Records? What Records??

It is understandable that some parties, such as criminals and public officials, seek to hide some types of personal information from public oversight. After all, both criminals and some public officials might conceivably find that this information could potentially be used in manners that would render them more transparent and thus more vulnerable. And now, we find that not only are state legislatures involving themselves in this effort to mitigate transparency, but some recorders' offices are also destroying records.

Case in point is Georgia Bill HB 199. HB199 | Georgia 2025-2026 | Courts; protection of personally identifiable information of judges and their spouses; modify provisions | TrackBill This bill seeks to remove personally identifying material from certain public documents filed by judges. The problem here lies in the power and abuse of said power by judges, the exposing of such which was pivotal in releasing certain individuals from questionable incarceration. That would be jail, by the way.

The release of certain "personally identifying" material about Cherokee County Judge Ellen McElyea this past year coincided with her decision to let Steve Butler out of jail. McElyea was confronted with information culled from both her loan documents, which were suspiciously excessive and also contained data on her failure to pay her taxes, and from her filings with the State of Georgia and immediately (the very next day) ordered Butler, who was charged with failure to pay taxes, to be freed from Cherokee County jail. McElyea then retired from the bench and the new judge appointed to oversee the Butler case, Judge Tony Baker, refused to prosecute him further. 

An effort was also made to secure Judge Baker’s records, but we found him to be one step ahead of us and he had already ordered the county recorder to remove his activity from public oversight. Such removal may become de rigueur if HB 199 passes into law.

Another removal of public records is taking place in Bergen County, New Jersey, where County Recorder’s office supervisor Carlos Soto informed this reporter that cancellations (satisfactions) of mortgages are being destroyed. This reporter called Soto last week when a check on mortgages and satisfactions attached to a public official, Judge Jane Mecca and her spouse, Joseph Mecca were unavailable. Although about 2 million in mortgages taken out by the Meccas are available, about half of the recorded documents pertinent to them are not. Soto explained that some of the records are pending availability through document imaging and that some of the cancellations have been destroyed, shredded.

Here is an example of an unavailable Bergen County document—

Judge Jane Mecca was being researched due to repeated allegations by Dr. Bandy Lee Campaign to Impeach Judge Jane Gallina-Mecca | by Bandy X. Lee | Medium that her decisions were corrupt and malicious.

Roughly 2/3 of judges researched, both state and federal, have mortgage histories redolent of bribe-taking. Intervention—meaning researching the judge in question and contacting him or her with questions--- in a number of cases, such as Steve Butler’s and Brian Harriss’s  Justice in the Time of Corona - Activist Post, have resulted in the resurrection of justice in cases wherein a party was being falsely incarcerated or otherwise abused by a questionable judge. The fact that financial records pertinent to judges may be withheld now, due to actions such as HB 199 or possibly shredded is of grave concern.