Judge Lisa Menefee

I gave this scofflaw judge three stars only to keep this review from being automatically «filtered», i.e., hidden.
If Judge Lisa Menefee has a reputation for being hard on «deadbeat dads» it’s because she will believe anything a female tells her. She is a former prosecutor. If you are a male defendant and your accuser is female, you are not going to be presumed innocent.
I came before Menefee in 2010 after being accused of violating a No-​contact Order. Attorney Richard Ramsey, who represented the complainant, Cynthia Diane Stone (see note below), introduced into evidence a semi-​threatening letter addressed to Ms. Stone’s employer that had my name typed on the bottom and Ms. Stone claimed that I had written it. Menefee believed this lie, found me guilty, and sentenced me to the statutory maximum of thirty days in jail. I immediately appealed this decision and Menefee set my appeal bond at $ 100,000 CASH. This is an absolutely outrageous bond for an offense carrying a maximum sentence of thirty days in jail, as any lawyer will tell you.
The Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution includes the Eighth Amendment prohibition against unjust bail which states, «Excessive bail shall not be required.» It is patently illegal under the law to set someone’s bail arbitrarily high in order to keep them incarcerated. Anyone can see that this is exactly what Menefee tried to do to me. What good is the Bill of Rights if it can be ignored with impunity?
Menefee assumed I would not be able to raise such a high bond and would rot in jail for thirty days. This is exactly what would have happened to the vast majority of defendants. Fortunately for me, my father bailed me out of jail a few hours later. The charge was later dismissed by a Superior Court judge with some common sense.
If Menefee would do this to me she would do it to you. She is truly despicable and the voters in Forsyth County would do well to get rid of her if they ever get the chance.
Van Barnette, Greensboro
Note: See my Facebook page for more on Cindi Stone, who claims to live in High Point, N.C. and Pawleys Island, S.C.