John Clark Pro Se Blog

To understand where it all began, you have to go back to one Arnold Henry Gold as a young lawyer, married in 1952, graduated from lawschool (Stanford-1953), which his wife Beverly Ann helped to put him through. His emergence much later as a jurist begins with the public record of his divorce after a fifteen year marriage. He filed his Complaint as, interestingly, a pro per, to divorce his wife on October 26, 1967, and to satisfy my curiosity over his character, and why he had acquired the reputation of being the "Saddam Hussein" of Los Angeles family court, I went on down to the Hall of Public Records, and applied a little due diligence. Remember, this was before the days of no fault divorce. What I found out was stunning. Judge Gold's secret dirty laundry!

There I discovered the information leading me to mistakenly think that if I gave this kind of information to the Appeals Court, on the advice of Chief Justice Ronald George's office manager, all would be well. Assuming of course that these were among the grounds for a review of Gold's refusal to recuse himself under Section 170.1(6)(C) of the Code of Civil Procedure, which provides

"A person aware of the facts might reasonably entertain a doubt that the judge would be able to be impartial. Bias or prejudice towards a lawyer in the proceeding may be grounds for disqualification."

I may be forgiven for concluding that a lawyer would have no trouble securing this result, but a pro per?

I reasoned that my appeal would not have to go though every detail of what in my opinion was a charade of a trial. The Appeal justice in Division One, apparently, did not think that what you are about to read reaches their standards of what we the people expect of our jurists, their morals, their ethics, and in my case whether Gold should have recused himself without my several motions for cause.

And if you want to avail yourself of his services today (wait, you thought when he says he is "retired" it means he is retired? No, it means he left the bench where he felt he was underpaid to freelance), why, you can click on to his bio at the website of Alternative Resolution Centers. Nowhere do I read of his "other" experiences in court, below the bench. Just that he "specializes" in Entertainment, Family Law, and Probate. And he married again, to a paralegal and head of a 501(c)(3) charity which accepts donations, Gloria Victor.

The page numbers I used at bottom right reflect the pagination I had to imprint for my huge 2000 page file I had to put together for the appeals court. Please note too that if you are running Windows, you can left click on the image, then left click again to the left of the screen, (which may be blank or the image may show) and you can then scan around the greatly enlarged document which is a little hard to read otherwise.

Here, then, Arnold Gold's Complaint for his divorce after fifteen years on the grounds of his wife's "Extreme Cruelty" no less:

IMPORTANT! Please note that the Executive officer/Clerk of the Superior Court of Los Angeles, name of John Clarke is no relation of mine.

His wife Beverly, filed a cross complaint with facts about his cruelty, including domestic violence and having a mistress and mismanagement of family funds, and here it is:

Well, Judge Marvin A. Freeman considered, and came up with his rulings, as follows. Stay with me, now.

Nearly three years later, after much further litigation and appeals, Beverly had had enough and walked away from her situation with an astonishing stipulation. Here you will read what that was, in the following transcript. As the judge said to her on page 1899 "Is that stipulation acceptable to you?" and she responds "I have no other choice." What was not revealed was how she was motivated to give up her rights, was she paid, or was she just scared? I have tried to find her and ask her, but she seems to have disappeared.

And so it was that she gave up her right to any future litigation, to future spousal support, and gave up her contempt proceedings against him. She, through her lawyer, waived findings of fact, conclusions of law, right to new trial, right to appeal, and right to move for entry of a new and different judgment. In addition, the family home owned by her was conveyed to the husband and then sold, and Gold got the entitlement to claim the three minor children as deductions on his income tax returns, and she did not (so guess who got custody).

Los Angeles Times, where are you?

One can only speculate that with the effective hiding of his record, he felt he was entitled to not mention his personal louche lifestyle (as confirmed in his personal trial) in his application for a judgeship. His motivation would then be clear. I have been unable to get a copy of that application under the Freedom of Information Act, but I am willing to bet that it does not contain the information that might have prevented his ever being appointed to preside from the bench of any dispute involving families, child custody, and the distribution of other people's assets (i.e. Family and Probate court).

Here is the demand filed by my ex. and her attorney Emily Edelman, Esq. (Family Law "Specialist", I believe) that I be evicted, along with my life saving new companion, Miyuki Tsunoda (now my wife), just before 9/11, and my belongings dispersed.

