This week continues to court streak. On Monday I was in court until 6:30pm. I was able to turn the TRO into a custody order pending trial. By the time my clients got home "someone" had trown a cider block through their front bay window, poisioned the two dog and poured clorox everywhere.
In another case from Monday I was assualted by my clients brother in court. He almost got tasered. That case along with one other got moved to Wednesday due to the heavy case load on Monday. The Judge was there hearing cases until 10 pm.
After I got back to my office Tuesday I talked to witnesses in this case and discovered my client was doing something very very illegal with regards to the witnesses. So I did what any good attorney would do, I file a motion to be released from the case without telling the judge why i want off. (I can't - attorney client privilege prevents me even though she is breaking the law) Today was that motion hearing. I was allowed to get off the case, the brother acted like a jack ass and he did get tasered. The Judge was not in a good mood.
The case just prior to tasor boy ended the worst possible way. Two other attorneys were arguing a TRO/Custody Order. The husband was present but the wife was not. There was talk about concern for childs safety and wifes mental state. All of this is pretty common in family law. Some times I think we forget how serious this stuff can be. The hearing gets interrupted by an emergency phone call for the wifes attorney, who is a young guy with maybe two years experiance. I am where I can see him and know exactly what the call is from his reaction. He walks back into court looking sick and shell shocked. He blunty announces that his client has just shot herself in the parking lot of his office. This is how the husband hears his wife is dead and his children lost thier mother forever. I think every attorney was stunned, most even cried. I did and I did not even know the lady. Just the shear shock of it. The Judge had to leave the bench to cry. Court restarts 2 hours later when taser boy acts up - zap.
Then I had the great joy of arguing another TRO/Custody order pending trial. We wrapped up at 230pm. A TRO was in place forbiding ANY contact between the husband and wife. The kids are 17, 18 and 20 so no true custody order - the kids can do what they want. (in this state the age of maority is 21 and child support goes to 21). At 315 I get a call from the sherrifs office. the husband kicked in the front door, stomped the hell out of his 18 year old daughter becuase she would not tell him were my client was. She pulls up and he rams her car and flees.
I am now at home, skipped gym with my little girl who turns 5 tomorrow. She is safely in the bedroom watcing fosters home for imaginary friends. I will settle in to read the new John Grisham novel, but first I will get down my old service weapon, a compact .40, reload it and will be packing heat again for a while - three nut jobs on the loose. Great job huh?
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Miss me?
I am back. Did you miss me? If you didn't you can blow me where the pampers is. (if you know the movie reference then you have great taste in bad movies). I have got to say the past few weeks have been hectic as hell here in the grand mid-south.
An example: I was hired on Monday to handle a mess complicated custody case were a third party (my client) is attempting to get custody of a teenaged girl from her mother. This is not easy to do. Under the law of this state a parent is the preferred person to have custody. A third party must prove one of the following: abandonment, moral unfitness or that the parent is otherwise unfit. There is a case where one parent killed the other and the courts held that the living parent was not unfit to have custody once she got out of prison, so you can see it is a steep climb to win.
Anyway I digress, so I am hired on Monday about 5 pm to get custody, the child has been reported a runaway and or kidnapped. Local media get wind of it Tuesday morning – the story the lapdog reporter, I mean watch dog reporter want to run is "Local girl kidnapped, cops not doing anything". Anyway I call up bubba newsdog and talk to him and explain that if he runs that story they will have to run a retraction and my clients, one of which is the "kidnapped" girl will sue. That problem over.
I file the custody suit on Tuesday, call the judges admin asking for a Temporary Restraining Order hearing for Thursday or Friday since I have a MAJOR mediation in a personal injury case set for Wednesday and need Tuesday to go back over all the medical records one more time and talk to various claims rep so that the P.I. case can settle.
