Hot Bench - General Discussion

[patty1h]

Today's episode had Delton Shelton, blind pastor, and his case against his caregiver.  Besides his comical rhyming name, this was a bunch of foolishness.  Side note:  This guy is a pastor? I guess anyone creep off the street can call himself pastor.

I choose to believe he hired the defendant in the hopes that he might be able to get a bedmate, after hearing that he was kicked out of his previous place for bringing in prostitutes.    The defendant was equally venal, and I choose to believe she moved in her kids and others, thinking she was going to get over on a blind guy, but after all that mess, the pastor said the defendant's kids were still his friends(!).  They were both sketchy with their stories and facts, so I would have told both parties to get the hell out with zero because it was two vipers using each other.

[AZChristian]

Delton Shelton is a unique name.  His arrest record is interesting.  

[Carolina Girl]

19 hours ago, AZChristian said:

Delton Shelton is a unique name.  His arrest record is interesting.  

That's intriguing.  I really felt sorry for the guy and thought the defendant was  a bit of a scammer in the beginning, but that really changed.  Where's the police report on the missing TV?  And I have real trouble believing any police officer told him he had to let them break down his door to get their stuff.  He could just as easily have requested police be on site (because of his disability) when they entered the dwelling to take their items. 

I have a feeling this is another of those "set up" cases to get them a free trip to L.A. and some appearance fee and judgment cash.  "Oh, we're friends."  You ARE?  

[AngelaHunter]

On 9/15/2020 at 2:16 PM, patty1h said:

This guy is a pastor? I guess anyone creep off the street can call himself pastor.

I haven't seen this yet, but from what I've seen on court shows  - yes, anyone, no matter how illiterate or violent can call themselves a pastor or a reverend. Little aside: I was watching some evangelist on late-night TV last night who preached about how God planted a seed and it grew into the garden of Eden. Therefore, he advised everyone watching to plant a seed by way of sending him 1000$ and then their heart's desire would be theirs. Why, he knew a couple who wanted to buy a new house debt-free! They decided to plant that 1000$ seed by giving the cash to him. Amazingly, the next day an oil company offered to buy the couple's house for a huge sum because they somehow knew there was oil on the property. It's a miracle! 😆 Audience applauds. Some people deserve to get scammed.

Anyway, I was not impressed by how easy the judges went on the smirking, grinning, lying, face-and-neck tatted con artist Def. who thought this was all a joke and who let his friend pay the tow yard 1200-odd dollars to get his food van out of hock. He just can't seem to park legally (big smile aren't I cute?) and is so busy he had no time to pay the fines and hey! All those tattoos cost money. Besides, he did so much for P he feels they're even. He managed to get him the book value for his car when P sold it! The judges do not agree and make him pay the P, but JA adds how much they liked his smile. Really?? Did they really not see his major eye-roll as they gave their verdict? I hate when lowlifes don't get the spanking they deserve.

[Taeolas]

HB is burning off pre-COVID eps obviously. 

I just saw a promo after JJ for HB (advertising their TV station move in Boston to WSBK), and they clearly have a new bench with COVID spacing for the judges. The bench looked HUGE, with Judge Corriero lost in the background. 🙂 The camera was basically at one end, so Judge Acker is in the forefront (and giving the dialogue) with Judge DiMango in the middle. 

[AZChristian]

13 minutes ago, Taeolas said:

HB is burning off pre-COVID eps obviously. 

I just saw a promo after JJ for HB (advertising their TV station move in Boston to WSBK), and they clearly have a new bench with COVID spacing for the judges. The bench looked HUGE, with Judge Corriero lost in the background. 🙂 The camera was basically at one end, so Judge Acker is in the forefront (and giving the dialogue) with Judge DiMango in the middle. 

That's not a bad thing, though.

[DoctorK]

3 hours ago, Taeolas said:

with Judge Corriero lost in the background.

I wonder if he has to sit on a couple of phone books?

[AngelaHunter]

5 hours ago, AZChristian said:

That's not a bad thing, though.

The other two try to be polite while listening to his nonsense, then do their best to ignore him.

