A Victim of the Drug War
I recently had a settlement conference for a client I really like. He’s a nice guy who never ceases to make my days a little brighter each time I see him. When I first met him and asked if he had any criminal history, he told me, “I have a terrible criminal history…terrible!” He said it like he was Richard Pryor in the middle of a stand-up routine, but it turned out he was right. Indeed, he was no stranger to the system. Based on his honesty, however, I knew was going to like him. He had a lot of prior felony convictions. Looking through his past, though, I could see that he never really hurt anyone except himself. He was an addict, and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Clients, Government Rants
No Life Experience Needed
I sat in the hallway outside a jail visitation room trying not to listen to the conversation going on inside the room. I really didn’t want to eavesdrop. I just wanted to get in and get out. I had three more visits before the day was over and couldn’t do my visit while the room was occupied. Inside, a probation officer was interviewing a defendant for a presentence report. He pled guilty, and she was getting information for the judge who was going to sentence him. She wasn’t very good at keeping the volume of her voice at a reasonable level and kept saying “okidokie” to the guy’s responses. She was probably in her late twenties, and she was overweight. She had a social … Read entire article »
Filed under: Courts, Government Rants, Practice in General
Where Do They Find These People?
I previously wrote about the Republican contenders for Arizona Attorney General, but I focused on a quirky third candidate, Taj, not Andrew Thomas or Tom Horne. After reading another article about the Republican race at Heat City, however, I began thinking Taj may be the only smart choice. From what I’ve read, it seems Thomas might be the subject of a federal grand jury investigation. Earlier this year, a court apparently found that he prosecuted people for personal political advantage and personal political retribution. The year before, judges supposedly called him unethical. I understand he’s got a pending bar investigation, so his license to practice law may be in trouble. Horne doesn’t seem that much better. He supposedly ran an investment firm that went bankrupt in 1970, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Government Rants
We're Insane
My brother sent me a link to this CEPR study about the cost of incarceration a few weeks ago. After reading the entire thing, I was speechless. The topic of the study seemed so familiar, yet the numbers were so much more stunning than I ever could have imagined. I scoured blogs to see if someone else had posted about it, yet I found only one article. Let me know if I’ve missed others. The statistics are incredible: we now incarcerate 240% more people than we did in 1980; in 2008, one out of every 48 working-age men was in prison or jail; non-violent offenders make up over 60% of the prison and jail population; drug offenders now account for about one-fourth of all offenders behind bars. Those are just some of the numbers that … Read entire article »
Filed under: Government Rants, jail
Happy National No-Phone Zone Day!
Every TV channel I saw at the gym this morning seemed to be covering the fact Oprah has declared today “National ‘No-Phone Zone’ Day.” I guess that Oprah has convinced the USDOT, the NHTSA, the GHSA, and a variety of other government entities with acronym names to join her in promoting awareness to end distracted driving. I normally wouldn’t post about something like that, as every day is stop-something day, but my head filled with thoughts as I watched part of a segment showing teenagers trying to drive a golf cart around a course marked with cones while texting. Needless to say, very few cones remained standing at the end, and the exercise supposedly demonstrated the dangers of what I’m going to call DWD, driving while distracted. I … Read entire article »
Filed under: DUI, Government Rants
A CPS Nightmare
The prosecutor scratched the charges because my client was not guilty of the crime. This wasn’t one of those maybe-she-did-it-but-we-can’t-prove-it cases. The sum of information available about what happened should have made it obvious to anyone with half a brain that my client did nothing wrong. She did not assault her daughter. My client’s innocence notwithstanding, some of the folks over at Arizona Child Protective Services, either lacking half a brain or bored with nothing to do, decided to meddle. “We just want to get your client’s side of things,” they said. I found out about the meeting exactly one business day before it was set to happen. I don’t represent people in dependencies. I attended the meeting with CPS because I never trust the government … Read entire article »
Filed under: Government Rants
No Constitutional Crisis Here
Maricopa County Sheriff’s Deputy Adam Stoddard violated a defendant’s constitutional rights, Superior Court Judge Gary Donahoe held him in contempt, and Stoddard is now in jail after refusing to follow the judge’s order and apologize. The way I see it, the loser here isn’t Stoddard or his boss, the ever-defiant Sheriff Joe. I think Stoddard ends up looking good to most people. Even I’m a little impressed with the guy. He did his job, refused to apologize for doing what he was trained to do, then took one for the team and followed the judge’s order. I tend to have serious problems with blindly following authority, but I can definitely appreciate how far Stoddard is willing to go to do what he perceives to be his duty. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Clients, Courts, Government Rants
Banning Good Taste
Given my predilection for the occasional stogie, I’ve considered writing something like this for quite some time. Although the The Stogie Guys beat me to it, strangely, I’m inspired to post something along similar lines. The weather in the Phoenix area right now lends itself perfectly to an evening cigar. I can think of few greater pleasures in life than sitting on my back porch with good company and savoring a delicious, handmade cigar. I’ve had a few nights like that these past few weeks. For an hour or two, I’ve had no place else to be and nothing else to do. Who could have wanted more? Although it isn’t a common indulgence, my life is far richer because of nights like those. I admire what … Read entire article »
Filed under: Government Rants
I Hope It's Just The Water
I tried to get through my 1:00 p.m. meeting on Thursday early enough to catch some of the most recent contempt proceedings in this case. You can get additional information about what’s going on here, here, here, here, and here, but I’ll give you a single, run-on-sentence summary of what people are reporting happened: one of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s goons brazenly looked through a defense attorney’s privileged and confidential file during a video-taped sentencing, committed misdemeanor theft stealing papers from the file, and had another henchman make copies before returning the stolen papers to the file, then got caught and perjured himself in subsequent contempt proceedings all the while lucking out with absurd decisions from two judges and a seemingly underwhelming show of outrage from multiple defense … Read entire article »
Filed under: Government Rants
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