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.

So close, yet so far away.

My dad once told me that almost only count in horseshoes, hand grenades, and thermonuclear war. Well, this life lesson was reaffirmed today with my jury trial. Here is the back-story:

Client worked for victim and victim’s mother in law for a number of months doing landscaping work. Victim and Victim’s mother-in-law let client go because with the coming of fall, the amount of work available was diminishing and it was not financial feasible to keep client on the payroll. However, victim told client “he would do what he could” to help client any kind of work.

Within a week of being let go, client went to victim’s home around noon in a green van. Before this day, client had always needed a ride to get to and from work. The victim claims that client broke victim’s bedroom window with this bare fist and was entering the victim’s residence to steal some of the victim’s equipment and valuables. Victim claims that client told him that he tripped on a rock and fell into the window. The only problems with client’s story were: 1.) The rock was about 10 feet away from the bedroom window, 2.) The rock was not parallel with the bedroom window and 3.) The bedroom window was at least 5 feet off the ground. In plain English, if the client fell, he was falling upwards.

Now, the good things in client’s favor: 1.) The victim’s story was not consistent about how far the client was in the window, 2.) There a lot of broken glass in the window and the window frame, 3.) there was only a small injury to client’s right forearm and nowhere else, and 4.) The client’s fingerprints were not found in the bedroom.

Despite the foibles of your friendly neighborhood public defender, the jury was listening to what he had to say and agreed with his main points. Yet, they found the client guilty because the client’s story was improbable, impossible, and just plain laughable and because of this fact, the State’s case was strong enough. In other words, kids, the jury thought my client’s story was full of shit and was not buying it.

To make matters worse, client had finally told your friendly neighborhood public defender the “truth,” which fit the evidence perfectly and would provide a rational explanation for client’s actions. Yet, client decided not to testify because he has a prior forgery conviction that would be used against him, and the fact that he lied to the victim, and to the police in telling the “I fell” story.

To be so close to an acquittal, but to lose, really does suck.