The Grady v. Schmalfeldt no contact petition was dismissed because Howard County, Maryland, had not properly forwarded proof of service to Cook County, Illinois. The dismissal is without prejudice, so when the paperwork makes its way west, the case can be refiled.
Here’s the verbatim report from my stringer in the courtroom:
For starters, the case was one of the last two or three called. Bill was of course not present. There was no proof of service from Howard County in the documents. The judge asked a clerk to check with the Civil Process office and we would come back around.
When it came back around to Grady v. Schmalfeldt, the judge told Mr. Grady that there had been no confirmation of service from Maryland. Mr. Grady explained the circumstances of service. Prior to the 10/20 hearing the out-of-state service fee had been underpaid due to miscommunication, and the service for this hearing had been in the hands of the Howard County Sheriff’s Department as early as Monday 11/3. Grady had played phone tag with the deputy, but before contact was established, Mr. Schmalfeldt had published a couple of posts on his blog indicating that he had in fact been served. So there was anecdotal, but not official, evidence of service.
“Case dismissed. You may file again. When you can work on your service.”
I will try to contact Mr. Grady for his comments.
If one calls 911 in Howard County, how long should one expect to wait for assistance? A week? Two?
Dylan advises regarding such cases:
If you’re lookin’ to get silly
You better go back to from where you came
Because the cops don’t need you
And man they expect the same.
I assume this means that Grady will have to pay for a second round of service. Will HoCo give him back his money for screwing up the first time?
Surely you gest.
Beau, my stringer, does not Geste, not does he jest.
one must wonder at the punishment John has in store for us
I should have put the sarc tag after that last question. Sorry. Is there a /sarc emoticon?
Gotta love typos and the ever-entertaining autoscrewup.
And don’t call me Shirley
There once was a proposed sarcasm punctuation. I believe it was an inverted exclamation point.
!!!¡¡¡¡11¡11¡!!¡¡¡
(It’s OPT-1 on a Mac keyboard.)
Once again, the lesson is clear: Schmalfeldt can’t be trusted on anything. By saying (unfortunately, under oath) that he had been served, Grady figured he was all set and stopped trying.
But the thought occurs to me that a screen shot of Schmalfeldt saying he had been served could be very useful. That would, it seems to the non-lawyer that I am, an acceptance of service kind of like Kimberlin wants to pull on Ace. Or, at least, it could be entertaining to see Schmalfeldt explain to a judge just what he meant when he said he had been served, when he hadn’t.
Joe, I didn’t know you were Grady. BS is using this comment and attributing it to Grady. It must be the type of thing ethical journalists do nowadays.
I didn’t know I was Grady, either. And I don’t recall ever setting foot in Illinois.
You learn something new every day, I guess…
…and I just noticed that I said “unfortunately, under oath” when I meant, of course, “unfortunately, NOT under oath.” How the HELL did I make that typo?
But the point is clear: do NOT depend on anything Schmalfeldt ever says is true. Even something as basic and simple as saying he’d been served in a case.
At least this time Schmalfeldt didn’t have to go into court and lie about his notification. I guess that’s a step up for him, Maryland sort of did it for him.
Dodged a bullet?
Was he bent over picking up an Almond Joy wrapper?
Now that’s funny!
Addendum: He was looking see if anything was left in the wrapper.
He has a history of injuring himself. With candy.
Sometimes he feels like a nut; sometimes… He lacks self awareness.
Sometimes he feels like a nut, nope just turned out to be another fat roll. Search parties may be needed.
Reblogged this on A Conservative Christian Man.
How ya doing, Paul? Hope everything is going the way you’ve set out.
Seminary proceeding well. My ‘out date’ from federal supervision is a mere three months and 18 days away and both God and my wife love me. I am both honored and humbled by both.
I hope all is well with you Charles.
Congrats Paul, congrats way to go!!!
In another thread, it was mentioned that Grady needs to get to MD to fight the BS BS petition (note that the double BS is intentional), and there was a call to contribute.
While I cannot give cash, I may be able to help in other ways. I mentioned an offer to our Host, and am awaiting a reply.
While it may sound “too good to be true”, rest assured that I have want to do my part.
Assuming Grady and get proper service and the Judge grants his petition. What practical effect does it have. Even if Schmalfeldt violates it does the Illinois court have any power to enforce anything against him in Maryland?
Here’s the relevant part of the Illinois law.
“Sec. 125. Violation. An initial knowing violation of a stalking no contact order is a Class A misdemeanor. A second or subsequent knowing violation is a Class 4 felony.”
A felony violation might result in extradition.
Too bad it isn’t Florida! They are notorious for extraditing a traffic violator from Australia and ever misdemeanor violator is brought to Florida to stand trial (or accept an offer from the State Attorney’s office).
Infamous jingle here in FL:
Come to Florida on vacation;
Go home on probation;
Come back on a violation.
Add unaccomplished reader as well as unaccomplished writer to his resume.
Apparently, he doesn’t think you’re Chris Heather any more. No apology or mea culpa yet, as usual.
It’s amazing that even with his injured knee from picking up an empty Suzy-Q wrapper, I can still get him to dance as well as he does.