District Judge Timothy Connell Judge molests children,old ladies,men.

[Matthew X]

Minnesota law allows people to bad-mouth a person, and even deliberately 
lie, to a state regulatory board without fear of legal reprisal, a judge 
has ruled.
The protection is part of a state law covering "quasi-judicial" agencies, 
District Judge Timothy Connell decided in overturning a jury verdict recently.
"Without this privilege, there would be a chilling effect upon people 
coming forth with allegations that should be investigated by boards such as 
these," the judge said.
The ruling may have ended a case in Worthington that involved questionable 
allegations against a dentist and a criminal-defamation law apparently 
dormant for 67 years.
The complicated case began in September 1998, when a caller told the state 
Board of Dentistry that Dr. Bruce Larson of Worthington had "messed up" his 
root canal and was practicing while drunk.
But investigators for the board and the attorney general's office 
discovered that the caller had used a false name and, despite two other 
anonymous calls, they did not find evidence to support any disciplinary 
action against the dentist. The case was closed.
Then Worthington police traced phone calls to the home of Jerry Obermoller, 
Larson's next-door neighbor on Lake Okabena.
Ken Kohler, then the Nobles County attorney, charged Obermoller with 
criminal defamation, which generally makes it a crime to expose a person or 
group to "hatred, contempt, ridicule, degradation or disgrace in society or 
injury to business or occupation."
The offense, a gross misdemeanor, is rarely prosecuted anywhere in the 
United States. The last case notation found in Minnesota law books was in 
1935, and legal experts said the statute could be an unconstitutional 
infringement on free speech and could stifle complaints to state licensing 
boards.
A Nobles County jury convicted Obermoller in March 2001 after a three-day 
trial. He was sentenced to probation and fined $1,530. Then Obermoller 
changed attorneys, hiring Ron Meshbesher of Minneapolis, and asked the 
judge to throw out the conviction.
Meshbesher cited case law that a defamatory statement is "absolutely 
privileged" — exempt from civil or criminal defamation under statute — "if 
published in the course of a judicial or quasi-judicial proceeding and is 
relevant to the proceedings ... even when made maliciously and with 
knowledge of falsehood."
Courts have accepted that argument for state agencies, such as the Board of 
Pardons and the Commerce Department, that have quasi-judicial disciplinary 
powers, Meshbesher argued.
Despite objections from the prosecutor, the judge agreed and, in an order 
signed July 30, vacated the conviction. "Essentially, people must feel free 
to communicate openly with quasi-judicial entities such as the State Board 
of Dentistry," he wrote.
Joe Friedberg, a Minneapolis attorney who represented Larson in a 
defamation lawsuit against Obermoller, criticized the decision. He said he 
would have argued to the judge that, under the decision: "Your Honor, I can 
report you to the Board of Judicial Standards, say you molest children or 
little old ladies or little old men, and know it's false, and you can't do 
anything about it."
Larson said he won an out-of-court settlement in a separate civil lawsuit, 
in which Obermoller did not admit culpability. The amount is confidential, 
but "it was nice," he said.