Reliable Source reporting:
Court did not convene until 1:44 p.m. It is believed that Judge Margines was reviewing the opposition papers submitted by Mssrs. Ritt and Botterud when the doors opened at 1:30. Mr. Ritt served Taitz with the paperwork in the courtroom. While waiting for the judge to take the bench, Taitz approached Mr. Botterud to ask, "If the judge grants this motion to compel today, do you have the documents with you?" An obviously amused Mr. Botterud replied "no" and Taitz asked "do they even exist?". Mr. Ritt stated "we not going to answer that question" and Taitz took a seat.
The judge took the bench, greeted the crowd, the crowd greeted him and immediately thereafter Dr. Taitz' cell phone rang. There was no comment by court personnel on this development.
Another ex parte matter was called first and the judge ripped the moving party a new one. Mr. Botterud and Reliable Source both appeared to take this as a positive sign, judging by looks exchanged. Taitz was too consumed in the opposition papers to take note of the demeanor of the judge.
That was probably not necessary anyway, as this is the 3rd time in the last week that she has appeared in his courtroom.
When the case was called Judge Margines began to summarize the posture of the case. During this, Taitz was busy shuffling random paperwork, notebooks and her purse around counsel table. This time she was on the correct side as Mr. Ritt took his position first. The judge stated that he "had some thoughts on this application" and that many of those issues were also raised in the opposition:
- Exclusive method to obtain 3rd party information is by subpoena
- The subpoena was served after the motion to compel was filed and served improperly
- There was no notice to the "consumer" under California CCP 1985 or 1987
- Taitz argument should address the request for sanctions, which the court is contemplating imposing
Taitz then tenders a large stapled stack of stuff she calls proofs of service and gives Mr. Ritt her only other copy.
Judge Margines begins a page by page review of the, eh, documents, noting defects in each and every alleged proof of service. The documents are pretty random, prompting the judge to exclaim, "This is just the order in which they are stapled". As he was reviewing this, Taitz interrupted to clarify several times and was told not to interrupt several times. Bottom line - none of the proofs prove anything.
Mr. Ritt was given the opportunity to argue. He pointed out that the subpoena was not served until the motion was already filed and that the subpoena was not served until yesterday. And, also, too, is untimely, facially defective in many regards and cannot possibly support a motion to compel.
Taitz reminds the court that she was just here on Monday for a status conference and the judge told her she hadn't served something, so she served something. Then she states her argument that because Oxy refused to produce documents in the Keyes case four years ago, it wouldn't make any difference to serve them with a new subpoena.
The judge asks, "is it your position that prior non-cooperation in another case excuses you from serving a subpoena? How did you ask before?" She says she served Oxy and that they filed an "opposition". At this point, she turned to Mr. Ritt and asked "was it a motion to quash?". The judge says, "talk to me Ms. Taitz."
The judge asks, "what happened in Keyes" and Taitz tells him it was dismissed before a hearing on the subpoena and that became moot. [raicha says: I don't think so.]
Then she's off, stating that the election is on Tuesday. The court says "you knew that". Taitz argues that she was there 2 times in 2 weeks, that she filed a request for default judgment. She thought that would be granted, but it wasn't, so she had to come back for the status conference at which point the judge had told her he would be willing to hear the case on short notice. Based on that, she paid $125 to serve Obama...
Judge Margines interrupts and asks, "if you were comfortable that no subpoena was needed, why did you serve it?" Taitz says "an abundance of caution". Then she refers to Mr. Botterud's email to her indicating that he would be at this hearing. She said when she got that, she did "extra due diligence" so Mr. Botterud would have the records with him.
The court notes that Mr. Botterud's statement that he was appearing in order to oppose the motion is not the same thing as agreeing to bring the records.
Taitz now launches the "national security" rant, referencing her documents, Arpaio, etc., and stating that with only 5 days left, she made an "extra effort" to serve everyone.
Then, somewhat surprisingly, she makes a new argument under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. She states that she didn't even need a subpoena under FERPA because it states that "directory information" about a student may be released by court order. She's says she not asking for private information, just citizenship information and she's here for her court order.
The court asks if, under that law, he would be required to make a finding that someone was a terrorist. Taitz says no. The court asks "if I find that this is real important, am I allowed to circumvent the law?". Taitz says yes, under FERPA.
With a copy of a portion of the Act in her hand, she asks "May I approach?" and the judge loudly and immediately responds, "NO! I do not need to see that" and, unlike Judge Malihi, successfully keeps Taitz out of the well.
To be continued...