Judge Joe Buckner

Since March of 2006, two Orange County attorneys, Leigh Peek and Donna Ambler Rice; their clients, Marvilyn and Cecil Bohannon and Kristin and Johnny Branch; and Chief District Court Judge Joe Buckner abused the legal process and engaged in misconduct in order to prevent Emily McManaway from having any contact with her young son, Murray.

As the Court of Appeals correctly noted in December 2010, the conspiracy in Judge Buckner's courtroom to keep Murray from his mother was a "charade" and "an appalling scheme to separate a child from his mother by misrepresentations and manipulation of court proceedings."

On April 11, 2011, Ms. McManaway was granted a supervised visit with Murray after a court hearing in Orange County District Court. The author of this post, who represented Ms. McManaway from 2007 to 2010, was privileged to observe the visit.

North Carolina Citizens for Legal Reform, a nonprofit devoted to exposing legal corruption in North Carolina courtrooms, is calling for a criminal investigation into Orange County Child Support Enforcement's practice of inflating parents' child support: False child support orders entered in Orange County District Court.

On March 4, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. in the Third Floor Courtroom of the North Carolina State Bar at 208 Fayetteville Street, disbarred attorney Betsy Wolfenden will argue that her disbarment order should be vacated due to the collective perjury and fraud of the State Bar's witnesses: Judge Joe Buckner, Judge Beverly Scarlett, Judge Lunsford Long, Attorney Donna Ambler Rice, Attorney Leigh Peek and Attorney Susan Lewis.

In a January 18, 2011 Herald Sun editorial, the writer asks what should happen in the aftermath of the recent NC Court of Appeals opinion in Bohannan v. McManaway.

Serious allegations being made by a custody case lawyer against Orange County Chief District Court Judge Joe Buckner raise harrowing questions about whether just such a perversion of justice occurred. An opinion in an N.C. Court of Appeals ruling overturning Buckner's decision in a custody case grimly scolded that the judge's order contained "patently false" information and that Buckner's handling of the case was an "entire charade." At stake here is the court's integrity, the judge's reputation and a vastly diminished public trust. The ponderous question is what happens now?

The same day the Court of Appeals issued a strongly-worded opinion calling the Orange County child custody case involving Emily McManaway's son a "charade," it issued a second opinion affirming the dismissal of McManaway's lawsuit against LDS Family Services, Cecil Bohannon, Marvilyn Bohannon, Kristin Bradley Branch, Johnny Lee Branch and Attorneys Donna Ambler Rice and Leigh Peek, on the grounds they had absolute immunity because their misconduct occurred during judicial proceedings. The Court noted that other legal remedies may be available to McManaway against the parties who interfered with custody of her son:

Disbarrred lawyer claims vindication

RALEIGH –12/28/10 – Last week, the North Carolina Court of Appeals vacated a child custody order entered by Orange County District Court Judge Joe Buckner, calling the child custody case a “charade.” The case involves a 3-year old boy who was removed from Nevada by Mormons so he could be adopted in North Carolina without his mother’s consent.

The Court of Appeals agreed with the young boy’s mother, Emily M. McManaway, that Judge Buckner’s order must be vacated because he failed to hear any evidence before awarding sole custody of McManaway’s son to her brother and his wife when they had already given the young boy away to a Surry County couple they had met online.

In a hysteria-inducing diatribe, the North Carolina State Bar accuses Betsy Wolfenden of "posing the gravest of threats" because, according to the State Bar, "her goal is to convince the public that our legal system is corrupt." Actually, Wolfenden only accused two judges and three attorneys in 15-B District Court, and the North Carolina State Bar of being corrupt, and the NC Court of Appeals recently confirmed her allegations in two strongly worded opinions:

Bohannon v. McManaway

McManaway v. LDS Family Services et al.

On July 13, 2010, the Honorable Allen Baddour, 15-B Superior Court Judge, dismissed all criminal charges against a defendant after 15-B Chief District Court Judge, Joseph M. Buckner, increased the defendant's bond from $1,000 to $25,000, after the defendant gave notice in open court of his intent to appeal Judge Buckner's judgment and sentence.

According to Judge Baddour, the defendant's constitutional right to due process required a dismissal of the charges when Judge Buckner increased the defendant's bond without making any findings of fact, contrary to the United States and North Carolina Constitutions, established law and local rules of court.

While Judge Baddour declined to find that Judge Buckner's conduct was "actually" vindictive or retaliatory, he did find that his conduct had the effect of deterring the defendant from exercising his constitutional right to a jury trial.

After Attorney Betsy Wolfenden testified at her State Bar deposition on 1/29/10 to the dysfunction and corruption in 15-B District Court, the State Bar filed a motion to seal the transcript from public view, which was denied.

Betsy Wolfenden's deposition transcript