About 1:30 p.m. Tuesday the Judge calls, says she has read the petition and that in her mind the case cannot wait, come to b-ville at 4 and she will have a hearing. Ok, b-ville is a 40 minute drive from my office. I drop everything, call the clients, tell them to come to my office, we prep them for the hearing then fly down the road to court. We have a hearing, I type an order. On the way home clients get pulled over on an APB for the kidnap. I get that all cleared up. I get back to the office, fax that Order to the school and every local police department and FBI to make sure the kidnapping issue is cleared up.
I take a deep breath and now get to go back over medical records – it is 9 p.m.
We settle the P.I. case after six hours of mediation – which is basically a neutral attorney who will listen to both sides' evidence and play devils advocate while helping the parties negotiate a settlement. After 67 hours of total time spent on the case, it settles and I will get a whole $2000. I want to cry.
Random thought: I cannot decide if I want to punch Rachel Ray in the face to shut her up or screw her silly. I wonder is she goes once around the pan with e.v.o.o. to get lubed up.
An example: I was hired on Monday to handle a mess complicated custody case were a third party (my client) is attempting to get custody of a teenaged girl from her mother. This is not easy to do. Under the law of this state a parent is the preferred person to have custody. A third party must prove one of the following: abandonment, moral unfitness or that the parent is otherwise unfit. There is a case where one parent killed the other and the courts held that the living parent was not unfit to have custody once she got out of prison, so you can see it is a steep climb to win.
Anyway I digress, so I am hired on Monday about 5 pm to get custody, the child has been reported a runaway and or kidnapped. Local media get wind of it Tuesday morning – the story the lapdog reporter, I mean watch dog reporter want to run is "Local girl kidnapped, cops not doing anything". Anyway I call up bubba newsdog and talk to him and explain that if he runs that story they will have to run a retraction and my clients, one of which is the "kidnapped" girl will sue. That problem over.
I file the custody suit on Tuesday, call the judges admin asking for a Temporary Restraining Order hearing for Thursday or Friday since I have a MAJOR mediation in a personal injury case set for Wednesday and need Tuesday to go back over all the medical records one more time and talk to various claims rep so that the P.I. case can settle.
About 1:30 p.m. Tuesday the Judge calls, says she has read the petition and that in her mind the case cannot wait, come to b-ville at 4 and she will have a hearing. Ok, b-ville is a 40 minute drive from my office. I drop everything, call the clients, tell them to come to my office, we prep them for the hearing then fly down the road to court. We have a hearing, I type an order. On the way home clients get pulled over on an APB for the kidnap. I get that all cleared up. I get back to the office, fax that Order to the school and every local police department and FBI to make sure the kidnapping issue is cleared up.
I take a deep breath and now get to go back over medical records – it is 9 p.m.
We settle the P.I. case after six hours of mediation – which is basically a neutral attorney who will listen to both sides' evidence and play devils advocate while helping the parties negotiate a settlement. After 67 hours of total time spent on the case, it settles and I will get a whole $2000. I want to cry.
Random thought: I cannot decide if I want to punch Rachel Ray in the face to shut her up or screw her silly. I wonder is she goes once around the pan with e.v.o.o. to get lubed up.
Monday, January 7, 2008
I could not make this up
get asked a lot - here, on my other blog and in person -Cigar, how do you make this stuff up. The simple fact is i couldn't make this shit up if I tried. I will say i am pretty smart and funny (if you like sarcasim) but I am not very creative as far sa humor goes (legal strategy I amaze myself sometimes)
This is an actual body of an email from my secretary sent. names have been changed to protect the stupid.
Dipshit called and she tested positive for amphetamine and marijuana. She explained the marijuana in her system 1st that she was inhaling it because she was in the room with him and he smoked daily. Then she said she used it about 2 months ago and it must just still be in her system (yeah, right). She explained the amphetamine in her system as diet pills.
I told her I would give you the information but it may be Thursday before you could call her back because of your court schedule. She wants an apt with you and she wants to schedule a more in depth drug test to prove she hasn't used marijuana or inhaled it since leaving her husband.
