December 02, 2003

A study in futility

Oh my, what a dearth of postin' for this fine Tuesday. Well, I have a good excuse. Today was another of those hectic days. I had court this mornin', court appointed case where my client is charged with two separate but similar offenses. It appears that a couple of years ago, my client wrote a substantial multitude of checks while lackin' the necessary funds in the bank to cover them, a.k.a. theft by check. Then, after bein' arrested and charged on that offense, and while out on bond, came into possession of a box of someone else's checks which were stolen from the person's mailbox by some party, most likely my client's estranged husband, and she then wrote a several checks on that account, a.k.a. forgery. My client has two small children and is pregnant with a third. Accordin' to my client, she is havin' pregnancy complications and the sheriff is transportin' here back and forth from the jail. The first plea bargain offer I got was for my client to do 9 months on one charge then return to do 5 years probation on the second charge, with it bein' a condition of probation that she pay restitution in the amount of damages done in these episodes of bad check writin'. I relay such to my client who balks at the deal.

I have to agree that such seems a bit harsh due to her physical problems, so consult with the DA, the chief dog, who is the elected head of the District Attorney's Office. He listens to what I have to say, we gather a bit of information about how long the client had been in jail, etc. I attempt to convince him to allow her to be released on probation so as to give her an opportunity to start payin' the restitution. He asks about her support, meanin' who is gonna be assistin' her on the outside. I inform him that the client's mother will give her a place to live, and her step-father will arrange employment until other suitable employment can be found. So the DA suggests that maybe if the support people are able to raise some of the restitution money, maybe some better arrangements can be made. My client informs me that her family lives in a trailer and don't even own their own cars. Maybe they could come up with $400, no where near the $6000 suggested by the DA.

So I spent a goodly portion of my mornin' accomplishin' nothin' but bringin' that gal up before the bench, havin' her acknowledge that she understands the charges against her and enterin' a plea of not guilty to both charges. This is not a triable case, but that is for my client to say.

Now, I am pretty well convinced that this client falls into that 95% of my clients that I could get off the hook if only absolute stupidity was a defense to criminal activity. She reminded me of a former sister-in-law of mine who was charged with writin' bad checks and sittin' in jail who once called my ex-wife and I askin' if we could pay off her checks so she could get out of jail. I asked her why she had continued to write those checks after depletin' the balance of her account. "I still had checks in the book," was her answer, and I was almost thoroughly convinced that she had thought it was alright for her to continue to write checks for whatever she needed until she ran out of checks. Absolutely stupid, I know, but the world seems to be full of these people, or actually, maybe the jails are full of them.

I do not know what will happen to this gal. My next step will be to call her mother and investigate just how much money they can raise. My client will likely be brought back to court in about a month and we will see if either the DA or my client has changed their mind about the offered deal and go through the whole thing again.

So, after havin' taken care of this matter, or havin' moved it off to another day, as was the actual accomplishment, I headed back to the office to check on Heather, as today was her second day of work and the first day she had faced sittin' around twiddlin' her thumbs with nothin' to do. It really ain't like there is nothin' to do, but nothin' that she is yet qualified to do. I have dedicated this first week with just lettin' her observed the daily goin's on so that she understands prioritizin' stuff, the need to maintain a good calendarin' system, the essential need for proper filin' of papers. She is doin' marvelously.

I spent about an hour in the office checkin' my email to see if there was anythin' pressin' and returnin' a few of the more urgent calls, then had to head back to the town where I had court to do jail calls. I have several clients sittin' in jail there, a few that I had not met yet. I try to make a jail call trip once every other week. It is one of the least enjoyable parts of my job, but also a very necessary one. Oh, it is not all that necessary, as there are several attorneys who handled court appointed cases that never go to the jail to visit their clients. I just think it is important that I show I am concerned enough for them to visit them in jail and talk to them face-to-face about their cases. I had narrowed the list of the ones I felt I actually had somethin' to discuss or which I just needed to make that initial contact to eight individuals.

As I was standin' at the intake window, or at least that is the best way I can describe it, as it is where all persons not brought in handcuffs enter the jail or leave stuff for the inmates, I began to get this severe headache creepin' up the back of my neck. I wanted to just abort the mission and return home. Nope, I am here and I have to go through with this. So, I get my list of locations back from the deputy behind the glass and go into the buffer room, where you go through one locked door to room overlooked by a window from a control room and then have a choice to enter another hallway leadin' off to the left or go straight ahead. I head for the door leadin' left, which clicks when the control guard sees me approach and then I wait until I hear another click to enter the control booth itself.

In there, I write my name in a book with the date and the names of all the people I am there to see, then open a box and take out 4 keys that I will need to access the 4 different rooms I will be sittin' in facin' by client through glass. I leave the control room, turn right and wait for the click before reenterin' the buffer room. I turn left and enter the long hallway that leads to the entries to various jail wards: Red, Blue, Green, and Orange. Each ward has two attorney visitation rooms, East and West. I have clients to see in Green West, the Green East, then Red East, and finally Red West. The first two were supposed to be in Green West before I got to that point, but both were trustees that are actually housed in a ward that does not have access to attorney rooms, so they have to be found and brought over. This requires some coordination between the deputies assigned to Green ward and the deputies assigned to supervise trustees. Needless to say, I sat in that room waitin' for 10 to 15 minutes before I was able to get the attention of any deputy to tell me where my people were, then another 10 minutes before the first one made his appearance. We chat for few minutes and I make some notes about what to do, people to call, etc. I dismiss him and expect that the next one will be waitin' to come in as he leaves, but NO, I had to go through the same rig-a-ma-role, waitin' an additional 10 minutes before he arrives. No all through this, as I am goin' in and out of the room, I am able to see the three I would be visitin' in Green East wonderin' why they were waitin' while I was piddlin' tryin' to get the first two out of the way. I didn't line up the order of visits, that is done by the intake deputy.

Anyway, everyone else was ready by the time I got to the other three rooms, and I was out of the jail and on the way back to the office with just enough time to get there before it was time to send Heather home for the day. What was really weird what the way my headache greatly dissipated the moment I walked out the door from the jail to the parkin' lot and my waitin' car.

Posted by notGeorge at December 2, 2003 06:34 PM | TrackBack
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