TTSOML #240: Jeanne Wellbaum's Conflicts of Interest

My relief at having a new public defender was short-lived. Jeanne Wellbaum was a rat from the beginning, and a liar to boot.

First, no one told me who the new person was going to be, until two weeks before the next hearing.

Two weeks before, Jeanne Wellbaum introduced herself by email, announcing she was going to be on vacation for over a week and would speak to me before the next hearing.

She was giving herself ONE week to go over my case, talk to me, prepare, and collect necessary evidence in support of my defense? Cassel hadn't made any attempt to get medical records from Whatcom County, or elsewhere, and neither did Wellbaum.

It was not possible to give "reasonable defense" leaving oneself ONE week to prepare and even talk to me. It wasn't even enough time to collect discovery.

But these people didn't care, it seemed, about discovery on my behalf. They were Wenatchee people who were cogs for the medical community in Wenatchee. There was never any intention, at all, to give me or my son a reasonable chance.

I freaked out after Wellbaum sent my this email, asking how in the world she thought this was enough time to prepare. She had ignored me for two weeks, as had Cassel, while I was asking around about who my new counsel was, and then she was saying "hello" to say "goodbye" and take her vacation.

I knew at once that she wasn't on my side. Then, she proved herself to be against me even further. After she made contact with me again, I told her I had medical records to obtain and she refused to get them. She stalled. She said she had to get the file from Cassel first.

Also, the Whatcom medical clinic I had gone to, kept conspicuously "losing" my release of information and then claimed they could and then couldn't accept a release by me from email. They were withholding my records as well, and I wondered who was involved, with that clinic, which Wenatchee knew the name of by then, in keeping discovery from being forthcoming.

I started asking more and more questions and I think Jeanne got nervous. All of a sudden she exclaimed she had "suddenly discovered" there was a "conflict of interest". She made this claim only AFTER she obtained my medical records AND my file.

She told me to immediately quit communicating with her. This was after I was already planning to fire her and she knew it. After I had tried to fire her, she still went ahead to obtain my medical records, or what she could of them, at least the latest discovery from Whatcom.

I wondered what "conflict of interest" this was. She refused to say. I wondered if she had been romantically involved with someone I knew, or the same person somehow--I didn't know. I still don't know. I do know she claimed "conflict of interest" after she knew I was dating a security guard. So I wondered if she'd had a past or a present with a security guard. But I didn't know, so I started looking into her.

I don't know about her romantic life. That may still be a pertinent issue and perhaps she changed her mind about her "conflict" after she thought I wouldn't find out or didn't know. What I DID find out about her, was that she had been employed by the same law firm which did all the defense and representation for the Wenatchee hospital I was planning to sue: Central Washington Hospital, and which also represented and defended Dr. Butler and all of Columbia Valley Community Health. She had only recently "quit". There is no way she didn't have a personal interest in my case. She had worked with, in partnership, with the same lawyers who had been trying to screw me over on behalf of their clients: the hospital, clinic, doctors, and medical professionals. They had been railroading and defaming me for more than a year and then these same guys started making complaints to CPS.

Jeanne Wellbaum had been a full-time attorney for the Davis Arneil firm. As I was a prominent figure in that town, given my viable threats of lawsuit, there was no way she didn't know who I was. Jeanne Wellbaum knew who I was, before she accepted my case. And when she got my file and medical records, she was not getting discovery for ME--she was getting discovery for her buddies.

I freaked out and called her on it and I told her, "YOU ARE IN BIG TROUBLE MS. WELLBAUM." I announced there was enough evidence that she had known about "conflict of interest" before she took my case, and I was reporting her to the Bar.

All of a sudden, Ms. Wellbaum retracted her request that I not communicate with her. She began to deny there was any conflict of interest at all, and that she'd been "mistaken".

She had been trying to obtain medical records about my injuries on behalf of people I was planning to sue, and she was doing favors for them, not me.

She tried to backtrack on everything.

In the long-run, Hotchkiss went along with everything, and ordered that my entire medical history be exposed to everyone, for EVERYBODY's "discovery". He violated HIPPA, and ordered my whole history to be exposed to him, his court, and the entire state of Washington and their workers.

But you notice, no one made an effort to obtain my records when I needed them for Change of Venue to prove disability.

Hotchkiss and the rest only wanted my medical records after they was no chance for me to get Change of Venue, and then, they still omitted and withheld the documentation that proved I had injuries. All they wanted, because they knew they had no grounds or evidence for removing my son from me, was the slanderous chart notes from Wenatchee doctors which made me sound nuts.

More than one person orchestrated the chain of events.

But, getting ahead of myself, I'll go back to what happened after I tried to fire Wellbaum and what the response of Hotchkiss was.