Family Court Censorship Busted

Judge Farber shuts down NJ Lawyer Jessica Sprague’s “Lethal Injection to Journalism” Motion to Silence Protective Mom and Media in Divorce Court Circus

NOTE: Not that it needs to because of the First Amendment, this rebroadcast complies with N.J.S.A. 2C:21-21(1)(f), and was first published and available on other media outlets.

By Richard Luthmann

In a dramatic free speech victory, a New Jersey judge on Monday rejected a brazen attempt to silence a protective mother, the media, and public scrutiny in one of the state’s most controversial divorce cases.

Superior Court Judge James Farber denied attorney Jessica Sprague’s motion to impose a gag order and preliminary restraints on Cristin Badal, journalists, and news outlets reporting on the case Badal v. Badal.

These non-parties to the divorce action also included Jill Jones Soderman, Executive Director of the Foundation for the Child Victims of the Family Courts (fcvfc.org), and Maryann Petri from Slam the Gavel Podcast.

“This is America,” Judge Farber declared. “We don’t do prior restraints here. That is not part of American jurisprudence.”

Journalist Michael Volpe, who authored a now-vindicated piece for this World-Famous Blog, is recovering well at his Chicago abode.

Censorship Crusade Busted: NJ Family Court Gag Order Update

Free Speech and TheFamilyCourtCircus.com live to fight another day, much to the chagrin of New Haven Prosecutor Jack Doyle, retired Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Joette Katz, and the powers that be in the Constitution State.

“Against American Jurisprudence”: Judge Torches Gag Order in Explosive NJ Divorce Battle 

Attorney Sprague, representing Cristin’s ex-husband J. Bradley “Brad” Badal, opened the March 31 hearing by asking that members of the press be removed from the Zoom proceeding.

Judge Farber shut her down.

“I’m not removing anybody,” he said. “Court proceedings are open to the public. That is the national rule.”

Sprague wasn’t done. She asked the court to impose a gag order to stop further public discussion of the case.

Gagged Where It Stinks: Ex-Pol Asks NJ Family Court Judge to Silence the Press About His Shady Legal and Business Dealings

Farber refused again.

“I’m not talking anybody. If he wants to take the stuff, he can take it,” he said, referring to a journalist on the call.

Family Court Censorship Busted: “Lethal Injection for the Press”

Sprague’s motion was widely seen as an attack on family court journalists Michael Volpe and Richard Luthmann, who have covered Brad Badal case on Substack, TheFamilyCourtCircus.com, NYNewsPress.com, and other platforms.

Volpe, Luthmann, and other journalists’ reporting has exposed how the family court system was allegedly weaponized against Cristin Badal, who has been barred from seeing her son for nearly a year without a clear court order.

Luthmann warned that Attorney Sprague’s motion was the legal equivalent of “lethal injection” meant to silence the reporting permanently.

The journalists revealed a bombshell: for over 30 years, Brad Badal has been secretly paying disgared automobile mogul Bruce Bendell 25% of the revenue from his company, Major Police Supply. That’s the same Bruce Bendell who pled guilty in 2018 to federal tax fraud, paid $3.8 million in restitution, and claimed under oath that he had fully disclosed all financial ties.

“Either Bendell lied to the Feds, or Badal’s records are fake,” Luthmann said. “Both can’t be true.”

Handwritten notes from Badal correlating with numbers submitted in sworn court documents confirm the deal: a $130,000 investment from Bendell in the late ’80s, in exchange for a permanent cut of police fleet profits.

“My worst fears for Michael Volpe almost came true… They were trying to kill his journalism off in court proceedings. But Judge Farber pulled him off the gurney just in time.”

Tune in to The Unknown Podcast this week to hear Michael Volpe’s account about how the “death needle” of censorship made a “near miss.”

Again, we noble journalists also sought answers. We asked noted Law Professor and First Amendment Scholar Euguene Volokh, who has been following the case, to opine. Formerly a Law Clerk to the late, great Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Professor Volokh has seen the Good, the Bab, and the Ugly of First Amendment Jurisprudence.

In an email to the Professor, Luthmann wrote:

See the attached, which our favorite NJ lawyers at Jardim Meisner Salmon Sprague & Susser, P.C., filed today.

Obviously, none of them ever took any of your courses on the First Amendment. All that were available to them were the ones they slept through at Seton Hall Law School.

Poor Michael Volpe has further drawn the ire of the NJ Courts Censors for DASTARDLY DEEDS DONE: reporting of the news and related commentary. He’s worried he might be escorted out of the House of Journalists like a veritable Al Green of Texas. (I’ll still call Mike OG).

Michael Volpe is worried about censorship, so I’ve looped in the Reporter’s Committe on the Freedom of the Press. He is worried he will be censored and his articles will be taken down from Substack and elsewhere:

https://michaelvolpe.substack.com/cp/159481535

A new piece is out all about Mr. Volpe’s plight:

https://thefamilycourtcircus.com/2025/03/27/gagged-where-it-stinks-nj-family-court-hears-ex-pols-demand-to-gag-journalists-after-corruption-reporting-first-amendment-under-fire/

I’m not as worried as Mike Volpe. I trust in Natural Law, but only because I don’t have an OG cane.

I’m not as worried as Mike Volpe. I’m battle-tested. I’ve fought the communists and the authoritarains before.

Like the Framers, I believe resort to the courts are but one of the Natural Law responses to censorship consonant with our Constitutional structure. There are other solutions, and I have already detailed the concept of FIRST AMENDMENT PROTECTORS. I am awaiting my Letters of Marque from President Trump and/or Attorney General Bondi:

https://luthmann.substack.com/p/danesh-noshirvan-circling-the-drain

Maybe the new interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba, can grant me my FIRST AMENDMENT LETTERS OF MARQUE.

As an intellectual exercise for discussion purposes only, can I demand Full Faith and Credit from these NJ lawyers?

As a journalist I’m a non-party litigant with limited rights, as the MDFL court made so painfully aware to me. (See attached. I’m waiting on their response to my objections from an Article III Judge, if there are any left after Il Donaldo Trumpo is finished with his Executive Orders.) That’s the Cancel Culture / Doxxing Case that you’ve preivously covered in Southwest Florida, which got me interested. When they ask Professor (they have and they probably will again), I tell them: it’s all Eugene Volokh’s fault:

https://reason.com/volokh/2023/12/04/plaintiff-sues-defendant-alleging-defendants-niche-is-cancel-culture/

Do I (or would anyone) have any legal standing to have someone tell the Judge EVERYTHING I’ve ever been accused of? (and that no Government ever proved!).

• Luthmann tried to order the Staten Island Democratic Party Leader killed.

• Luthmann tried to have the Staten Island Democratic Party Executive Director’s hand broken with a hmmer like in the movie “Casino”.

• Luthmann’s action in 2015 – 2017 and NYS Reform Party Law Chair make him the most prolific social media election manipulator in American History (until Mark Zuckerberg in 2020)

• Luthmann tried and failed to hand a stripper $10,000 in cash to say that the Staten Island District Attorney raped her (my personal favorite because how can I cheat on a romantic partner if the Government says I can’t get laid in a whorehouse with stack full of hundreds?)

• Many, many, other fun things!

https://luthmann.substack.com/i/156092514/full-faith-and-credit-or-lawfare

https://nypost.com/2018/03/14/judge-sick-of-mafia-references-at-trial-by-combat-lawyers-hearing/

Also, I want to request comment from Mr. J. Bradley Badal. Since I have his lawyers here, I’ll do my best Linda Richman.

There’s nothing PURE about PROCUREMENT in the VIRGIN ISLANDS … DISCUSS:

• Ray Martinez

• Jenifer O’Neal

• Enid Edwards

• Francis Brooks

• Bill John-Baptiste

This will be my only request for comment of the topic.