Today's case of the Heavenly Harley and the Trailer Trash Meth widow: The bleached widow in a low-cut dress P starts out smirking and her smile gets bigger and bigger as JA summarizes the case in which her abusive, meth-dealing ex-hubby croaks and it reaches a full-fledged, toothy grin as JA goes on to relate that her son, due to inherit this Harley, also died. P proceeds to laughing out loud as Defs, the mother and sister of the dead ex-hubby, describe how while he was incarcerated he declared the bike go to his Momma. Momma then sold the bike and due to community property laws. the Widow feels she should have it. By now P has such a case of the giggles JA has to warn her to shut up and control herself. This is all just so funny to her. ("You're all a mess!" JDiM says) OH, Def momma also bailed the P out of jail. Papa Mike wants to know if she was in jail for cooking meth. Oh, no! P declares. Of course not! It was nothing that bad. She was just arrested for child endangerment. No big deal. JC wants to know if that endangerment including having drugs in the house. P smiles and bats her lashes in a way she thinks is ingenuous. Yes, maybe her house blew up twice (Oh, I hate it when my house keeps blowing up!) but it had nothing to do with cooking meth. Anyway, Momma sold the bike for 4K and the question is if the widow should get at least half of that. Never mind the arrests, the incarcerations, the meth-blown up houses, the child abuse - the Harley is the main thing.

In chambers the judges note that the Grieving Widow didn't pay for any part of her late, lamented hubby's cremation and funeral and never paid back the bail Momma spent to spring her from the cooler (even though trying to claim that was way beyond the statute of limitations), so decide to give the witch nothing.

[zillabreeze]

On 9/20/2020 at 6:07 PM, AngelaHunter said:

I haven't seen this yet, but from what I've seen on court shows  - yes, anyone, no matter how illiterate or violent can call themselves a pastor or a reverend. Little aside: I was watching some evangelist on late-night TV last night who preached about how God planted a seed and it grew into the garden of Eden. Therefore, he advised everyone watching to plant a seed by way of sending him 1000$ and then their heart's desire would be theirs. Why, he knew a couple who wanted to buy a new house debt-free! They decided to plant that 1000$ seed by giving the cash to him. Amazingly, the next day an oil company offered to buy the couple's house for a huge sum because they somehow knew there was oil on the property. It's a miracle! 😆 Audience applauds. Some people deserve to get scammed.

Anyway, I was not impressed by how easy the judges went on the smirking, grinning, lying, face-and-neck tatted con artist Def. who thought this was all a joke and who let his friend pay the tow yard 1200-odd dollars to get his food van out of hock. He just can't seem to park legally (big smile aren't I cute?) and is so busy he had no time to pay the fines and hey! All those tattoos cost money. Besides, he did so much for P he feels they're even. He managed to get him the book value for his car when P sold it! The judges do not agree and make him pay the P, but JA adds how much they liked his smile. Really?? Did they really not see his major eye-roll as they gave their verdict? I hate when lowlifes don't get the spanking they deserve.

They're tolerating all kinds of irrelevant drama just to fill show minutes.  MM does, too IMHO.  Our CourtTV loving selves have to face reality.  There's a limited supply of legit litigants and a mess of court shows.

There's two OMG! deep night christer shysters that are jaw dropping.  The guy selling holy water for $ that makes all your wishes come true.  AND Jim Baker - after Tammy Faye and prison time - is selling buckets of doomsday vittles for the imminent Apocalypse.

Just like robo calls, it must be lucrative or they wouldn't do it.

[zillabreeze]

My other "oh stop it" beefs with the judges:   Quit tee-heeing and twittering everytime somebody refers to using weed!  Don't they film in Ca? Or even NYC? Legal.

Also, the mention of owning a firearm does not require all of that pearl clutching & feigned concern.  Normal folks have guns. 

[AngelaHunter]

11 hours ago, zillabreeze said:

Just like robo calls, it must be lucrative or they wouldn't do it.

Oh, it's beyond lucrative. No matter how many exposes are done, revealing them to be greedy, scamming monsters, people will still send them a steady stream of money. Most of these characters are very rich indeed  - the kind of rich that allows private planes and mansions in more than one place. One of them actually brags on his show how much money he has. Hey, you too can have as much as he has if you take up scamming plant that 1000$ seed (in his pocket)!They prey on the naive and the desperate people out there, promising cures for cancer and other deadly illness.

As for the judges: Yesterday we had a Def who said he bought tickets and reserved a hotel for him and his cousin, the P, to go to Japan to be disc jockeys(?). Def cousin took the 1400$ air fare from P, never bought the tickets, kept the money for himself and lied and lied about everything, both to the cousin and the judges. They found all this amusing, gently admonishing this shameless thief who scammed his own family member, in a "Now, that was not very nice, was it?" the way you might with a child who had taken more than his share of cookies.

