Today is the seventh anniversary of a hearing the peace order petition which Brett Kimberlin filed against me on behalf of his wife’s elder daughter. During the evening following the hearing, I posted this about Today in Court: #BrettKimberlin’s Case.

The post refers to Kimberlin’s inability to testify because of a perjury conviction. At the time of the hearing, Maryland was the last state which banned convicted perjurers from testifying in court. During the next session of the legislature after this hearing, the state senator representing the district where Kimberlin lives introduced legislation to end the ban on perjurers testifying. The bill passed, and the ban was repealed.

* * * * *

I’m going to do my writeup of today’s peace order hearing two parts. The first will deal with what happened before the lunch break while Brett Kimberlin was putting on his case. A second post will deal with my response. For a more detailed legal analysis of the case, check out Aaron Walker’s post.

As a preliminary matter, my lawyer raised the issue of Kimberlin being unable to testify in a Maryland court because of his previous perjury conviction. The back-and-forth over that burned up about ten or fifteen minutes and ended with Judge Williams ruling that Kimberlin could not testify.

Kimberlin made an opening statement outlining what he planned to prove with the evidence and testimony of others. During that opening statement he told several lies. One was that I attended a hearing relating to a mental health petition he had filed against his wife. I did not. On 9 July, 2013, I attended a hearing which dealt with protective orders that the Kimberlins had filed against each other. At the end of that hearing, Mrs. Kimberlin was detained. I left the courtroom while she was still in handcuffs but later found out that she was held because of a surprise mental health petition Kimberlin had filed. The judge released her and denied the petition within a few minutes.

Kimberlin also lied by claiming that I had approached his wife and offered her “things of value.” In fact, our first contact came when she approached me in a restaurant while I was waiting to meet someone else. While I was among a group of people who offered her assistance and paid for a lawyer to represent her in a hearing, I didn’t offer her anything of value to do anything for me or at my direction.

Kimberlin also said during his opening statement that I am “Paul Krendler.” I am not.

Kimberlin then called his first witness—Aaron Walker. Aaron’s testimony did not go well for the Petitioner. Aaron wound up testifying about the various claims of defamation that Kimberlin had made in the Kimberlin v. Walker, et al. nuisance lawsuit and the fact that my codefendants and I won the case on summary judgments and directed verdicts.

Next, Kimberlin called his daughter, the nominal petitioner, to the stand. She testified that she had been bullied at school and that when she had changed schools, her fellow students had googled her and found out about her father and ostracized her. Kimberlin tried to bring in the issue of his being called a pedophile through her testimony. At that point, the hearing had been going on for an hour, mostly because of non-germane points Kimberlin kept raising. The judge had had enough. He told Kimberlin—

I’ve given you some latitude. That. Is. Done.

Kimberlin rested his case, and the judge ordered a lunch break.

Stay tuned for Part Two.

* * * * *

Spoiler Alert: The peace order petition was denied.