Joseph F. Connolly II: Judo and Academic Faker?

[Sam Browning]

Conversation with Beverly Holmes of the American Bar Association during November 23, 2009. At 312-988-5000

She told me the ABA had never accredited the Blackstone School of Law in Chicago IL

She recommended that I also contact the Illinois Bar Examiners to see if they had dealt with them.

[Sam Browning]

Mr. Browning,



When Direct Learning Systems purchased Blackstone in 2001, only records of active students or graduates from 1980 forward were available. Blackstone Career Institute does not have any records for students from the Blackstone School of Law. We suggest contacting the Illinois Department of Education to assist you in finding your records.



I am sorry we cannot be of more assistance to you. If you have any other questions, please contact us.



Elaine Smith

Student Services

Blackstone Career Institute



From: TappingReeve@aol.com [mailto:TappingReeve@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, November 27, 2009 9:11 PM
To: info@blackstone.edu
Cc: TappingReeve@aol.com
Subject: Hi its a letter of inquiry from Samuel Browning



To whom it may concern:



I am writing to confirm the credentials of one Joseph F. Connolly II, also known as Joseph Francis Connolly.



He lists himself as having earned a:



Bachelor of Laws, 1972, Blackstone School of Law, Chicago, Ill.
Juris Doctor, 1972, Blackstone School of Law, Chicago, Ill.

http://www.maintlfed.org/bios/connolly/index.html



Could you please tell me if he did earn either degree from your institution at the time he has claimed? Reviewing your website it does not appear your institution in Chicago ever offered a J.D. degree.



Sincerely yours,



Samuel P. Browning Esq

671 Scotland Road

Norwich CT 06360

[Sam Browning]

Today (11-30-09) I talked to Nina at the Illinois Board of Higher Education, 431 E.Adam St #2, Springfield IL 62701-1404 (217-782-2551)

She said that department materials indicate that the Blackstone School of Law was a Texas corporation that incorporated in Illinois to sell legal materials and correspondence courses in 1947. It left the state in 1985 when it merged with another Texas corporation.

It never had the authority to grant degrees at any time. It was a correspondence school.

[Sam Browning]

My name is Samuel Browning and I am licensed to practice law in Connecticut. My Juris number is #417779. I was asked by the POW network to examine portions of Mr. Joseph F. Connolly II (aka) Joseph Francis Connolly's educational records. By contacting Jody Manchien who is an Assistant Register at Park University in Parkville MO, I was able to confirm that Mr. Connolly did graduate from Park College, with a BA in Sociology in December of 1971, and that he graduated Magna Cum Laude. (e-mail with Manchien, 11-24-09) However there are serious problems with his claims that he graduated from Law School.

According to his profile at http://www.maintlfed.org/bios/connolly/index.html Connolly earned a Bachelor of Laws (hereafter LLB) from the Blackstone School of Law, Chicago Ill in 1972, and a Juris Doctorate (JD) from this same school in 1972. If one reviews Connolly's own entry in Marquis Who's Who he claims that the LLB was awarded in 1972, and the JD in 1977. Needless to say it would have been impossible for anyone to complete three years of law school for a JD, in only one calender year, especially since Connelly graduated from Park College in December of 1971.

When I contacted the American Bar Association on November 23, 2009, Beverley Holmes, told me that the ABA had never accredited the Blackstone School of Law of Chicago IL. I then contacted several governmental entities and talked to Nina of the Illinois Board of Higher Education. She said that department records indicate that the Blackstone School of Law was a Texas corporation that incorporated in Illinois to sell legal materials and correspondence courses in 1947. It left the state in 1985 when it merged with another Texas corporation. It never had the authority to grant degrees at any time. It was a correspondence school.

I did contact the Blackstone Career Institute which is the successor to the Blackstone College of Law. They indicated that they only had student records from 1980 to the present in their possession. However even assuming that Connelly possesses certificates for both a LLB and a JD from this institution, neither the American Bar Association, or the Illinois Board of Higher Education, recognized this law school as a proper degree granting institution. Instead, at best Connelly obtained correspondence law degrees which are not recognized in the legal profession and are not worth the paper they are printed on.

[Cy Q. Faunce]

Joseph F. Connolly II is an Orlando-based instructor of judo and jujutsu. He claims several black belts and academic degrees on his personal website. He has come up on Bullshido before as the head of a yudo federation:

No BS MMA and Martial Arts - View Single Post - Yudo Discussion Cull from Matthew Morton thread.


I believe many of his credentials are false.

• On his USJJF biography page, he claims a ninth degree black belt in judo from the Korea Judo Association. They say he doesn't.
• While the USJA does list Connolly as a third-degree black belt in judo, William Andreas, the official signatory of that rank, claims that the rank was really issued by Phil Porter and that Connolly essentially purtchased the rank.
• Connolly is a member of the faculty of Knightsbridge University, which is unaccredited and generally thought to be a diploma mill.
• He is also on the faculty of the International Institute for Specialized Education and Research, and claims a degree from the same. IISER is unaccredited and is under investigation for making deceptive claims.

I believe there are also relevant findings on his claimed law degrees, but I'll let others address those.

[Cy Q. Faunce]

Article published:

http://www.bullshido.org/Joseph_F._Connolly_II

[Mtripp]

A note for future reference.

Many people got rank under Phil Porter; lets face it he was president of the USJA for some time. My Yodan was under his watch; as was my Godan.

However, the difference is this; when Mr. Porter was removed for selling rank, what happened next? In truth, the vast majority of people went elsewhere as they knew the new USJA set up would never rank them again, and could very likely revoke their rank should their skills not match their rank.

But, the legit people just trained all that much harder, to earn rank under the new watch, and prove that they indeed had the real skills. My Rokudan was earned in that manner.

Just an FYI.

[Cy Q. Faunce]

Right. You didn't go out and get a BS ninth-degree black belt in "yudo", or grant yourself something similar in "sport judo", or lie about a rank award from the KJA.

[SaintHamish]

He is also listed as a 9th Dan Judoka on the USA Traditional Kokodan Judo website.

He is addressed as Professor Joseph F. Connolly II, with over 30 years service in the Armed Forces and a former United States Marine.

Reference:

http://www.usatkj.org/bio/connolly/index.html

Not surprising however considering he is a committe member of the USA - TKJ:

Committee Members -

1. Francisco Birnstill Alarcon
2. Joseph F. Connolly, II
3. Toshiaki Takikawa
4. Nasrallah Kakavand
5. Gene LeBell
6. Saad A. Ani
7. George E. Anderson
8. Bruce R. Bethers
9. Tomo Tsvetanov Borrisov
10. Ivica Zdravkovic, M.D.
11. Janak Subedi
12. Udo Frankenberg
13. Oren Gorgov
14. Khalil A. Khan

Reference:

http://www.itkj.org/letter.html

[SaintHamish]

Right. You didn't go out and get a BS ninth-degree black belt in "yudo.

His ranking in Yudo certainly wasnt difficult to achieve.

The ranking process taken from the International Yudo Federation's website:

The fee for a rank certificate from the International Yudo Federations is $100.00USD per degree, i.e. $100.00 for 1st Dan, $200.00 for 2nd Dan, $300.00 for 3rd Dan, etc.

http://www.chungtongyudo.co.kr/yudof...federation.htm