RI Supreme Court Upholds refusal to release docs regarding 38 Studios
https://www.golocalprov.com/news/new-ri-supreme-court-rules-against-releasing-38-studio-grand-jury-documents
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Anon note: This story is classic Rhode Island Corruption.
38 Studios was a video game company started by ex Red Sox pitcher Kurt Schilling of the bloody sock saga. As far as I can understand the details, Schilling was convinced to move his fledgling business to Rhode Island and was provided an incentive of $75 million "moral" bond provided by RI Commerce Co. This is a quasi-private economic development company that doles out tax payer money to corrupt businesses, please note that the local Federal Judge Willian Smith's wife Christine works there in a capacity for tech and manufacturing but yet her education is a Georgetown history degree. Huh. There was never a referendum vote for this bond as is otherwise required in RI.
Naturally, just prior to the bond coming due, the business failed and everybody started screaming and no one took the blame.
There was a huge dragged out court case, undocumented interviews by state police, and hundreds of articles and news stories of misinformation and indignant claims by public officials who would immediately file injunctions to stop the very disclosures that they were advocating for publicly; including especially by the AG and the Governor. The Court meanwhile was very accommodating in keeping all files sealed (or destroyed) and the Hearings door closed. Huge teams of lawyers on both sides paid for by taxpayers frolicked in this litigious cess pond for years.
It has never been revealed how the money was distributed, the Court claimed victory and got awards of part of the money from insurance and the assessing bank. RI Commerce Co. was fined (remember they get and spend tax payer money). The implication is that this award goes back to taxpayers but lo, its via a judicial fund and the files are sealed in what is essentially a massive boondoggle.
Millions of dollars, nearly all of it taxpayer money was thieved in a calculated racketeering conspiracy involving the Rhode Island Judiciary, the RI Commerce Co and a fuckload of lawyers.
They continue to do similar actions against scores of other businesses in the state, using the RI Commerce Co to bring in corrupt out of state players when they don't have enough local hapless litigants on the "business court" civil calendar. In addition to whole businesses outright, the RI Courts have recklessly stolen the pensions of the firefighters, hospitals, countless state and private pensioners, all in the name of "fiduciary responsibility" and justice.
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The article:
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
GoLocalProv News Team
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RI Supreme Court Justices PHOTO RI Courts
The Rhode Island Supreme Court affirmed a Superior Court decision that blocked the release of the 38 Studio grand jury documents.
The court ruled Wednesday, “Governor Gina M. Raimondo appealed from a judgment of the Superior Court denying her petition to disclose all materials from the grand jury that investigated the state’s 38 Studios bond deal because (1) it did not have the authority to disclose grand jury materials outside of the enumerated disclosures it is permitted to make under Rule 6(e) of the Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure; (2) the Governor did not demonstrate a particularized need for the information requested; and (3) policy factors did not favor disclosure. The Governor argued that the Superior Court has inherent authority to release such information outside of Rule 6(e), as some federal courts have held when applying the rule’s federal counterpart.”
Further the court wrote, “The Supreme Court, after determining that, despite the Governor’s inability to satisfy the traditional standing requirement, it would consider the case because of the considerable public interest, disagreed with the Governor’s arguments and held that: There is no inherent authority in the Superior Court to disclose grand jury materials beyond that which is permitted by the Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure. The Court also determined that, even had the Court held otherwise, it would have been well within the discretion of the Superior Court to deny the Governor’s petition because the relevant cases on which the Governor relied in support of disclosure involved circumstances so unlike those presented in this case.”
The decision by the Supreme Court functionally ends a ten-year saga and more than seven years of near-constant litigation about the failed video gaming company founded by former Red Sox great Curt Schilling.
In 2015, GoLocal successfully forced the release of thousands of pages of Rhode Island State Police interviews after suing Raimondo and the State Police.