Friday, November 09, 2007

Priceless gems of wisdom....

An elder statesman of the law said to me yesterday, "He's the kind of guy who, every time he comes up to talk to me, I suddenly remember I have an appointment."

Of course, right before that I was subjected to an extremely difficult racist conversation that made me cringe and, since I hadn't heard the appointment thing yet, I was trying like crazy to get out of there, but didn't know what to do. Only people over 70 can get away with calling someone "Uncle Buck." To their face. Without them getting angry.

Maybe he's like me and figures anyone who would think less of him because of the color of his skin (or in my case my gender), it will be that much easier to gut them in Court.

Remember our Veterans this weekend. Had they not been willing to die for you, you wouldn't be where you are.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Bad Ass. D.A., Bad!

Ok, so this story has made the news:

http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20071101/NEWS/711010344/1011

A former District attorney (I assumed he was an assistant D.A. until I read further, but I like the Bad and Ass together in the title so I'm leaving it!) is accused of fondling these guys while giving them drug screenings...


And I might not believe it except that the District Attorney doesn't give drug screenings.

His minions/Court Referral people/ Probation officers etc.... do that.

The District Attorney doesn't dirty his/her hands with personally administering Drug Tests. This, to me as an attorney, is like someone saying that the President drove himself to the Quik-E-Mart for some ice cream. You Know? On its face, with no facts, you raise an eyebrow and figure either someone who doesn't really understand "the system" made it up, or something really, really weird is going on.

People make up stuff all the time. Once I had a guy I was prosecuting try to tell me some garbage about the Judge's brother and yada yada. I just shrugged and told him I didn't care, it was not relevant to his compliance with my demands. He insisted it was some kind of mitigating factor that "the Judge's brother got drug counseling and if he didn't get it that wasn't fair and the Judge would have to give him counseling too." (I kept reiterating that fair wasn't the issue here, legal was, and this was about support, not drugs.... but hey, can't argue with a brick wall!) At any rate, his face was priceless when he opened his mouth and began his plea only to be interrupted by the Judge after a sentence or two. "Let me stop you here," the Judge said, "I don't have a brother."

Poor guy, some jailhouse lawyer had told him that; may have believed it himself.


At any rate, the fact that amused me most about this D.A. (and it may not be in the article to which I linked) is: he (Allegedly) put on rubber gloves to fondle the guys. I'm not sure what that reveals about his psyche, but I'm sure its important.