Saturday’s Clarion-Ledger ran this article on the Eaton v. Frisby case, focusing on the fact that most pleadings in the case are being filed under seal. When I looked at the file a few months ago there was no legitimate justification for sealing nearly the entire court file. Eaton—the party that hired Ed Peters—is behind all the sealed pleadings with the backing of Judge Swan Yerger.
There were a few interesting quotes in the article. First, this one by Frisby attorney Ed Blackmon:
Blackmon said he doesn’t expect an end to the case anytime soon, and added during an interview earlier this month, “I think the case is about to take a dramatic turn.”
“I can’t say anything about what is going on because everything is under seal,” he said. “It’s an unprecedented sealing of all documents.”
A dramatic turn? Given the back story in this case, a dramatic turn will be a huge news event. Blackmon is right that the sealing of all documents in this case is wrong unprecedented.
Also interesting was this quote from Eaton spokesperson Don McGrath:
“We didn’t have him (Peters) to do anything improper,” McGrath said. “We want to see this come to an end. We want our day in court.”
McGrath said Peters only became involved in 2007. “We in no way asked Ed Peters to try to influence Judge DeLaughter or any other judge,” McGrath said.
If that sounds familiar, it should. McGrath said the same thing in August, as discussed in this post. McGrath has a script and he sticks to it.
I would like to see Eaton and McGrath answer these two questions:
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exactly who told you that you should hire Ed Peters?
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what was the reason(s) you were given for why you should hire Peters?
There are legitimate possible reasons for Eaton to hire Peters. But Eaton has not publicly identified any of those reasons and its stated reason that it hired Peters because of his trial prowess is not believable. Peters was never going to try that case for Eaton. He might have sat at counsel table, but that would have been to influence Judge DeLaughter—not actually try the case.