A day in Hell with a judge called Zina Cruse

Judi­cial Tyranny Run Amok in St. Clair County

The dis-Honorable Zina Cruse

On May 8, 2009, I appeared in court­room 108 for the 20th Judi­cial Cir­cuit Court in response to a Notice to Show Cause aris­ing from a traf­fic ticket issued in 2006 by Collinsville, Illi­nois. The pre­sid­ing judge was Zina Renea Cruse (pic­tured here). It appears that this court­room is for first appear­ances relat­ing to traffic/misdemeanor. Judge Cruse called my name and I approached the bench with a copy of the “Notice to Show Cause” in my hand.

Cruse then began to ques­tion me about the 2006 ticket, ask­ing me how I wished to plead. I was taken aback, since the charge had been dis­missed in 2006 by Collinsville, but the judge per­sisted in ques­tion­ing me regard­ing the alleged ticket. I tried to explain how I was not there to answer any ques­tions regard­ing any ticket, but there only to show cause why I should not be held in con­tempt by not appear­ing for a court date, of which I was never apprised of, relat­ing to a charge of which I never received. I asked the Judge if she could pro­duce for me a ver­i­fied com­plaint alleg­ing a charge, to which she showed me a print­out of some­thing which rep­re­sented a copy of a ticket, but which was not an actual charge.

Cruse attempted to enter a plea of not guilty on my behalf, upon which I objected to her attempt­ing to act as my legal rep­re­sen­ta­tive. I reit­er­ated that I objected to her ques­tion­ing me about the charge, and I would only enter­tain the issues regard­ing the show cause notice. She also attempted to sched­ule a bench trial for the 3 year old charge, which was pre­vi­ously dis­missed, which I refused to accept or par­tic­i­pate with.In an exam­ple of fur­ther incom­pe­tence and lunacy, when I ques­tioned why I was being ques­tioned about a dis­missed charge, Judge Cruse attempted to tell me that, since Collinsville is in both Madi­son and St. Clair Coun­ties, the Madi­son County part of Collinsville was dis­missed, but not the St. Clair County side. I asked her if there were two charges aris­ing from one inci­dent which were filed in two coun­ties by one munic­i­pal­ity; to which she replied, “yes”. What that implies is that one traf­fic ticket issued by Collinsville sub­jected me to the juris­dic­tion of both Madi­son County and St. Clair County. That is either a bold-faced lie or an expres­sion of incom­pe­tence. Fur­ther­more, how would Judge Cruse have any infor­ma­tion regard­ing the Madi­son County charge when she is sit­ting in St. Clair County? The charge from Collinsville was a munic­i­pal charge and the set­ting was munic­i­pal court in Collinsville. When I appeared for that charge the judge, Mal­lotte, attempted to engage in the same kind of chi­canery as Cruse and attempted to entice me to enter­ing a plea to a improper charge. Mal­lotte also attempted to enter a plea for me, upon which I objected. After I refused to par­tic­i­pate with that insan­ity I received notice the charge had been dismissed.

At this time, Cruse ordered me in con­tempt and had me placed under cus­tody. I was then cuffed and placed in a hold­ing room and later trans­ferred to a cell in cuffs and ankle chains. Judge Cruse acted with hos­til­ity, con­tempt, unpro­fes­sion­al­ism, and igno­rance in attempt­ing to goad me into step­ping into a trap laid by fraud and deceit by enter­ing a plea and accept­ing with­out hav­ing seen or been informed of, an unsub­stan­ti­ated charge. She acted as a despot in depriv­ing me of 3 hours of my lib­erty with­out due process of law, for my merely ques­tion­ing the pro­ceed­ings and stand­ing upon my rights. Judge Cruse acted out­side her judi­cial capac­ity and in vio­la­tion of her office. Judge Cruse expressed the fun­da­men­tal defects of the legal sys­tem as it exists today, by refus­ing to lis­ten to defen­dants or pro­vid­ing a dis­cus­sion of the mer­its of the charges by arrest­ing those who take excep­tion to her demands, or fail to sub­mit to her igno­rance and oppres­sion. Judge Cruse had me arrested and jailed with­out due process, with­out a war­rant, with­out a sworn com­plaint, and with­out law­ful author­ity. She could not spec­ify the rea­son for my con­tempt, other than my refus­ing to agree with her and by her ignor­ing the actual rea­son I was appear­ing, to “Show Cause”.

This is not uncom­mon in the courts in St. Clair County. She is not the only abu­sive tyrant, I chron­i­cle actions by Vin­cent Lopinot and LeChein. These are arro­gant and unrea­son­able peo­ple. They believe they have some unnat­ural supe­ri­or­ity over oth­ers by virtue of their black robes and armed guards wait­ing to do their bid­ding. They are fool­ish and dangerous.

Judge Cruse, it would serve you well to under­stand the lim­its of your mega­lo­ma­ni­a­cal judi­cial pow­ers. Your pow­ers to not extend beyond your lit­tle fief­dom, and  do not attach to peo­ple who retain their Creator-derived rights and fail to sub­mit to your, and your ilk’s, despo­tism. You act as a brig­and, thug, and tyrant. You pos­sess no author­ity over me. I will not step foot into your court­room again. I per­ceive you to be my enemy, untrust­wor­thy, abu­sive, and illog­i­cal. I am in fear for my lib­erty should I meet you on your terms again, and I will not be a will­ing party to what amounts to my own undo­ing. It would serve you well to leave me be. Save your time, energy, and abuse for those intim­i­dated by your delu­sional exer­cise of tyranny.

FOOTNOTE: It appears that Zina Cruse may also be an Asso­ciate Min­is­ter of  the Chris­t­ian Fel­low­ship M.B. Church in St. Louis. If  Ms. Cruse’s court­room demeanor is any reflec­tion of her “Chris­t­ian” beliefs then she is either a con­sum­mate hyp­ocrite, or poor exam­ple of a Chris­t­ian. Ms. Cruse can be emailed here z_cruse@sbcglobal.net Her Illi­nois Bar Asso­ci­a­tion page is here.

It seems Zina Cruse is run­ning for a judge­ship as St. Clair County Cir­cuit Judge. I offer my opin­ion on this page.

Here are some use­ful links:

State of Illi­nois Judi­cial Inquiry Board

Com­plaint Form For Report­ing Judi­cial Misconduct

Illinios Code of Judi­cial Misconduct

Online Judi­cial Mis­con­duct Form

Zina Cruse Com­plaint Judi­cial Inquiry Board