Attorney Tony Bothwell's Newsletter

News from the Law Offices of Anthony P. X. Bothwell
350 Bay Street, Suite 100 PMB314, San Francisco, CA 94133-1966 Tel. (415) 370-9571
September 11, 2002 Vol. IV / No. 2 contact@apxbothwell.com

PILOTS’ CASE AGAINST F.A.A. GETS PUSH FROM LEGAL TAILWINDS
A petition I filed on behalf of the Professional Pilots Federation appears to have a better chance of success than any previous challenge to the Federal Aviation Administration’s outdated “age 60 rule.” Former FAA Chief Counsel Gregory Walden tells Aviation Week (8/5/02) that our petition may win if the agency’s rulemaking is shown to be a “product of fraud.” John Croft, transport editor of Aviation Week, writes that the 76-page petition tells a “riveting” story of FAA misconduct, supported by hundreds of pages of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

SIOUX WIN CIVIL BATTLE AGAINST FEDS ON SACRED LAND
Our appeals for public support for the 25,000-member Oglala Sioux Tribe standing up to abusive federal officials was followed by a government retreat Aug. 29. I witnessed federal police oppression of South Dakota Indians in recent weeks reminiscent of the way Mississippi deputies treated blacks in the ‘60s. I’ve had the privilege of working with a member of the legal team that represented Native Americans aiming to protect Kennewick Man. Meanwhile, remains of Wounded Knee survivors massacred at the Stronghold in 1890-91 are threatened by federal agents’ lawless excavations. Lights-off, Blackhawk helicopters using night-vision gear invade Pine Ridge Reservation; raiders detonate small explosives and place markers on sacred land. By day, National Park Service police harass the Sioux and their visitors. The U.S. broke land treaty promises to the Sioux when gold was found in the Black Hills long ago. Now the feds want the Reservation’s zeolite, a mineral useful in high-level radioactive waste storage disposal facilities.

NUKE LAB BOSSES SUED BY UNION LEADERS THEY FIRED
As cocounsel with the Government Accountability Project, I filed suit Aug. 27 in Hayward against Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory managers who fired the president and vice president of the lab’s police union. The nuclear weapons lab operators retaliated against the two protective service officers who blew the whistle on unsafe practices.

I.R.S. MISCONDUCT CHALLENGED IN FEDERAL COURT
Illegal collection practices of IRS officers are challenged in a federal court action where I am cocounsel for a taxpayer who had the courage to complain about wrongdoing. When our client reported improper practices to the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, IRS agents retaliated. The suit we filed in August in Santa Ana asks the court to nullify lawless IRS use of a “jeopardy assessment” procedure.

COUNTY DEFAULTS ON MUSLIM’S CIVIL RIGHTS SUIT
A Northern California county has defaulted on more than $1 million of claims I filed on behalf of a county worker who was forced out of his job because he is Muslim. County attorneys failed to deny or otherwise answer my client’s claims for more than a year after we filed the case. Justice is in the hands of a federal judge.

DENTAL MALPRACTICE CASE RESEARCH UNDERWAY
I have agreed to represent a patient who found out that her terrible pain and suffering was caused by a dentist who sewed up a broken piece of a dental instrument inside her mouth without telling her about it. More than two years went by before another dentist discovered what had happened. Documentation is being assembled, and my legal team will bring the matter to court if a satisfactory settlement cannot be obtained.

TERRORISM LAW AND PSYCHOLOGY STUDIED
After teaching courses this summer on law and psychology of terrorism, I’m preparing material for publication on the effects of social psychology on antiterror law. Fifty students enrolled in our JFK law school course that reviewed terror law issues from the American Indian holocaust to the reign of the KKK to 9/11. Liberal arts students took part in a seminar on psychology of terrorists, victims, survivors, rescuers, officials and citizens.

DEMOCRACY, BUSINESS COURSES OFFERED
My visits in recent weeks to Williamsburg, Philadelphia, Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Washington and New York have helped form ideas for a Law, Democracy & Society course I’m offering this fall at JFK University School of Liberal Arts. I prayed in the same church pew where Washington and Jefferson knelt when they were Virginia legislators, and visited the places where the American idea of freedom was forged. Meanwhile, my work on current legal and commercial projects gives me ideas for management school courses I’m set to teach this fall on legal issues and negotiation techniques.

TONY BOTHWELL, Esquire. The State Bar of California; Bar of the U.S. District Court (N. Calif.); American Bar Association; International Bar Association (London). Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, BSFS; Boston University School of Public Communication, MS; John F. Kennedy University School of Law, JD; Golden Gate University School of Law, LLM summa cum laude. Who’s Who in America (2002).

Principal Areas of Practice: Civil rights, civil liberties, whistleblower protection, immigration, asylum, international human rights, international trade, income tax, and personal-injury claim.

Contact: Anthony P.X. Bothwell Sr., Attorney at Law, 100 First Street, Ste. 100, PMB241, San Francisco, CA 94105-2623. Tel. (415) 370-9571. FAX (415) 668-6178.
contact@apxbothwell.com