CALLING ALL FREEPER SLEUTHS TO THIS THREAD. Ping your sleuth friends, please. Thanks, FV gotta go to Hospice.
Super-sleuths requested!
Terri ping to 826! If anyone would like to be added to or removed from my Terri ping list, please let me know by FReepmail!
I cannot find any substantiation that he was a Pinellas County Judge. He was a 13th Circuit Court Judge, Hillsborough, not Pinellas
We need a cross check of George Greer and James Whittemore who is now going to hear Terri's case in Tampa at 3:00 pm today. DO THEY HAVE A PAST? WHITTEMORE USED TO BE A PINELLAS COUNTY JUDGE.
CALLING ALL FREEPER SLEUTHS TO THIS THREAD. Ping your sleuth friends, please. Thanks, FV gotta go to Hospice.
Chief judge looked into scandal
Judge F. Dennis Alvarez investigated on his own a case involving a fellow Hillsborough jurist.
By DAVID KARP
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 1, 2001
The JQC has opened an investigation into Alvarez's handling of Ficarrotta's affair. Ficarrotta resigned last year rather than face formal charges by the JQC.Alvarez had asked authorities to keep the documents released Wednesday secret. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement initially agreed, but released them when confronted with a public records request by the Times.
"All of this is history," Alvarez said. "I'm glad it's behind us."
Among the records released is an Aug. 25, 1999, letter from bailiff Pisano's attorney, Barry Cohen, to Alvarez that spells out the charges against Ficarrotta. Cohen said Ficarrotta accosted Pisano "in an intimidating, hostile manner" in a hearing room in front of then-Circuit Judge James Whittemore and his aide.
Whittemore, now a federal judge in Tampa, and his aide declined comment Wednesday.
According to the letter, Ficarrotta threatened to use his close relationship with the sheriff to damage Pisano's job and the job of her husband, who also works for the sheriff. Ficarrotta and the sheriff were social friends, and Ficarrotta raised money for the sheriff, Cohen wrote.
Cohen asked Alvarez to take immediate action to "end the harassment." He added that Alvarez would receive additional information that would "disgrace and discredit" Ficarrotta and the judiciary in general.
[snip]
Fort Myers Man Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison for Bush Threat
A Fort Myers man was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for mailing threats against President George Bush and other officials...Before Monday's sentencing, Perry asked U.S. District Judge James D. Whittemore to sentence him to life in prison. But Whittemore said that would violate federal guidelines and instead sentenced him at the high end of the sentencing range.
Can't find any connection to Pinellas Cty. According to what I've found, he's been in Hillsborough Cty.
For background - his comments in another case:
"Gerald Payne, 65, waved feebly to supporters as he was led out of the courtroom where U.S. District Judge James Whittemore handed down the sentence and chastised him as a "wolf in sheep's clothing."
"The fact that you used the world of God to perpetuate a fraud is absolutely despicable," Whittemore told Payne, who has suffered four strokes while in prison.
"You know and I know there are some Bible passages that address people who use the word of God to commit crimes. You are going to have plenty of time to study those passages."
An exasperated Whittemore then turned his attention toward Betty Payne, 61. Initially, the judge took about three years off her sentence after agreeing with defense arguments that Betty Payne had a lesser role in the scheme.
But Whittemore soon added a year back to the sentence when the 61-year-old woman parroted her husband's written statement protesting his innocence and claiming their rights had been violated in their 1999 arrest and conviction earlier this year.
"It's one thing to have blind faith, it's another to cast your self as a martyr for no apparent good," Whittemore told Betty Payne. "You have only yourself to blame. You're the one who got involved in this."
Gerald and Betty Payne founded Greater Ministries, an organization which fed the homeless and supported overseas missionaries more than a decade ago. Along with the prayers came investment programs that promised believers could double their money. Millions in cash flowed in to the church's Tampa headquarters.
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Whittemore- 3rd from left
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Background - comment he made in the Baptist minister's trial:
TAMPA -- Bernice Edwards came to court Friday with her hair coifed and her story well-rehearsed.
She left in handcuffs, returning to prison to serve nine months for violating terms of her probation.
"You are not an honest person," U.S. District Court Judge James D. Whittemore told Edwards, one-time aide to the now-imprisoned Rev. Henry Lyons and the former publicist for the National Baptist Convention USA.
I was just now able to log on...will look into it. I get the feeling we've done this before, though.