And gladly carried out by the court, no questions asked, and gleefully reported on by the media.

Yes, terrorists lurk in unexpected and surprising places.

Interesting to note that Arnold H. Gold, in pro per in 1967, was represented by Weingold & Pachter in 1969, then by Sands, Schaffer, Pachter & Kaplan in 1972, which finally became Pachter, Gold & Schaffer, who employed James Eliaser, who went on to represent Nicolette Hannah in her prosecution of me. Gold came to be my judge and jury, and Gold and Eliaser's previous association was their secret kept from me at the beginning.

I found out about this by chance, and, unbelievably, waived my objection after I challenged Gold. I figured that they wouldn't DARE cheat me now, and I believed the system's promise which I'd read on the wall of the corridor outside, believed that Gold's supervisors would take care of me and the situation. Click on this. It lies.

Instead, I was put here, L.A's notorious Twin Towers jail the day before my trial was due to start where I would be defending myself from Lynn's onslaughts at the instigation of her attorney Emily Edelman, during which night she raided my office knowing I would not be there!

This became my biggest BLUNDER of all of my cases. Followed by my second biggest blunder.

Which was that I trusted my wife to deal fairly with me, not knowing that she had a secret up her sleeve. The re-emergence of her lover Brandon Maggart into her life. This actor, father of Fiona Apple and Garett Maggart, disguised and together with his sons, took over the possession of my home and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of my personal property much of which disappeared (see MY EVICTION PICTURES).

As you will discover, that fact too was kept secret from me, and got revealed quite by accident, from an outside source after the event.

March 25, 2006
From here on in, I shall be publishing below, copies of my pleadings, those that go to grounds for disqualifying Judge Gold, and other related matters.

At the top will be the latest, at the bottom the oldest, and check the dates on the documents, not the dates of the posts.

I am doing this as a result of the huge interest this site is now sparking, currently 54 countries, and especially from the mother-country of our judicial system, the UK, and former members of the old empire. Unlike other legal lawyer-authored self-help web sites, which are all high talk and theory, so far as I know this is the only place you will find detailing the problems of the non lawyer in Family Court, the "Plight of the Pro Se", trying his best to represent himself against a rich hostile ex-spouse with a secret, and coping with a lack of recognition, validation, and sometimes respect, from the bench.

I believe that pro ses will get a benefit from reading how I prepared my documents, and I will get a benefit from, hopefully, authority figures in the government reading what happened to one of its citizens seeking justice.

Get your pleadings right and it will work? Not necessarily! Not if you have pond lives opposing you, and lazy, maybe biased, judges.

I had just exited prison, and needed to do something about disqualifying Judge Gold BEFORE the start of the trial. Because I knew that the moment the trial started, it would be too late. That's the law!

My old lawyer friend (yes, there are a couple) had provided me with the document to serve on Gold while I was incarcerated, and the first thing I did was have the sheriff serve him in his courtroom.

Here you will see the description of the Judge's attempt to frustrate my aim, and how I beat him to it.

Download file

A small victory, but a lost war, unless you believe, as I do, that the fat lady hasn't yet sung.

April 3, 2001
The California Code of Civil Procedure CCP 170.1(B)(3) states that

"170.1.(a) A judge shall be disqualified if any one or more of the following is true:

(A)(3) The Judge has a financial interest in the subject matter in a proceeding or in a party to the proceeding."

It shows how I witnessed him advising law students that he would retire to become a judge for hire, and how he hoped to attract showbiz people with his trial experience. Also how he was pandering to the Los Angeles Times's correspondent Louise Roug who covered the trial for several days for their gossip page.

Download file

March 27, 2001

The California Code of Civil Procedure CCP 170.1(B)(3) states that

"170.1.(a) A judge shall be disqualified if any one or more of the following is true:

(a)(2) The judge served as a lawyer in the proceeding, or in any other proceeding involving the same issues he or she served as a lawyer for any party in the present proceeding or gave advice to any party in the present proceeeding upon any matter involved in the action or proceeding."

Several matters are revealed in this filing, not the least being that Judge Gold awarded an attorney who did some work for me backstage, but did not appear for me at trial, $50,000 of my money, despite his prior ruling that he was not to be paid. Gold claimed to have lost that order. Schaeffer never billed me or accounted for hours worked.

