The 13-to-1 Problem: How NH Superior Court’s ‘Assigned Docketing’ Utterly Destroyed My Right to an Impartial Judge
My six-year fight for government transparency, recognized by the Nackey S. Loeb and New England First Amendment Awards, exposed a cynical failure in the New Hampshire judicial system. My Right-to-Know (RTK) lawsuits sought critical records, from assessing records to an alleged fraudulent federal funding scheme for the Nashua Performing Arts Center, a matter serious enough that the federal government is now investigating.
Yet, inside the Nashua Superior Court, my success was met with administrative betrayal and institutional malice.
The Administrative Lie and the 1-in-1,170 Chance
Superior Court Rule 39 requires an alternating rotation for assigning cases. With two civil judges, my 14 RTK cases should have been split 7-to-7.My Reality: 13 of my 14 cases (93%) were deliberately assigned to a single judge, Judge Temple, while only 1 went to Judge Colburn.
This can’t be real life.
The probability that Judge Temple would get 13 of my 14 petitions was 1 chance in 1,170. This concentration, orchestrated by Court Clerk Amy Feliciano, was a complete administrative betrayal, a covert, court-enabled judge-shopping that guaranteed one judge had total control. My first Petition was filed early in 2020. Despite being seriously ill during this time (a fact I recently learned), Judge Temple kicked the can down the road, deliberately driving up costs. I spent $225,000 before becoming a pro se litigant.
This can’t be real life.
The Weaponization of Justice
The forced concentration of my cases allowed Judge Temple to brutally weaponize the court process against me.
1. RTK Cases into Full Trials: He transformed my summary RTK petitions into full-scale civil trials, ordering extensive discovery and depositions.
2. The $1 Million Defense: This facilitated the City deploying five attorneys to fight a single citizen. The City has spent over a million dollars of taxpayer money simply to prevent records from being opened.
3. Failure to Shield: The judge failed to use his ethical duty (Superior Court Rule 29) to shield me from "undue burden or expense," consistently tipping the scales.
I grew to see this judge as a gender-biased "pocket judge" for the City, a belief I communicated directly to the court. The consequence: a severe, rebuking sanction order in May 2024, confirming all pretense of impartiality was lost.
This can’t be real life.
The Chain of Institutional Contamination
With Judges Temple and Colburn retiring, the assignment system has reset to a 2-to-2 split with the new judges, confirming the past 13/1 split was a deliberate administrative manipulation. The corruption, however, runs deeper:
I learned the new judge, Judge Smith, served as Judge Temple’s head clerk (2020-2022) during the height of my litigation. Both Temple and Colburn sponsored her nomination. This succession ensured the new judge was institutionally loyal to the very judges whose conduct I challenged. When I offended Temple, I offended her, too.
When Judge Smith heard my first petition in January 2025, she dismissed the case and sanctioned me for a "frivolous" suit, specifically citing Judge Temple's previous rebuking order. This "Standing Order Trap" turned Temple’s personal rebuke into an official finding of bad conduct, designed to throw me out of the Courts and block all future filings. A sham win for Nashua and the corrupt judicial circle. The legal system here is not a "what you know" game of law, but a "who you know" game built on toxic institutional loyalties. It is an institution of pigs who promote feeding at the trough of taxpayers and clients and engage in discrimination.
This can’t be real life.
Judge Smith's record is unimpressive. She has been overturned by the Supreme Court at least three times in two years, including a major RTK case involving sexual abuse records. Temple was also repeatedly overturned in recdent RTK Petitions. The judges are doing a poor job of applying the RTK statute and constitutional right to an open, accountable government.
I am now appealing Judge Smith's sanction, asking the Supreme Court to review the validity of the entire chain of judicial conduct. This is a fight to prove the sanctions were an abuse of discretion and that the judiciary weaponized its procedural power to silence a citizen seeking public accountability, particularly when tens of millions of dollars of public money are involved.
I will never find honor, ethics, or transparency in the Nashua Court. New Hampshire’s legal and Judicial system is in a state of collapse; fairness and impartiality cannot exist in an institution this tainted.