Queens District Attorney Brown wants to Silence the Judge so he can make the Defendants talk: Another attack on Miranda

Prosecutors hate quiet defendants. In fact they will go to great lengths to get them to talk, especially to confess. In New York City over the past few years, Assistant District Attorney's will go into the holding pens known as Central Booking and actually interview these arrested folks, telling them that this is their only chance to talk to a prosecutor before arraignment and that it may result (during a blue moon)in a dismissal of their case. Certainly the Prosecutor will check out anything they tell them (like their alibi which really means he will send a detective down to take partial statements from alibi witnesses and screw up a defendants alibi allowing them to convict many more innocent people.)

The way these interviews begin is for the prosecutor to tell their spiel to the defendants BEFORE THE DEFENDENTS ARE GIVEN THEIR "MIRANDA" RIGHTS.(Miranda warnings give a defendant their right to remain silent and their right to an attorney.) After they have promised them to listen to their stories then give Prosecutors read in the rights. It is a "Bull Shit" way to use gentle coercion to get a confession or admission. (Pardon the language but really can you think of a more blunt way to say it??)

What do I mean? Well, the ADAs are promising to listen to them, but in reality, the ADAs want to convict them (I know DA Brown will say that isn't true but if that were the case, why not let them speak to their own attorneys first and then let the lawyer decide if is in the best interest of the client to speak to the prosecutor. After all that is how they show it on Law and Order.)These ADAs are overcoming arrestee's will to assert their rights by promising something may happen for them if they do not assert their rights.

Remember where these people are when this is done. They are completely at the hands of the government. They have no advocate of their own there and are not entitled to one. If they don't speak to the prosecutor they don't have to, but they aren't going to see a judge until they have gone through this little ritual.

Holding pens in NYC hold defendants for 24 hours or more. After a few hours smashed in with 20 other people, with nowhere to sit without access to family or lawyers, these folks will do anything if they think it will get them out faster.

One Queens judge has threatened to look into the ethics of this behavior. The Honorable Joel Blumenfeld has a decision coming that may discuss among other things the legal ethics of a prosecutor saying and doing the things that the prosecutor says in Queens County NY. Now Courts look at ethical issues all the time, but DA Brown doesn't want Joel Blumenfeld, a former criminal DEFENSE Attorney to rule on that issue. So DA Brown has brought an order to show cause against the good judge to stop him from discussing the ethics behind the activity IN HIS JUDICIAL DECISION!!!

Unbelievable. Absurd. Legal ethics and violations thereof are perfectly good reasons to suppress evidence. (For example if a defense attorney "Friends" a victim on Facebook by pretending to be someone other than himself, the evidence he gets from that is not usable in the case. That isn't because it isn't good evidence, it is because such behavior is unethical for lawyers to engage in.)

On the up side, it is unlikely a fellow jurist will tell Blumenfeld he can't write his opinion the way he wants. It is supposed to be an INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY!

Oh did I forget to mention, DA Brown USED to be an Appellate Division Judge. I wonder how he would have taken to being told he couldn't discuss an ethical issue in a decision.

As for you readers out there I cannot point out how important it is to get a lawyer for your friends who are arrested or if you are arrested how important it is not to speak to ANYONE without first speaking to your OWN lawyer. Most of the people who give statements give them because they are waiting for LEgal Aid or an 18b lawyer (free lawyer from the court) to be appointed. DO NOT WAIT!! Get yourself a good lawyer right away and have him notify the prosecutor that you or your friend is represented by counsel and may not be spoken to by them without that lawyer being present.

IF you need a lawyer even in the middle of the night, I will take this opportunity to remind you that you can call my office 24/7/365 and speak to a lawyer if you or a friend or loved one has been arrested and is awaiting arraignment. You can reach us at 516-741-3400. DAY OR NIGHT. Weekday or weekend, holidays too!!

