Warren Havens Facing Jail Sentence for Contempt Charge
Warren Havens -- once subject of an administrative law judge order asking the FCC to determine whether he was qualified to hold licenses -- is scheduled to begin a five-day jail sentence Wednesday in Alameda County, California, on a contempt…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
charge for interference with the receivership appointed to hold onto licenses in which he had a stake. In a docket 17-cv-6772 order (in Pacer) denying stay of sentence issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton of Oakland said Havens' contentions the contempt of court finding was unlawful are "too general and insufficient to warrant such an extraordinary remedy" as a stay. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert Friedman, in the 2016 contempt of court order, said it sprung from ALJ Richard Sippel's 2015 order inviting the FCC to issue a hearing designation order on whether Havens and his companies qualify to hold licenses, and a business partner of Havens' subsequently moving to appoint a receiver for the licenses they jointly held. Havens filed a petition for involuntary bankruptcy of that receivership, which violated court orders restraining him from interfering with the receivership, said the contempt of court order. Sippel's 2015 order said Havens had a "history of disruptive disregard of orders and otherwise contemptuous behavior" that barred Havens and his companies from future participation in a proceeding due to "their contemptuous and disruptive conduct," including harassing emails, "dumping" more than 444 unscreened exhibits of 17,000-plus pages on the Office of the ALJ, the Enforcement Bureau and other parties and multiple instances of taking conflicting positions in successive pleadings. Havens couldn't be reached for comment.