Also, do you think Mike needs the Reporters’ Committee to help him? God knows the monetary collection to retrieve his remains after the NJ LETHAL INJECTION scheduled for Monday isn’t going so swimmingly. I don’t think hell be able to get McCarter English to help.

*****

Regards,

Richard Luthmann
Writer, Journalist, and Commentator

---

“I’ve see some shit in my time. But Brad Badal takes the cake. As far as the First Amendment is concerned, he is King Shithead and Jessica Sprague is literally a Court Jester,” Luthmann said.

Attorney Sprague said that a libel lawsuit is “coming.”

“Get in line lard ass,” Luthmann laughed. “What LOSERS. They should buy the Irish cottage next to Rosie O’Donnell and seal the deal of douchebaggery.”

Family Court Censorship Busted: Audio Already Online

The hearing’s audio has already surfaced on Rumble, a video platform based outside the U.S., and is being widely shared by free speech advocates.

Here are some highlight clips:

To date, no journalists or outlets have received any official request for correction or retraction from Mr. Badal, his companies, or his herd of lawyers.

The Backstory: Abuse, Corruption, and Courtroom Chaos

Cristin Badal, who now represents herself, says her ex-husband has used his money and influence to destroy her life.

Brad Badal runs Major Police Supply, a politically connected company with millions in law enforcement contracts and ties to disgraced auto mogul Bruce Bendell.

Cristin alleges that she was physically abused, financially ruined, and denied her son based on false claims of addiction. Court records and investigative reports show she tested clean in hair follicle exams, breathalyzer logs, and 12-panel drug tests.

Despite that, Sprague and Brad Badal pushed supervised visitation and used discredited “experts” to label Cristin a danger. One such expert, Cliff Coghlan, allegedly misrepresented his credentials and conducted evaluations in violation of Florida and New Jersey telehealth laws.

Cristin Badal has accused her ex-husband of forging a prenup, fabricating domestic violence claims, and using the legal system to take their son and silence her.

To date, Brad Badal has used his influence with the courts to keep the truth at bay. But that all might all be about to change.

Medical records from Dr. Gregory Hipskind, a board-certified forensic neurologist, support her claims of injury after a physical altercation with Badal in 2021.

The scan shows clear evidence of trauma consistent with a head injury, acording to a March 27 medical report.

“[N]uclear brain SPECT imaging suggest objective evidence of organic brain damage resulting, based on current information, more probably than not from an altercation in her previous domestic arrangement,” the report reads.

In plain English, the factual basis of the report is that Brad Badal beat Cristin Badal while they were together. Brad Badal put his hands on the woman he is now trying to divorce, impoverish, and destroy. And that’s not enough for him. He seeks to have her tagged as “mentally ill” and ensure that she never sees her child ever again.

He put his hands on her.

At the hearing, Cristin told the court she had “done everything the court asked and more.”

She accused Attorney Sprague of fabricating evidence and hiding reports favorable to her.

Attorney Sprague insisted Cristin was “an addict who almost died twice” and claimed she violated wiretapping laws by recording her sessions with Coghlan.

Judge Farber appeared unmoved.

“She’s pro se,” he told Attorney Sprague. “I’m not jumping to dismiss her pleadings. That’s not how this works.”

Family Court Censorship Busted: A New Sheriff in Town?

Judge Farber inherited the case from Judges Peter Bogaard and Catherine Oliveira. Judge Bogaard’s handling of this and other matters sparked public outcry.

The experienced Judge Farber was firm and fair. His handling of the case signaled cool, reasoned control, and a hard reset on the previously acrimonious litigation.

He ordered the parties to trial in May, refused to release or destroy Cristin’s frozen embryos without briefing on constitutional grounds, and approved legal funding so Cristin could hire counsel.

“I’m trying to level the playing field,” Judge Farber said.

Luthmann said that one quote signaled hope.

“Judge Farber just unplugged the gag machine and respected the due process of a protective mother in dire financial straights,” he said. “For the first time in three years, Cristin and the press can breathe free. That’s what America is all about.”