Posted on 04/27/2006 9:28:28 PM PDT by SmithL
Knox County Chancellor John Weaver has angrily slammed lawyer Herbert S. Moncier in connection with the many term limits-related legal actions Moncier has pending.
In a ruling issued late Wednesday, Weaver said that Moncier has filed pleadings that contain "false" statements and are a "gross violation of the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure."
"Mr. Moncier has shown an egregious disregard and disrespect for this court and the judicial system," Weaver said.
Those comments - and more - are contained in Weaver's ruling, filed late Wednesday, that states Moncier cannot get involved in a lawsuit filed last week by five incumbent Knox County commissioners.
That lawsuit seeks to invalidate the Knox County Charter's term-limits provision that prohibits 12 incumbent commissioners from serving. Moncier represents clients in a series of lawsuits claiming that the term limits are valid and apply not only to commissioners, but to many other officeholders, including Sheriff Tim Hutchison.
Moncier had sought permission to make a "special appearance" in the five commissioners' lawsuit on behalf of his clients, County Commissioner John Schmid, former county commissioner Bee DeSelm, Knox County Democratic Chairman Jim Gray, and Carl Seider, a write-in candidate for the Republican nomination for sheriff.
He also sought to disqualify Weaver and County Law Director Mike Moyers from the case and for his clients to be appointed to "represent the interest of the public, taxpayers and voters of Knox County" in the case.
"Mr. Moncier seeks to represent his clients and also the other side," Weaver said.
The filings not only violate procedural rules, but "constitute officious and unauthorized meddling with this case, as well as the docket and business of this court," Weaver said. "Mr. Moncier has used court documents as vehicles to impugn this court and others and to convey contempt, insult, disrespect and professional discourtesy for this court. (He) has now progressed to interposing himself and his invectives into a case before this court in which (he) has no involvement or participation."
Weaver said Moncier's motion to disqualify him from the case "contains a false statement that this court has been contacting Mr. Moncier's opposing counsel in other cases and makes the impertinent suggestion, without substantiation, that someone in the clerk and master's office has been contacting the news media," Weaver wrote. "Mr. Moncier has repeatedly forum shopped for this particular judge and then sought to disqualify him."
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