Hilda has already called wanting the results, and Dora told her we would have to speak withyou before we could fax her anything.
The faxed results came through from Justice Network and she is not only positive for those two, but also for Benzodiazepines and she was caught with a condom trying to alter her urine specimen. Funny thing is they tested the first urine and it came up positive too (she could of at least got someone who was clean to help her cheat). Then they made her take another and these are the results from it.
This woman took dirty piss to a drug test? now this is an example of rocket science and not something i would have thought to make up. I LOVE my ob.
This is an actual body of an email from my secretary sent. names have been changed to protect the stupid.
Dipshit called and she tested positive for amphetamine and marijuana. She explained the marijuana in her system 1st that she was inhaling it because she was in the room with him and he smoked daily. Then she said she used it about 2 months ago and it must just still be in her system (yeah, right). She explained the amphetamine in her system as diet pills.
I told her I would give you the information but it may be Thursday before you could call her back because of your court schedule. She wants an apt with you and she wants to schedule a more in depth drug test to prove she hasn't used marijuana or inhaled it since leaving her husband.
Hilda has already called wanting the results, and Dora told her we would have to speak withyou before we could fax her anything.
The faxed results came through from Justice Network and she is not only positive for those two, but also for Benzodiazepines and she was caught with a condom trying to alter her urine specimen. Funny thing is they tested the first urine and it came up positive too (she could of at least got someone who was clean to help her cheat). Then they made her take another and these are the results from it.
This woman took dirty piss to a drug test? now this is an example of rocket science and not something i would have thought to make up. I LOVE my ob.
It is a monday
Today I had a follow up hearing on this and this . She showed up again today without an attorney and the Judge gave her more time to find one. Gee thanks Judge. Anyway I am fed up with her crap and set it down as a full fledged trial so we can have plenty of time to have a 15 minute hearing about why she can't obey the Judge.
On a related note, I have heard try and tell her side of things for almost 4 years now and it barely matches up with what my client says. Basically they agree that they had sex and that a child was born. until recently they even agreed he was daddy. According to her he has never shown an interest in the child. On the other hand I point to court records that go back to 1992 showing that he has attempted to be a part of the kids life. And like anything there are at least 3 sides to it - his/hers/the truth. I do not know what is the truth, but I do know that she has convinced herself that what she is saying is the gospel truth and based on her myspace page she has many followers. I am often tempted to post his version of the truth on her page, but I don't.
Oh well, time to get ready for tomorrows trial
On a related note, I have heard try and tell her side of things for almost 4 years now and it barely matches up with what my client says. Basically they agree that they had sex and that a child was born. until recently they even agreed he was daddy. According to her he has never shown an interest in the child. On the other hand I point to court records that go back to 1992 showing that he has attempted to be a part of the kids life. And like anything there are at least 3 sides to it - his/hers/the truth. I do not know what is the truth, but I do know that she has convinced herself that what she is saying is the gospel truth and based on her myspace page she has many followers. I am often tempted to post his version of the truth on her page, but I don't.
Oh well, time to get ready for tomorrows trial
Friday, January 4, 2008
Questions
Two questions I get asked a lot. 1. how can you defend someone accused of a crime and 2. why are you against the death penalty.
This story provides the answer to both:
DNA evidence clears Dallas man of rape charges after 27 years in prison
05:52 AM CST on Thursday, January 3, 2008
By STEVE McGONIGLE / The Dallas Morning Newssmcgonigle@dallasnews.com
Dallas County's record-setting list of innocent inmates cleared by DNA testing grew to 15 Wednesday when officials learned that Charles Allen Chatman could not have committed a rape for which he has served almost 27 years in prison. .
. Also Online
Other cases cleared since 2001 ..
State District Judge John Creuzot, who pushed for the genetic test that cleared Mr. Chatman, scheduled a hearing for this morning during which he is expected to order the 47-year-old man released on a personal bond and find him to be innocent.
"My attitude is that if the man is innocent, he needs to be free," the judge said.
