Richard Yetter Needs Anger Management, Not a Judgeship

Richard "King of Law" Yetter likes to tell everyone he's the only attorney among three candidates for District Judge in Wilson Borough, West Easton and a tiny sliver of Easton. And it's true, he's got Rhonda Elias and Shana Restucci beat on that one. But in every other way, Yetter has gone out of his way to demonstrate that he's nutz. Instead of being elected to a judgeship, he should be sent to the nearest state hospital for evaluation. His campaign has been ugly from beginning to end, demonstrating he completely lacks the judicial temperament needed in that sensitive position. Shana and Rhonda, two class acts, are a far better choice.

It started in January, before Restucci ever announced her candidacy. Yetter fired off a "lawyer letter" accusing her of defaming him. The funny thing about that is that, aside from him, nobody could seem to remember anyone saying anything negative about him.

Later that month, Yetter sent out a campaign solicitation to "Esteemed Members of the Bar," idiotically telling them, "Your donation is tax deductible and the committee will mail out receipts for your tax records." Gee, that sure sounds like the kind of mistake a nonlawyer would make.

Then, in a post announcing Rhonda Elias' candidacy, she was attacked because she owns no real estate. Yetter's wife, Donna, slammed both of his opponents because they have no law degree. When her comment went into a spam folder through some dictate of the Blogging Gods, I found myself attacked anonymously for deleting a comment that was actually hung up in cyber space.

Next thing I know, Restucci is attacked again, this time because her brother planted one of her campaign signs at her father's grave site as a tribute. She certainly wasn't going to get any votes doing that, but the Yetter camp tried to use it as a political tool.

But it does not stop there. Yetter actually staged a video in which a campaign worker supposedly calls him in the middle of an interview to complain about sign theft.

He should lose the race just for lousy acting.

Now, on Election Eve, he's finally gone over the edge. His takes a Shana Restucci campaign video and loads it up with all kinds of insinuations about her life as a cheerleading coach at Wilson High School. He then slams Stan Margle, her campaign manager. Stan was nice enough to donate $500 to Yetter, giving to the opposition. This is something classy lawyers do in judicial races.

Stan's check, along with his account number and signature, was posted on Youtube for the entire world to see in close-up mode.

Can you say identity theft? This is a future District Judge? It's totally irresponsible.

You can go to the best law school in the world, but that means nothing if you have no common sense. Posting all this personal information about one of his own contributors reveals that Yetter has none.

Oh yeah, Stan is also called one of Yetter's "biggest campaign doners[sic]." All that education must have really paid off.

In the course of writing this post, Yetter campaign staffer Michael Laws sent me an email about how fair he's been. I let him know, in no uncertain terms, what I thought of that last campaign video, which was accompanied by the defrocked monk music of Orff's Carmina Burana. That disgusting video was finally deleted, but only after I complained.

Both Restucci and Elias are wonderful candidates who have had the misfortune of enduring an irresponsible bully in the form of Richard Yetter. Hopefully, voters will send him back to his home in Hanover Township.

District Judge Candidate Dick Yetter Blasts Single Moms

In a supposed judicial campaign that is increasingly becoming a comedy of errors, Wilson Borough DJ candidate Richard "I'm a lawyer" Yetter is now taking aim at single moms. At a recent meeting of Easton Democrats, Yetter asks, "How would everybody in this room like a single mother who has to be at home at 4:30 PM to chase her kids around the dining room table?"

The room gasped.

Don't take my word for it. Among those present were Easton City Council members Ken Brown, Sandy Vulcano and Eli Warner. Ask them.

Yetter is running against Shana Restucci and Rhonda Elias. Nonlawyers, they don't belong to the penis club, either. Unlike Yetter, they're not little Dicks.

Collections lawyer Yetter has consistently demonstrated that he lacks pretty much all of the qualities we look for in judges. Before the race got uder way, he tried to scare off one potential rival by threatening her with defamation. This legal scholar followed that up by falsely telling lawyers that their campaign contributions are tax deductible. Now we have his slam at single moms.

Yetter did not stop there. He told Easton Democrats that one of his opponents, Shana Restucci, "did not vote for Barack Obama." How he would know that is beyond me. His other rival, Rhonda Elias, is even worse than Shana. She's an Evil Republican! His criticism of both Restucci and Elias is a violation of the Code of Judicial Conduct, which condemns political activity inappropriate to the office.

