(718) 602-2737
sloan@ishipress.com
http://www.shamema.com/carrico.htm
December 2, 1998
The term of Judge Michael Gamble of the Amherst County Circuit Court will expire on February 1, 1999. Judge Gamble is asking you to provide him with a new six year term as circuit judge. I ask that you not re-appoint Judge Gamble. Judge Gamble is a criminal who belongs in jail. It is inappropriate, even in Virginia, that Judge Gamble be re-appointed as a judge.
Judge Gamble has been persecuting my family since January 1986, when, as the attorney for Alma Coates Dawson, he notified me that his client was renouncing my father's will. My father, Leroy B. Sloan, had died on January 19, 1986 under questionable circumstances. Previously, Alma Coates Dawson had purported to marry my father in the emergency room of the Lynchburg General Hospital, while my father was undergoing a brain seizure. Ms. Dawson had a history of marrying elderly, invalid men for the purpose of getting their money. Not long before, she had married Dick Friend, a close friend of my father, under similar circumstances. Alma soon found out that Dick Friend did not have any money, and so she obtained an annulment of that marriage. Her attorney in that case had been the law firm of Pendleton & Gamble.
In November 1985, I had hired Michael Gamble to represent me in the court case of the custody of my daughter, Shamema. Custody of Shamema had been awarded to her mother, Honzagool, by the Bronx, New York Supreme Court in July, 1982. However, only one month later, the mother had returned to her native Pakistan, leaving my by then 9 month old daughter, Shamema, with me. To this day, the mother has never returned to America. Accordingly, I wanted a modification of the 1982 custody order giving me custody of my daughter.
After an interview lasting approximately one hour, I paid Mr. Gamble, then of the law firm of Pendleton & Gamble, a check for $250 as a retainer fee. However, a few days later, the check was returned in the mail, along with a note stating that he must decline to represent me, because he had found out that his secretary was a close friend and neighbor of Charles and Shelby Roberts, whom, according to his letter, might be interested in seeking the custody of my child.
In late 1986, facts came to my attention indicating that Michael Gamble had used confidential information which I had given him during our 1985 meeting against me. In 1987, the law firm of Pendleton & Gamble filed a lawsuit against me and my mother, Dr. Marjorie Sloan, in the Lynchburg Circuit Court. Essentially, that suit alleged that I and my mother had embezzled funds from my father. The suit is still pending, even though there has been no activity in it since 1987.
"How is it possible" you ask, "that a case inactive since 1987 could still be pending, when Virginia law requires that an inactive case be dismissed after two years." The answer is simply judicial corruption. Not only that, but in December, 1986, a case was filed seeking a freeze on my mother's bank account, even though my mother was not in the United States at the time and was not named as a party. Nevertheless, in an obviously illegal act, my mother's bank account was frozen and remains frozen to this day, 12 years later. The judge who froze the account ex-party has ever since refused to conduct a hearing on this case.
The bank account contains about $300,000. The purpose of the freeze was two assist Charles and Shelby Roberts, two hard core criminals who are friends of Judge Gamble, in their efforts to kidnap my daughter. The Roberts are followers of Jerry Falwell. They wanted to kidnap my daughter so as to raise her in Jerry's religion. Naturally, Judge Gamble, still a private lawyer at the time and not yet appointed as a judge, was eager to help the Roberts to kidnap my daughter.
In October, 1990, after four years of trying, Charles and Shelby Roberts finally succeeded in having my daughter kidnapped in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates and brought to America. According to the Roberts, they paid $40,000 (forty thousand dollars) to have my daughter kidnapped. Yet, they have never been prosecuted for this crime. The reason: They are being protected from criminal prosecution by their friend, Judge Michael Gamble.
In 1991, Judge Gamble was appointed as a judge. He immediately insisted that all cases involving the Sloan family, including me and my mother and my daughter, be assigned to him, even though his law firm was the attorney of record in the case against both me and my mother. Every lawyer I have consulted has been flabbergasted by this. Who could imagine that a judge would take jurisdiction over a case which he himself had filed. Everyone agrees that a judge who does this should be prosecuted. Yet this is exactly what Judge Gamble did.