Hat Tip: The NY TImes

Stuff Even I Can't Make Up: Blabbing Bimbos, USHLS Keep Cartoons Characters Safe From Child Sex Abuse, Moonlighting Is Okay for Judges As Long As They Remain Unfunny and Surprise! Someone Got Angry in an Anger Management Class..

For a little light reading, I thought I would take you for a short tour of what I found funny (that's to read funny strange not funny HA HA! I will admit there is some overlap however)

1. For the last time People, If you are going to "Kiss and Tell" DON"T DO IT ON THE INTERNET!!!
Exhibit One: A woman fighting for child support admits on Facebook that her child is not her husband's.
To quote our friends at ABA Journal News "...one mom posted photos of her children during a custody battle, eliciting a comment from a friend that they didn't look much like her husband. Her response: That's because they're not his." That was smart...
Exhibit Two: Another Duke University Sex Scandal.
An apparently Jock sniffing College Co-ed from Duke University decided it would be a cute idea to make a "Power Point Presentation" of her sexual hi-jinx while an undergrad at Duke University. She ranked 13 lovers, all jocks (many Lacrosse players btw) and was very "explicit" in her descriptions of the guys and the activities she and they engaged in. She sent it by e-mail to three friends and "Surprise" it got sent all over the net!!!
(Yeah like she didn't mean to leak it so that she would get the obligatory book opportunity and Playboy spread.)

I think the kids at Duke may have too much time on their hands. How in the hell do they keep getting that US News and World Report Ranking given that they can't seem to shut up??? What ever happened to discretion being the better part of Valor?? In the interest of truth in journalism, I admit, I could have been subject number 12... okay maybe not but a guy can dream can't he?? (You can read the whole report and see the pictures with blackened out faces here)

2. Your United States Bureau of Homeland Security: Keeping "Toon Town" Safe for Cartoon Kids. Now if they could only protect America.
Radley Balko of the "Agitator", one of my favorite bloggers, has put the only headline I could think of on a case of Simpson cartoon characters in sexual positions causing a conviction for Possession of Child Pornography (yeah you read that right.) In his blog post

Worst. Prosecution. Ever.

Radley describes a prosecution where the only "Images" were cartoon characters... Better get rid of any "Fritz the Cat" videos you downloaded.
I read the press release from the US Justice Dept. trying to decipher the real reason they brought this prosecution... If it weren't so true of the way some of these folks think, I'd have laughed. Here is the Money Quote: “We aggressively use our investigative authorities to protect our communities from those who seek to sexually exploit children for their own perverse gratification,” said Leigh Winchell, special agent in charge of ICE Homeland Security Investigations. “HSI continues to dedicate resources to identify those individuals who engage in this type of criminal behavior and ensure they are brought to justice.”
I am so very happy no moreTOON TOWN characters will be sexually exploited for someone's perverse sexual gratification, now could you use some of these funds you WASTED on this prosecution to freaking solve a crime in MY HOMELAND?? You know, a real crime not a cartoon crime... Maybe find some guy like, oh I don't know... OSAMA BIN LADENmaybe??? Where is Bob Hoskins when he is really needed
While on this same topic, If you happen to be a boss (say the Editor of "Innovation" at the Chicago Tribune, maybe it is not a good idea to use company e-mail to distribute a link to a website that has a fake newscast showing women in various stages of inebriation and undress... I'm just sayin'.
In this time of political correctness, all employers need to be more "sensitive", still I can't help feeling like this guy would still have a job if he wasn't always sending these kind of weird things out.
Hattip: NY TIMES

3. Judges in NY have not received a raise (Not even cost of living) in almost two decades. That is not only inconceivable but downright unfair to them and to the citizens (A well funded judiciary is essential to a nation of laws.) So to fix the problem, we gave them a raise right? NOOOOOO!
We will now allow them to "Moonlight". I can see it now:

Attorney: I have another witness your Honor
Judge: I'm sorry, I have to give the Katz kid a piano lesson at 5:15 on the dot. Otherwise I won't be able to tutor the Smith kid in Math at 6:30. Oh by the way, your decision on that stay of the death penalty? I won't have it done till tomorrow afternoon...
Attorney: Uh Your Honor, my client is due to be executed at 12AM tonight...
Judge: Hmmm well maybe if I skip dinner I can finish it by 11:45PM.

