Well, looking at my analytics, it's clear that many of you have clicked on my website due to your curiosity to find out "just how bad is this guy?" following the Florida Supreme Court decision to take away my Florida Bar license from local news coverage. Let me be EXTREMELY CLEAR, the Florida Supreme Court made their Bar trial-overriding decision based upon incorrect facts, incomplete facts, false statements from the Bar's witnesses, and in a very important instance, KNOWN MANUFACTURED evidence presented by the Florida Bar, in their case against me. Now, that is not to say that nearly 9 years ago when all of this happened that I did not make a few minor or innocent mistakes from time to time; hell, probably all of my cases (It happens to every attorney), but to say that I flagrantly ignored Court Orders, is absolutely false. I violated not a single order. In fact, I was even sanctioned for things "I" brought to the Court's attention for clarification.

As many of you may know, this all started during my time at Palm Beach Lakes High School (at the time, 90% Black and Latino student body) when I as a Law Teacher, supported my students' decision to challenge the Palm Beach County School District's Board for their purposeful failure to provide actual certified teachers. I personally didn't do anything, it was purely my support of them. As a first year teacher, I was rated "Highly Effective" which does not happen often.

 

At the time, It was falsely reported that I did not teach the established Law Curriculum but rather chose to teach my own "liberal politics" to my students. There was no established Curriculum in this program. There was an extremely old book that I used, but no set curriculum. One was presented to the Florida Department of Education by the School District to counter my complaint to the US Dept of Education, but this was not only false, but I was backed up with an official affidavit from the Program's director: Terra Hands, that no Law Curriculum existed. It NEVER had one. I was, however, given permission to teach the class at my discretion. As for my tests, they were ALL approved previously by the School. Every last one of them. Well, until this erupted in the news.  My final exam only consisted of the year's worth of APPROVED questions with added classroom jokes CREATED BY THE STUDENTS for extra credit. The entire final exam was extra credit for the most part. But after Andrew Marra of the Palm Beach Post (son of the presiding federal court judge overseeing one of the Federal cases) printed false stories in his original article post School Board Meeting, things were set on a path that could only have been set straight if operated solely through the media; which, again, I had no interest in. My only interest was to protect my students. Mr. Marra had every previous test to compare, the student's name that made the classroom joke I added to the test, and every other piece of information to make an honest reporting, yet, chose not to. There is a fairly lengthy text exchange where I told him of his misleading story, and he chose not to correct anything. Of course I still have everything so, stay tuned.

Here are a just a few facts (all of which will be laid out in due time with exhibits and evidence - names too. ALL OF THEM):

1. The Trump exam jokes were neither mine nor the only student jokes on the final exam. The student signed a sworn affidavit attesting this this to the Court. The school district always had it and knew. 

2. Terra Hands, Chair of the Choice Magnet Program, signed a sworn affidavit that acknowledged that there was no curriculum for the Law class and that I had full autonomy, with her oversight, to teach the law class as I saw fit.

3. I never once encouraged my students to protest on my behalf. One had already been physically assaulted and I did not want anymore harmed. I did, however, tell them to not speak to local news because the Palm Beach Post is clearly trash, as well as local television stations who ran with the school district's line (s) without asking me, or took spliced statements and refused to correct them when I told them what they had wrong.

4. I have never and would never threatened any attorney with physical violence. However, the School District's Counsel made up a story that I made an Instagram post physically threatening them. The post is STILL there. there was no threat directed towards anyone. I am a hobby photographer and my post was directed to a friend who, at the time was on a VH1 show. The message, which was directed to her, SHE RESPONDED TO. However, opposing counsel claimed it was about them to the Court in their desperation along with approximately 200 social media posts unrelated to them or any case; nearly all years prior to this case, as proof. For whatever reason, the Court accepted it. ( I was sanctioned for this. You'd have to look in Pacer for the absurdity.

5. As stated, School District's Opposing Counsel pulled nearly 200 social media posts to present to the Court. Many to most of them were fabricated, being cropped and changed with the wrong social media source listed (an instagram post made to look like a twitter post). During the Bar trial, the school district person that did it, Ana Jordan, ADMITTED THAT SHE DID THAT, which means what was presented was false and manufactured. However, the Court still sanctioned me for these manufactured posts which were made months or years before any related trial. (the dates were even still on them!) (full disclosure, my ONLY true violation was 2 Facebook posts where I used the Defendant's names. That was a no-no, but done after receiving death threats. Regardless, I admitted at the time, that I was wrong.) (her admission is on the transcript)

6. Opposing Counsel in the school district case DID sign my partners name on a legal document and filed it after making changes to it without my knowledge or permission. We informed the Court and followed her specific instructions in her Trial Order, yet, somehow we violated some rule. (I still don't know what that violation is) There IS a bar rule that states that no Counsel may sign another's name without their permission. THEY ADMITTED THEY DID THIS! I and my partner were sanctioned for what THEY did. 