On his web page, Yetter claims to have the endorsement of Lehigh Valley Advocacy for Men and Families. According to the FaceBook page for that group, it's a nonprofit that really should not be endorsing political candidates. This group did not respond to my inquiries.

Yetter Should Drop Judicial Race for Quoits

Let me explain something about comments on this blog. Nearly 100% of the time, you can post a comment, it will appear and I am automatically sent an email notification. But sometimes, although I still get an email notification, a comment goes right into blogspot's spam folder. It's rare, but it happens, especially when I'm getting lots of comments or somebody comments on a post that is several days old. It happened last night in a comment about the Wilson Borough mini-judge race, and sheds light on some disturbing and intemperate characteristics of one of the candidates.

So far, this contest stars Rhonda Elias, Shana Restucci and Richard "I'm a lawyer" Yetter. On my left sidebar, I have links for each of these candidates. Who knows? There may be more candidates in the days to come.

This one has been one nasty judicial race. Before Shana Restucci ever even announced, Yetter was threatening her with defamation. Then, when I posted about her candidacy, the attacks became so vicious I had to suspend comments.

On Monday, after telling you about Elias' candidacy, the anonymous slurs began again. One of the landed gentry attacks Elias because she owns no real estate. Both Elias and Restucci are snarked because they lack law degrees.

Last night, Donna "I'm married to a lawyer" Yetter decided to post a comment (read it here) claiming her husband, a lawyer, is the only qualified candidate. I got the usual email notification, but was on my way to a Bethlehem ZHB meeting and never checked the blog.

I was writing up my posts for the next day when, at 11:29 PM, I got this "anonymous" comment: "So what's up Bernie? If someone actually posts their name and an informative response to people's questions you take their post off? I don't get it. Are you only interested in stirring up trouble, or do you actually want people to know the truth?"

I checked my blogspot spam folder and, sure enough, Donna Yetter's remark was there. It had never appeared on my blog. I published it immediately, noting what had happened. But it bothers me that one of the Yetters had obviously commented anonymously. Is this kind of deception appropriate in a judicial campaign? Also, I was prejudged. Instead of waiting for the facts about the spam comment problem, as a good judge would do, I was accused and convicted of deleting a Yetter comment.

After all this, Richard "I really am a lawyer" Yetter decided to pop on this blog and claim that a comment identified by blogspot as spam had really, really, really appeared on my blog and then mysteriously ended up in my spam folder (read it here). "Before I left home for my quoit match tonight, her post did appear here on your blog."

Who the hell plays quoits in the Winter?

Well, Richard may be an attorney, but he's wrong. If blogspot recognizes a comment as spam, it goes into a spam folder without ever having been published. There is no way that he or his wife ever saw that comment.

By the way, Yetter's own comment went right into blogspot's spam folder. It failed to appear on my blog. I had to go to my folder and order it published.

As someone who has a law degree, I can tell you that most attorneys make lousy district judges. We have no common sense, a characteristic demanded in the minor judiciary. The best magistrates I've seen have always been nonlawyers.

What Yetter has displayed, over and over, is poor judicial temperament. He switched houses with his mom so he could claim residency. He threatened a candidate with defamation before she even announced. Another gets slammed because, in addition to being a nonlawyer, she is not a member of the landed gentry. He idiotically sent out a campaign mailer telling potential contributors their donations were tax deductible. And now, he or his wife attacks me anonymously for deleting a comment that was actually detected as spam.

Maybe he should consider becoming a professional quoit player, but he lacks the temperament to be a judge on any level.

And Richard, if you want to threaten me with defamation, there's a long line in front of you.

Wilson District Judge Race Picks Up A Third Candidate

Wilson Borough's District Judge race just got a bit more interesting, as Rhonda Elias enters the fray. As an "active member of Our Lady of Lebanon Church," a point she makes on her webpage, she is certain to attract a heavy Lebanese vote in Wilson, West Easton and Easton's west ward.

A Republican who works at General Supply, she's 30 years old and has always lived in the Wilson Magisterial District. Other candidates in the race include Shana Restucci, a legal secretary, and Rich Yetter, an attorney.