The attorney representing Alpharetta High School’s deposed student council president, Reuben Lack, has posted a lengthy reaction on his website to a federal judge’s decision to deny his motion for a temporary restraining order that would have reinstated Lack while his free speech suit against the school is litigated.

In his statement, Decatur attorney James Radford called U.S. District Judge Richard W. Story’s order denying the TRO “undeniably disappointing,” but acknowledged that TRO’s “are inherently tough to win.”

But, contrary to what he said were a number of inaccurate statements “made by news outlets and others” suggesting the case has been dismissed and is “over,” Radord said, “The case has not been dismissed and is, in fact, far from over.”

Lack, an 18-year-old senior who graduates in two months, sued the school after faculty advisers removed him as president within weeks after he began pushing the student council to make the junior-senior prom – particularly the selection of prom king and queen —  more friendly to gay and lesbian students.

Story found that among the 20 reasons faculty advisers gave for removing Lack were five that impinged constitutionally protected speech. But the judge said there were other reasons – including what teachers said was Lack’s failure to participate fully in Spirit Week prior to Homecoming (which he could not attend because of he was out of state with the school’s debate team) – that enabled them to strip Lack of the student council presidency without violating his free speech rights.

A federal judge in Atlanta has denied an Alpharetta High School student a temporary restraining order that would have reinstated him as student council president, finding that while some of the reasons he was removed from office involved constitutionally protected free speech – including his efforts to make the junior-senior prom royalty more inclusive to gays and lesbians – school officials made a case that they had other reasons for removing the student that did not infringe on his constitutional rights.

Alpharetta High senior Reuben Lack had argued that his First Amendment rights were violated after faculty advisers for the student council stripped him of the presidency – a post he had held for 10 months – two months before graduation. In a hearing Thursday, Lack’s attorney, James Radford, had argued that Lack was summoned to a meeting with his faculty advisers and told he was being removed as president a week after he had – for the second time—broached the subject of making the annual junior-senior prom more friendly to gay and lesbian teens who might want to vy for prom king or queen.

At Thursday’s hearing, the Fulton County school district’s attorney, Todd Hatcher, denied that Lack was removed from office for advocating in favor of gay and lesbian teens.

In a 12-page order handed down Friday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Richard W. Story held that five of the 20 reasons school officials cited for removing Lack from office involved constitutionally protected speech. They included reasons associated with an exchange of off-campus Facebook messages with another student and his promotion of the school debate team in a speech to incoming freshmen. School officials had claimed Lack had unfairly vilified the school principal on Facebook when he said she had “shot down” a school President’s Council, and that he had engaged in an “abuse of power” when he promoted membership in the school debate club, in which he was active, during a speech.

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A former lawyer, disbarred by the Supreme Court of Georgia in 2009,  was arrested today on charges that he stole money from clients while acting as their closing attorney in real estate transactions, according to federal prosecutors in Atlanta.

Neal Landers, 45, of Duluth, has been charged with wire fraud, money laundering, bank fraud and making false statements in connection with more than $1.5 million in funds that he is accused of siphoning from real estate transactions he handled.

“This defendant is charged with running a Ponzi scheme out of his law firm, often using the proceeds from real estate transactions for his own personal benefit rather than the business purpose for which they were intended,” said Sally Quillian Yates, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta.

According to federal prosecutors and a federal indictment, Landers – beginning in 2007 – misappropriated funds that were transferred to his escrow account for disbursement after property sales were closed.  According to the indictment, Landers should have disbursed the funds as soon as the sales were closed but, instead, disbursing the funds for weeks and sometimes months at a time. Landers then allegedly used the funds to pay parties in real estate deals that he had previously closed, according to the indictment.

The former lawyer has also been charged with  improperly transferring funds from his firm escrow account to his personal checking account to pay for a variety of personal expenses, federal prosecutors said.

Landers could face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a fine as high as $1 million.

Judge Akeley-Alderman. Photo from Facebook Group "Re-Elect Judge Lynn Alderman"

In her resignation letter to Gov. Nathan Deal, Chief Superior Court Judge Lynn Akeley-Alderman said she had thought about leaving the bench for several months but that her decision was delayed “by the recent departure of another judge.”  Her letter gave no reason for her resignation, which  is effective at 11:59 p.m. Friday.

But in a report filed Tuesday with the Supreme Court of Georgia, the JQC  said Akeley-Alderman resigned after the commission began investigating her in connection with allegations that she  had engaged in improper communications with another judge about a Dahlonega drug dealer’s case and had attempted to use the prestige of her office on the drug dealer’s behalf.

In a consent order Akeley-Alderman signed to end the JQC investigation, she also agreed to a prohibition permanently barring her from holding a judicial post.

Akeley-Alderman took over as the Enotah Circuit’s chief judge following the sudden retirement last month of  Chief Superior Court Judge David E. Barrett. Barrett announced his retirement in the midst of a JQC investigation after he pulled a gun in open court and admonished a witness who was testifying that she was “killing” her own case and “might as well shoot [her] attorney.”

Neither Akeley-Alderman nor her attorney, Joshua Belinfante, could be reached for comment immediately.

Federal judges in Atlanta have sentenced an employee with the U.S. Education Department in Atlanta and a former Navy seaman for their involvement – in unrelated cases – in the child pornography trade, federal prosecutors in Atlanta announced late today.

U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. sentenced Joseph Butler, 66, of Clarkston – a career employee at the education department, to 10 years for collecting child pornography using his government computer, prosecutors said.

