day helping him out because he needs assistance just like my Mom.
Q. So you committed fraud! You aren’t living in Knox.
A. Jeeze. I’ve been going back and forth for years and have voted in 3 or 4 elections and nobody ever said anything. I’m sorry.
Then came the cross examination from the Election Board:
Q. When Mr. Estok’s investigator talked to you where did he find you?
A. At my Dad’s house in Parkview.
Q. Where did they serve you the summons to appear in court?
A. At my Dad’s house, here in Knox.
Q. So, it sems they know where you live?
A. Yah.

Then there was the attempt to get witnesses to say they had been intimidated:
Q. So did you feel pressured to vote for Mr. Chambers when his wife brought you the absentee ballot?
A. No, no! She was very nice. She answered all my questions and never suggested I vote for anybody. She was very patient and helpful.
Q. Didn't you find it odd that the wife of the candidate appeared at your house?
A. Oh no. When Mr. Chambers came to my house I asked him for help and he said that his wife or daughter or maybe some other volunteer would bring me the absentee ballot materials. No. The only time there was trouble was when that investigator for Mr. Estok came to the house and told me I could go to jail for breaking the law……
Bedrock: OBJECTION! Your Honor. I did not ask this witness anything about that!
Election Board: Your Honor! It’s his witness!
Judge. Ha. Ha. Ha. Let’s just move it along, please.

Very entertaining stuff. You should attend. Better than CSI.

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

Eugène Delacroix, Hamlet and His Mother (ca. 1830)
Vocabulary word for the day: arras. (Hint: It's in the picture)


A person claiming, perhaps purporting, to be the daughter of “the so-called "idiot attorney" sent the following comment. Towards the end you will see that I have deleted a person’s name that is not connected with this blog. I have (parenthetically) inserted some comments in RED.

Leslie "Idiot" Bedrock has left a new comment on your post "Lawyers I Have Known and Hated, Part 1":

Hello Ms or Mrs. Cross, whichever it may be, although I feel quite stupid writing this to you, knowing that you're not a real person and you're hiding behind a woman's pen name. Oh well, I guess it's very easy to hide with your tail between your legs when you're putting down others on the Internet. (My name, like it or not, is Marian Cross. Why is that a problem with you?)

I am the daughter of the so-called "idiot attorney" and, while I believe you have a Constitutional right to speak and write whatever you please and desire, I feel that you are misinformed and are, in fact, what you call my father and the Mayor. I believe that's what the literary world refers to as irony?? Maybe. (If you are saying I am an idiot, OK. You have had your say. But, I can assure you that my daughter won't be jumping to my defense. Perhaps this is because she would find it quite amusing that I would be called an idiot. Certainly she wouldn't feel the sensitivity that you feel. One might wonder what the cause of that sensitivity may be. Are we near a nerve perhaps?)

Now, you may argue that you know the law but you seem like someone who likes to hear their own words, more than anything else. You go on and on and on throughout this blog with superioristic words but you do nothing...nothing to change what you feel is wrong. You simply sit in front of your computer, typing your senseless words, all while hiding behind that little pen name you have. (I have read several great books lately. I wish very much that I had written them. If my words are senseless it certainly begs the question of why you choose to comment, eh? And, my dear, superioristic is not a word. Furthermore, I would suggest that some words are better than others, you know, have more precise meanings than simple words. I would hope that an attorney would be very sensitive to the use of words, you know, in contracts and stuff. I would think that sensitivity to this power of words would be something an attorney would carefully pass along to his children, if they were aware of it that is.)

You refer to the Mayor and my father as so-called "idiots" but here's the thing...something illegal DID in fact occur! People who did not live in the city limits voted and that's WRONG, whether it was one person or 100...it does not make any difference. (Ah. The degree of wrongdoing makes a great difference. There is an important difference between 1 and 100. In the case of 1 ballot or even 10, it is irrelevant to the outcome of the election and is not an indication whatsoever of systemic cheating. In fact, it is quite common for people to vote in the wrong precinct. It happens in every precinct in every election. I would venture a wild guess that 2 % of every vote cast in every election in America is in the wrong precinct. There is a saying from Voltaire, "The perfect is the enemy of the good." A belief in perfect justice is small minded. In any case, the Mayor and his attorney are simply fishing. They have no case. Ordinarilly they wouldn't care in the least. High minded? I doubt it.)

You ask the question in your ramblings of whether the Absentee Ballot Application states whether or not if an election is falsified will it be invalid. Now, let me ask you a question...WHY ON EARTH WOULD THE CITIZENS OF KNOX, INDIANA WANT SOMEONE WHO IS WILLING TO CHEAT, SO BLATANTLY, IN THE OFFICE FOR THE POSITION OF MAYOR!!!!??????? To me, this question is silly and I almost feel stupid or, dare I say, "idiotic"-like for asking it but with you, Ms or Mrs. Cross, I feel I must. Maybe, you should refer to me as "idiot daughter" because I'm obviously confused as well...Idiocy must run in the family, I guess. (The court brief on file did not accuse the Mayor's opponent of any wrongdoing. That is because that would be libel. And even your daddy knows that this is dangerous ground.)

In this country, we always talk about standing up for what's right and wrong...The Mayor and my Father are prime examples. I think it's commendable that someone is standing up to cheaters and making an argument. Maybe you should really look at what the "idiot Mayor" and the "idiot attorney" are doing and learn something. If you believe something is wrong, stand behind that opinion and not hide behind a fake name. (This paragraph is unintentionally quite amusing. and BTW, that last sentence; wasn't.)

As I come to the end of my thoughts on this matter, I notice that you have "comment moderation" enabled on your blog spot, which I also think is humorous. You are so opposed to any differing opinions from yours, you're censoring your own site. How humorous...again! I cannot get over how you must like the sound and sight of your own voice and words. (How odd. This is my blog, not everybody's. I print every comment if there is anything of merit being said. But, in fact, yes, I decide. Why not? What is wrong with that? If the editor of the South Bend Tribune doesn't print your letter to the editor is that censorship? No, of course not. You need to start thinking about the words that you use. They make you seem stupid. However, I have been told that you are a quite bright young lady. Maybe you have been hanging around the wrong people.)

Have a beautiful and blessed day, XXXXXX (erroneous name deleted by Knox Indiana), and I do hope that you learn from Mayor Estok and Mr. Bedrock. At least they stand up for what they believe in and do it using their real identity.

Sincerely,

Daughter of Idiot Attorney

just trying to clear my head

I'm back. I haven't looked at my email in a month or even thought about this blog. So sorry to the posters and my readers. Let's just say Knox Indiana has been on vacation.

Marian Cross