At 62, most people are looking forward to the quiet of retirement. Instead, Nick and Niki have placed their lives into the hands of the United States Supreme Court. With their Writ of Certiorari now in Washington D.C., they are making a ‘Last Stand‘ necessitated by an Arizona Judicial System—all the way to the Arizona Supreme Court—who abandoned every pillar of Due Process. They didn’t just file a Writ; they filed a protest against a system that has lost its moral compass.
The Jurisdictional Mirage
The foundation of their nightmare was built on a “Shadow Bench.” In Arizona, Supreme Court Rule 96(e) is not a suggestion… it is a mandate. It states that a commissioner cannot issue a final order or preside over a trial without the written consent of both parties. They never gave their consent. commissioner Christine Mulleneaux, a 16-year veteran of the law hand-picked by Judges Blanchard and Viola, sat on that bench as a legal trespasser. She knew the law, yet she proceeded without jurisdiction. Without their consent, every order she signed and every day she presided was a jurisdictional nullity. She was a civilian in a robe, yet the system allowed her to dismantle their lives.
The Ghost Jury & Rule 49
Perhaps the most chilling moment of this eight-day stage play was the verdict itself. Arizona Rule of Civil Procedure 49 requires a verdict to be signed by the jurors. But in this case, the signature lines for the Foreperson and the jurors remained hauntingly empty.
Instead of a signature, the court record bears a cold, bureaucratic rubber stamp: “SIGNATURE NOT AVAILABLE.” When Mulleneaux read a “Guilty” verdict to the Jury stating she was not giving them the form to take into deliberations, she wasn’t recording the will of a jury; she was finalizing a fraud. A verdict without a signature isn’t a judgment—it’s a scrap of paper. Yet, it was used to seize everything they owned.
The Corporate Contagion: The Death of the LLC
This case carries a virus that threatens every small business in the 19 states following the Uniform Limited Liability Company Act (ULLCA).
Nick was and is still the Authorized Managing Member and Agent for Garpdon LLC, designated by the Johanson’s own signatures. Even Plaintiff attorney Bryan Eastin admitted on the record that Nick was “no less than Agent.” Under A.R.S. § 29-3502, this status should have shielded them from personal liability. By affirming a personal judgment against an authorized agent, the Arizona Appellate Court didn’t just rule against them—they nullified the corporate veil for millions of Americans. If an agent can be sued personally for corporate acts that the plaintiffs themselves authorized, the “Limited Liability” in LLC is officially dead.
The Due Process Collapse
The cruelty reached its peak when the court chose a calendar over a human life. During the trial, a documented medical emergency (DKA/TIA) left Nick incapacitated. While he was in a hospital bed, the court pushed forward. They treated a life-threatening crisis as a “voluntary absence” continuing the Trial without them.
The 14th Amendment guarantees Due Process. There is no process more “undue” than a trial held while the defendant is medically unable to speak, presided over by a commissioner, without jurisdiction, and ultimately based on a verdict no one signed.
The Final Accounting
Their home is gone. Their assets are gone. Their sense of security in the “Land of the Free” has been replaced by the cold reality of a $2.3 million judgment. But as the Writ of Certiorari sits in Washington, They, are no longer just defendants; They are witnesses. They are witnessing to the fact that when a state court decides it wants a result more than it wants the truth, no citizen is safe.
Nick and his wife are starting over at 62. But they are starting with the truth in their hands.
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