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Coast Guard Admin Courts Stacked
Associated Press | June 25, 2007

BALTIMORE - Decisions by judges in the Coast Guard's administrative court system almost always favor the agency over civilian mariners, according to a newspaper's review of court records and other documents.

One former judge testified that judges were pressured to side with the Coast Guard, The Sun of Baltimore reported Sunday.

The agency's administrative court system handles charges against tugboat captains, engineers, charter fishermen and others who need licenses or other documents from the Coast Guard to work. The harshest penalty in the system is revocation of those credentials.

Mariners have won just 14 cases out of more than 6,300 charges filed by Coast Guard investigators since 1999, when the agency restructured its judicial system to broaden defendant's rights, the paper said it found through a computer analysis of court records.

In a sworn statement, Judge Jeffie J. Massey has testified that Chief Judge Joseph N. Ingolia told her to always rule in the Coast Guard's favor, and she said she came under intense pressure when she did not, the newspaper said.

"I was specifically told (by Ingolia) that I should always rule for the Coast Guard," Massey said. "He said, 'The Coast Guard are out there keeping our seas safe and we have to do everything we can to support them. They know when to bring these cases and we're just supposed to help them.'"

Ingolia and others in the Baltimore-based Coast Guard administrative law office declined to comment on the advice of the U.S. attorney's office in Louisiana, which is representing them in lawsuits saying that judicial instructions are illegal rule making and obstruction of justice.

The Sun said two internal memos it obtained showed that Ingolia issued private instructions telling other judges how to rule.

Massey, an experienced judge who has held similar positions in other agencies, retired this year.

Ingolia was defended by another former Coast Guard judge, James Lawson, who said the chief judge never coerced him.

"I always found everyone in Baltimore to be courteous and professional," Lawson said. "They were there to help, not to tell me what to do."

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As Tony alludes to, some forget who pays the salaries and bills for the Coast Guard budget.

My 2 cents.

mw

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Mariners have won just 14 cases out of more than 6,300 charges filed by Coast Guard investigators since 1999,

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I'd also like to know how many cases the FAA "loses".

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Originally posted by M_A_Wood:
Used to be a time when a Coastie's money wasn't any good in a bar frequented by commercial fishermen, work boat sailors, merchant seamen.

This and overly agressive LE tactics are two reasons that the service is not too popular with the "customer" any more.

At the risk of getting shot here, too many in the Coast Guard see the service as an elite organization that exists for its own purposes and their own career growth. How many times have we heard the comment, "screw the civilians"?

As Tony alludes to, some forget who pays the salaries and bills for the Coast Guard budget.

My 2 cents.

mw

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Originally posted by Fishstyx:
Im rather saddened that some are so quick to judge based on some cherry picked statistics presented to support a news article's conclusions. As Coasties (both retired and active), I'd frigure most should know better than that!

To expand on the numbers, during that same time fram, the CG investigated approximately 130k incidents. So that means we brought less than .5% of investigations to hearings. The bottom line, based on our case load and the limited resources of the AJL corp the vast majority of cases brought forward are easy convictions.

With this issue, I subscribe to the the theory of Occam's Razor: "All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one."

So, what's simpler, a conspiratorial movement by the AJL corp to win cases or the CG only brings cases to hearing they know they could win based off lack of resources?

I'm by no means saying the system is perfect just disappointed that so many are so quick to hang the service out to dry.

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Originally posted by Ex_CG_GM:
It seems to me (if it is true) that it isn't about the numbers so much as it is about the fact that a judge was pressured to take one side of the cases.

I'd like to think that judges are impartial.

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Originally posted by Nobodyaskedmebut:
I thought that too until the Chief (now) Judge of the 16th Circuit, State of Florida (Monroe County) was assigned my divorce - 6 years later I still pay the equivilent of my entire retired pay (1/2 under former spouse protection act and $1200+ a month in alimony) to an ex-wife who along with her first attorney, lied under oath, hid financial status from the court, and generally got every motion filed approved. The same judge who I asked to recuse herself for bias. During the first 2 years I was retired I had been sentenced 4 times to the Monroe County Jail for contempt of court - 6 months at a time. Although I never spent a day in jail the judge still shows bias to me...