After taking over all the cases involving my family, Judge Gamble awarded custody of my daughter to Charles and Shelby Roberts, the very same people who had kidnapped my daughter a year earlier. Under Virginia law, there is simply no jurisdiction for a judge to award custody to complete non-relatives such as the Roberts. Yet Judge Gamble did that, in total defiance of all legal precedence.
But Judge Gamble was not yet finished. My daughter had been kidnapped and my mother's bank account was frozen. However, my mother still had a house worth $150,000, located at 917 Old Trent's Ferry Road in Lynchburg, Virginia. Judge Gamble ordered the house sold. Again, there was no jurisdiction for this. A judge simply cannot take away someone's house.
At least, my mother should have gotten the money from the sale of the house. Then, we would have had money to hire a lawyer to fight these cases. Judge Gamble realized this, and so he directed that the proceeds from the sale of the house be held by Cecil Taylor, a Lynchburg lawyer, until my mother died. However, my mother is still alive. Rather, Cecil Taylor has died. The proceeds from the sale of the house have disappeared and are missing. Although the house was worth $150,000, it was sold for only $75,000 and out of that Cecil Taylor took a legal fee of $18,000 plus moving charges of $10,000 approved by Judge Gamble, so there was only $47,000 left. That $47,000 is missing. Meanwhile, the house was immediately put on the market for sale at a list price of $165,000.
I am a member of a distinguished family. My mother, Dr. Marjorie Sloan, worked for 41 years for the Commonwealth of Virginia as a medical doctor and the director of several state mental health clinics. My father, Leroy B. Sloan, was a lawyer and an auditor for the Internal Revenue Service in Lynchburg. I am also a well known person. Among other things, I am the author of "The Slave Children of Thomas Jefferson", which is the definitive work on that subject.
Yet, everything which me and my family have worked our entire lives to build up and establish has been taken or destroyed by Judge Michael Gamble. Judge Gamble was involved in the kidnapping of my daughter, Shamema. He then awarded custody of my daughter to the kidnappers. Judge Gamble stole my mother's house. Judge Gamble froze my mother's bank account. $47,000 of my mothers money is missing. There is absolutely no chance that these matters will be rectified, that I will get my daughter back and that my family will get our house and money back, as long as that monstrous criminal, Judge Michael Gamble, is sitting as a judge of the Amherst County Circuit Court.
The canons of ethics make it clear that Judge Gamble's conduct was illegal: The canons provide in part:
(a) a judge shall be disqualified if any one or more of the following is true:
(2) The judge served as a lawyer in the proceeding or in any other proceeding involving the same issues he or she served as a lawyer for any party in the present proceeding or gave advice to any party in the present proceeding. . . .
(2) There shall be no waiver of disqualification where the basis therefore is either of the following:
(A) The judge has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party.
(B) The judge served as an attorney in the matter in controversy or the judge has been a material witness concerning it.
However, what Judge Gamble has done is much worse. There is no jurisdiction for a judge to take a child away from the parents and give her to unrelated third parties. My daughter has not been adopted. My parental rights have not been terminated. Yet, I am not allowed even to know whether my daughter is dead or alive. The reason my parental rights have not been terminated is that Judge Gamble knows that this would give me the right to appeal. His strategy throughout this case has been to deprive me of any opportunity to appeal.
Regarding the house which was stolen by Judge Gamble, no Virginia court has declared my mother incompetent and no guardian has been appointed. Rather, my mother's money has simply been frozen. Altogether there are about $300,000 in frozen funds. Were a guardian appointed and this money given to that person, the guardian might use that money for the benefit of my mother or to file lawsuits to obtain recovery of my mother's stolen property. In order to deprive my mother of any chance of getting her house, money and granddaughter back, Judge Gamble has not followed the procedure required by Virginia law. He has simply stolen my mother's money, pure and simple.
If this heinous, monstrous and vicious criminal is allowed another six years as a judge, every member of the Virginia state legislature will be guilty of complicity. I realize that none of you are interested in the problems of me and my family, but just remember that what happened to me can happen to you too. Everything that you have worked your entire life to build up and establish can be stolen outright, as long as criminals like Judge Michael Gamble are allowed to sit on the bench in Virginia.
Very Truly Yours,
Sam Sloan