7. The Court apparently said we violated a rule by calling various law enforcement agencies to get information on just how serious that counsel's "forgery" was. We never called the cops "ON" anyone, we called to get information and never got past the operator. We were "Doing our Due Diligence" prior to making a decision. Somehow however, we violated a rule and were sanctioned for trying to gain information.

   • Side note: No, we never called the cops and reported anything, but this was how it was falsely presented at trial. And, no, they did not call any of the agencies to verify anything in their "investigation." It was a friend at the states attorneys office for the 15th circuit that told us to escalate this. The federal Court Judge said we were lying. I gave her the ASA's info and she copped an attitude with me. The Federal Court judge then said that it was impossible to email a "wet Signature" because at the time, she was ignorant of Adobe Sign and Fill. I told her to email me something right now and I could sign it and email it back to her within 30 seconds. She didn't like me showing her up. She then wrote a letter to the bar, not alleging any violation but to look for one. (Yes, I still have this letter. It is an official letter)

8. Opposing counsel in this instance did not deny receiving our final wet signed document that they then changed, signed my partner's name on (not mine) and then filed in federal court. They said they just didn't open it. There was a supervisor there at the time, and she "didn't open it" either, but they did make changes on it and filed it; document that was never presented to us, one we had never seen, made changes on it, signed the name of a person who was not working on it, but somehow the violation was ours. We both were sanctioned for their actions.

The Stonybrook case was an emergency which would take far too long to explain but here are just a few facts:

1. No. I did not take pay for this case, I did it for free because children were actually dying.

2. No, I did not repeatedly file the same emergency motion, ignoring Judge Coate's Order, I was instructed to do so by the Judge himself through his JA on the phone. (There was a clerk's error and drafting error that was admitted via email at the time to the Judge. The Bar has that email, but left it out, choosing only to say I willfully disregarded the Court's Order.

3. I was repeatedly made to redraft my complaint stating that the language was scandalous. I did correct it, however, opposing counsel repeatedly claimed it was scandalous because I used the term "black women." This was occurring at Stoneybrook BECAUSE THEY WERE BLACK WOMEN, and it was essential to the case. 

4. This was Civil Rights case that involved Toxic Tort. Judge Coates refused to acknowledge the Civil Rights nature and wanted me to remove the Civil Rights aspect to it, stating for himself, "this is not a Civil Rights Case." He did not want it to be and tried not to allow it to be.

5. I was told to get a mentor to help with my drafting (to keep it from being a Civil Rights case.) I reached out to David Prather, John Howe, Sia Baker-Barnes, and Enrique Nieves. David, John, and Sia all declined for one reason or another, however, Mr. Nieves did agree and did a great job. He also assisted with the drafting of my last petition, and provided a letter acknowledging that he reviewed the petition. It was similar to my original with some significant edits. I was STILL sanctioned by Judge Coates for not following his instructions to get a "mentor." He then created orders that he hadn't made (which is in the record) that I was to have the mentor also sign the pleading. We had a hearing on the mentor issue. Opposing Counsel only had to disagree with who he was for Coates to say I hadn't complied.

   • Side note: During the referral process, Sia Baker-Barnes was on the Palm Beach County Bar Association's committee to refer this to a Bar trial. She agreed that I hadn't followed Judge Coates's Order to seek a mentor DESPITE being one of the people I reached out to. I presented the Court and the Bar the email WHICH SHE RESPONDED TO, but still, I was sanctioned for not seeking a Mentor. I suppose raising any resistance was going to interfere with her being th​e next Florida Bar President, which she assumed immediately after this referral. She had access to the email unless the Bar did not give them to her and the committee. One or the other.

6. A gag order was placed on the case because of publicity. My clients violated that Gag order without my knowledge. They admitted that I told them about the existence of the Gag Order and they still did it without my permission. I was told that I had to have known and instructed them to do it, so I was sanctioned. I found out later that they were on the Steven Harvey Show.

7. The court instructed me to remove case related information from our firm's website. And I did. However, I did have links to news stories from prior to any cases being filed for marketing (as many attorneys do) and requested a hearing on whether these were ok to remain or if they needed to be removed. "I" informed the court of these. I was sanctioned for still having them there despite seeking guidance to see if the Gag Order applied.

8. I was also sanctioned for photos of a property in Atlanta Georgia that was owned by the previous owner but then current defendant. This property was not at dispute in any open cases, nor were there any correlations made to them. I was sanctioned for this. (I am a photographer, remember?). (I assisted in getting that Property shut down too...Forest Cove Atlanta.