[Taeolas]

Noticed at the start of today's new episode that there is a "This was filmed before COVID restrictions" message on the screen at the start of the episode. I don't know when they started doing it, but it's nice that they acknowledged it. I suspect we'll get to some post-COVID new episodes soon. 

[AngelaHunter]

I didn't care about the Mercedes case and only found it interesting that "Aleksandria" casually stated that she and P's witness - "Gennelle"(?) - are both prostitutes who met at the Bunny Ranch. But that's okay. They're in business, selling something, and presumably giving value for money unlike all the young skanks we see who bleed dirty old men for all kinds of money and gifts and never hold up their end of the bargain, i.e. letting the DOM get their liver-spotted hands on some young stuff. Dirty old men: Go to a place like the Bunny Ranch. They don't care how repulsive you are and at least you'll get your money's worth.

[AZChristian]

Totally disagreed with the judges on the second case of the woman who brought three large rolls of expensive fabric to a company to work with them on having custom chairs made.  $3,000.

When the company said they weren't the right company for her, they referred her to another company.  She texted, "Okay.  I'll be in to pick up my fabric."  They did NOT respond back, "What are you talking about?  You didn't leave any fabric here."  They responded, "We can't find it right now.   Give us some time until the end of the day when things calm down.  If it's here, we hope to find it then."

Judges found in favor of the defendant and gave the plaintiff nothing.  The defendant had a shit-eating grin on his face until he saw that the case was going his way.  Then we it started to look again like he was going to lose, the SEG came back.

I think Judge Milian would have ruled in favor of the plaintiff.

[JenMcSnark]

1 hour ago, AZChristian said:

Totally disagreed with the judges on the second case of the woman who brought three large rolls of expensive fabric to a company to work with them on having custom chairs made.  $3,000.

When the company said they weren't the right company for her, they referred her to another company.  She texted, "Okay.  I'll be in to pick up my fabric."  They did NOT respond back, "What are you talking about?  You didn't leave any fabric here."  They responded, "We can't find it right now.   Give us some time until the end of the day when things calm down.  If it's here, we hope to find it then."

Judges found in favor of the defendant and gave the plaintiff nothing.  The defendant had a shit-eating grin on his face until he saw that the case was going his way.  Then we it started to look again like he was going to lose, the SEG came back.

I think Judge Milian would have ruled in favor of the plaintiff.

Exactly, "if it's here" could mean anything from 'we used it for something else' to 'we accidentally threw it out' to ' our smarmy owner sold it'.  

[zillabreeze]

On 9/24/2020 at 4:38 PM, AngelaHunter said:

I didn't care about the Mercedes case and only found it interesting that "Aleksandria" casually stated that she and P's witness - "Gennelle"(?) - are both prostitutes who met at the Bunny Ranch. But that's okay. They're in business, selling something, and presumably giving value for money unlike all the young skanks we see who bleed dirty old men for all kinds of money and gifts and never hold up their end of the bargain, i.e. letting the DOM get their liver-spotted hands on some young stuff. Dirty old men: Go to a place like the Bunny Ranch. They don't care how repulsive you are and at least you'll get your money's worth.

Damn. Damn!  My antique DVR is full & starting to feel it's age!  Settled in and this epi was listed, but absent.  

I need to find the "DVR Hoarder" forum....

[AngelaHunter]

7 minutes ago, zillabreeze said:

Damn. Damn!  My antique DVR is full & starting to feel it's age!  Settled in and this epi was listed, but absent.  

I need to find the "DVR Hoarder" forum....

Don't fret. The case was not interesting at all except for the brief Bunny Ranch mention which was ignored. Just dumb girls fighting over some old Mercedes. You didn't miss anything.

[zillabreeze]

25 minutes ago, AngelaHunter said:

Don't fret. The case was not interesting at all except for the brief Bunny Ranch mention which was ignored. Just dumb girls fighting over some old Mercedes. You didn't miss anything.

I'd have liked it for a minute.  Years ago i went to NV to visit my BF (shout out to OldCrone)...

We drove out to the little legal brothel cul de sac where the Bunny Ranch sits, intending to just go to the gift shop.  They are NOT Miss Kitty's, Belle Watling's or Dolly Parton's whorehouses.   It's a cluster of trailers and shanty's... In broad daylight it felt creepy and oily even from the road..

