Too Busy

I've tried four cases so far this year of my own, and sat second chair on the trial and retrial of another. Tomorrow, I'll probably pick a jury on a complicated, challenging child molestation. My opinion is that we will be fighting a long, uphill battle, yet the client wants to charge forward.

There is simply too much work, now. We need more lawyers, because I cannot prepare these cases to the same extent that I was able to just last summer. Almost everyone I've spoken to feels overwhelmed and there is no end in sight. I don't think that any of us can prepare cases to the level where we are satisifed or the level for which our office is famous. The current situation is a professional disappointment and raises the question: why am I doing this?

This seemingly never-ending wave of cases needs to break.

Frustration

The delivery of mental health services has largley transferred to the criminal justice system: for instance, the L.A. County jail has the largest mental health hospital in the world. As a result, people are arrested for petty crime, such as criminal trespass or disorderly conduct, and sitting in jail for a periods of time. The question becomes: do we try to get them out of jail quickly and limp through a plea; or, do we have them sit in jail for six months while we are trying to get them to a hospital. The decision becomes easier in felony court, because of the delay between arrest and indictment.

I represented a man, now in his mid-'30's, who has profound schizophrenia. As I recall, we requested that the State doctor assess him and she found him competent to stand trial. Subsequently, we entered a plea and he was placed on probation, with a requirement that he continue with mental health treatment. He was arrested for disorderly conduct, which triggered a felony probation violation. After a 90-day revocation, he was released on June 1.

I saw him yesterday on the Square and it was evident that he had not been on his medication for some time. He was unwashed and unkempt. His thought was obviously disturbed and it appeared that he was relating episodes of auditory hallucinations. I believe that he was suffering from visual hallucinations. All of this, 72 hours after his release.

We miserably fail at providing for this population of our community and it is endelessly despressing.

Long time, no post

I've got a jury deliberating on a rape case, just now. They went out on Monday at 1:45 and by 3:30 they sent out a note saying that they were deadlocked. They twice sent out notes that they were "deadlocked," today. In the last, they even said that they were "hopelessly deadlocked."

The thing is, the split is 9/3, and I think it might be in my favor.

Belated update

The jury was out for about 8 hours. They convicted my guy of 3 counts of robbery by intimidation, 4 counts of aggravated assault, hung on the possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and acquitted on the 3 armed robbery counts. The verdict is inconsistent, at the least -- they convicted on the robbery by intimidation, but still found that a gun was involved in the aggravated assault counts. I will not complain too loudly: at least my guy has is afforded the possibility of parole and will accrue good-time credit.

The Judge sentenced my guy to 20 do 15. No history. No one hurt. All property was found at the scene. That seemed awfully steep to me, given the circumstances, and put me in a tail spin for a while. I'll blog more on that later.

I'm getting really, really tired of losing.

Jury's out

I tried a armed robbery/aggravated assault this week. I think it is a fairly good case, despite what the story sounds like at first blush. Four guys get robbed, allegedly by three other guys, and a cop just happens to roll buy and interrupt it. My guy runs. But everything was very confused in the witness statements and descriptions, the evidence wasn't collected very well, and one guy pled guilty.

The jury went out today at 1:30 and will be coming back in the morning.

On another note, this is my 100th post.

Boggled

Client: Well, are they going to dismiss the case?

Me: No, no, I don't think so. They want a trial or a plea.

Client: There's no way that they're going to win -- they know that they don't have any evidence. I need to get home.

Me: Well, what concerns me is that the dude is going to say that you pointed a gun in his face and took his stuff. And, if we lose, the Judge is probably going to give you 15 to serve. That's 15 years to the door -- no parole, no good time.

Client: We'll just have to crank it up.

And the Judges always think we're nuts

An officer in a neighboring jursdiction started a blog and it apparently lies now in neglect, as it seems most blogs do.

What's interesting about this blog is that it is written from the perspective of the cop out on the street. It traces his journey through the academy and his application for a job through his first three months on the street. Along the way, he drops little nuggets like this:

We do a lot of mexican raids. You know the spots where all the illegals hang out in the morning looking for day labor. Well we have a lot of fun harrassing them. The other day we played the cops theme song "Bad Boys" across the PA system as we rolled up in there. It was hilarious.

Just as I always suspected. The emphasis is mine.

On Friday, I represented a man from Mexico, who happened to have a social security card and a permanent resident I.D. in a false name. This fellow is an itinerant agricultural worker. He has come to the U.S. to work the fields and send money back home to his three kids. He is a religious man and was extremely polite. He is not: (1) a terrorist; (2) a gang member; or, (3) a drug addict. He's just a hard-working guy.

I am sure that the stop was exactly as Officer Beck describes in his blog -- my report said that the arresting officer saw some men drinking along a woodline and arrested my guy for public intox (although there was no indication that he was disorderly), criminal trespass, and a county ordinance violation of having an open container. Now that's reaching deep. Upon searching my guy, he found the fake ID cards. My guy entered pleas to two counts of Forgery and is now awaiting deportation. I begged the ADA to come down to misdemeanors, but he would not budge. There was some poetic justice, however: after the plea, the Judge asked why the illegal immigrants were being arrested solely for false identification, when there were no other charges. The ADA got to squirm a little, which was nice.

My guy is still in jail.