9. I sought a change of judge because Judge Coates did not have, in my opinion, the requisite temperament to handle this case because he seemed to have an issue with the term "black women" and showed hostility to the Defendants (all black women) and previous hostilities towards me in a previous case (He was ignorant of a legal matter pertaining to Mediation and the role(s) of Mediators in Family cases. I was his first Family Law Case on his first day as a Family Court Judge when he took over for Judge Amy Smith at North County.  In a Pre-trial Family Hearing, I had to correct him in open Court to his displeasure. He then later removed a fee award in retaliation during that case.) My "mentor" also reviewed and agreed that he should go, but Judge Coates sanctioned me because he said that there was no way my mentor would have agreed to that. The Mentor acknowledged that he did review the Motion to recuse. The Motion to dismiss a judge is a proper filing and it was done correctly and respectfully. The Florida Bar falsely claimed that I called Judge Coates a Racist in open court to the Florida Supreme Court. and they face no sanction for lying.  Yes, I used the word LYING.

There is much much more and I will present them with the factual evidence and exhibits in their entirety in time. I have nothing to hide and nothing to be ashamed of. 

In the end, Malik Leigh (me):

• Supported and protected my students, (7 or 8 of which are either currently in law school or have already finished law school),

• Tried to support and protect teachers who protected my students from actual physical attack from school district officials, who were later terminated by the School district in retaliation,

• Helped poor Black, Jamaican, and Haitian single Mothers and their children from toxic housing that was labeled "unfit for human occupation," but was forced to remain in them,

• Able to get a specific hurricane evacuation plan for the residents of Stonybrook, many of which have no access to transportation (the roofs of multiple buildings were ripped off during hurricane Irma, yet they were made to stay in them)

• I got the long time Mayor of Riviera Beach and most of the City Council booted from their jobs,

• I got most of my clients an expedite with their section 8 housing vouchers so they could move out of Stoneybrook quicker,

• I prevented an organized crime group from collecting their Hud Fraud money for over a year in which Marco Rubio and Ben Carson were buddies with them (this shouldn't surprise anyone),

• I Assisted HUNDREDS of Men, Women, and Children, most often pro bono in Domestic Violence, Kidnapping, Sexual Abuse of Minors, and against insane DCF abuse cases (where DCF was the bad actor)

• I rescued children; one moments before her mother was murdered by the person we were seeking to save her from. (in Indiana)

I Can hold my head up high knowing that I was a fantastic lawyer that worked hard for poor people, FOR FREE, in a way that even the Florida Supreme Court Justice Labarga, who to his own admission knew very well about the long standing issues at Stoneybrook, but NEVER lifted a finger to help them. (Justice Labarga himself told me in a Visit to the Palm Beach County Bar Association that the Residents of Stoneybrook were lucky to have me representing them...I feel like he remembered that conversation when He commented on his knowledge of Stonybrook during my Supreme Court Trial).

As a Lawyer, I made a few mistakes. . . we all do, but I did not commit a single crime, I did not steal anyone's money, I did not lie to the Court EVER, I did not file for bankruptcy, I did not assault anyone nor did I every file a false, misleading, or frivolous pleading or case. I was always respectful to my judges, I represented my clients dutifully, and I, unlike nearly every Black Attorney in Palm Beach County, was not afraid to help MY people in need. 

I received death threats from Trump Supporters who thought I was being anti-Trump on my test all because a lazy Journalist refused to print the truth nor find out the truth from the person who created it. Which is why I will not speak to any media. Especially, Palm Beach or South Florida Media. The only one that I would trust is no longer working in Florida. The Houston Chronicle did an excellent story and I'd advise you all to read it.

So sorry MAGA, you may want to be mad at me, but I didn't say anything bad about y'all's Lord and Savior.

Anyways, Stay Tuned. I have every transcript, every admission, every email, everything. Once laid out, you can see for yourself that my case was not about anything I did, but retaliation. However, if you choose to accept the narrative, then it is what it is.

Thank you for listening. No one else did. I am Proud of the work I did and difference I tried to make. That is what Lawyers are supposed to do, challenge the status quo and fight for our clients. The sad part is that those that want to status quo to remain ALSO have lawyers, many of which believe the status quo should remain. Unfortunately, there are more of them than of me. What was done to me will be done again. To prevent people; attorneys like me from even trying to fight for the little guy. These do nothings go on LinkedIn and pat their backs about being made partner or shareholder or whatever having burned zero calories helping anyone, especially Black Attorneys in Palm Beach County and South Florida Generally. That is why places like Stonybrook have been that way for over 45 years. And of those 4 attorneys I listed earlier, only one has the understanding that poor people need help. The others could give a shit.

 

But they are favored, and that's all they want.

Malik Leigh ~ My official Statement. 








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