The Bothwell Letter

NEWS FROM THE LAW OFFICES OF ANTHONY P.X. BOTHWELL
350 BAY STREET, SUITE 100 PMB314, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94133-1947
TEL. (415) 370-5971
JULY 4, 2006 Vol. VIII / No. 2/ attorney@apxbothwell.com / www.apxbothwell.com

IN THIS ISSUE:
[1] Bothwell controversy stirs Europeans
[2] Oil refinery spewed deadly air pollution
[3] Saudis sought 2nd ‘crisis’ to wake up America
[4] Post-9/11 policies, predictably, lead to backlash
[5] Retaliation claims get a nod from high court
[6] Battle of briefs waged in homebuyers’ case
[7] Expert testimony is heard on lawyers’ duty
[8] JFK faculty brings real world to academe

[1] Bothwell controversy stirs Europeans
A campaign to return the mortal remains of James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, husband of Mary Queen of Scots, from Denmark to Scotland has sparked intense interest in Europe. Danish TV covered a visit by Tony Bothwell of San Francisco to Faarevejle Church where the coffin of the 16th century nobleman is in a room surrounded by historical plaques. “Lord Bothwell was a political prisoner of King Frederick II of Norway and Denmark,” Tony Bothwell told TV2east while touring the church on June 12. He also visited Malmo Castle in Sweden (formerly part of Denmark) where the earl was held under house arrest, and toured Dragsholm Castle (near Copenhagen) where the late nobleman finally was thrown in the dungeon and left to die.

Three TV channels sent cameras to Faarevejle on May 30 when the San Franciscan, in a phone interview from his law office telecast in Denmark, said the case is “a reminder that no-one should be denied due process and imprisoned without trial.” In Scotland, a news item by Jeremy Watson in the May 28 issue of The Scotsman, quoted the “leading Californian civil rights attorney” as saying, “In my opinion, my Scottish cousins have a sound basis in international law to seek the repatriation.” The story was recounted the next day in newspapers on the Continent.

Fred Bothwell, Tony’s elder brother, published a paper in the International Mensa Journal in 1976, protesting that the mummified remains were offensively displayed under glass at Faarevejle. Fred Bothwell proposed creating a Mensa International Special Interest Group, the International Friends of Bothwell, and urged that the remains be covered and returned to Scotland. He then received a letter from Buckingham Palace, advising that a member of the royal household there took an interest in his suggestions. And in 1976 Fred Bothwell was notified that Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark (cousin of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II) directed that the coffin be closed in recognition of the 400th anniversary of Lord Bothwell’s death. In recent years, Alastair Buchan-Hepburn, a Scottish baronet descended from the earl, has led a campaign for the repatriation.

[2] Oil refinery spewed deadly air pollution
Tens of thousands of tons of sulfur dioxide were illegally emitted into the atmosphere by the Cenex oil refinery in Laurel, MT over the years, an ex-Cenex environmental health and safety engineer testified June 21 in St. Paul, MN. Tens of thousands of Americans are killed each year by sulfur dioxide pollution from oil refineries and fossil-fuel power plants, according to documents presented at trial by Max Sims, forced out of his job after he made disclosures to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The corporate general counsel, Dave Kastelic, testified he did not know that the violation of state permits and federal environmental regulations is illegal. The firm’s senior V.P., Jay Debertin, testified he did not know that increased sulfur flow corresponds to increased output of petroleum products and increased revenue. Sims’ attorney, Tony Bothwell of San Francisco, told the judge, “If you have seen someone die of lung disease, you know there are other values more important than corporate profit.” Sims said that EPA officials had promised to refer the matter to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution but that they never actually did so.

A Department of Labor administrative law judge is to decide the whistleblower retaliation case against CHS Inc. (formerly Cenex) after post-trial briefs are filed.

[3] Saudis sought 2nd ‘crisis’ to wake up America
Hugh Renfro, former head of Chevron in Saudi Arabia, says Arab leaders wished for another “crisis” to shake up Americans after the Arab oil embargo failed to change U.S. Mideast policy. In a June 29 talk to the Rotary Club of Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco, Renfro recalled mid ‘70s discussions he had with Ghazi Algosaibi, Saudi Arabia’s poet laureate and later ambassador to London. He quoted Algosaibi as saying the Organization of Arab Oil Exporting Countries decided to embargo oil shipments because “Americans only respond to a crisis.” The embargo stopped shipments to the United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War in 1973-74. The embargo failed to change American attitudes toward Middle East affairs and the Palestinian issue in particular, according to the comments attributed to the Algosaibi. Renfro said the Saudi added, “We’ve played the oil card. Now we have to think of something else.”

