FARK.com: (3096424) Traumatized by victory in multimillion dollar libel suit, judge is forced to take time off with pay to go to the track and bet on horse races

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		Traumatized by victory in multimillion dollar libel suit, judge is forced to take time off with pay to go to the track and bet on horse races (bostonherald.com)		34
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5252 clicks; posted to Main » on 27 Sep 2007 at 9:51 AM | Favorite | share:

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MooseBayou		2007-09-27 09:53:12 AM

Did he wager on Norfolk Enchants?

Fark Me Runnin		2007-09-27 09:54:24 AM

You know who else liked to play the ponies??

mikerott		2007-09-27 09:55:06 AM

So?

cyrus_hunter		2007-09-27 09:56:21 AM

Fark Me Runnin
You know who else liked to play the ponies??

Groucho Marx

Strega		2007-09-27 09:56:41 AM

Is Gambling legal there? Yes? Then why is this in the news? He has a right to relax in whatever legal manner he desires.

Daffydil		2007-09-27 09:57:09 AM

Fark Me Runnin-You know who else liked to play the ponies??

i201.photobucket.com

Oh, and Fark Me Runnin...;)

notfarksmart		2007-09-27 10:00:17 AM

Is the Herald that took these pictures of him at the track the same Herald that had to pay him 2 million for a law suit? Not that there wrong with that. I'm sure they aren't biased at all.

notfarksmart		2007-09-27 10:01:12 AM

notfarksmart: Is the Herald that took these pictures of him at the track the same Herald that had to pay him 2 million for a law suit? Not that there is anything wrong with that. I'm sure they aren't biased at all.
/damn

mirthe		2007-09-27 10:02:31 AM

Sounds to me like the Herald has their panties in a twist because they lost a libel suit to him. Now they are pursuing a vendetta against him to try to get him ousted. Yellow journalism at its best. William Randolph Hearst would be so proud.

DaBishop		2007-09-27 10:04:40 AM

So, the Herold loses a multi-million dollar case against said judge.

Judge takes a taxpayer paid leave of absence because of the stress involved with the case.

Herold prints article showing judge gambling, which is not illegal, but looks bad considering he is a judge, and doing it on the taxpayers money.

I'm glad I have two hands, so I can give them both the finger.

LurkinFarker		2007-09-27 10:06:27 AM

mirthe: Sounds to me like the Herald has their panties in a twist because they lost a libel suit to him. Now they are pursuing a vendetta against him to try to get him ousted. Yellow journalism at its best. William Randolph Hearst would be so proud.

To play devil's advocate here, wtf is the judge doing claiming disability for goddamn PTSD because the Herald said mean things about him? Ohhh noes! Typical Masshole public servant.

Maneck		2007-09-27 10:06:35 AM

He's on stress leave, why would that preclude him from playing the horsies? Not my thing, but as I understand it a whole lot of people do it for fun and to blow off steam.

I agree with everyone else. The real story is that the newspaper's run by petty, yellow journalists.

fatal_exception		2007-09-27 10:08:44 AM

Responsible journalism. Shouldn't this be in the editorial section?

bugmn99		2007-09-27 10:09:24 AM

At my job, I'm allowed to do whatever the hell I want while on paid leave. Why would it be any different for this judge?

The level of detail in this article regarding the judge's every movement is almost creepy. Not sure if stalking laws apply to journalists, but it's certainly an invasion of privacy considering the man is doing nothing wrong.

ihatedumbpeople		2007-09-27 10:14:26 AM

Sickening. We've got soldiers coming back from Iraq that are mentally unrepairable after seeing their friends blown apart in front of them, and the VA won't diagnose PTSD so they can get the care they need.

This guy gets $2.4 mil after claiming PTSD because of some bad press?

Hopefully he DIAF.

notfarksmart		2007-09-27 10:18:29 AM

Strega: Is Gambling legal there? Yes? Then why is this in the news? He has a right to relax in whatever legal manner he desires.

yeah, but he was out of work on a sick day because of his stress disorder.

Will Continue to Monitor		2007-09-27 10:20:00 AM

Blew all his money on fast women and slow horses...

Pythagoras		2007-09-27 10:23:08 AM

Approves

Snort		2007-09-27 10:23:32 AM

ihatedumbpeople:
This guy gets $2.4 mil after claiming PTSD because of some bad press?

No, He got $2.4 mil for a Libel Suit against the paper that published this article.

The PTSD is from putting up with all their shiat. So he is on a leave of absence. With Pay.

Nice way to put in Iraq and "Think of the Soldiers" though.

Look! Ponies!

Incredulous		2007-09-27 10:23:57 AM

I represented a police officer once in a similar situation.

He had a bad back and went to the doctor, who told him that he needed to rest and apply mild heat. He asked whether lying in the sun would be sufficient and the doctor told him yes. So he called in sick and went to the beach.

Someone saw him at the beach and reported him to the guy's supervisor. The captain then suspended him from work for violating his obligation of truthfulness, presuming that calling in sick and then going to the beach was lying.

We sued and recovered a substantial sum from the police department, reinstatement with back pay, removal of the disciplinary record and a formal, written apology from the captain - whom, it turned out, had a personal animus against my client.