I chickened out😂🤣😂

[AZChristian]

1 hour ago, AngelaHunter said:

Don't fret. The case was not interesting at all except for the brief Bunny Ranch mention which was ignored. Just dumb girls fighting over some old Mercedes. You didn't miss anything.

Several years ago, Judge Alex had two women from the Bunny Ranch as litigants.  The plaintiff swore she loaned some dresses to the defendant (and wanted them back), but the defendant said the dresses were a gift, given because "she knows I look a lot better in them than she ever could."

JA seemed unhappy with the lifestyle they had chosen and even asked, "How do your parents feel about your career path?"  I don't recall the answer.

Oh - and that greasy owner showed up as a witness for (I think) the plaintiff.  Looked to me like he was just hoping for some free advertising.

[zillabreeze]

2 minutes ago, AZChristian said:

Several years ago, Judge Alex had two women from the Bunny Ranch as litigants.  The plaintiff swore she loaned some dresses to the defendant (and wanted them back), but the defendant said the dresses were a gift, given because "she knows I look a lot better in them than she ever could."

JA seemed unhappy with the lifestyle they had chosen and even asked, "How do your parents feel about your career path?"  I don't recall the answer.

Oh - and that greasy owner showed up as a witness for (I think) the plaintiff.  Looked to me like he was just hoping for some free advertising.

I miss Judge Alex.  He was an excellent TV Court judge.  I hope his "Whistleblower" series pops up again.  That was damned interesting!

[AZChristian]

2 minutes ago, zillabreeze said:

I miss Judge Alex.  He was an excellent TV Court judge.  I hope his "Whistleblower" series pops up again.  That was damned interesting!

I follow him on FB.  He's "liked" a couple of the posts I responded to on his FB page!

[zillabreeze]

7 minutes ago, AZChristian said:

I follow him on FB.  He's "liked" a couple of the posts I responded to on his FB page!

🥰 His past cop career gives him a terrific bullshit meter.  I'd be all in for whatever he does next! 

[AngelaHunter]

1 hour ago, AZChristian said:

Oh - and that greasy owner showed up as a witness for (I think) the plaintiff.  Looked to me like he was just hoping for some free advertising.

That disgusting, moon-faced slimeball, Dennis Hoff? He thought he was a sex god because he had his pick of his stable of prostitutes who fought for his favours. Nothing to do with him paying them salaries, I guess, and his Chosen Ones got extra perks about which I'd rather not speculate. Yuck. They just couldn't resist his charms. Oh, well. Dennis has since gone to the big brothel in the sky.

2 hours ago, zillabreeze said:

 It's a cluster of trailers and shanty's... In broad daylight it felt creepy and oily even from the road..

I'm pretty sure the johns didn't care about the ambiance or decor. It was later upgraded and renovated to a more expensive but still as sleazy establishment, but I guess whorehouses are supposed to look that way.

1 hour ago, AZChristian said:

JA seemed unhappy with the lifestyle they had chosen and even asked, "How do your parents feel about your career path?" 

I used to sometimes watch this Bunny Ranch show on HBO. I know one of the girls had a mother who actually encouraged her career path and seemed pleased that her lovely young daughter was a successful prostitute. Unreal.

[SRTouch]

Wasted half hour dealing with this dog attack, but attack wasn't so bad it was worth getting up from the dinner table to turn it off. As with 99% of these cases the humans on both sides are in the wrong. P have some little dog, while D has a couple German Shepherds and some small breed. The supposed attacking dog was a German Shepherd which D says was chained to a tree in the front yard - no proof dog was chained up - dog should NOT have been chained while unattended, and D was ticketed for dog running loose..... but no proof it attacked the little dog other than rather iffy eyewitness testimony (but I would have accepted her testimony just cuz of D's attitude. P's daughter was walking to mailbox with her little dog unleashed. Big thing that turned me off P is her almost defiant statement that she drove around the neighborhood looking for D's dog hoping to running it over and kill it. I think I heard P threaten to shoot the dog, but, again, I was eating and remote was WAY over there. Incident took place around 11pm. P daughter says she first saw D's dog running from D yard when she first saw it, then it was 5 feet away, well, maybe 15 feet but D yard is across the street maybe she has no concept of distance. Part of D's defense is that they have coyotes in neighborhood - P says no way, no coyotes..... but, hey, Coyotes can live in suburbia just fine, with few actual sightings. I KNOW there are coyotes in the open fields on 3 sides of this trailer park because we sometimes hear them and I sometimes see them run across the road within a half mile of my trailer - but I have never seen one in the park - side note - we don't hear them nearly as much now since the guy running cattle started putting donkeys in the herd ...... ok, daughter swears it was D's unchained GS who attacked their unleashed dog, but her ID of dog not convincing to 2 out of 3 judges (JA would split the vet bills under shared liability but is outvoted). I would have been fine either way - P didn't prove the case but I hated smug D........ especially hated D when he tries to argue he lost 10 grand of contracting business when P accused him of being an irresponsible dog owner so he filed a 5 grand defamation claim

