Wednesday, May 09, 2007

the wee hours

Idiot of the Day - Roy L. Pearson Jr.

I’ve been terrible about blogging and have wanted to write about this jerk for days.  I’m sure you’ve already seen the story, but in case you haven’t, I’m here to bring you one of the world’s biggest jerks.  An even bigger jerk than most of my “Idiot(s) of the Day”, which is shocking, but true.  According to court documents, the problem began in May 2005 when Pearson became a judge and brought several suits for alterations to Custom Cleaners in Washington. A pair of pants from one suit was missing when he requested it two days later.  Pearson asked the cleaners for the full price of the suit: more than $1,000.  But a week later, the Chungs said the pants had been found and refused to pay. Pearson said those were not his pants, and he decided to take the Chungs to the cleaners and sue. Manning said the cleaners have made three settlement offers to Pearson: $3,000, then $4,600, then $12,000.  So, the jerk sued this poor family…for SIXTY-FIVE MILLION DOLLARS two years ago.  He used a variety of stupendously insane reasons (go to the IndyStar link above for the full story), but this takes the cake, “But Pearson was not satisfied and expanded his calculations beyond one pair of pants. Because Pearson no longer wanted to use his neighborhood dry cleaner, he asked in his lawsuit for $15,000—the cost of renting a car every weekend for 10 years to go to another business.  Manning said Pearson somehow thinks he has the right to a dry cleaner within four blocks of his apartment.

While it’s clear the guy is insane, he’s not your average insane, he’s a JUDGE.  Yeah, not just a jerky lawyer, but a JUDGE.  Of course, he probably won’t be a judge much longer with most of the English (and Korean) speaking world asking for him to be fired and disbarred.  His profile has already been removed from the Office of Administrative Hearings website, so it looks like his job is in jeopardy, if he still has it.  Interesting that the case was filed in 2005 (why did it take this long to get written about???), but he also was apparently a jerk to his wife in their divorce hearings that same year.

Roy L. Pearson, Jr. (husband) appeals from a final decree of divorce awarded to Rhonda S. VanLowe (wife) on the ground that the parties lived separate and apart without cohabitation for oneyear pursuant to Code § 20-91(A)(9)(a). Husband contends that the trial court erroneously: 1) granted the divorce based on a separation date of October 15, 1999, or October 21, 2001; 2) denied his request for sanctions pursuant to Code § 8.01-271.1; 3) denied his request for spousal support; 4) failed to grant him a reservation of future spousal support; and 5) awarded wife attorney’s fees. He also requests recusal of the trial judge on remand. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the trial court on all issues except husband’s request for a reservation of future support.  Boy, I’ll bet she’s counting HER lucky stars.  I’ll bet she’s also thrilled that she’s no longer Mrs. World’s Biggest Jerk because that would take a whole lot o’ explaining to the neighbors. Of course, you have to wonder who in the legal system let it get this far.  Why did a judge not throw this case out?  Not the divorce, that was a good thing.  Why would anyone allow this kind of lawsuit to stay in the system?  Why isn’t there a panel of reasonable people who review cases for stupidity?

By now, the cleaners have probably gotten tons of great publicity, offers of goodwill & cash, but I donated $10 a few days ago to their paypal fund administered by some unnamed (interesting, unnamed, huh?) DC accountants.  Even if everyone who is disgusted by the story donates a dollar and they become millionaires, they deserve it a whole lot more than many millionaires, so I felt good about the donation.  If you’d like to donate to their defense fund, go here.  Consider it something more concrete than another rant about the jerky (soon to be ex?) judge.  It felt good; and who knows, maybe a lot more people read about and only think about donating, than donate.  Their attorneys deserve to be paid for having the frustration of representing them against that gigantic ass, Roy L. Pearson, Jr..  Besides, look how cute this couple is - they’re like my parents, only Korean.    They deserve all the extra money they’ll get. 

the wee hours

Chumby - It’s So Cool…I Want One!!!

I’m going to keep my Chumby channel widget at the bottom of my blog permanently (probably), but I’m going to show you what it is in this entry.  The gadget isn’t available to buy yet, but widgets with your own specified channels are available to put on your site or blog for now.  Games, news, sports, ape cams, clocks, weather, photos (from your Flickr acct, but not from a specific category and I wanted my pet category, so I didn’t put my Flickr acct in a channel), and what I’ve chosen…Stuff on My Cat and Stuff on My Mutt.  I can’t wait until the actual Chumbys (Chumbies?) are available because I think it would be perfect for my mom and Leigh-Ann’s mom, since they’re not online much, if at all.  We can program our blogs for our moms.  I can program both of our blogs for my mom, but I think I rant too much for Leigh-Ann’s mom to read daily.  The Chumby will be ready to buy this summer and they say it’ll be under $200 and it won’t require a monthly fee, it’ll just connect to your wireless network.  Too cool!