Saved a Man's Life Today.

[Gary Allan]

Panda ..I've got an odd spike of dim humor there.

In China we are most civilized and advanced. Even our corruption is adjudicated. Faction vs. faction disputes are settled in a court of law by a jury of disinterested peers.

 

[Augustus]

Originally Posted By: ekpolk

The 911 call recording for us was pure gold.


Which party made the 911 call?

Apparently, if it hadn't been for that evidence (the 911 recording) your client would have lost and been sent back to jail.

Did the homeless man have a cell phone? Or was the call made from a pay phone? (Do pay phones exist any more?)

Lesson: If you're homeless at least have a cell phone?

 

[ekpolk]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Originally Posted By: ekpolk
You would prefer justice in China, North Korea -- or perhaps Somalia????


Out of the 3 I would have to say China is slightly better.

One of my mom's friend served as a juror in China's criminal court. The case was about the son of the police chief wanting a piece of the garbage collection business that the local private business / gangster was in, the private business owners wouldn't give it up and there was a mob fight between the police chief's son's mobsters and the private business owners' mobsters.

Funny how only the private business owners' mobsters got arrested and charged. Mom's friend saw what's going on and voted not guilty, and the guys were set free.

Sure it is not perfect, but at least not all the power to corrupt is in one person's hand to me.


Panda:

Very interesting. Though I've practiced law here in the US for 16 years, I'll be the first to admit that I certainly don't "know it all" as to how those beyond our borders (or even beyond Florida's borders) do it. I had no idea that there even was such a thing as a jury in China. Not just interesting, but encouraging as well. Odd, is it not, that stories such as this one don't find much traction here in the contemporary US, isn't it. . .

 

[ekpolk]

Originally Posted By: Augustus
Originally Posted By: ekpolk

The 911 call recording for us was pure gold.


Which party made the 911 call?

Apparently, if it hadn't been for that evidence (the 911 recording) your client would have lost and been sent back to jail.

Did the homeless man have a cell phone? Or was the call made from a pay phone? (Do pay phones exist any more?)

Lesson: If you're homeless at least have a cell phone?


No, my guy did not have a/the phone. If he had one, this never would have happened (see the original post, he needed change for a $20 bill so he could call his Mom for a ride). The "victim" woman made the call, and, quite stupidly in retrospect, was taunting my guy as she was on the hook with 911. Again, her torrent of verbal filth was appalling. Here's a good faith attempt to quote "closely" without "messin'" with the censor: "hey you em - effn' lazy homeless piece of filth (not the exact word she used...), nobody's gunna believe your sorry arse. . ." and so on. My guy picked up the simple assault convictions because instead of doing the "perfect" thing and walking away, he engaged them in a verbal altercation, but with no knife (that was a total lie). What I think saved his butt was that he could be clearly heard on the 911 tape too -- begging for officers to be dispatched at once. Why on earth would you do that if you had just menaced two people with a knife???? That was my "theory of the case" and, thank God, it proved to be a winner.

 

[Audi Junkie]

I've got a subpoena for 911 calls before, as a defendant, just like in ekpolk's case. The "victim" winced when they came in. At the height of the bull I tried to keep a video cam handy to show some of the nonsense that was going on, however, as a "2-party" state, PA's wiretap law prohibit most circumstances where this was useful, in fact it brought me into peril in violating that law. Just to say, the 911 tape was gold, although ultimately it did not exonerate me, it was highly probative and raised a lot of flags...as well as detering future lies and frivilous prosecutions.

Going into court Pro-se was my only real fault. Even w/a subpoena in hand, the 911 center did not want to give me the tape, I had to have the local judge call and straighten them out. It cost like $50, btw.

 

[sciphi]

Good job! Nice to see justice carried out for once.

If all of us don't have a story of an encounter with the judicial system, we soon will. It's truly amazing how some folks will turn anything into a legal matter.

 

[Pesca]

Originally Posted By: ekpolk
You would prefer justice in China, North Korea -- or perhaps Somalia????


Does that make US justice system better?

I stand by my previous saying: All justice systems suck!!

And, yes Sciphi, I agree with you: Sooner or later, I will have to deal with a moron trying to rip off my shirt for any obscur reason.

Better to start saving some money.

 

[Lurch]

Good going. Glad to hear he didn't get additional time. Hopefully he'll be more careful who he asks for change from now on. There sure are some weirdos out there.

I don't know how the truth gets so distorted and how people tend to believe liars sometimes. I've seen cases on TV where innocent people did time for crimes they didn't commit and criminals that got away with murder. I don't know why, but it seems to happen often in the South.

 

[Tempest]

DA is a piece of scum trying to climb the political ladder.

How was the judge?

The one time I was in family court, the judge was a joke and issued orders clearly in violation of the law. Most of the judges around here get poor reviews by attorneys.