Today, I represented a kid charged with under-age drinking. Basically, our plan was to punt at the justice court level, because in most of these courts, the prosecutors, cops, and judges kind of all bunk together, so to speak. It's kind of pathetic. We are saving the core of our case for district court.
I liked the judge and I felt, for the most part, he was fair. However, he had no problem talking to the jury during deliberations without my client and me being present. That's a no-no! He didn't care. He just told us what he allegedly said to them.
I don't know, one way or the other, if his representations were correct, but judges are not supposed to do that! They get away with it because it’s a justice court – not a court of record. I've experienced many justice court judges exert undue influence in these courts.
The only reason we decided to take his case to trial was because the cops told one of the members of the household to turn on the dryer when he knew my client was hiding in there. Yes, my nineteen-year-old client was wrong and stupid, but I expect more of 35-year-old cops. They bounced him around some before pulling him out of the dryer.
At the pretrial, the prosecutor, in essence, told us to f***off – he would not offer any kind of a deal, so we took our chances with the jury. In short, we appealed. The next step is a real trial with the district court. We want a court of record with a real judge, because they tend to be more impartial – not so chummy with the prosecutors, cops, and the employees of the city, as are justice court judges.
Loren M. Lambert © May 11, 2012
I liked the judge and I felt, for the most part, he was fair. However, he had no problem talking to the jury during deliberations without my client and me being present. That's a no-no! He didn't care. He just told us what he allegedly said to them.
I don't know, one way or the other, if his representations were correct, but judges are not supposed to do that! They get away with it because it’s a justice court – not a court of record. I've experienced many justice court judges exert undue influence in these courts.
The only reason we decided to take his case to trial was because the cops told one of the members of the household to turn on the dryer when he knew my client was hiding in there. Yes, my nineteen-year-old client was wrong and stupid, but I expect more of 35-year-old cops. They bounced him around some before pulling him out of the dryer.
At the pretrial, the prosecutor, in essence, told us to f***off – he would not offer any kind of a deal, so we took our chances with the jury. In short, we appealed. The next step is a real trial with the district court. We want a court of record with a real judge, because they tend to be more impartial – not so chummy with the prosecutors, cops, and the employees of the city, as are justice court judges.
Loren M. Lambert © May 11, 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment