Former Philadelphia Lawyer Jailed On Civil Contempt Charges Freed After 14 Years

[WSJ_law_blog]

Forgive us for being a little late with this post, but we couldn’t pass it up.

H. Beatty Chadwick, a former Philadelphia-area lawyer, who has been behind bars for nearly 14 years without being charged, was let go on Friday. (HT: ABA Journal) If the name sounds familiar, that’s because our own Ashby Jones wrote about Chadwick earlier this year as part of an article on the murky world of civil contempt.

In some states, judges face few restrictions on how long someone can be held in civil contempt, which is aimed to force behavior such as making a witness testify, compelling a journalist to reveal sources or strong-arming a parent into paying child support. Numerous individuals have spent years in jail without ever being charged with a crime.

In Chadwick’s case, in 1994 a Delaware County judge held him in contempt for failing to put $2.5 million in a court-controlled account. Chadwick says he lost the money in bad investments; his wife’s attorney claimed he had hidden it offshore. In 1995, Mr. Chadwick was arrested and detained.

After multiple efforts by Chadwick, now 73 years old, Judge Joseph Cronin of Delaware County determined that his continued incarceration had lost its coercive effect and would not result in his turning over the money. It is believed to be the longest imprisonment on a civil contempt charge in U.S. history.

“He’s not bitter, he’s happy to be out,” Chadwick’s attorney, Michael Malloy, told the Philly Daily News.

While we’re on the subject of contempt, a California patent lawyer may face two days in jail for criminal contempt of court because he allegedly tried to prejudice a jury in a patent case. Here’s the story from the Recorder.

During jury selection in federal court in Texas’s eastern district, lawyer John van Loben Sels, repping Beyond Innovation Technology Co., asked potential jurors on July 6 if they had “a problem with a company that puts its headquarters offshore on a Caribbean island in order to avoid paying U.S. taxes.” He was referring to his adversary in the case, O2 Micro.

The judge had a problem with the question because he had prohibited Beyond Innovation’s lawyers from saying anything about O2 Micro’s tax haven home in the Cayman Islands, as it had nothing to do with the patent case.

Van Loben Sels, according to the Recorder, hasn’t served his time yet because the judge said that if he behaves the rest of the way, the sentence could be dropped. The judge also granted a motion for a mistrial by O2 Micro, repped by Howrey, and hit Beyond Innovation and its lawyers with sanctions.

[chicago]

Very interesting case indeed... see other people's comments from the wall street jurnal's blog below...


3:21 pm July 14, 2009
Anonymous wrote:
And the left is claiming that a terrorist cannot be detained indefinitely without being charged? Any possibility that we can charge the detainees at Gitmo with civil contempt?
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3:28 pm July 14, 2009
Not just in China wrote:
He was lucky not to have been subjected to waterboarding .
Is be detained indefinitely without being charged , a form of humam right violation ?
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4:01 pm July 14, 2009
14 years is unconstitutional wrote:
This is what happens when you let the courts get away with claiming some sort of “inherent” power to do something. It will be abused. This particular inherent power to punish for contempt is disturbing and really should send chills down the libertarian spine because it involves the strongest power the government has–the power to throw you in jail.

This guy should’ve been allowed a trial by jury under a law previously passed by Congress/the state legislature governing contempt. Judges should not have this much power.
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5:22 pm July 14, 2009
anonymous wrote:
Pretty sure that is NOT a picture of Chadwick.
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5:33 pm July 14, 2009
give me a break wrote:
Fools…There is more to this story. Of which, I do not know. However, it is not possible for a lawyer to sit in jail for 14 years over a simple contempt charge.



Source:
Man Jailed On Civil Contempt Charges Freed After 14 Years - Law Blog - WSJ

The longest running civil contempt sanction in US federal court history is the case of Stephan Lawrence. It is now 10 years running, and still continuing. It is also the strangest case of all since most of its history was concealed for many years in "sealed" and "off-the-docket" court papers and hearings, so most of its true history is not known. There is a pending Petition for Writ of Certiorari in the Supreme Court that presents considerable missing information previously unpublicized, of great interest to civil libertarians. It can be viewed at: supreme court certiorari petition

Additional, extraordinary information, not previously known or disclosed, is contained in: 09-07-30 petition for reconsideration-rehearing