[4] Post-9/11 policies, predictably, lead to backlash
“Principles of psychology, which explain attitudes and actions of individuals, likewise can explain policies and behavior of communities and nations,” Tony Bothwell writes in a chapter of the forthcoming book, Islam in the New International Order. “What does change public sentiment is actual events, observable new realities that cannot be denied.” The Univerzitet u Bihacu, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has announced that the book will be published during the 2006-07 academic year. The chapter will reprint Bothwell’s paper, The Law and Psychology of Anti-Terror, from 3 RESEARCH PAPERS 1-2 (2003), which said:

If someone had wanted to cause American voters to accept a police state in their own country and a militaristic approach to foreign affairs, a more effective catalyst than the 9/11 attacks could not have been conceived. And yet, counterterror acts of the government in turn have triggered psychopolitical aftershocks likely to have reverse consequences for policy and law itself. …. Citizens who are not targets of extreme government tactics eventually begin to realize that the diminution of the liberty of one person diminishes us all.

The chapter concludes that “excesses of the current administration, invading human rights (while failing to perform some basic intelligence analysis and emergency preparedness functions), will, sooner or later, lead to public support for a return to the rule of law.”

[5] Retaliation claims get a nod from high court
Private talks are expected to take place in early August between counsel for Los Banos Unified School District and a district employee who sued in federal court for sexual harassment. The plaintiff, represented by attorneys Tony Bothwell and Rey Hassan of San Francisco and Tom Sharpe of Fresno, also charged that the district retaliated against her for complaining about the harassment. The Supreme Court on June 22 announced a ruling that can help plaintiffs in cases of this type. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 allows monetary damages for retaliation that could have “dissuaded a reasonable worker from making or supporting a charge of discrimination,” the high court ruled in Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway v. White.

[6] Battle of briefs waged in homebuyers’ case
A complaint in Sacramento Superior Court charged eight companies and several individuals conspired to defraud seven persons in residential real estate transactions. Lawyers for defendants filed court papers denying facts alleged or arguing that, even if the facts are true, they do not establish liability. Plaintiffs withdrew their claim that Financial Title Co. was involved in a plan or scheme. A claim against People’s Choice Home Loans, Inc. was dismissed. Two individuals countersued, and the plaintiffs denied their allegations. The plaintiffs’ complaint alleges, e.g.: a RE/MAX agent threatened to have a plaintiff deported if he did not accept a codefendant’s settlement offer, Countrywide Bank pursued aggressive collection against a known fraud victim, and an unlicensed broker used forged signatures to substitute herself in as the buyer of a home, and stole another victim’s identity to arrange loans for others. Additional pleadings are being filed by the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Rey Hassan and Tony Bothwell.

[7] Expert testimony is heard on lawyers’ duty
Tony Bothwell has testified as an expert witness in Los Angeles and San Francisco cases on issues concerning lawyers’ ethical duties. The Los Angeles Superior Court certified Bothwell as an expert, and he testified at trial, regarding lawyers’ “duty of care” under California professional responsibility rules. In a case in San Francisco Superior Court, he gave deposition testimony as an expert witness concerning “reasonable” legal fees under California and Nevada rules. He also has served as a consultant to other law firms on news media relations and political aspects of high-visibility cases. The Bothwell law firm represents clients in whistleblower retaliation, discrimination, harassment, defamation, censorship, identity theft, vehicle accident, product liability and other cases.

[8] JFK faculty brings real world to academe
Four faculty members are named in the current John F. Kennedy University bulletin as “Prominent Practitioners in their Fields.” Alison Rhodius, Britain’s top archer and a U.S. Olympic team consultant, teaches sports psychology. Marjorie Schwarzer authored a history of U.S. museums and Graduate Training in Museum Studies. Bruce Ecker, author of Depth Oriented Brief Therapy and coauthor of Spiritual Choices, teaches transpersonal psychology. The university bulletin, Changing Lives – One Student at a Time, says Tony Bothwell, law professor, “is a former American Bar Association delegate to the European Parliament and the International Court of Justice, widely published in…the United States, Britain and Bosnia…cited as an authority in briefs filed with the U.S. Supreme Court and the United Nations Economic and Social Council.” The university has campuses in Pleasant Hill, Campbell, Pittsburg, and Berkeley.