You make me laugh Deb Newton with your "defending those who can't help themselves" self appointed praise. I and some of my friends have done a number of things recently to help some in not so good circumstances. And we didn't charge them $100 an hour to do it.

Kristen Ruth was one of he worst Judges in Wake County! Now, her involvement in this corrption just proves she never belonged on the bench...EVER!

Thank you all for your comments and participation. With Judge Ridgeway's admonition, we will all try harder to earn, restore and maintain your trust, every single day. Deb Newton, Wake County defense attorney.

:) Bobeugene4: Well Bobby Eugene, I didn't have her or anyone "sign off" on anything, but thanks for the confirmation of the quality of your post. All the gratuitous lawyer-bashing from people who don't have a clue about the responsibility we shoulder and how most of us devote our lives and days to helping those who cannot defend themselves is getting seriously old. So sometimes we fail; at least most of us try. What did YOU do for your fellow man today?

Sounds like Deb Newton may have gotten a few things signed off by Ruth as well. I don't even want to hear the "Ohh, I know James Crouch and I'm a victim of my own trustworthiness. I didn't know". You are a liar covering your tracks. I mean out of 36 documents over the course of time, did you not look at one? Just one? Did you not notice that other judges made these decisions? Not once? I'm sorry, I'm sure she's not an evil woman by any means, but that was just plain stupid.

I believe what goes around, comes around. Ruth had a history of signing court documents without reading them. Law 101 - never sign ANYTHING without reading it. That is plain dumb. Sorry for your loss but you did it to yourself for not taking the time to read EVERYTHING you signed. CARMA

@workinghuman33 you are very correct about the need to research judges before electing them to office. Seems like this would be a great process to get rid of horrible judges doesn't it? Except there is one problem. The "democratic" process often only allows for two choices, a Democrat or a Republican. What if both are bad? and what about the terms judges are elected for? For the life of me, I cannot figure out how to "un-elect" judges in Wake County. When are the sitting judges such as Donald Stephens, Paul Gessner, Paul Ridgeway up for re-election because I would surely work hard to get rid of at least two of the three. The fact is that partisan politics where there is effectively only TWO choices (and the same goes for electing a DA or a Sheriff) completely usurps the democratic process. Think the recent presidential election where we were given only two choices was truly democratic? Great ideology is democracy. Unfortunately it is not reality.

N&O reports, based on Crouch's paralegal's testimony, that he took about 3,000 cases per year. Just averaging this to $1,000/case, which is very low (I think he charged $1500/case, plus an additional $750 for "nunc pro tunc" orders), he was *honestly* making some $3 Million per year. If you calculate $1500/case, that's $4.5 Million ... per year. Despite this, his greed and desire to achieve results no one else could honestly obtain caused him to defraud his profession and the entire system of justice.

I do not believe there is any authority in this state criminal case to seize any part of that income -- so, although he will be a felon and will serve at least a year of active time, he will get to keep all of that income and property that was, at least in part, derived from his DIShonest and fraudulent efforts.

He should have received an active prison sentence outside the normal range. However, that Judge Ridgeway and Colon Willoughby did an excellent job, as did Crouch's counsel.

13 years-is that all??? ------------------- He got two consecutive 6 months. 1 year. I know people doing more time for a couple of joints.

12 months in the can....wow....

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