Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Lawyer question - Why???

Worth every Benjamin too!

My favorite saying was uttered by a prosecutor once. It went thusly, "Justice? Justice? Justice is for the appellant courts."

If this is true I have some serious questions I would like to ask you about.

Is that true or you [bleep] with me.

Dink

Yes everything I do is video/audio. Most times if I am behind what I think is a drunk driver I will turn on the video and video there driving.

My camera in my car is set up on a loop so when I turn on my lights the video actually starts 2 minutes prior to the lights being turned on.

Everything at the station is video/audio.

Dink

KRAKMT:

It could be. It depends. But maybe the transcript of the guilty plea hearing indicates trial counsel saying on the record that his client understands counsel hasn't seen the report, but nevertheless the client wants to plead guilty, anyway.

Then the judge says "Mr. Defendant, is that true?"

And the client says yes, your honor, that's true, I understand my attorney hasn't seen the report or any of the evidence and I understand that I could have a trial and all that, like it says here on this plea agreement I signed and put my initials all over, but I just want this to be over, your honor, and I believe it's in my best interest to get this done with right now, today, and I want to plead guilty. Thank you.

When you have a transcript like that, he may have a difficult time proving ineffective assistance of counsel down the road, when he's looking at his third or fourth DUI conviction and his new attorney says, hmmm, maybe we can make one of these early convictions go away.

- Tom

wouldnt be paying 3 of them at various times if they werent....kinda like a surgeon.....you pay extra for someone that knows what the hell they are doing.....going with the lowest bidder could [bleep] yah in the end.....

if i wanted "justice" i would take a baseball bat to my wifes ex.....but i want a judge to rule to [bleep] him over leaving me free to do as i wish....hence the lawyer.....

I'm fond of this one: "Convicting the guilty is easy, it takes talent to convict the innocnent". I don't mean it, of course, but it's funny among my defense lawyer buds.

If the wife's ex keeps getting his ass handed to him in court, you should be receiving a attorney's fee award so you aren't always saddled with it.

Funny how sometimes the after divorce stuff lasts longer than the marriage. Divorce is a weird animal. Frankly, it's not much different than criminal defense, at times.

Frankly, I usually find my criminal defendants to be nicer, easy to work with, and more ethical than a good percentage of my divorce clients.

+1

One in Jack CTY TX -pled guilty we/o lawyer . Fine and probation .

One in Tarrant Cty TX - Lawyer got it thrown out .

One in Young CTY Tx - pled down to unlawful carrying of weapon .

One in Chickasha OK -- Lawyer I paid 1500 bucks [ 1980 dollars ] got drunk and didn't show up . Found guilty by judge who was talking to his girlfriend on the phone while he was holding my "trial " . Paid fine .No probation .

One in Archer Cty Tx . Plea deal worked out by lawyers . Fine and probation .

Never lost my license . Because of shorter " enhancement periods " back then , each one was a first offense .

You spoke some truth earlier :

Fact is that I had no business on the hiway if my BAC was LESS than .010 .No accidents from being drunk . [ that by the grace of God , obviously ]

FWIW THe gov't or nobody [ including me ] spent a dime sobering me up .

And I have a CCL .

End of answers . No more questions . Have a good day .

Uh... Okay. But if you need the lights (your flashers?) right now, you don't have to wait 2 minutes, do you?

As for the video, I've seen some DUI cases succeed or fail based merely on what the suspect is doing during the 2-5 minutes he's waiting for the officer to get ready to administer field tests. Swaying, scratching himself, lighting a cigarette. Or not swaying. Or lighting his cigarette with panache and good coordination. Or losing his balance while trying to stand perfectly still.

Seen a couple of otherwise good defense cases go south when the suspect goes berserk in the back seat of the squad car on the way to jail, too.

Video is strong magic.

- Tom

havent been in front of the judge yet.....2 weeks.....had to wait for the perfect storm

#1 get the original child support ruling to build up to where he couldnt dig himself out

#2 call child and family services to collect the back child support knowing he was going to brush it off......child support enforcement division has decided that since he doesnt want to fill out the paper work and last we knew he told us he was the foreman of a road construction crew they bumped the child support up from $150 a month for both girls to over $1000....