Oh yeah it seems that one job a judge can not have is doing "stand up" comedy... Has anyone read some of the decisions they write... KIDDING IT WAS A JOKE... REALLY... :)
Hattip: ABA Journal News Today.

4. From the Bureau of "I Don't Think She Gets It" comes this little ditty "Woman Stabs Another Attendee at Anger Management Class"
That's right, Faribah Maradiaga 19, stabbed a fellow classmate in her anger management class.
Wanna know what they were arguing about??
Men?
Kids?
Obamacare?
Here is your money quote: "A dispute over the value of a video on anger management being shown to the class sparked a war of words..." I guess that video wasn't as good as they thought it might be.

Okay and for those of you who stuck around this long, My old blogger friend Ken Lammers who was a defense attorney and is now a prosecutor (KENNY KENNY KENNY) has been touted as one of the "Hot Law Enforcement Types." Go visit his blog and vote for the picture you think is hotter, Summertime Head-shaven Ken, or Winter Sensitive bearded Ken. Tell him I sent you.

Oh yeah, If you liked this post, let me know. Leave a note on here or on Facebook.

And on a more serious note, if You or someone you know has been accused of Assault, Child Pornography Possession, or Sexual Harassment at work or at school, it is no laughing matter. It is also nothing to handle without the help of a good lawyer. I am more than willing to speak to anybody who needs help with this or any myriad of legal problems. You can reach me here

Inspector General Finds Health Dept. Investigator Stomps on Rights of the Accused: Forget the Miranda Violations HE IS A PARKING VIOLATOR TOO!!!

This story is sad. We have an investigator in the NYS Health Dept. (which oversees the Dispensing of drugs) who has a thing for pain killer lollipops. He also has a thing for violating the civil rights of people he arrests. (He goes after Docs who write bad scripts and patients who try to use forged prescriptions). He actually told one poor guy who demanded a lawyer "We NEVER had this conversation". Thanks to the poor management and convoluted reporting of the Dept. this out of control maniacal investigator ran the local Manhattan office using fear as his main weapon. Everyone there was afraid of him.

So how did it come to an end? How did it come that the Inspector General finally stepped in and ended this Reign of Terror??

Turns out the guy abused his parking pass privileges one too many times, came to the attention of a reporter at the NY Times and viole` he was brought down faster than Marie Antoinette's head hit the basket.

Moral of the story?: NEVER screw with the Parking Meter Lady.

BTW Prosecutors are now looking at the cases this guy brought to see if anyone was wrongfully convicted... I bet I know how that will turn out.

Photo Credit: www.phawker.com

People v. Jason Z. A Win For That Lawyer Dude: False Confessions Are More Frequent Than We Want To Admit

I achieved another big win for a client in Queens! This one was in the Grand Jury. No true bill equals not enough evidence for the Grand Jury to believe that my client committed a crime. In other words, my client was falsely arrested and held in jail for quite sometime.
Why? Because Queens Burglary Detectives coerced a false confession from him.

Here is what happened. My client is home "chillin'" and his buddy asks if he can drive him and his friend to the friend's girlfriend's house. He lets the kid drive the car since he knows where they are going. When they arrive, the second kid asks if my client will stay a second while he goes to see if anyone is home. Needless to say, these two "friends" are really trying to burglarize the home. They fail. They come back to the car and are acting strange. When Jason asks what is wrong, they tell him of their real intent. They are in a gang and they are pulling burglaries. My client tells them he is not interested in helping them and an argument ensues. Finally the second friend pulls a revolver from his waistband and tells my client he knows where my clients wife (who is pregnant) lives. The gunman tells my client to drive them somewhere and then to look out for them. He will give my client Five hundred. If the client says no, he will give him a bullet to the head. My client drives to where he is told. He hands over the keys and goes to the corner where he is to look out. He never stops however. He keeps walking to the Boulevard, catches a cab and goes home.