On Monday, U.S. District Chief Judge Julie E. Carnes sentenced former U. S. Navy seaman Spencer Duncan, 23, of Lawrenceville to six years and six months in prison.

According to U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates, Butler used his work computer at the Education Department to download child pornography from the Internet. Federal agents who searched Butler’s home as part of the child pornography investigation last year found CD-ROMs of child pornography he had downloaded while at work as well as a collection of stories he had written describing in graphic detail children having sex with adults and animals, prosecutors said.

In the other case, Duncan was caught after an undercover FBI agent downloaded sexually explicit photos of children from Duncan’s computer after he made his child pornography photo collection available on a peer-to-peer file sharing network on the Internet.

“These two cases,” Yates said, “illustrate the important point that consumers and purveyors of child pornography can be found everywhere. Both defendants had worked in service to our country and yet were collecting or distributing photographs of children being sexually abused.”

Both men will be required to register as sex offenders when they are released from federal prison.

A federal grand jury in Atlanta has indicted another  executive of a national children’s clothing company, charging him with securities fraud, causing false financial statements to be filed and falsifying the books and records of a public company.

The grand jury charged Joseph Pacifico, 62, of Atlanta – the former president of Carter’s Inc. (which includes the well-known Osh Kosh B’Gosh brand) – as part of a superceding indictment that
includes additional charges against Joseph M. Elles, Carter’s former executive vice president of in charge of sales.

A federal grand jury indicted Elles last September on charges that parallel allegations in a civil lawsuit against Elles brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Elles, who has entered a not guilty plea, was charged with securities fraud, wire fraud, filing false financial statements and falsifying corporate books and records.

View the U.S. attorney’s press release.

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid is attempting to end long-running Senate filibusters on 17 pending federal judicial nominations by filing a motion for cloture. If 60 Senators agree, the nominations can be put to a vote on the Senate floor.  The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee said Reid is seeking a cloture vote on the following federal judicial nominees:

• Gina Marie Groh, of West Virginia, to be US District Judge for the Northern District of WV;
• David Nuffer, of Utah, to be US District Judge for the District of UT;
• Michael Walter Fitzgerald, of California, to be US District Judge for the Central District of CA;
• Ronnie Abrams, of New York, to be US District Judge for the Southern District of NY;
• Rudolph Contreras, of Virginia, to be US District Judge for the District of Columbia;
• Miranda Du, of Nevada, to be US District Judge for the District of NV;
• Susie Morgan, of Louisiana, to be US District Judge for the Eastern District of LA;
• Gregg Jeffrey Costa, of Texas, to be US District Judge for the Southern District of TX;
• David Campos Guaderrama, of Texas, to be US District Judge for the Western District of TX;
• Brian C. Wimes, of Missouri, to be US District Judge for the Eastern and Western Districts of MO;
• Kristine Gerhard Baker, of Arkansas ,to be US District Judge for the Eastern District of AR;
• John Z. Lee, of Illinois, to be US District Judge for the Northern District of IL;
• George Levi Russell, III, of Maryland, to be US District Judge for the District of Maryland;
• John J. Tharp, Jr., of Illinois, to be US District Judge for the Northern District of IL
• Jeffrey J. Helmick, of Ohio, to be US District Judge for the Northern District of OH
• Mary Geiger Lewis, of South Carolina, to be US District Judge for the District of SC; and
• Timothy S. Hillman, of Massachusetts, to be US District Judge for the District of MA.

Georgia State Attorney General Sam Olens has joined with the U.S. Justice Department and other state attorney generals across the nation in a civil complaint against the country’s five largest mortgage servicers that seeks a share of a $25 billion settlement, Olens announced Monday.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington , names as defendants Bank of America, Corp., JP Morgan Chase & Col, Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Ally Financial Inc. . It alleges that the banks’ misconduct “resulted in the issuance of improper mortgages, premature and unauthorized foreclosures, violation of service members’ and other homeowners’ rights and protections, the use of false and deceptive affidavits and other documents, and the waste and abuse of taxpayer funds.”

The civil complaint is an effort by state attorneys general to secure for their states a portion of a $25 billion settlement that the banks reached with  the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development last month.  The agreement ends multiple federal investigations involving allegations that the banks or their agents routinely signed foreclosure documents without knowing whether the information contained in the documents was correct.

For more information, see www.NationalForeclosureSettlement.com

At a seminar last week on how to become a federal judge, U.S. District Judges Richard W. Story and Thomas W. Thrash Jr.  gently ribbed each other about a time when Thrash – who was then in private practice – appeared before Story, who was then a Hall County Superior Court judge in Gainesville.

“I practiced in front of some fabulous judges, including Judge Rick Story,” Thrash said of his fellow Clinton appointee during the discussion.

“Who he got reversed,” Story interjected.

Replied Thrash: “I told you I would get you reversed.”

At another point during the event, hosted by and the American Constitution Society and McKenna Long & Aldridge, Story offered a look at his background.

“You don’t have to graduate from Harvard Law School” to be a federal judge, he said proudly. “You can be a little boy from Harlem, Georgia. Whose daddy ran a filling station.”

Story earned his undergraduate degree at LaGrange College and his law degree at the University of Georgia.  He was appointed to the federal bench by Clinton in 1998.

DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Clarence Seeliger  announced this week that he will seek re-election to the post he has he for 28 years.

“I have been honored to be on the DeKalb County bench … and if the citizens of DeKalb County agree, I would like to continue my service,” Seeliger said. “I am in good health, and I enjoy the work; it’s an honor to serve with such a fine Superior Court bench and the outstanding lawyers that practice in DeKalb County.”