In the Author Spotlight ...
Grant Langdon,
Author of
Scandal in the Courtroom

 

Frank Langdon, a hard working farm youth arrested for arson, was left in legal limbo. He was neither found guilty nor was he found innocent; there was no trial. The District Attorney stopped prosecuting and the case ended for failure to go forward. In his new book, Scandal in the Courtroom, author Grant Langdon tells the story of his son's untenable situation and what happened in his pleasant farming community when a serial arsonist terrified the people during the 1980’s and 90’s.

Grant grew up in the house one of his ancestors built in 1687 in Copake New York.  His ancestor settled the 80 acre farm under a feudal leas given by Lord Robert Livingston on his 160,000 acre Manor. Livingston provide the livestock for the livestock share leas and bound a young Negro to the farm to help with the construction of the house, clearing and working the land and working on the road to the Manor. After Grant graduated from Iowa State University he came home to operate a 380 acres dairy farm that included part of the original farm.

"My son and I ran our family’s 380–acre dairy farm, where a serial arsonist attacked many buildings, including three of our barns," Grant says. "The local Sheriff grew up in the community and the series of arsons placed him in a predicament. He was being pressured to arrest a person he knew. I told a reporter for the New York Times that a firefighter had failed a lie detector test given by the Sheriff. When asked about the test, the Sheriff declined comment. However, one week later, the Sheriff forced my son Frank to sign a confession statement and then arrested him for burning our own family barns. That silenced my protest."

The situation was untenable. Frank had to try to make his way in a community where the real arsonist kept burning building after building. The outcome was predictable. "I blame the summary judgment motion and a complicit judge that failed to recognize the predicament he put Frank in," says Grant. "Frank Langdon was certainly due a day in court or this is not our America with a Constitution."

"My book, '“Scandal in the Courtroom: Found Guilty without Trial'” tells the whole story, which emphasizes the need for complaints of judicial misconduct to be investigated by someone other than another judge," Grant explains. "It proposes that this role be assigned to the Inspector General of the Department of Justice."  

His newest book is, Rebels of the North, How, Land Policy caused the Civil War .   The book traces the origin of Livingston Manor through the conflict over land ownership that started in the 1750’s.  The hard won conflict of these rebellious farmers, left a new generation ready to do battle with the Plantation South over development of the western land. The book will be out later this summer.

Grant now lives in Cincinnati and works at Lowe’s.  

 

To purchase your copy of Scandal in the Courtroom visit
http://www.atlasbooks.com/marktplc/01786.htm

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