Photo by File photo Jon Bruning

Photo by File photo John Murphy

Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning had harsh words for Lincoln County District Court Judge John Murphy in a Jan. 5 interview with an Omaha talk radio station.

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Those words may have landed the state’s top attorney in hot water.

"Judge Murphy in North Platte has always been the rabble-rouser, the guy that wants to stick a needle in the eye - or a stick in the eye - of the state,” Bruning said.

Bruning also said Murphy is “out of control” before claiming, “Murphy’s a piece of work, let me tell you.”

Bruning’s comments were in response to a challenge from show host Tom Becka that Bruning ignored a temporary injunction issued by Murphy when the state sex offender registry published the names and addresses of all Nebraska sex offenders.

A podcast of the interview can be heard at www.kfab.com.

In the interview, Bruning said he didn’t learn of Murphy’s injunction until the day after the names were published.

Murphy’s injunction came after North Platte attorney Bob Lindemeier filed a challenge to the new Sex Offender Registry and Notification Act in Lincoln County District Court.

Murphy’s order was vacated by federal Judge Richard Kopf and the case was moved to federal court shortly thereafter.

Murphy was unavailable for comment Wednesday afternoon.

Bruning also turned his ire towards Omaha attorney Stu Dornan, who filed a challenge to the registry law in federal court.

"He is an apologist for sex offenders, and I gotta tell you, I'm never going to apologize for dropping the hammer on these guys," Bruning said of Dornan.

The attorney general’s comments moved Lincoln attorney Korey Reiman to file a grievance against Bruning with the state’s Counsel for Discipline.

Reiman said he saw a link to a podcast of Bruning’s interview on a professional website for Nebraska attorneys. Reimar told the Bulletin the link had a post from another attorney asking “Do you think this is appropriate?”

Reimar said he does not think it is appropriate for the state’s top attorney to talk that way about a judge and fellow attorney.

He also thought the statements violated state rules.

Bruning’s spokesperson, Allen Forkner, told the Bulletin, “We’ve received the filing and we’re going to respond accordingly.”

Reimar said he has no personal stake in the issue. He’s never practiced in front of Murphy and is only passingly familiar with Dornan.

Lindemeier, Troshynski comment on removal

Bruning’s comments about Murphy stemmed from Murphy's temporary injunction, stopping the implementation of Nebraska's new sex offender registry laws.

Shortly after Murphy issued a temporary injunction, all such challenges filed in state courts were removed to federal court, following an order last week from Federal Judge Richard Kopf.

Lindemeier, who filed the challenge on behalf of a Lincoln County resident named only as “John Doe,” said after the removal he was initially dismayed that a federal judge would intervene in a matter of state law.

“We only raised state constitutional issues because we wanted it tried out here,” he said. “We wanted a local court to decide.”

Lindemeier said Kopf order was based on Kopf's judgment that Nebraska only passed the new act to be in compliance with federal mandates, so challenges are a matter of federal law, not state law.

That’s why Kopf believes he has jurisdiction, Lindemeier said.

North Platte attorney Marty Troshynski, who assisted Lindemeier with the challenge, said, “We’re being lumped in with the others. We can argue that (Kopf) can’t do that, but of course he will disagree.”

Troshynski said it could be years before the matter could be resolved or come back to state courts.

“It’s a unique situation. It doesn’t come up very often. But he made the decision to remove it so it’s been removed," Lindemeier said.

Lindemeier has talked with his client about how to proceed. John Doe has limited resources, he said, and it may be cost-prohibitive to continue pursuing the matter in federal court.

“We may fold our cards and let the federal lawsuit play out,” Lindemeier said.

He also said the Lincoln County challenge might piggyback on a federal challenge that was filed by Omaha attorney Stu Dornan.

“We don’t need to re-invent the wheel with this challenge,” Lindemeier said. “There’s no need to create a bunch of extra work. We may not be needed on the case at all.”

Punishment

Whether or not the constitutional challenges stand will depend on how the federal court defines “punishment,” Lindemeier said.

For example, the court may decide that one of the provisions of the new sex offender registry -- extending the amount of time previously convicted offenders have to register -- may be viewed as a civil sanction, not a criminal punishment, he said.

Lindemeier noted that the Nebraska Supreme Court had ruled both ways in different situations.

“In some cases, the act of registration was found to be a civil sanction, but the Supreme Court has also ruled that lifetime registration is punishment,” he said.

Lindemeier responded to criticism of the challenge by saying, “People get upset and wonder why we are doing this to protect sexual predators.”

“It’s not that,” he said. “It’s that the state and federal governments are saying they are going to do these things. Once the government impedes on civil rights for some people, it becomes easier and easier for them to do it to everybody.”

“People in my profession don’t want to allow the federal government to invade citizen’s privacy,” he said. “If you’re going to say this group of people is subhuman and do not have any rights, then what’s the next group of people to earn that distinction?”