Perhaps it's time for Lenny to
come to Jesus with his clients:
Have Mel and Betty Sembler misrepresented themselves to the court?


OK. This is a big break in the PumpGate story.

Ray Bradbury and team have been chomping at the bit for over a year to get to ask Mel and Betty Sembler some very pointed questions about their involvement in Straight, Inc. and Straight's involvement in widespread criminal child abuse. But it doesn't look like the Ambassador has been around too much to answer those embarrassing questions due to his heavy load administering to the affairs of the United States government in Rome. So Judge Anthony Rondolino finally said hey I want you guys to go to a mediator. He didn't say they have to come to an agreement; just that he hoped an unbiased, third party could help Bradbury and the Semblers come to some sort of an agreement or settlement. Only, Judge Rondolino didn't say it would be nice for them to mediate--he ordered them to mediate. And he told them to do it by August 27. That's when Ana-Maria Carnesoltas, Esq. of Englander & Fisher (Ambassador Sembler's lawyers) told the court that Ambassador Sembler could not mediate any time soon because:

1. mediation would not be meaningful until the discovery process has been completed and,because of "counsel scheduling conflicts" [those are Ms. Carnesoltas words] "and after one year" [those are our words], Lenny was not scheduled to depose Ray Bradbury until sometime after August 27, 2004! [How many times has Englander already canceled Bradbury's deposition? Could it be he realizes that once he deposes Ray Bradbury, Ray Bradbury will depose the Semblers?]
2. the Ambassador's job in Italy is so demanding he just can't pull away from it any time soon.

Enclosure 1 is Ms. Carnesoltas' response to the judge's order where she says the Semblers are not expected in country for "the next several months." And that's where the problem starts for the Semblers because several people have now submitted sworn affidavits to the court attesting that they have knowledge that both Melvin and Betty Sembler have been in the United States in the period their attorney says they "are not expected to be."

So Tom McGowan, Mr. Bradbury 's attorney, sent the Ambassador the letter at enclosures 2, 3 and 4 asking him point blank, "were you in the Untied States when you told the court you were not expected to be in the United States and therefore could not attend to court ordered mediation?" He sent Betty Sembler a similar letter at enclosures 5 and 6. Astonishingly, Ambassador Sembler and his wife have just admitted that they were in fact in country during the period in question. See their admissions in enclosure 7.

Once the smoke clears who will be left to face the judge? Mel and Betty haven't signed anything. Lenny stopped signing documents regarding PumpGate months ago.