Breaking
News
Woman Illegally Poses
as Attorney in Black Farmers Case
12/27/2004 5:27:20 AM, NNPA National Correspondent,
nnpa.org
“I found out when she ran into some confrontations in California where she was caught practicing law without a license. When I heard the name, I recognized it as one of the attorneys assigned to work on our case,” says John Boyd, president National Black Farmers Association. “She was assigned to our case by the Justice Department, now we want them to take another look at those cases. She wasn’t a licensed attorney, so I don’t think she was qualified to make those kinds of decisions.”
O’Shea was hired by a Public Defender’s office in California in August, after she claimed she had a law degree and was licensed to practice law in California. She was working in Northern California as a Public Defender in Monterey County when a co-worker tried to research her legal background and discovered that she was not listed as a licensed attorney.
“State records show that she was never licensed in California,” says Terry Spitz, assistant district attorney in Monterey County. “This was a matter of human error. Someone was supposed to check her records and didn’t, but we caught it pretty quickly.”
O’Shea was hired by the Department of Justice to work on the farmer’s case, known as Pigford vs. Veneman, but the extent of her contributions remain unclear.
“We don’t know exactly how many cases she was involved with, but we are going to issue a Freedom of Information Act request asking for the number of cases she worked on, documents from her personnel file and whether or not DOJ contacted the farmers whose cases she worked on,” says Attorney Arianne Callender, author of the Environmental Working Group (EWG) report, “Obstruction of Justice: USDA Undermines Historic Civil Rights Settlement with Black Farmers.”
The EWG, a public watchdog group that has supported Black farmers since the beginning of their lawsuit, and the National Black Farmers Association is pushing for O’Shea’s cases to be overturned.
“Congress is already investigating the situation. How could they [DOJ] not know she wasn’t an attorney? How many other people at the Department of Justice are unqualified?” asks Boyd. “If they don’t do anything about this, we will take it further and ask the court to look at the cases. They have until January 31st, which is the date of our next hearing to let us know something.”
Black Farmers now want to know if this was an isolated case.
“The Environmental Working Group is working with us to check into the credentials of the other attorneys,” Boyd says. “This is a tremendous turning point in the case. Here we have a lawyer assigned to the biggest civil rights case in history that wasn’t an attorney.”
Callender says Congressman Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, is committed to investigating O’Shea’s involvement.
“EWG is calling for DOJ to reopen the cases that O’Shea was involved with. Steve Chabot’s office has indicated that they will follow this closely and it will probably be the subject of the next hearing. We want to make sure that DOJ does a complete assessment of all the attorneys to make sure that she is the only one,” she said.
According to Chabot’s press secretary, an investigation is in progress.
“The subcommittee staff is looking into the involvement of the person in the Justice Department and they have yet to come to any conclusions. They are trying to provide information expeditiously, but right now are just gathering information on O’Shea’s involvement,” says Todd Lindgren.
The modern battle for Black farmers’ rights began in 1997. Timothy Pigford, a Black farmer, filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court in D.C. against then-Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman, alleging that Black farmers were denied applications for benefit programs, such as farm operation loans, and had their discrimination complains ignored.
In an out-of-court settlement, the USDA agreed to a $20 million settlement that would largely go to Black farmers who had outstanding claims. Since the case, 90 percent of the 100,000 farmers who filed racial discrimination complaints were denied access to settlement funds.
According to Boyd, this is a slap in the face to all African-Americans, not just farmers.
“The Department of Justice is supposed to be the defender of the American people. In this case it’s the arm of government that has turned its back on a group of people,” Boyd says. “It’s a sickening realization of how the Department looks at Black people. You can’t tell me that if this was the largest case for White America they would have someone working on the case with no law degree. If this was White people’s money on the line, they wouldn’t dare put someone on the case that wasn’t licensed.”
O’Shea has been prosecuted for illegally pretending to be a lawyer in Monterey County and could face criminal charges in the District of Columbia.
“She was arraigned on felony count of grand theft under false pretenses for casing paychecks and a misdemeanor count for practicing law without a license,” Spitz says.
Congress has approximately one month to investigate O’Shea. If they don’t overturn her cases, Boyd is prepared for another lengthy battle.
“In the past seven years, I’ve seen a lot, but this truly surprised me. Never in my life did I think they would be ignorant enough to do this,” Boyd says. “I think we have a good legal ground for court if they don’t overturn these cases, but we are going to need the support of everyone and especially all of the Black leaders.”
A new investigation by Environmental Working Group (EWG) and the National Black Farmers' Association (NBFA) finds that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) willfully obstructed justice by deliberately undermining the terms of a 1997 landmark civil rights settlement with African American farmers.
Dr. John Boyd, Jr., Pres.
68 Wind Rd.
Baskerville, VA 23915
Ph: (804)691-8528
Toll Free 866 881-4639
johnwboyd2000@yahoo.com
68 Wind Rd.
Baskerville, VA 23915
Ph: (804)691-8528
Toll Free 866 881-4639
johnwboyd2000@yahoo.com