The judge shared a steak lunch with Mr. Chatman in his courtroom after learning the test results. Mr. Chatman spent part of the afternoon being fitted for a new suit.
He has been serving a 99-year prison sentence for the 1981 rape of a Dallas woman during a home break-in. He is believed to be the longest-serving Dallas County inmate to be exonerated by genetic testing.
His attorney, Michelle Moore, described Mr. Chatman as "very, very nice." Most of his family died while he was in prison, she said. He probably suffers from learning disabilities and does not know how to use a computer or cellphone.
"He's lost his life," said Terri Moore, the first assistant district attorney.
A year ago, Judge Creuzot used the occasion of another inmate's exoneration hearing to urge District Attorney Craig Watkins to determine whether Mr. Chatman would be a candidate for a relatively new form of DNA testing known as Y-STR.
The judge, who filed for re-election Wednesday, said he became concerned after presiding over two previous DNA hearings on Mr. Chatman's case that the convicted man might be innocent.
The earlier tests on the rape kit taken from Mr. Chatman's alleged victim had proved inconclusive because of a small amount of genetic material. Mr. Chatman had been told that a third test might consume the remainder of the sample.
He recently agreed to the Y-STR testing, which has proved successful in identifying genetic markers from tiny DNA samples. The testing was performed by a Dallas laboratory before Christmas, and results excluded Mr. Chatman.
Ms. Moore, the defense attorney, and Mike Ware, the prosecutor overseeing the DNA testing, credited Judge Creuzot with pushing them to pursue testing.
Mr. Chatman, who remains in the Lew Sterrett Justice Center and could not be reached for comment, was four months shy of his 21st birthday when he was arrested by Dallas police in January 1981 and charged with aggravated rape. At the time, he was on four years' probation for a 1978 residential burglary conviction.
Picked in lineups
Mr. Ware, head of the district attorney's conviction integrity unit, said the rape victim first selected Mr. Chatman from a photographic lineup. She identified him a second time in a live lineup, Mr. Ware said.
Prosecutors said they were attempting to notify the victim Wednesday that Mr. Chatman had been cleared of the rape. She was said to be living in a nursing home.
Mr. Chatman's exoneration, which must be approved by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, would mark the 15th time since a new testing law took effect in 2001 that a Dallas County conviction has been discredited by DNA.
Most of those faulty convictions occurred during the tenure of District Attorney Henry Wade, whose office had a national reputation for hard-nosed prosecution.
The majority of the wrongful convictions included lineups or eyewitness identifications that often were uncorroborated by other evidence.
No other county in the nation has had as many exonerations by DNA.
That unenviable status prompted Mr. Watkins, a former criminal defense attorney, to launch his conviction integrity unit and agree to review almost 400 cases in which inmates had requested DNA testing and been denied.
'Sloppiness ... going on'
A partnership between Mr. Watkins and the nonprofit Innocence Project of Texas has reviewed about 80 cases and recommended that testing be done in eight. The review process on the remaining cases is expected to last another year, Mr. Ware said.
Ms. Moore, the first assistant to Mr. Watkins, said she was pleased the office was able to correct the wrong to Mr. Chatman. But she said she also was angry.
"What offends me about this is the sloppiness that was going on," she said. "You are supposed to turn over every stone. You are supposed to know what the truth is."
In addition to its review of cases for possible genetic testing, the prosecutor's office also wants to learn whether it can identify patterns that led to the wrongful convictions, Ms. Moore said.
*************************************************************
I would suggest the book Actual Innocence by Barry Scheck and Peter Nuefled and Jim Dwyer. There is a companion photobook called "The Innocents" photos by Tayrn Simon, commentary by Scheck and Nuefeld. I also strongly suggest "Tulia" by Nate Blankslee about the framing of local blacks by a out of control cop and all of the trouble to undo those convictions. John Grisham wrote a non fiction book calls Innocent Man that discusses several men convicted of crimes they did not commit.
