Indiana

Let The Record Show

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

Apparently a question in the comment section of my blog has raised quite a stir.    I asked Paul Ogden if he had ever been in court to defend himself against stalking allegations?  The led Ogden to go on a rant and accuse me of trying to attack him personally and said I had no facts to base my statement.

First, I never accused him of stalking anyone, I just asked a question.   Second, my question was based on a deposition he gave involving a lawsuit he filed against the state Department of  Insurance over what he claimed was wrongful termination.  The Court dismissed his lawsuit.  I’ve pasted that relevant part of the deposition below since it is public record.

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1   P A U L  K.  O G D E N, having been first duly sworn to
2     tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
3     truth related to said matter, was examined and
4     testified as follows:
5     DIRECT EXAMINATION,
6       QUESTIONS BY ERIC J. BEAVER:
7   Q Please state your name for the record.
8   A My name is Paul K. Ogden, O-g-d-e-n.
9   Q Have you ever been deposed before?
10   A I’m not positive.  I think maybe I have.  I was
11     involved in a protective order case and a defamation
12     case in the early 90s, actually it was 1990.  There
13     might have been a deposition done then.
14   Q What was the nature of the protective order case?
15   A Protective order was like the early days of the
16     protective orders where you could just go in and get
17     an order by going into the small claims court, and
18     they would have the allegations outlined, and they
19     would just sign off on it.
20         A woman I knew from law school had filled one out
21     because I had sent her flowers for her birthday.  So
22     again, that was the early days of the protective
23     orders, and they’ve changed things since then.  And
24     the defamation case was against her, too.
25   Q Okay.  Was the protective ordered actually entered?

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1   A It was entered then dismissed.
2   Q Okay.
3   A The whole thing was dismissed.
4   Q Okay.
5   A Went up to Marion Superior Court so –
6   Q So it was — how long do you estimate it was actually
7     in effect?
8   A Well, the temporary one would have been in effect
9     until the hearing in Superior Court.  It might have
10     been like six months.  I can’t remember how long it
11     took.
12   Q So was there a preliminary order and then a permanent
13     order?
14   A Right.  And then we took it up, and it got dismissed.
15   Q Okay.  And what was the name of the lady?
16   A Gloria K. Grinnan, G-r-i-n-n-a-n.  I think she’s
17     married now to someone named Mitchell.
18   Q Okay.
19   A And the defamation case was against her as well.
20   Q And what was the result of the defamation case?
21   A I just agreed to dismiss it in conjunction with her
22     dismissing the protective order thing.
23   Q Okay.  In what court do you recall filing the
24     defamation action?
25   A Marion Superior Court.  I don’t know which one.  I

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1     think it was in John Price’s court back then.  He –
2     but I don’t know what number.
3   Q Okay.
4   A He’s no longer a judge.

You can draw your own conclusions about whether this matters.  Me, I thought it seemed odd that a woman you only sent flowers to would go to court ask for an order of protection that lasted for about six months, so I asked a question.  Ogden could have just given me a straight answer, but instead decided to rant.  Oh well, such is life.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on April 18, 2010 (boomark / email).