Written by Esther Israel in August 2021
In 2015, I filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the University of Utah and five local and out-of-state psychologists. I was a pro-se plaintiff and getting legal help from a former partner in the legal profession and from my best friend’s ex-husband who was a tax attorney in New York. The lawsuit winded down at the end of 2018 with the case being dismissed. In short, I lost without having a day in court. This and other events in my mental health career since the time I filed a copyright infringement lawsuit, got me thinking about the charade of the Utah legal and mental health systems. Previously, I had thought about court as a place to go for justice. Previously, I had thought about mental health as a service that provides help and hope. Previously, I had thought about academia as place of learning. I had experiences that indicated this was not so.
There is this thing called governmental immunity. As it applies to federal and state laws, any person or agency that is the government or a tentacle of the government, could claim that they are exempt from being sued or from being held responsible for the wrongdoing they committed as actors for the state of Utah. This reminds me of games in childhood. When things would get out of hand, the kid with the most power called the last move. Lord of the Flies transitions to adulthood.
The Utah Attorney General’s office defends the state of Utah in cases where they can claim 11th Amendment Immunity and Utah state governmental immunity. I did a double take when I learned that the attorney for the defendants in my copyright infringement lawsuit was the defense attorney for the state of Utah and the University of Utah in the lawsuit filed by the family of a University of Utah student who was murdered due to failures by state of Utah officers and agencies, including the University of Utah campus police. https://www.scribd.com/document/426850494/Motion-to-Dismiss-in-McCluskey-Case
After I filed my copyright infringement lawsuit, the assistant Utah attorney general contacted me and asked me what I was looking for in a settlement. I told him that I want to go to trial. The attorney told me that his wife is a professor at the University of Utah, and she told him that experiences of plagiarism and copyright violations are commonplace at the University of Utah and in academia. I was saddened to hear that an officer of the court was telling me that illegal and unethical behaviors are commonplace among people and amidst places in which he has personal, professional and political ties.
In hindsight, I can see that the Utah Attorney General’s Office manufactures their own drama and diversions out of the drama that is a citizen’s injustice. Based on the way that the Utah Attorney General’s Office spin the stories of cases they defend, it would seem initially that justice is in the process of being served. To the contrary. A motion to dismiss the state of Utah template is being updated from the last successful lawsuit to dismiss the state of Utah under 11th amendment immunity and governmental immunity. The Utah Attorney General’s office orchestrates and determines which judge and at what time to file a motion to dismiss the state of Utah from responsibility in the original complaint. (Interested individuals are encouraged to read the Motion to Dismiss the University of Utah that the Utah Attorney General's office filed in my copyright infringement lawsuit. This motion and much of the filed legal documents are available to those with a PACER, or Public Access to Court Electronic Records, account. PACER charges ten cents a page to download the documents. For those without a PACER account, the attachment below is what you will see on PACER with regard to my copyright infringement lawsuit. You are also welcome to request of me documents that are sealed, or not listed on PACER such as the deposition script, discovery, the letter I wrote to the Inspector General, and email correspondence between myself and the assistant attorney general.)
There is a lot to say about why governmental immunity is wrong. See this video by the Libertas Institute in which I am featured from 4:01-5:12 and 7:23-7:40. http://immunity.rethinkwhy.org/ Also see this article by Molly Davis posted in the Salt Lake Tribune https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2018/07/22/commentary-can-government/ and on the Libertas Institute website https://libertas.org/op-eds/can-government-be-held-accountable-for-harming-you/
Rather than ponder the obvious injustices of governmental immunity, I am calling to mind that for every brazen declaration that the state of Utah is exempt from providing justice, there are many more clandestine acts of injustice that are coordinated behind the scenes by the government and by individuals in the government. (See my Muckraking article, I Published and I Perished.) By not caring about injustice done by the state of Utah, and by actively protesting responsibility for the harm caused by the state of Utah, the Utah Attorney General’s office gives way for injustice to recur at a systemic level. The Utah Attorney General’s office affords the Utah legislature, judges, state attorneys, and other officers of the court, the privilege of not having to think about their biased, egregious and harmful actions in a corrupt system. The Utah Attorney General’s Office gives state employees in every government branch, including academia, our legal and criminal justice systems and mental health systems, permission to behave dastardly.
Cognitive dissonance occurs when we hold two incompatible beliefs. When people in great positions of power with the awesome job of meting out justice are blocked from helping others achieve justice, or they actively block others from obtaining relief, they experience cognitive dissonance. Unless a person is psychopathic, they would not be able to hold onto the belief that they are fair and just to allow crime to recur and stay unaddressed.
Cognitive dissonance in the state of Utah is a moral malady that is poisoning its citizens. The legislative branch of government fails to make connections between governmental immunity and our mental health crises, whether it is domestic violence, addiction and suicide. From a mental health perspective, this is a cognitive distortion that makes sense to the bad actor, but not to the victims who have no voice. Think about the messages of governmental immunity. Might makes right. Even if you are right, you’re not important enough for us to care about you. If you were wronged, that’s too bad on you. How about more reasonable messages? Evidence matters. Justice is slow because we are meticulous. Hold onto hope because we won’t let you down. The wrongs you experience hurt us too and we want to make it right. We are so embarrassed and ashamed that you were harmed in our state.
A very weird thing happened eleven days after I filed my copyright infringement lawsuit against the state of Utah. My licensed psychologist supervisor and the human resources manager at the state government agency where I worked as a psychological testing assistant, informed me that I would be suddenly let go in a reduction in force, due to not needing me at the job. At that time, there were good reasons for me to accept this contrived decision by Utah State Hospital, starting with the low pay. I found employment at another government agency in Salt Lake county. Then another funny thing happened. Six days before my six month probation period ended as a jail mental health therapist, I was asked by my licensed clinical mental health counselor supervisor to resign. I did not and was discharged from my employment by the mental health department and the human resources representative for the Salt Lake County Sheriff's office, even though this job desperately needed (and to this day continues to need) mental health workers.
My experiences pursing justice in the Utah legal system while simultaneously providing mental health services to those in the Utah legal and criminal justice system taught me about the ugly nature of purse string power. People who have done wrong will continue to protect themselves at all costs. Governmental immunity affords some people and organizations the opportunity to maintain the status quo. The state of Utah is not going to show any flexibility in adjusting governmental immunity laws to be reasonable. No individual or organization will be able to make inroads into changing these laws when the fox is guarding the hen house.
For these realizations, I wish to offer a moment of silence for employees at the Utah Attorney General’s Office. Take a minute to think about the ninth of the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament (Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5). Thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor… How many times have you abused your position in your government capacity? It’s probably too many to think about in a moment of silence. How many times have you perverted justice because of 11th amendment and governmental immunity? I was just doing my job is also known as the Nuremberg defense. That cognitive dissonance, that discomfort you are feeling, it’s called your conscience. You may be able to silence the person that makes you uncomfortable but it comes at a cost. We are all connected and your shame is your own.