I can go on and on. The fact is our system is not perfect, but it is better than the rest.
My state and my former law school have now started an innocence project here.
This story provides the answer to both:
DNA evidence clears Dallas man of rape charges after 27 years in prison
05:52 AM CST on Thursday, January 3, 2008
By STEVE McGONIGLE / The Dallas Morning Newssmcgonigle@dallasnews.com
Dallas County's record-setting list of innocent inmates cleared by DNA testing grew to 15 Wednesday when officials learned that Charles Allen Chatman could not have committed a rape for which he has served almost 27 years in prison. .
. Also Online
Other cases cleared since 2001 ..
State District Judge John Creuzot, who pushed for the genetic test that cleared Mr. Chatman, scheduled a hearing for this morning during which he is expected to order the 47-year-old man released on a personal bond and find him to be innocent.
"My attitude is that if the man is innocent, he needs to be free," the judge said.
The judge shared a steak lunch with Mr. Chatman in his courtroom after learning the test results. Mr. Chatman spent part of the afternoon being fitted for a new suit.
He has been serving a 99-year prison sentence for the 1981 rape of a Dallas woman during a home break-in. He is believed to be the longest-serving Dallas County inmate to be exonerated by genetic testing.
His attorney, Michelle Moore, described Mr. Chatman as "very, very nice." Most of his family died while he was in prison, she said. He probably suffers from learning disabilities and does not know how to use a computer or cellphone.
"He's lost his life," said Terri Moore, the first assistant district attorney.
A year ago, Judge Creuzot used the occasion of another inmate's exoneration hearing to urge District Attorney Craig Watkins to determine whether Mr. Chatman would be a candidate for a relatively new form of DNA testing known as Y-STR.
The judge, who filed for re-election Wednesday, said he became concerned after presiding over two previous DNA hearings on Mr. Chatman's case that the convicted man might be innocent.
The earlier tests on the rape kit taken from Mr. Chatman's alleged victim had proved inconclusive because of a small amount of genetic material. Mr. Chatman had been told that a third test might consume the remainder of the sample.
He recently agreed to the Y-STR testing, which has proved successful in identifying genetic markers from tiny DNA samples. The testing was performed by a Dallas laboratory before Christmas, and results excluded Mr. Chatman.
Ms. Moore, the defense attorney, and Mike Ware, the prosecutor overseeing the DNA testing, credited Judge Creuzot with pushing them to pursue testing.
Mr. Chatman, who remains in the Lew Sterrett Justice Center and could not be reached for comment, was four months shy of his 21st birthday when he was arrested by Dallas police in January 1981 and charged with aggravated rape. At the time, he was on four years' probation for a 1978 residential burglary conviction.
Picked in lineups
Mr. Ware, head of the district attorney's conviction integrity unit, said the rape victim first selected Mr. Chatman from a photographic lineup. She identified him a second time in a live lineup, Mr. Ware said.
Prosecutors said they were attempting to notify the victim Wednesday that Mr. Chatman had been cleared of the rape. She was said to be living in a nursing home.
Mr. Chatman's exoneration, which must be approved by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, would mark the 15th time since a new testing law took effect in 2001 that a Dallas County conviction has been discredited by DNA.
Most of those faulty convictions occurred during the tenure of District Attorney Henry Wade, whose office had a national reputation for hard-nosed prosecution.
The majority of the wrongful convictions included lineups or eyewitness identifications that often were uncorroborated by other evidence.
No other county in the nation has had as many exonerations by DNA.
That unenviable status prompted Mr. Watkins, a former criminal defense attorney, to launch his conviction integrity unit and agree to review almost 400 cases in which inmates had requested DNA testing and been denied.
'Sloppiness ... going on'
A partnership between Mr. Watkins and the nonprofit Innocence Project of Texas has reviewed about 80 cases and recommended that testing be done in eight. The review process on the remaining cases is expected to last another year, Mr. Ware said.
