A few inconsiderate and rude comments to my clients

1. I don’t have the patience to listen to incessant whining about how life is not fair, how the DA is out to get you, that the State has no evidence against you, that the Judge cannot send you to prison because this is your first offense, or how you cannot do prison time for the charge against you. Life is not fair. The DA does not know or care who the hell you are much less spend a lot of time devising ways to ruin your life. If the State did not have some evidence against you or if the determination of your case was left solely up to you, then you would not be in my office, on my caseload, and getting ready for trial. Yes, the Judge will send you prison for your first offense, especially if your first offense is aggravated battery, armed robbery, or trafficking in cocaine. Every criminal offense carries the potential for prison time. Get that through your head. And the Judge does not give a rat’s ass whether you can or cannot do prison time. If you plea to that aggravated assault, sale of cocaine, et cetera, you better believe the Judge will send your ass to prison and may do it with a smile on his face.

2. I don’t have a magic wand to make your case go away. Think about this seriously. If I had said magic wand, wouldn’t I use it to make you go away and make my life sweet.

3. I cannot make chicken salad out of chicken shit. When you confess to a crime twice, and there are multiple witnesses that saw you commit the offense, then you don’t leave me a lot to work with.

4. Just because they give probation for sale of drug cases or trafficking cases in some other county, city, or judicial circuit, it does not mean that it will happen here. Different judges, different priorities, different circuits. The law provides the judge the ability to sentence you within the range provided by statute, not by what some judge does in Atlanta.

5. Don’t ask me to explain why the DA made his recommendation so high or why the judge ruled a particular way. I don’t read minds. Again, if I did, do you think I would be here?

6. The police are not there to act as marriage counselors, mental health providers, or provide other social services. The police are there to arrest “law breakers” and try to send them to prison.

7. No, the State will not provide you with a rehab program at no cost to you. Take that back. Yes, they will. It is called prison. If you want to get a rehab program for yourself to treat your addiction, you are going to have to find it yourself.

8. Prior Inconsistent Statements is a valid way for the State to prove to a jury that you beat the shit out of your girlfriend. Get over it.

9. On a related note, just because your girlfriend claims that she does not want to testify against you does not mean shit. There are ways the State can compel her to testify. Also, remember she was the one that called the cops on your ass when she was pissed with you. You don’t think she is going to testify against you, if you piss her off again. Please.

10. Despite all of the crap that you throw at me, the grief you cause me, the headaches that you send my way, and everything else that y’all do to make my job more difficult that it already is, I still enjoy being a public defender, and it is something that I am good at.

Empty Promises and Fear.

During my seven plus years of practice, I have handled a number of domestic violence cases. One of the reoccurring things that I have heard from judges is the following: “Counselor, if I let your client out, what promises or assurances do I have that your client won’t go out and do this again?”

I hate this question. There are no guarantees in life other than death. So, how can I a public defender, a man, a mere mortal promise to a judge that my client will not go and attack his girlfriend? I cannot. I do not have the ability or the authority to control my client’s every movement. I am not God. So, I argue that the Court take a leap of faith on the behalf of my client. Most of the time, the Judge won’t take that leap of faith with me, and tells me that if he lets my client out, then he will go out and kill his girlfriend; and that he (the Judge) won’t take that gamble.

Today, I was faced with the scenario that these Judges love to throw in my face.

Without going into great detail, here is the situation. The former client that I wrote about earlier that complained that I sold him out is now wanted for murder. It is alleged that he stalked his ex-girlfriend, and confronted her at her residence, after she had obtained another temporary protective order against him. The ex-girlfriend had her sister and the sister’s boyfriend there. The sister’s boyfriend attempted to protect the ex-girlfriend, but was allegedly stabbed and killed by my former client.

My former client is now on the run. I am afraid, but I press on.

It’s a mad, mad, mad world . . .

My wonderful client from the last post called me today. He does not want to withdraw his plea. At first, I thought he had come to his senses and was thinking rationally. Boy, was I wrong. He wants a sentence modification. Okay, I can live with this, because this makes a little sense. He wondered if the Judge would remove the intensive probation supervision if he (my client) would do another six months in the county jail. Let that sink in for a minute. My former client wants to go back to jail for another six months, despite the fact he is a free man now. Most of my clients want to get out of jail. Not this guy. He wants to get back in. The world has gone insane, I tell you.

Work-Related Rant

A client of mine just left me a message wanting to withdraw his plea from a recent calendar call. Client was charged with Aggravated Assault, False Imprisonment, and a few other misdemeanors. The case was not the greatest. Client had a BAC of .2873, and did not remember much of the encounter but was sure that the victim had attacked him, and not vice versa. However, most of the evidence supports the victim’s account of what transpired. The original offer was 20 years with the first 8 to serve and a lot of special conditions of probation associated with domestic violence cases. I got the client’s medical records that casted doubt on the client’s ability to do what the State claimed, and help confirm in some small aspects the client’s account. At Calendar Call, the State offered to dismissed the Aggravated Assault charge, to recommend that my client get ten years on probation with all those special conditions, including intensive probation supervision for six months, and have him treated as a first offender (to keep the felony off his record). I explained the offer to my client and answered his questions. My client took the offer, but now, he is complaining that it is too onerous, I sold him out, and that I did not do anything for him.

Sorry to those true believers out there, but what the fuck? Where does this sorry bastard get off to complain? I saved his sorry ass from prison, and got a majority of what he wanted from the State. I sold him out? I did nothing for him? Yeah, right.

Some fun events from my day in court

1. A client is charged with violation of the state’s sexual offender registry and public indecency for exposing himself in Wal-Mart to women and masturbating. Albeit a weirdo, but nothing too unusual until I find out that my client chooses his victims based on what the demons tell him,

2. A client is charged with taking his ex-girlfriend’s bank card, goes to the store, buys $1.28 worth of stuff, and signs her name to the receipt. This constitutes two felonies here in the State of Georgia. I had the judge agree to treating them for misdemeanors if the client did two months in the county jail, and take a day long tour of a state prison facility. Client rejected the plea offer. Client claims that his ex is mad at him for cheating on her and is out for blood. Okay, a workable a defense, in addition to the fact this is over A DOLLAR AND TWENTY-EIGHT CENTS! By the time, the client tells me this, the judge has taken his lunch recess and I told the client to be back at 1:30 pm. Well, he comes back, but I learn from the prosecutor that my client had contacted his ex and was offering her $100 not to testify. I read the riot act, at my client, and the profanity laced version mind you. His story, I called her to ask her not to testify because I want to go into the Army. Great, with little shits like this guarding our country, I feel so much safer.

3. I won my motion to suppress motion on an armed robbery case. A minor victory considering that the client confessed, his girlfriend sold him out, his car was found at the scene, et cetera, et cetera, etc.

4. On the same armed robbery client, we got the judge to approve a sentence of 25 years to serve 17.5 years. Mind you, the standard recommendation for an armed robbery in my neck of the woods is 25 years to serve 20. Again, a minor victory. However, client does not want to plea. He wants a trial because he wants to go out like a man. Wonderful. If my client is convicted of armed robbery, he faces a life sentence, and he will have to serve 30 years of it, before he is eligible for parole. It is not for us to ask how or why; it is simply for us to do and die.