Whose "Naked Guesswork" on St. Augustine Toxic Pollution?

Read it for yourself -- the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decision involving St. Augustine's coal-to-gas plant and pollution here from 1886 until the site was supposedly cleaned up.

Was roguish Jones, Day, Revavis Pogue right to brag that it hung the moon by depriving the world of a jury trial? See press release posted yesterday (below).

Read the Eleventh Circuit's decision for yourself.



Corporations and governments deeply mistrust juries, ignoring the wisdom of the Founders enshrinded in the Seventh Amendment right to civil jury trial.


Don't take my word for it -- as the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist said it best, America's Founders considered juries to be the "bulwark of democracy," protecting citizens from oppression by the powerful. Parklane Hosiery v. Shore, 439 U.S. 322 (1979)(Rehnquist, J., dissenting)

Today, the powerful deny jury trials with an oppressive twist. One wag said that it would have been "naked gusswork" to assume that there was pollution on in 1947, when an insurance policy was in effect that might have provided coverage. That wag was a United States District Judge -- he or his law clerk no doubt chuckled. If pollution was continuous, isn't it "naked guesswork" to take the issue from the jury as to whether pollution took place in 1947? Isn't it "naked guesswork" for Judge Harvey Schlesinger to suppose that he knows better than a jury?

Judge Harvey Schlesinger and his law clerk took the issue from a jury. They read a cold record (there was no trial, notwithstanding Jones, Day's confusion on that matter (see below).

They deprived the people of St. Augustine (and Atlanta Gas Light) of their Seventh Amendment right to jury trial, which Justice Rehnquist termed a "bulwark" of democracy against powerful interests --- including Century Indemnity of Philadelphia and the corporate descendants of United Gas Improvements and American Gas & Power.

Not a peep was heard from the press about the decision.

No one at City Hall said a word. Only Jones, Day, Reavis, Pogue let the proverbial "cat out of the bag" with its press release.


Thank you, Jones, Day for blowing the whistle on the decision you "won" for your corporate clients -- now we all know.

"Naked guesswork" is what our community of St. Augustine, Florida has endured for years on issues of pollution for decades.

Whether the City of St. Augustine City Hall denizens who took the entire contents of the old illegal city dump and deposited it into the Old City Reservoir ($47,248 fine proposal pending), the Anastasia Mosquito Control District that allegedly dumped DDT, malathion and used oil into our groundwater and aquifer at five different locations (including Anastasia State Park and locations at 500 Old Beach Road, Ponte Vedra, Hastings and Northwest St. Johns County, or other polluters in our midst, there's been a lot of "naked guesswork" going on.

Governments "guessed" that we would not learn and would not care about their carte blanche attitude toward pollution (theirs and corporations).

Corporations "guessed" that they would get away with it.

Prosecutors "guessed" no one cared about white collar crime.

Journalists "guessed" they could ignore pollution, wetland destruction and wildlife extinction.

Juries have not been empowered to hear and decide these issues, with prosecutors and defense lawyers keeping jurors from passing judgment.

Educators "guessed" they could ignore the inconvenient truths.

Politicians and their lawyers "guessed" they could coverup for wrongdoing.

306 days after questions were first asked about the illegal dumping by the City of St. Augustine, our questions remain unanswered.

The "naked guesswork" must stop. Answers are required.

Governments must govern themselves by the same laws they apply to corporations -- just as President Clinton said in his Earth Day speech in 1993.

Corporations must stop pollution and secrecy.

Prosecutors must prosecute polluters and wetland destroyers.

Journalists must investigate what is being done to this beautiful state, in teh spirit of the St. Petersburg Times, whose work on wetland destruction exosed the fact that over 106,000 acres of wetlands have been destroyed by overdevelopers since the government declared "no net loss of wetlands" as national policy.

Juries must deliberate, deciding civil and criminal cases about the pollution and wetland destruction that are turning Northeast Florida into a nightmarish version of Houston, Texas or South Florida -- all heat and concrete and no soul.

Educators must educate.


Politicians must answer questions. They must lead, follow or get out of the way.

Citizens must stay angry as they were when they voted for reform in 2006.