Posted: 6/19/2008 3:30:19 PM EDT
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1. Try to read your files before the day of a motions' hearing. If you had, you might have noticed that your office had failed to provide discovery and that there was no statement of RS or PC in your file. 2. Provide discovery in a timely manner. No, providing discovery in a case that's been pending since November and requested in December is not timely when provided in June, on the day of the hearing. 3. Do not assume that lawyers from small towns are idiots. Most small town lawyers are ok with you keeping this impression until the motions' hearing starts. Oops, surprise.  4. When you provide discovery, dance through said discovery, if there's no RS or PC, your motions' hearing will not go well. 5. Be ethical, if your witness who can provide testimony about RS and PC isn't under subpoena (see #1) don't try to get in hearsay through your DUI cop. No one is impressed by your fumbling and lack of knowledge of the rules of evidence or the confrontation clause. (See also #3) Going forward without a good faith basis is also unethical, not that this bothers some DAs. 6. Once you know your case is screwed, talk to out of town counsel and see if you can get a deal or have the good grace to dismiss. Out of town counsel might be there on a pro bono case, pissed, and ready to get out of town. Pick your battles. 7. Try to remember that you might not always be a DA. Yes, we are all nice to you and kiss your ass at the moment. But, if you're ever in private practice, you will never get an extension from anyone at this office, and all your communications will be in writing. Remember, you've already shown a propensity to go forward in bad faith. Making out of town counsel wait for an hour or two while you fumble around with your bollixed case will be remembered. Your name and bar number go on a special list. 8. When you lose your motions' hearing and the case gets dismissed, try to be graceful. Even DAs lose now and again. 9. Try and notice the world around you. When the officer who came to testify has a better rapport established with defense counsel and asks defense counsel for advice, your case might have problems. I know DAs in large jurisdictions have a large caseload. I also know that being polite will not make your caseload any larger or smaller. Someday, you might have to work in a private firm and actually bill time for a living. Till that day..... |
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Good post... here's another tip. When BATFE is involved, make absolutely sure that the case is legitimate before running it forward. Talk to a member of the industry that knows the model of firearm and can give you the facts before trusting the BATFE in their judgement. Also, make sure that ALL testing and determination of the firearm in question is videotaped and presented unedited to the court and to the defense during discovery. Last point, be absolutely sure that BATFE hasn't added any conversion devices or altered the evidence in any way... re: US v. Kwan The prosecution in the Olofson case will be shown to be another Nifong before it's all over. Don't join the club. Mike |
Thanks I expect 'tude from a Federal prosecutor. They're very good and generally have the best witnesses. But, sometimes trusting that your witnesses are professional can be its own kind of blindness. My lil' county court case today isn't comparable. But, in general the advice is universal. I would say that the prosecutor 'tude is particularly galling coming from a fairly disorganised state county court ADA. If I had received a call a couple days ago with a plea to a lesser included, the DA would have a conviction. Hubris. 
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Wow... I know from talking to several AG's and such that BATFE has earned one hell of a bad reputation and a lot of them are slowly realizing that to take a case that BATFE wants brought forward is to put their careers on the line. With the documentation that is being accumulated nation wide on the BS that the BATFE has been doing, it's going to be harder for them to get a conviction in any case as time goes on. Even legitimate cases are going to be very hard to prosecute with the reputation and the factual documentation that now exists. As an example, just go and look at the reference section at nfaoa.org for some really harsh stuff. Mike |
most of our courtrooms are posted "no cell phone cameras". don't know what the big deal is if the media is there, but oh well. I had a vehicular manslaughter case two weeks ago that was pleaded down to a culpable neg homicide. the defendant, a female, was looking at 12-20 years sentence. Would have been around 12 if she would have just apologized and showed some remorse. however, she didn't. in fact, she "forgave" the passenger who died that was riding in her car, and said she "forgave" the family of the victim she killed. Judge gave her the 20. She just couldn't keep her mouth shut. |
I had a doozy of a client like that. Because I knew that the allocution would be a screaming tirade against the man etc., we worked a hard cap at the midpoint of the presumptive range into the plea agreement. Lets call it 3 years. My client exploded at sentencing and gave the DA, the judge, the town and the victims a large piece of his addled mind.. The judge tried to sentence my client to 6 years and the DA had to remind the judge of the restrictions placed on him by the accepted agreement. When your client is a raving loon, its best to limit his ability to self destruct. Due to later complications in the DA's case, my client. who had caused appx. $350K in damage to some very expensive and life saving medical equipment, had to pay a whopping $12k in restitution.  For saving my client's bacon, he hated me and everyone in the firm.  The DA and I are friends. Its a rare Friday afternoon that we don't call each other.
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I don't take trophies, nor would I have a camera in any courtroom. The funniest part was her telling me how "lucky" I'd gotten. Well, since I already had the police reports without her providing them to me, I don't think that my anticipation of her failure to have the right PC and RS witness at hearing was "lucky."
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I was thinking more along the lines of after (i.e. outside the actual courtroom). 
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You have too much class. 
Cell phone camera. Wait 'til afterwards. You'll thank me later.
It takes a special kind of gall, not to mention self-delusion. Both of which she apparently had, in spades.
Well, maybe instead of snapping an "Owned" pic of her, you can anonymously mail her a Nelson (from the Simpson's) "Ha, ha!" pic. |