In this pleading, you will see how my ex did not supply discovery to me to prepare for the financial aspects of the trial. The judge had put me in jail because he said I was "slow producing discovery." He did nothing about putting her in jail, (although I certainly was not asking for that to happen).

This also details my ex's surprise declaration through her attorney that the dates she wanted for trial would only allow her to be present for a short while due to an unrevealed contract to appear in London in a play (it turned out to be Michael Frayn's "Noises Off".)

Emily Edelman, Esq. here shows her total lack of ethics, and Judge Gold reveals his by giving advice favorable to Redgrave. Because he's a judge, it's called "bias".

Download file

April 3, 2001
This is about what happened the night I was jailed by Judge Gold, my sixty-eighth birthday.

Lynn entered the premises to remove the elements of our play "Shakespeare For My Father", and also to invade my office which was not locked, but had "war room" signed on the door.

She needed to have assistance, because even I could not move the heavy crates from the garage.

In her testimony, I asked her who she got that assistance from, and she refused to divulge who it was. She told the judge that she didn't want to reveal the name or names, as I would be upset. Judge Gold asked her to write the names down on a piece of paper, and he would look at it. He then refused to let me see it when asked.

I didn't press the question further, I believed it was either Nicolette and her plumber frined, or my hefty son Benjy, who had filed a paper saying that he thought I would enjoy spending a night in prison, being of a curious mind. They were the only people with the gate security code. In hindsight, I know now that it must have been Brandon Maggart and his sons. If I had known then, I would never have consented to her being put in charge of the premises after my eviction. Thousands of dollars worth of my possessions would not have disappeared. For that, I hold the court responsible.

Here I am citing Constitutional rights. Read it.

Download file

August 20, 2001

"CCP §664.6.
If parties to pending litigation stipulate, in a writing signed by the parties outside the presence of the court or orally before the court, for settlement of the case, or part thereof, the court, upon motion, may enter judgment pursuant to the terms of the settlement. If requested by the parties, the court may retain jurisdiction over the parties to enforce the settlement until performance in full of the terms of the settlement."

I chased Judge Gold down to the Long Beach courthouse where he had been assigned to sit (read "What's a Pro se to do?"), to beg him not to evict me, and to show evidence that Lynn had made a generous offer to me to keep my home, but that her attorney was not following through, and that Lynn was filming in England, and that Judge Gold said he would recall her if necessary, and the case could end here and now. I believe that Lynn made a sincere offer to me, evidenced by her attorney's email which I provided to the court.

Everything could have been resolved.

I could have stayed in my home, I could have formed a new living working out of my studio on the property, I could have completed ownership of the Entrada cottage in the trust I had started for little Zachary, while sharing custody of him in my house up the road with the swimming pool and tennis court which we both made full use of, and continued his violin and piano lessons in my living room.

Judge Gold ignored me and my Pleading, which was a heart-felt pleading indeed.

He had up his sleeve that I should pay for the attorney costs of the trial and the time of the court, not Lynn the celebrity, and the only easy way to do this was to force me out by standing in my shoes and signing away my beautiful home to get his hands on the escrow, out of which money could be freely taken without even notice or copies to me, according to the law.

And that's what he did.

Ultimately, I lost my home (just after 9/11), and Zach lost his home, also his father (who by now had a prison record); I lost my New York apartment to Lynn - who doesn't need it exclusively, she lives in Connecticut with our children, estranged from me because they don't understand - I lost my wealth, much of my possessions, my history; I lost my friends, my Topanga neighborhood, my reputation. The American dream. Gone.

To read the story of the breakup of his own marriage in 1968 and to compare the details with what he did to me, is striking. Was he perhaps punishing himself?

Read my Brief.

Download file

February 26, 2001

By now I'm in trial over the question of a proper future for young Zachary. But I needed to file a protest over the fact that a certain supervising Judge Horn didn't give a damn over Judge Gold's fitness to try my cases. He was brought in to give an "independant" decision. Of course, I didn't know then that Judge Horn retained his position by the votes of fellow judges.

I read again the lawful code pertaining to Judicial Ethics California Code of Judicial Ethics.

Now read of my prison experience. And how I wrote the Petition for an immediate stay. The result? You guessed it.

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