[AZChristian]

3 hours ago, SRTouch said:

Part of D's defense is that they have coyotes in neighborhood - P says no way, no coyotes..... but, hey, Coyotes can live in suburbia just fine, with few actual sightings. I KNOW there are coyotes in the open fields on 3 sides of this trailer park because we sometimes hear them and I sometimes see them run across the road within a half mile of my trailer - but I have never seen one in the park - 

This picture was taken in our back yard yesterday (September 27th).  We live in a mobile home community in Mesa, AZ (population 509,000, and part of a huge Phoenix megalopolis).  It is a coyote.  There were two of them.

[badhaggis]

1 hour ago, AZChristian said:

This picture was taken in our back yard yesterday (September 27th).  We live in a mobile home community in Mesa, AZ (population 509,000, and part of a huge Phoenix megalopolis).  It is a coyote.  There were two of them.

Yes I love in Tucson. They are everywhere.

[SRTouch]

21 hours ago, AZChristian said:

This picture was taken in our back yard yesterday (September 27th).  We live in a mobile home community in Mesa, AZ (population 509,000, and part of a huge Phoenix megalopolis).  It is a coyote.  There were two of them.

I actually followed up and read a couple articles on urban coyotes. A couple facts - coyotes mainly stick to their native diet - which is high on rodents - and according to studies eat very few pets - though cats are on the menu. Cats and coyotes usually live in separate areas of a city with cats closer to humans and coyotes mainly in green zones like wooded parks. One thing I didn't know - presence of coyotes is beneficial to song bird populations since their presence deters cats. I love my cats, but know that despite their fluffy/purring/fun loving nature they are still pretty efficient hunters. Given half a chance there would be NO birdies at the feeders. Check out this article on city coyotes

Edited September 29, 2020 by SRTouch

[AngelaHunter]

I've seen a coyote or two around here and even spotted a fisher cat once. FIsher cats do take house pets, but a coyote would have to be really hungry to tackle a cat, although small dogs seem to be on their menu.  Predators aren't keen to get injured by their dinners and big tomcats can do incredible damage.

I didn't see that ep. I saw a violent, vicious SSM, who is apparently a big fan of the Kardashians,  attack her SSM roommate - broke down a door, grabbed the D by the face and arm over nothing, so def moved out and broke the lease. Crazy P agrees with everything the judges scolded her about her outrageous and savage behavior - "I understand" she said but JDiM didn't buy it as P stands there smirking and batting her huge fake eyelashes. How sad that anyone, no matter how unfit, can squirt out as many helpless babies as they like. Of course no baby daddies in the picture.

Then I got toothless, vile daddy suing his daughter and her husband for a bunch of stuff - washer/dryer, etc -  he left with them when he broke up with his ladylove (who is here with him today, looking very hard rode), and called them "creatures". Alcoholic Daddy Kinkade claims he's the cousin of the painter, Thomas Kinkade, and that daughter kept the Kinkade painting he left with her for safekeeping. We heard no more about that artwork or relationship. Def daughter and her husband have 4 kids, plus they foster. I was a little taken aback seeing as how they have such an unhealthy lifestyle they are both morbidly obese at their young ages and they cannot speak even basic English correctly - "We don't talk to him no more". Daughter claims she had a nervous breakdown over Daddy's campaign of harrassement which included calling CPS on them to report they sent their 10-year son to school with a backpack full of meth, but she has not a single record of hospitalization, mental health visits or medication. The judges took her word for it and awarded defs 3700$, I think mainly to punish Daddy for his CPS call.