Bottom line: Going to the track and betting money on the ponies when the judge is on leave for stress does not say anything at all about whether he's presently able to serve as a judge, which is a very stressful occupation.

garycarroll		2007-09-27 10:25:25 AM

ihatedumbpeople: Sickening. We've got soldiers coming back from Iraq that are mentally unrepairable after seeing their friends blown apart in front of them, and the VA won't diagnose PTSD so they can get the care they need.
This guy gets $2.4 mil after claiming PTSD because of some bad press?

No, he got 2.1 million from a newspaper, for slander.
He took time off after the lawsuit, because of stress. Having been through a million dollar lawsuit, I can sympathize with his need for time off after it's over, and I certainly would not want him presiding at a trial if he was not able to concentrate properly. He is lucky that his job pays sick leave for such time off... I would have just thought using vacation time was appropriate.
None of this is related in any way to Iraq or vets, but nice try.

mikedlif		2007-09-27 10:27:58 AM

+ 1 for ihatedumbpeople for pointing out excatly what is wrong here.
this scumbag of a judge his liable suite was a crock of shiat to begin with and to claim he has PTSD because of the lawsuite just shows how farked up this state is. Hopefulley someone will rape his wife and someone can just tell him she got raped get over it

bugmn99		2007-09-27 10:35:17 AM

acronym		2007-09-27 10:38:23 AM

nice, while in NY gambling he failed to appear at his trial in NC for reckless driving/speeding (clocked at 103).

Thyomorb		2007-09-27 10:43:39 AM

The real story is that this guy said a 14-year-old rape victim should "get over it" according to a newspaper source, then when people started to get angry at the judge, he filed suit against the paper. The paper could not prove their case and he won. Then he took a paid leave of absence for mental health and went gambling to rebuild his broken psyche.

mirthe		2007-09-27 10:44:04 AM

Lurkin Farker : The newspaper lost a libel suit, because the courts believed the judges assertion that they had printed things about him that were not true, and that they did so maliciously. This causes stress on the person so targeted, in this case Judge Murphy. Add to this the stress that a trial would bring, where the paper is trying to justify what they said about him and prove that it was not false. These factors could indeed lead to a feeling of PTSD. I am reasonably certain that the judge had to be diagnosed by a mental health professional (Sorry scientologists, there are actual people so named) before being allowed to take this leave. But, hey, nice try.

Incredulous		2007-09-27 10:49:20 AM

mikedlif: this scumbag of a judge his liable suite was a crock of shiat to begin with

Do you have any knowledge whatsoever about the evidence in the case? Have you reviewed the medical records? Did you listen to the testimony of the psychiatric experts? Do you have knowledge about PTSD or the four elements that are required to be established so as to support a diagnosis? Have you reviewed the legal memoranda filed with the court?

If not, perhaps it would be helpful to do so before pronouncing judgment. I can assure you that those whose judgments actually count did so.

By the way, the words are spelled libel and suit. Just so's you know next time.

mikedlif		2007-09-27 10:52:19 AM

This judge deserves every last bit or ciritizem he gets from the news. He has a record of letting violent criminals off with probation, and in the case that was the center of the lible suite he gave the convicet rapist probation.Its judges like this that make this country unsafe for the law abiding citizens.

justanotherfarkinfarker		2007-09-27 10:56:42 AM

I need to stop burning time on fark.com it is causing me PTSD, mostly due to photos people post or link to.

Betting usually causes me more stress. Even if the money isn't mine. Guess this guy is just diff.

Bowen		2007-09-27 10:57:23 AM

You know why he sued the Herald?

As previously reported in Legal Watch [Apr. 1, 2005], the lawsuit arose out of news reports in the Herald that quoted Superior Court Judge Ernest B. Murphy saying of a teenage rape victim: "She's 14. She got raped. Tell her to get over it. "According to Herald reporter David Wedge, Murphy made the comments during a closed-door meeting with lawyers, an assertion Wedge later repeated on a television show.

GanjSmokr		2007-09-27 11:25:30 AM

mikerott: So?

this.

/is betting on the horses illegal there?
//if it's not, then stfu, herald.

SteelBeak		2007-09-27 12:10:40 PM

mikedlif
Doesn't matter what this judge's record is. Doesn't matter what he's done in the past. What matters are the facts for this current situation.

He won a lawsuit against the newspaper currently running this article. The article documents the judge's wholly legal activity while on sick leave for PTSD.

Now let's do some critical thinking. Why is the only paper reporting this the very same he won a lawsuit against? Hmm...

Snort		2007-09-27 12:29:29 PM

mikedlif: + 1 for ihatedumbpeople for pointing out excatly what is wrong here.
this scumbag of a judge his liable suite was a crock of shiat to begin with and to claim he has PTSD because of the lawsuite just shows how farked up this state is. Hopefulley someone will rape his wife and someone can just tell him she got raped get over it

That is exactly why he got $2+ million. Some dumbass reporter wrote that he said that. He didn't.

You and ihatedumbpeople need better reading comprehension and thinking things through. Perhaps you are Herald readers all jacked up from listening to WEEI all morning.