A Stenonymous source found my blog.

Thanks anonymous! I do my best.

That’s crazy. But I’ve heard this happen to people before with other agencies.

Anonymous told me that the agency that failed to pay them was Anderson Court Reporting, LLC, in Alexandria, Virginia, owned by Carleton Jay Anderson. Anonymous told me the nonpayment was to the tune of several thousands of dollars. I asked for some corroboration and received enough that I can say it seems like Anderson Court Reporting has left this person unpaid for things that are almost 4 months old.

I do what I can to shine a light on the malfeasance of corporations on this blog. What’s more malfeasant than not paying people that have done work for you? It’s not the worst case in America, but it’s pretty bad for Anderson Court Reporting to fail to pay employees and/or independent contractors. In this case, according to anonymous, multiple court reporters have gone unpaid.

This is yet another danger of our field remaining largely in the independent contractor space. The war to get people to realize that the bulk of us are misclassified employees continues. When you’re an unpaid employee, often you can ask the Department of Labor to step in. Independent contractors are expected to take up their own legal fights, and there’s a certain threshold where it’s too expensive to fight — effectively making it legal to steal from ICs.

And make no mistake that that’s what this is. Anderson Court Reporting, LLC appears to be stealing from at least one of its independent contractors. The owner should be in jail. Fuck the whole “it’s a civil matter” rhetoric. You. Should. Be. In. Jail. If I stole two bucks from you in New York it’d be a misdemeanor. If you steal 3,000 from me it’s just business. Then again, the guy who stole a million bucks, from the link above that some of you skipped, should also be in jail. I can appreciate there being gradients of thievery.

Asked for comment, it’s apparent that Anderson Court Reporting had nothing to say.

The best we can do is warn people. This might not be a business you want to do business with.

For all our discussions field-wide about ethical conduct, it seems that this field is a safe haven for the unethical. Shops like Naegeli and Anderson make plenty of money playing games with reporters. Nobody bats an eye. Only a handful of people donate to this blog to keep the spotlight shining on those that would make a bad name for the field. Maybe we need to take a hard look at where we’ve spent our money in the name of ethics. An ineffective and toothless national association that can’t compete with a blog in terms of ethics enforcement. Maybe where we spend our money today isn’t where we have to spend it tomorrow. Maybe more funding really will come in so I can pay people full time to keep tabs on the unethical conductors of our time. Maybe keeping tabs on these people will encourage them to not be thieves. Certainly making up ethical codes only a third of us bind ourselves to hasn’t worked.

Thanks again for the tip off, anonymous. Without readers like you, how could we get the word out?

Addendum June 2026:

I recently saw another victim come forward on social media. Honestly, in New York, stuff like this can be larceny by false promise if it’s intentional, so I tried reporting this to the authorities out there, but they rejected my report, and this is no longer my fight.

Addendum July 2026:

I wrote to what I understand to be the general equivalent of our CCRB (NY) in Alexandria. Good wishes upon all who work for a better tomorrow. Sorry for my very colorful way of doing things. If you saw my world, you would probably understand better in the same way that I would understand yours if I was able to live it. Unfortunately we can only share this moment in time.

I suppose for a snapshot of why this made me mad enough to create this work of art is there are many people with disabilities who prefer text-based communication and what I have documented here is a real-world instance where someone went through the time to fill in info in the online reporting system only for the system to bounce it back and say “just kidding, call us.”

Society: Hello, victims with disability. We will maintain a system designed to waste your time so that it looks like we care and are accessible, but in actuality as evidenced by this random man from New York City, we do not even care enough to record their concerns, and will actively waste their time, effectively filtering out communications and information from the neurodivergent and disabled.

This is not unique to Alexandria. It is a byproduct of human psychology and the reality of the systems we live under. We can solve the problem or look away, and both behaviors are quite human. Which will you choose my friends?

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Out of my uncontrollable compulsion to make the world a better place I tried to let the Mayor of Alexandria know that the criminal reporting system discriminates against those with disabilities that cause them to prefer text-based communication. The work of art continues as follows:

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Shortly thereafter, I received a reply from the police auditor office.

I would ask my audience to look back at all the time documented on this website spent trying to do things the “right way” with regard to various matters over the years. That has not worked. So I will do things my way. And if my way should offend some people, what a coincidence it is that you could not hear me when we did it your way.

Shout out to those who will be caring about this long after I have moved on.

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Later, still on July 20, 2026, live from my fetal position on the bed: