Via
avordvet
Starting out quoting Shakespeare and ending up citing Kafka, Judge Francis M. Allegra’s conclusions about
ATF conduct that led him to rule in favor of retired agent
Jay Dobyns in a breach of covenant suit are scathingly revealed in
his previously sealed opinion. That judgment was revoked after Allegra learned of “fraud upon the court” considerations,
this column reported Sunday.
Leading his opinion with a verse from Othello, Allegra pointedly let
the government defendants he ruled against know he considered them to
have robbed Dobyns of his “good name.” Concluding his opinion with a
reference comparing Dobyns’ ordeal to that imposed by the ‘totalitarian
state” in “
The Trial,”
and calling it “Kafkaesque,” Allegra further observed that the conduct
of "certain ATF officials ... bears little resemblance to the lofty
sayings carved into the facades of the
Department of Justice.”
He was referring to “words now carved into the office rotunda of the
Attorney General” that “The United States wins its point whenever
justice is done its citizens in the courts.”
“Based on the breach of the covenant, the court finds that plaintiff
[Dobyns] is entitled to damages in the amount of $173,000,” Allegra
ordered in the opinion he has since revoked in order to pursue an
investigation into further government misconduct. “The court concludes
that defendant [ATF] is entitled to – nothing.”