Should he have called the police, probably. Was he afraid of what might happen if he didn't tell? Absolutely. Like I said he is a kid, 20 years old, is married to his HS girlfriend and is expecting a child. He was holding down two jobs and going to college and pulling good grades. Never in trouble before, and scared.

Later that day, when his friend doesn't show up for the car, he starts to worry about where it is. He calls the friend but no answer. He calls his cousin and the cousin tells him that he will pick up Jason's wife from work and will get the key and go with her to pick up the car. Why would his cousin do this? He feels responsible because he introduced the two idiots who are gang-banging to Jason.

When they go to get the car, Police, staking out the car, arrest the cousin and my clients wife. They later also arrest my client's dad. My client gets a call to go to the Precinct and tell them what happened or they will keep the other three in jail. My client's mom calls a lawyer (sadly not me) and he advises the client to go down and not to speak to police. Right!! He didn't go with him to the precinct to protect the client's rights. He didn't call the cops to tell them not to question the client. He didn't want to get really involved until he got paid. I understand, but I do not agree. When I get a call like this, I tell the client I will meet him at the office and go with him to the precinct or I get him a lawyer who will be willing to go to the precinct and work out a payment plan with the client. I never advise anyone but a cop to go to a police station without a lawyer ever!!

My client arrives and he goes to the detective squad where he sees his pregnant wife crying. Cops tell him that if he doesn't tell them what happened, they will hold his wife and put her in Riker's to have the baby. He tells them what happened. That won't do. You will confess or she and your elderly father go no where. She has the baby in the jail. On the Floor. She will be in general pop (general population) where other gang girls will try to kick the baby out of her stomach as a gang initiation. My client has no idea that they are lying through their teeth, that they don't have a leg to stand on to hold his wife or his dad. He has no idea that there is a medical facility to help with pregnant women prisoners. His wife is hysterical she doesn't want to have her baby in jail, she doesn't want them to take her baby away from her. She did nothing and was at work all day (a fact that didn't seem to matter to the police) Jason is nothing if not an honorable kid. He signed the confession they dictated so his wife would be allowed to go.

Jason's lawyer (the one that let him go down to speak to the police alone)wanted Jason to plead guilty and go to jail for 8 years. Eight birthdays for his newborn missed, eight years that will dash any chance for him or his family to have a decent life. He decided to fire that fellow and he hired me. I heard the story and immediately told Jason that he had to go into the Grand Jury and tell them what happened. He did. The result was a "No True Bill." That means there wasn't enough proof to give the police cause to arrest my client.

How can this happen?? It happens because the police believe that a confession will end the issue. Juries always believe these stories and lawyers don't believe in their clients so the case will get pled out and no one will be the wiser. After all they are the police, they are always right no? NO NO NO.

One reason false confessions happen is because the police are allowed by the courts to lie. They are allowed to lie to defense lawyers, they are allowed to lie to defendants, and ultimately they lie to the court. It is an unspoken part of the game called testilying. Judges over look those lies in hearings and lawyers believe that if the confession is not knocked out in a hearing, it is going to hang the defendant at trial.

Another reason is that the police use internally coercive investigatory and interrogation techniques. The latest use of such subtly coercive techniques is in the interview of an eight year old who is accused of killing his father and father's friend. Look at how they investigators continue to play on the child's feelings. How they say "now is the time where we promise to be honest with each other... except they are anything but honest. They lie and tell the child about witnesses who will say something different from the child. They ask him the same questions over and over until he gives them the answers they want then they move on, a way of getting the accused to know how to get their approval. I don't know if the kid killed his father or not, I do know that if I was on the jury I wouldn't rely on the "confession" in that case to convict the child, and I wouldn't put much belief into cops that lied to a suspect and now claim to be telling me the truth.

Hattip to Gideon over at A Public Defender Blog