For three years, inside a quiet California courthouse where the promise of justice was supposed to hold steady, one man with no immunity, no oversight, and no constitutional authority shaped the fate of an entire case. His name was Leon Bennett, a private discovery referee who, on paper, was merely assigned to referee disputes. In practice, he became the single most powerful figure in the courtroom, the gatekeeper who controlled every document, every delay, every piece of evidence, and every outcome. His decisions didn’t just affect the litigation. They protected the judge who appointed him and derailed the lives of two families.
A thorough review of the case file reveals a disturbing reality: Bennett was not a neutral arbiter. He became the bottleneck, the filter, and ultimately the wall between truth and the judge who needed to see it. What transpired was not an accident. It was a structure — a system designed to ensure that the most critical evidence would never reach the bench.
The case was built on a mountain of corroboration. From the start, Amir Rahnavardi documented everything: a full year of video evidence, daily journals, timestamped photos, audio recordings, transcripts, even digital forensics proving someone had accessed his accounts without authorization. His evidentiary record formed one of the most comprehensive paper trails any judge could hope for. It should have been impossible to ignore.
But Bennett made sure the court never had to reckon with it. The videos stayed sealed off. The journals never reached judicial review. The audio recordings were sidelined. The photos and digital logs never made it into the hands of the judge who ultimately ruled against him. Every accusation of non-compliance leveled at Rahnavardi by the opposition, and there were many, was built on a foundation of fiction. The delays were manufactured. The disputes were staged. And every funnel led to the same destination: through Bennett, and then nowhere.
This structure existed for one reason. Judge Michael Lief had already issued sweeping rulings against Amir early in the case. Once the video evidence and corroborating material were seen, those rulings would have collapsed under their own weight. So the evidence had to be kept out. The referee’s role became the perfect shield, a private lawyer acting as an unaccountable barrier between the truth and the judge whose decisions would have been disproven by it. It was not neutrality. It was self-preservation disguised as procedure.
The consequences were staggering. A temporary restraining order that should have been reviewed within days remained unresolved for two and a half years. Instead of receiving timely judicial oversight, the TRO was buried beneath an avalanche of procedural accusations and evidence bottlenecks. When the case finally moved from Judge Lief to Judge Joann Johnson, the most critical evidence, especially the videos, still had never been placed in the record. Not because Amir failed to provide it. Because Bennett made sure the judge never saw it.
One piece of evidence, however, broke through the blockade: the Becky Odum letter. The document, typed but covered in Rebekah’s handwritten notes and initials, revealed real-time manipulation, with Rebekah shifting between speaking as herself and attempting to write as if she were Amir. Attorney Richard Masson spotted a rare procedural opening and forced the letter into the record. Overnight, opposing counsel’s panic made it obvious that this single document threatened to unravel their entire narrative.
Judge Johnson allowed the letter late on a Wednesday afternoon. When court reconvened Thursday, she recessed for lunch before issuing her ruling, and announced, on the record, that she had just spoken with Judge Lief. Minutes later, she delivered a ruling that neutralized the very letter she had allowed into evidence the day before. Whatever confusion she may have had earlier in the process, that communication with Lief sealed her position. As the supervising judge stepping in after Walsh and Lief, she had a clear opportunity to clean up the mess. Instead, she aligned herself with the suppression structure and validated an incomplete record.
The targeting didn’t stop with Rahnavardi. It expanded to encompass Becky Odum, a Board Certified Behavioral Analyst and collateral damage in the court’s effort to isolate and pressure him. Judge Lief, operating within the same machinery Bennett helped maintain, ordered Becky to turn over confidential HIPAA-protected patient records for anyone named Ashley, Thomas, or Kenny. Becky refused on ethical grounds and was sanctioned more than $20,000 for protecting her patients’ privacy. When she moved to Arizona for safety and family support, the harassment followed. They even deposed her niece, who had just given birth. To protect her family, Becky moved again, this time to North Carolina, and still the attorneys pursuing her flew across the country with Rebekah in tow for yet another deposition. None of it ever produced meaningful evidence against Amir. The purpose was pressure, not truth. And the message was unmistakable: anyone who stood near him would be targeted.
After examining every part of the record, one conclusion becomes unavoidable. This case was never decided on evidence. It was decided on evidence that the structure ensured no judge would ever see. A private discovery referee without judicial immunity became the choke point for the entire case file. His decisions shielded Judge Lief from the consequences of his own rulings, and when Judge Johnson inherited the case, she embraced the same structure instead of dismantling it. The outcome rendered by three judges and one private referee does not match the actual evidentiary record Amir had compiled, because the record they relied on was deliberately engineered to be incomplete.
This case is not over. It is finally coming into focus. This is larger than a discovery referee, a single judge, or a set of rulings. It is a story of what happens when courts outsource their most fundamental responsibilities and allow private actors to hold unchecked power inside the judicial system. When evidence is filtered, obstructed, or buried, and when those in authority choose protection over transparency, justice becomes a narrative controlled by those who benefit from the darkness.
The contradictions, the extraordinary 2½-year TRO delay, the targeting of a behavioral analyst for protected patient records, the buried videos, the inter-judge communications, and a final ruling that cannot be reconciled with the full evidence all point in the same direction.
This was not justice. It was a controlled outcome crafted from an incomplete record. And now, for the first time, the truth is emerging into the light.
Table of Contents: Attachments
Master Conspiracy & Cover-Up Map – Full two-page visual showing the web of actors (Lief, Bennett, Herring, Walsh, Barrella) and cover-ups. (From Conspiracy_CoverUp_Map.pdf)
Police Reports & Early Incidents (2013-2014) – 9-page bundle of early reports showing no injuries or arrests. (From Police Reports & Early Incidents (2013-2014).pdf)
The Robing Room Lief screenshot – Full scroll with 2.3 rating and comments on Lief’s bias against victims. (From The Robing Room.pdf)
Appellate Brief cover page (B340171, June 6, 2025) – The ongoing challenge to the suppression. (From 250606_CL_Opening Brief 2.pdf)
Becky Odum Letter – Handwritten Edits, the 7-page document with Rebekah’s notes. (From letter written to Becky Odum.pdf and Exhibit B – Becky Odum Letter.pdf)
Appellate Brief – Odum Sanctions Page from B340171, detailing $60k fees, 4 depositions, $10k+ sanctions. (From 250606_CL_Opening Brief 2.pdf)
CJP Admonishment for Walsh – Full 3-page 2016 public admonishment for undisclosed contributions. (From Walsh_02-10-16 admonishment.pdf)
Robing Room Walsh Screenshot – Full scroll with 2.2 rating and 34 comments criticizing Walsh’s bias. (From The Robing Room 2.pdf)
Bamieh Letter Analysis – Yellow-highlighted callouts on Ron Bamieh’s 2021 email admitting extreme DV finding and no-win setup. (From bamieh_letter_exhibit.pdf)
Evidence Bundle Part2 – 20-page texts on ex parte ruling without hearing, denying due process. (From Evidence_Bundle_Part2.pdf)
Scott Barrella Evidence Packet – Summary and text screenshots proving post-class contact he denied under oath. (From SCOTT_BARELLA_EVIDENCE.pdf)
Follow Us