[SRTouch]

Geez, LOTS of dog cases lately. 1 here Monday, one here yesterday, and another  on TPC and now I find another here another here today.......... think I'm going back to scanning the program guide and just skipping any that mention dogs

[zillabreeze]

On 9/28/2020 at 7:27 PM, AZChristian said:

This picture was taken in our back yard yesterday (September 27th).  We live in a mobile home community in Mesa, AZ (population 509,000, and part of a huge Phoenix megalopolis).  It is a coyote.  There were two of them.

We've got oodles of coyotes and bobcats here in our Texas 'burb.  Our local bobcats cut through my sideyard around 2 am every morning, which makes one of my dogs go temporarily insane.

Went to a "Suburban Wildlife" talk at the library last year.  It was fascinating! 

A suburb has the three bobcat living requirements: Nice lawns to attract grass nibbling bunnies, pools or ponds for water, and nifty wood decks to have babies under!

Bobcats and coyotes tend to hang around in the same areas, working in tandem on roadkill cleanup.

Bobcat/pet killing is extremely rare and  likely results from a youngster that lost its mother before she finished teaching it proper city hunting protocol.

If you call our animal control to report a sighting, they ask if the critter appears to be sick or injured.  If the answer is "no", they say "OK. Bye now".

I HATE and detest rats and mice with an insanely disproportionate passion.  Filthy, nasty, greasy little disease factories!  If I spot one, I squeal and hop around like a two year old.   Give me a nice coyote/bobcat population to eat them anytime!!!

 

[SRTouch]

23 minutes ago, zillabreeze said:

I HATE and detest rats and mice with an insanely disproportionate passion.  Filthy, nasty, greasy little disease factories!  If I spot one, I squeal and hop around like a two year old.   Give me a nice coyote/bobcat population to eat them anytime!!!

 

Before I quit the off topic wild critter thread - a quick peak at the rat channel that I provide my 6 cats on rat TV. The channel stars my 5 rattles in a big Critter Nation habitat

[AngelaHunter]

Critter stuff: I had rats as pets for a number of years. They were sweet, smart, clean, and affectionate. I loved them second only to my dogs. Domesticated pet rats and mice are nothing like the wild variety to the point where they are almost not the same species. I have nothing against wild ones either, since they are resourceful and attracted to the easy pickings left by the filthy habits of way too many humans and their inevitable garbage. ATM, I have 3 little white-and-tan mousies, for which I blame my niece. They are smelly, but cute.

I only got one ep today, since it seems the first was replaced by an urgent infomercial with some motormouths yelling about some type of countertop oven or something.

The case concerned two women who have known each other some 26 years. P got out of some kind of rehab place and had nowhere to live so D said she could live in a trailer that used to be occupied by her late son and was now a "sacred" dwelling. Rent was to be 600$ and P sent 600$ in advance, supposedly to be used by D to fix the place up for P. D now says the 600$ was a gift to "help me out" from P who hasn't two nickels to rub together. Seems D used the money for lots fees and evicted P ("She was abusive") on the second day of her occupancy and now claims P left a ton of garbage and destruction perpetrated on the sacred dwelling in the 24 hours P lived there. P gets back her 600$ plus 150$ for some stuff she left there and which D kept. D has her other soyboy son here to corroborate her lies. The judges believe neither of them.

 

[zillabreeze]

9 minutes ago, AngelaHunter said:

Domesticated pet rats and mice are nothing like the wild variety

I had them too, as a kid.  They were calm and cool! 

But those skittery, black greasy ones?Nope.  I just can't deal!

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Bench Warmers, 

Yep, we're straying off topic longer than we probably should (the problem with the cuteness of coyotes and pet rats 🙂 ).

Let's talk Hot Bench please. 

[AngelaHunter]

What was with the nasty little troll suing the def because her friend, the shifty "Ken" who is not seen here, told her she could store all her junk in D's storage unit and D, who had no dealings with P threw them all out, after he got fed up with Shifty Ken's grifting, for the neighbourhood scavengers to take? P was renting a "tiny house" - a house so tiny there was no room for the emerald ring (maybe put it on your finger?) and string of pearls plus a bunch of other stuff which she claims total 5K. That was some extra-tiny house! P's out-there witness was no help at all. Troll, who thinks the judges are idiots and is looking for a lottery win, gets zero - exactly what she deserved.

