OLR files complaint against attorney who called judge racist (UPDATE)

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The president of a controversial religious group who called a Minnesota bankruptcy judge a racist in a court filing could lose her license in Wisconsin for that and other behavior over the past few years.

Naomi Isaacson, an attorney and the head of Dr. R.C. Samanta Roy Institute of Science and Technology Inc., or SIST, in Shawano, filed numerous documents in state and federal courts alleging a large conspiracy between city and state officials, attorneys and judges across Wisconsin and the United States.

She is suspended from practicing law in Wisconsin for failing to cooperate with the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation’s investigation.

SIST has been referred to as a “cult,” though Isaacson has refuted this label in court filings. The organization and its subsidiaries – which have invested in convenience stores and a go-kart amusement park in Shawano – have struggled financially for several years. Much of that has spilled into state and federal courts in Wisconsin and Minnesota, among other states.

Throughout it all, Isaacson accused local, state and national officials of plotting against SIST and its subsidiaries because its founder, Samanta, who also goes by Avraham Cohen, is from India and she said they disagree with his religious beliefs, according to a complaint the OLR filed Wednesday.

Among the most noteworthy statements she made were against the late Minnesota bankruptcy Judge Nancy Dreher, whom she referred to as a “black robed bigot” and a “Catholic Knight Witch Hunter” in a December 2011 affidavit. Dreher later issued a warrant for Isaacson’s arrest when she didn’t appear at a court hearing, though the OLR complaint states that the U.S. Marshals have not enacted the warrant.

The OLR charged Isaacson with four counts of misconduct. It is asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to revoke Isaacson’s license.

Isaacson – who was licensed to practice law in Wisconsin in 2000 – could not immediately be reached for comment Friday. The address listed on the Wisconsin State Bar’s website is for Arendal Dental Clinic in St. Paul, Minn., which is owned by one of SIST’s board members.

Isaacson alleged in several court filings that the religious group and its leaders have been persecuted, according to the complaint. She stated in an Aug. 18, 2010 affidavit that Shawano Mayor Lorna Marquardt “formed a secretive, racist organization whose sole function is to wage psychological, physical and financial war against SIST’s Indian President, other SIST personnel, and businesses.”

“Given the underlying White Supremacist feelings and beliefs and Jim Crow mentality held by many persons in Shawano and surrounding areas,” the affidavit states, “Lorna Marquardt has successfully ensnared and tied the media, the judiciary and law enforcement authorities together through their common race and religion and used them to pursue her obliteration aspiration.”

Minnesota bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel, speaking in court on Aug. 18, 2010 about one of Isaacson’s filings said, “It’s the kind of thing I occasionally see from pro se people, but the stuff that you wrote is unprofessional in the extreme and just downright rude and inappropriate, and somewhere along the line maybe you heard or thought that this was effective advocacy, but I can assure you that it is exactly the opposite.”

The OLR also alleges that when one of SIST’s cases ended up in front of Dreher, Isaacson took issue with certain rules and started to write that Dreher was doing it because she is Catholic and her husband is from Shawano.

“One can only conclude that Nancy Dreher, the Catholic judge, is part of the conspiracy to deprive Debtor of its due process rights …” a Nov. 18 memorandum states.

When the OLR reached out to Isaacson during its investigation, she tried to have the investigator removed from the case because “she felt that because of the race and religion of OLR’s investigator, OLR was unable to conduct a neutral investigation,” according to the complaint.

When the OLR refused, she responded by inundating the investigator with documents and digital files that had little to nothing to do with the investigation, the complaint states.

A similar complaint has not been filed in Minnesota. Martin Cole, director of that state’s Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility, said his office is awaiting the completion of Wisconsin’s cases before it takes any action.

Minnesota’s lawyer disciplinary arm, in turn, handled the investigation and prosecution of Rebekah Nett, a recently suspended attorney who represented Isaacson in the case in front of Dreher. Follow @eheisigWLJ