Ms. Moore, the first assistant to Mr. Watkins, said she was pleased the office was able to correct the wrong to Mr. Chatman. But she said she also was angry.
"What offends me about this is the sloppiness that was going on," she said. "You are supposed to turn over every stone. You are supposed to know what the truth is."
In addition to its review of cases for possible genetic testing, the prosecutor's office also wants to learn whether it can identify patterns that led to the wrongful convictions, Ms. Moore said.
*************************************************************
I would suggest the book Actual Innocence by Barry Scheck and Peter Nuefled and Jim Dwyer. There is a companion photobook called "The Innocents" photos by Tayrn Simon, commentary by Scheck and Nuefeld. I also strongly suggest "Tulia" by Nate Blankslee about the framing of local blacks by a out of control cop and all of the trouble to undo those convictions. John Grisham wrote a non fiction book calls Innocent Man that discusses several men convicted of crimes they did not commit.
I can go on and on. The fact is our system is not perfect, but it is better than the rest.
My state and my former law school have now started an innocence project here.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Opening shots
To understand a lot of what I am going to write about today and probably several more times this year you need to accept as fact that attorneys in this area (if not everywhere) are prissy, vindictive gossipy crybabies with one exception me. I am not prissy.
Our Chancery (family/probate/land) court district has three judges who hear cases in a 6 county region with this county being the busiest with over 2500 new cases filed in 2007. In the past everything has run smoothly with a computer randomly assigning which judge would hear each case. That was until late last year.
In the past I have written about two lawyers who 1st filed a confidential complaint about a judge sexually harassing them, who then filed motions attaching the complaint to them for the world to see. The next step was to sue him in federal court. All of this to keep him from hearing their cases.
Today, the opening shot from the other attorneys was fired. Seems the that the female judge was represented by one of the two female attorneys who filed the compliant. By law the judge should have disclosed that to each and every attorney on the other side of cases she was hearing where her former attorney was involved. So that is the current battle. If the other attorneys win then the two complaining female attorneys can only have the last remaining judge hear their cases.
And that is what they wanted all along. It has long been known that there is a bias with this last judge towards these two. If that were then end of it I would have to Say getting the female judge kicked would be a dumb move which is why I haven't tried.
The final shot is still being investigated and drafted, but there is a large cabal of attorneys working to gather evidence to have the last judge at the very least kept from hearing cases the two females are working and possibly to have him removed from the bench altogether.
It is the goal of this cabal to destroy the careers of the two females. It should make for a interesting year. And before anyone thinks the good old boys are running the only two female attorneys out of town, the local bar association is about a 50/50 split and the cabal is composed mainly of women.
Our Chancery (family/probate/land) court district has three judges who hear cases in a 6 county region with this county being the busiest with over 2500 new cases filed in 2007. In the past everything has run smoothly with a computer randomly assigning which judge would hear each case. That was until late last year.
In the past I have written about two lawyers who 1st filed a confidential complaint about a judge sexually harassing them, who then filed motions attaching the complaint to them for the world to see. The next step was to sue him in federal court. All of this to keep him from hearing their cases.
Today, the opening shot from the other attorneys was fired. Seems the that the female judge was represented by one of the two female attorneys who filed the compliant. By law the judge should have disclosed that to each and every attorney on the other side of cases she was hearing where her former attorney was involved. So that is the current battle. If the other attorneys win then the two complaining female attorneys can only have the last remaining judge hear their cases.
And that is what they wanted all along. It has long been known that there is a bias with this last judge towards these two. If that were then end of it I would have to Say getting the female judge kicked would be a dumb move which is why I haven't tried.
The final shot is still being investigated and drafted, but there is a large cabal of attorneys working to gather evidence to have the last judge at the very least kept from hearing cases the two females are working and possibly to have him removed from the bench altogether.
It is the goal of this cabal to destroy the careers of the two females. It should make for a interesting year. And before anyone thinks the good old boys are running the only two female attorneys out of town, the local bar association is about a 50/50 split and the cabal is composed mainly of women.
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