[SRTouch]

Watching the tiny house & lane splitter episode. AH handled tiny house so well I have nothing to add. Now, lane splitter kid - I had to double check - he's right about it being legal in California. Though it seems California is the ONLY State where it is legal. Sort of surprised me. I grew up in the Central Valley riding bikes, and back then it was NOT legal. Then thought, well, I joined the Army and left California going on 50 years ago, plenty of time for laws to change. Anyway, as with everything else, the key to whether something is permitted isn't so much the act, but whether the act is safe when/where it is done. So, riding a bike between lanes where cars are stuck in bumper to bumper traffic may be legal right up until the rider smacks into a car. I've had bikes off and on since high school and had to sit through several safety classes to ride on military posts. One thing that always stuck with me was a popular saying with some safety instructors - "a rider may have RIGHT OF WAY  but seldom has RIGHT OF WEIGHT." Never helps if rider is riding on an expired learners permit with invalid insurance. 

Edited October 9, 2020 by SRTouch

[Florinaldo]

I laughed during the deliberations on the tiny house rental case because Corriero looked so crushed that he could not find any way to come to the rescue of the female plaintiff.

And then DiMango threw him a look that I could only read as "no playing judicial Galahad today bubba!". Later he was sulking and looking down at his papers all during the announcement of the verdict.

[DoctorK]

Today's new case was a preacher/reverend who conned his friend of many years out of $15 or $16 thousand dollars on a phony truck deal. He was caught out red handed, but in the hallterview the reverend told us that God has forgiven him AND he has forgiven himself, so everything is all OK. What a piece of garbage!

[patty1h]

That reverend was a smarmy con artist, wasn't he.   If I had to guess, I'd reckon he runs the type of church that preaches that God will reward you monetarily and I bet he took that widows money and told himself that it was a blessing from the Lord.  Plus, HE himself has declared that he's forgiven, so it's all good now and he can sleep with a clear conscience.  Hopefully his followers aren't so naive and run him out of town.  

The real problem is that he can move to another city, put on his sharp pastors suit and start all over again.

[AngelaHunter]

On 10/14/2020 at 6:24 PM, patty1h said:

Hopefully his followers aren't so naive and run him out of town. 

I wouldn't count on that. We have "evangelists" operating like huge, corporate scam machines and it doesn't matter to the followers how many times they are exposed (see Robert Tilton, aka "The Farting Preacher", et al). People continue to send these con men money to fund their many palatial homes, luxuries and private planes. The reverend on HB was just a penny-ante, small time con artist preying on recently widowed woman, using a well-known scam. JDiM asked him which commandment says "Thou shalt not steal." Well, ahh, duhh - he doesn't know. All he needs to do is tell his parishoners, "The Devil made me do it" and "My bad", shed a few crocodile tears and the donation plate will once again overflow. There comes a time when "Fool me once..." has to mean something and it's your own fault if you get fleeced.

[AngelaHunter]

Sorry to serial post, but I'm just catching up. The judges left me stupified in the case of a boyfriend suing his ex-g/f for 950$ remaining on a 1K loan he made to her. G/F snoops through the phone of b/f (these are people well into middle age) and finds he's sent messages to a couple of women on a dating site AND sent naked pics. That he looks like a cross between an aging bulldog and an extra on "The Walking Dead" surely scared those women away from dating sites forever. Nah, of course not. Desperation knows no bounds.

Anyway, g/f had paid back 50$ and decided that since he texted those women it automatically negated the debt, which of course is the same old story we hear time and again from people who don't want to pay what they owe. Nothing new here. I swear I hear those words in my sleep: "I feel I don't owe him/her anything (or "nothing" usually)".

What was outrageous were the judges all coming down on the gray, wintry-looking Lothario as though he had beaten poor little innocent Cinderella to a pulp or killed her puppy. How dare you text women on dating sites when you have a girlfriend? Really? Judge Papa Mike even started invoking the doctrine of clean hands(!) but had to admit it didn't apply here.  All of them treat the def like some tender little hothouse flower who should expect total fidelity in perpetuity from some boyfriend. No one took any vows, from what I heard. You want vows, get married.

Anyway, after propping up, Dr. Phil'ing and pep-talking the def (for weaseling out of what she owed)telling her she's lucky to be rid of him and she's good-looking, etc,  and stomping the plaintiff into the gutter, informing him he "broke her heart" and blah blah, they award him his 950$. How much is a broken heart worth in dollars and cents, anyway? Litigants shake hands in the hall.