#3 made damn sure it goes back in front of the judge that originally ordered the $150 and is notorious for hating dead beat dads....and will grant whatever the child enforcement division recommends if the father wont even bother to show up in court....

and for the bonus.....dip chit has a warrant out for his arrest for writing bad checks though its only an instate warrant at the moment so the [bleep] really aint all that interested in coming back to Montana

dude this is gonna hurt worse for alot longer than any beating i could ever give him

=================

Until a bailiff steps them back.

No I don't have to wait two minutes to use my lights.

I did not explain that very well. My camera records all the time and when I hit the lights it makes a "file" on a cd. That file will start two minutes prior to me turning on the lights and runs until I turn off my recorder.

Lets say I stop a drunk at 12:00. The file will be from 11:58 until when ever I turned off the recorder.

I can also turn just my video on prior to turning on my lights just to video the way they are driving.

I hope that makes more sense.

Dink

Just don't forget to turn them off when you're about ready to smack some drunken assed punk upside his head!

Amazing things happen in our legal system. Years ago one of my friends who was a highly decorated marine (retired) was driving from Virginia where we all live to his lake house in North Carolina. Big Hugh only stood 6'6 & weighed about 270 pounds & bragged he was the Marine Corp drinking champion. Big Hugh crossed the white line to avoid a bunch of people walking & clipped an on coming car. State troopers administered a breathalyzer & since he had consumed about half a quart of vodka tested positive. Troopers put him into cuffs & wrote him up for DUI & Reckless Driving. I left my lake house looking for him & found him in the troopers car with cuffs on. I let someone drive my vehicle & I proceeded to drive his car to the station. A JP showed up & proceeded to blast him & then asked why he couldn't walk properly. Big Hugh stated it might be due to being blown out of a PT Boat in WWII, or wounded in Korea & Vietnam. JP then started talking about the corp & where he served in various wars. At this point the JP told the jailers to uncuff this damn war hero & bring me his bottle of vodka. The JP & Big Hugh proceeded to have a few serious drinks. The jailers couldn't believe what was happening right in front of them. The JP fixed it with the judge for a couple cases of booze & he pleaded guilty to crossing a white line with no fine just court cost. Unfortunately, Big Hugh breathed to much Agent Orange & died of multiple cancers. It wasn't necessary for him to be embalmed.

I agree but it gets old covering defense attorney's ass sometimes.
The usual colloquy is:
Defendant how do you plead?
Guilty? My attorney told me to say that.
Judge for the record having spoken to Mr. Defense attorney and received a letter stating that the defendant intends to enter a guilty plea contrary to advice of counsel, I request further court discussion.

DUIs are getting tough to beat. Refusal to blow can be used as evidence of guilt. And here, over .08 is per se guilty. You can argue the stop but pretty much been hammered out.
No reason for cops to play bulsheet. Just psss off judges and prosecutors. You will find your cases pled down to disorderly conducts you get a bad rep.







KRAKMT:

It could be. It depends. But maybe the transcript of the guilty plea hearing indicates trial counsel saying on the record that his client understands counsel hasn't seen the report, but nevertheless the client wants to plead guilty, anyway.

Then the judge says "Mr. Defendant, is that true?"

And the client says yes, your honor, that's true, I understand my attorney hasn't seen the report or any of the evidence and I understand that I could have a trial and all that, like it says here on this plea agreement I signed and put my initials all over, but I just want this to be over, your honor, and I believe it's in my best interest to get this done with right now, today, and I want to plead guilty. Thank you.

When you have a transcript like that, he may have a difficult time proving ineffective assistance of counsel down the road, when he's looking at his third or fourth DUI conviction and his new attorney says, hmmm, maybe we can make one of these early convictions go away.

- Tom [/quote]

I agree but it gets old covering defense attorney's ass sometimes.
The usual colloquy is:
Defendant how do you plead?
Guilty? My attorney told me to say that.
Judge for the record having spoken to Mr. Defense attorney and received a letter stating that the defendant intends to enter a guilty plea contrary to advice of counsel, I request further court discussion.
===

What kind of attorney would send his criminal client to a courtroom to plead guilty to a criminal charge without the lawyer being present??

Imaginary ones