Congresswoman Declares Impeachment Deadline for Wife-Beating Federal Judge; Court Unseals Divorce Docs From Fuller’s Previous Marriage

It’s been a very busy few weeks here of late, just trying to keep up with all of the roller coaster court rulings (here’s the latest, and its not good), thanks to GOP voter suppression laws around the country. (Your donations to our efforts in that regard help a great deal — thank you and please!)

So, with a very few minutes pause in the voter suppression action on Friday morning, we were finally able to catch you all up with the latest in the Judge Mark Fuller wife-beating case on Friday.

Naturally, no sooner did we do so, when a few more noteworthy events happened in the case…

1) Alabama’s Democratic U.S. Congresswoman Rep. Terri Sewell says that if Fuller doesn’t resign by Nov. 12, she will introduce impeachment proceedings against the Judge (who otherwise enjoys a lifetime appointment to the federal bench) in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Judge Fuller’s high-profile position does not shield his victim from the emotional and physical violence he inflicts upon her and any legal immunity he is granted is a violation of justice,” Sewell wrote in an op-ed for Montgomery Advertisers. “There is no treatment or counseling program that can resurrect what Judge Fuller has compromised as one who sits in the judgment of others.”

“I cannot battle violence against women while turning a blind eye to Judge Fuller. Should he not resign prior to Congress’ return to Washington on November 12, I will institute impeachment proceedings,” Sewell vowed. “This process will be long, and it will be daunting. Even more daunting, however, is the crisis of domestic violence.”

Alabama, where U.S. District Court Judge Mark Fuller dispenses his form of “justice”, has “ranked among the five states for most women killed by their male partners” in three of the past five years, the Congresswoman noted.

2) Alabama Media Group (AL.com) was successful in their motion to have Fuller’s 2012 divorce documents unsealed after they’d been mysteriously removed from public inspection two years ago, despite the “strenuous” objections of his first wife, Lisa Boyd Fuller. Before being unsealed, the documents that had been obtained and published by independent media outlets in 2012, suggested Fuller was not a “first time offender”, as his deal to avoid prosecution entirely after his August arrest on charges of beating second wife Kelli Fuller would suggest. The divorce papers included allegations by his first wife that Judge Fuller also “hit, kicked, struck, or otherwise physically abused” both her and their children; drove under the influence of alcohol with their kids in the car; was addicted to prescription medication and had an “extramarital affair” and “sexual intercourse” with his court bailiff Kelli Gregg who ultimately became the Judge’s second wife/victim Kelli Fuller.

Those allegations were contained in a damning Request for Admissions document filed by Lisa Fuller, requiring the Judge respond as whether he admitted or denied each one.

Now that the full documents have been unsealed, according to the Montgomery Advertiser this morning, they do not appear to contain Fuller’s responses to those charges. Rather, the couple ended up settling their divorce shortly after the order was originally issued to seal the documents. Details of that settlement remain under seal, and, perhaps due to a confidentiality agreement between the parties, neither Lisa nor her attorneys have spoken up since Fuller’s arrest on hauntingly similar allegations by his second wife Kelli in August.

The Dothan Eagle reports that Fuller “quickly asked a court to restrict public access to the documents after his then-wife asked a series of potentially embarrassing questions.” They report that “An attorney for U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller filed a motion in 2012 asking a Montgomery County court to seal the record minutes after a lawyer for then-wife Lisa Fuller submitted a document asking about possible marital misconduct, records show.”

“Lisa Fuller’s lawyer submitted the questions on April 20, 2012, and Mark Fuller’s attorney asked a court to seal the case less than 90 minutes later,” the paper says.

Today, Fuller’s Birmingham attorney, Barry Ragsdale, once again downplayed the first wife’s allegations of abuse against her and her children in the court documents, describing them as mere “rhetorical questions”. He maintained his claim that “The complaint contains no allegations of prior domestic violence.” Once again, here is the document in question. Decide for yourself whether they contain allegations of “prior domestic violence” or not.

The Advertiser also reports, in response to Lisa Fuller’s allegation of prescription drug abuse by her then-Husband, that, “Following the sealing of the case, subpoenas to six different pharmacies were sent out, seeking information on Fuller’s prescription drug use. The results of those subpoenas were not clear from documents available in the file.”

As we detailed on Friday, Fuller’s Birmingham attorney Ragsdale calls questions about what happened during Judge Fuller’s first marriage little more than “nonsense” and “gossip”. Of course, he also claims that there “was not a beating, kicking or slapping” in the incident for which Fuller was arrested in August at the Ritz-Carlton in Atlanta after a chilling 911 call by his second wife Kelli.

Here, once again, is the audio from that 911 call in video format, so it’s easy for sharing. You can decide if there is anything to worry about in the incident or if, as Fuller’s attorney says about the allegations of similar abuse during his first marriage, this is all just “nonsense”, “gossip” and nothing more than “rhetorical questions” from one of the federal Judge’s first alleged domestic violence victims…

More “nonsense” and “gossip” from our previously detailed documentation of the Judge Mark Fuller wife-beating incident, arrest, and “get out of jail free” card for the “first time offender”, follows below…

Recently related previous stories at The BRAD BLOG:

• 8/11/2014: “Federal Judge in Don Siegelman Case Arrested, Charged with Abusing Wife in Atlanta Hotel”
• 8/25/2014: “Federal Judge Who Was Arrested for Beating His Wife (and Who Sentenced Don Siegelman) Is Now Hoping to Avoid Prosecution Altogether”
• 9/5/2014: “BREAKING: Federal Judge Who Presided Over Siegelman Case and Who Recently Beat His Own Wife Bloody Strikes Deal to Avoid Prosecution”
• 9/10/2014: “NFL’s Ray Rice Loses Job for Knocking Out Wife, Federal Judge Mark Fuller Keeps Lifetime Appointment After Beating Wife Bloody”
• 9/15/2014: “Republican Senior Federal Judge, Domestic Abuse Experts Call for Accountability for Wife-Beating U.S. District Court Judge Mark Fuller”
• 9/15/2014: “Wife-Beating Federal Judge Mark Fuller Finally Mentioned on MSNBC [VIDEO]”
• 9/17/2014:“Chris Hayes Plays Horrifying 911 Call From Federal Judge Mark Fuller’s Wife; Sounds of Her Apparently Being Struck Can Be Clearly Heard”
• 9/19/2014:“‘A Matter of Time’: U.S. Senators, Representatives Finally Call for Some Accountability for Wife-Beating Federal Judge Mark Fuller”
• 9/23/2014:“Washington Post Finally Calls for Investigation, Impeachment of Wife-Beating Federal Judge”
• 10/17/2014:“Attorney For Judge Mark Fuller Says Wife Beating Incident No Big Deal; Chilling 911 AUDIO and Former AL Gov. Siegelman Suggest Otherwise”