[AZChristian]

Cute little college student defendant is too stupid to pass her written driver's license test AND can't spell the word "chipped" . . . 

And after she graduates with her degree in business, she's going to start her own publishing company.

Thank you, Lord . . . I needed a good laugh today.

[Florinaldo]

1 hour ago, AZChristian said:

Cute little college student defendant is too stupid to pass her written driver's license test AND can't spell the word "chipped" . . . 

Which means the judges thought she was endearing, especially Acker.

[AngelaHunter]

2 hours ago, AZChristian said:

And after she graduates with her degree in business, she's going to start her own publishing company.

I'm pretty sure that before she starts this publishing company she'll know that "chipped" has a double "P". Maybe she'll even learn to stop breaking the law and get a license and insurance to drive.  But this is someone's else's car (probably mommy's) so she doesn't know anything about insurance and stuff like that. *cue cute little smirk* At least she didn't say "had went" or "we was" which is the usual from college students on court shows. Maybe that's why the judges treated her like an adorable toddler who got caught taking an extra cookie.

However, that she left any kind of note after damaging P's car is kind of unheard of around these parts. It's reached a point where you feel the need to applaud someone for even marginally doing the right thing, even though she denied she did all that damage.

P was so in the right, but then she had to ruin it by being a greedy glutton and wanting to get paid for the repairs twice, just because she was angry.

[Carolina Girl]

11 hours ago, AngelaHunter said:

However, that she left any kind of note after damaging P's car is kind of unheard of around these parts.

My money says there were people around witnessing the whole thing.  

[AZChristian]

9 minutes ago, Carolina Girl said:

My money says there were people around witnessing the whole thing.  

People of integrity who probably had driver's licenses and insurance.  And didn't see the note she eventually wrote in which she admitted to the fact that she had "chiped" the paint on the plantiff's car.

[AngelaHunter]

2 hours ago, Carolina Girl said:

My money says there were people around witnessing the whole thing. 

I'm sure you're right. It was foolish of me to get my hopes up, the way I do when a litigant can put together one correct sentence  I'm nearly always disappointed when a "had went" invariably pops up.

[Carolina Girl]

On 10/20/2020 at 8:55 AM, AngelaHunter said:

I'm sure you're right. It was foolish of me to get my hopes up, the way I do when a litigant can put together one correct sentence  I'm nearly always disappointed when a "had went" invariably pops up.

I hear ya.  I was taking a break in front of my building one day and a woman pulled in, parallel parked and hit the car behind her.  She looked at it and was about to walk away when she saw me.  Then she went back and left a note on the car.  She came out of the bank located in the lobby and was pretty pissed that I was still there.  She sat in her car and seemed to be hoping I would leave.  When I didn't, she finally drove away.  

[AZChristian]

4 hours ago, Carolina Girl said:

I hear ya.  I was taking a break in front of my building one day and a woman pulled in, parallel parked and hit the car behind her.  She looked at it and was about to walk away when she saw me.  Then she went back and left a note on the car.  She came out of the bank located in the lobby and was pretty pissed that I was still there.  She sat in her car and seemed to be hoping I would leave.  When I didn't, she finally drove away.  

I was going into a doctor's office one day when I heard a sound that was obviously made by a car backing out - and into the front of another parked and unoccupied car.  I just walked behind the guilty driver's car, and very obviously whipped out my phone and took a picture of her license plate.  By doing that, I think I "guilted" her into at least getting out of her car to make sure there was no damage on the other car.  There wasn't, but she would not have known that had she not the incentive to get out and look.

[Carolina Girl]

15 hours ago, AZChristian said:

I was going into a doctor's office one day when I heard a sound that was obviously made by a car backing out - and into the front of another parked and unoccupied car.  I just walked behind the guilty driver's car, and very obviously whipped out my phone and took a picture of her license plate.  By doing that, I think I "guilted" her into at least getting out of her car to make sure there was no damage on the other car.  There wasn't, but she would not have known that had she not the incentive to get out and look.

And just to show there are GOOD people in the world.  Same place, different day.  Woman backs into another car, writes the note BEFORE she even gets out and puts it on the car's windshield.  Does her business in the back, comes out and leaves the note where it was and drives off.  I wasn't visible to her so my presence wasn't a factor.  She was just a responsible and decent individual.