Better Late Than Never

Last summer I did an internship at the DA's office. I spent my entire time there working on a gang injunction. I drafted all the documents needed for the entire process for the Dog Pound gang, and drafted another set of generic documents, for any injunctions they wanted to do in the future.

Shortly before I left, they halted the Dog Pound injunction. It was not explained to me why. I was disappointed that I never heard about it being filed, but there is nothing a lowly law clerk can do about such things since this is the kind of issue that is driven by policy. At that time, several gang injunctions were coming under fire in other areas of the state, so I wondered if that was the reason for the stop.

This morning, however, I was very pleased to read that this injunction has been filed. The permanent one was signed by the judge yesterday. Of course, I have no way of knowing if they actually used the documents I drafted for it, but it is still pretty cool. : )

"With Distinction"

The 3rd of my 4 grades was posted today and it guarantees I will be graduating "with distinction". (For those not familiar with my school, that designation signifies that your cumulative GPA is at least 78. I think that equates to a B on our school's scale.) I have no idea why they use that phrase, "with honors", and "with high honors" instead of the more traditional "cum laude", "magna cum laude" and "summa cum laude". All I know is that I graduated from high school and college magna cum laude, so I feel like I've slipped a level by only graduating with distinction.

I started studying for the bar using MicroMash today. Nothing like scoring under 50% on 4 tests to make me feel like I know less than I thought I did. I have a long way to go and much work to do before July 29. Sigh.

In even more cheery news, the last day of my beloved internship is tomorrow. My court appearance this morning was rather short (less than 90 minutes), but it did give me time to send the ordered discovery out. Tomorrow I'm only there for 4 hours, but I hope to get 5 plea offers out so I will have things as wrapped up as I can.

After tomorrow, my life will be studying for the bar exam full time for the next 10 weeks. What fun.

Bummer!

Two more days left of my internship. I found out yesterday that they will not be able to have me come back August-November, even though they tried to find a way to do so. And to make matters more depressing, I also found out that until my law school is ABA accredited, I can't get a job as an AUSA (assistant U.S. Attorney). While my school claims they are pursuing that, they have been saying that for the last 20 years. Nothing seems to make their claim any more realistic now than before.

Tomorrow I have my last court appearance. Very sad. I have no idea when (or where) the next one will be. I don't even have a trial tomorrow. :(

I did get another grade posted today. I had anticipated W&T being my lowest score. I got 75. I expected worse, so I guess I'm ok with that. On a bright note, if that is my lowest score (I'm still waiting for Remedies and Legal Process to be posted), then it seems likely that I will graduate with at least some honors. (My GPA should qualify me for the lowest level of honors- technically "with distinction".) That still doesn't make me feel any better though.

Going Out on a High Note

My last final was Tuesday night in Legal Process. As I mentioned previously, the test was a Performance Exam, one of the three types of of tests given as part of the Bar Exam. You are given a task to do (some document to write) , a law "library" (various cases and laws) to use, and a fact set. You have 3 hours to read the packet, organize your thoughts, and write the item using only the provided materials.

It's not really so bad. The first few we did over the semester were more intimidating because I don't think anyone is used to sitting down in 3 hours and just spitting something like that out. You have to focus and get to the point, and not try to be fancy or cover subtle nuances.

Anyway, I felt happy with my performance on that exam and expect an excellent grade on it. Speaking of grades, the first ones were posted yesterday and the rest should trickle in over the next few weeks. Only my Evidence score has been posted so far. I thought that would be my second highest score (after Legal Process). I got an 83, which is a good score, but not as high as I thought it would be.

Now that looking for a job is one step closer, I'm being hit by negative news. The county has a hiring freeze in effect at the current time, and today's paper said that the District Attorney's office here may lose 55 prosecutors due to anticipated budget cuts this year. :( Considering that I need a minimum of one year of experience to get a job at the U.S. Attorney's Office, and where I wanted to get that was with the DA, this isn't good. Surrounding counties may not have the financial woes that are plaguing Fresno, but then I would have to deal with a commute. Not sure what I'm going to do exactly. I know going civil is an option, and I could get several interviews without much problem, but I'm not sure I want to go down that road yet. But I'm going to have to figure out something in the next 6 months.

I'm now down to my last week at the U.S. Attorney's office. It just feels weird. I don't want to leave. I LOVE working there. But I can leave knowing that I did an excellent job and received invaluable experience. It also feels good to know that they will miss me!

It's still hard to believe this is the end of the law school experience. I did not think that I would enjoy it this much, nor did I realize how much it would change my life.

More Changes

When I started working at the U.S. Attorney's office in August, I was the only student running the misdemeanor unit there. It was very overwhelming at first, but I quickly fit right in, and loved the extremely fast-paced environment. It's always crazy-busy there and I wouldn't have it any other way. The longer I have been there, the more I love it.

One of my study partners from school joined me there in January. It has been an adjustment to share "my department" with someone, to realize that people have different work styles, etc. I finally reached the point where I was happily letting my partner have half of the work load, and concentrating my efforts only on my cases.

Sooooo, I guess life doesn't want me to get too comfortable. My partner had an issue come up that has forced him to be unable to continue this internship. It's hard to know how to react. Part of me didn't even want to think about it- I had just allowed myself to give all these cases over, and now they were my responsibility AGAIN! Ugh! But, of course, the bigger part of me was happy to have full responsibility for the department again, knowing full well that I ran it for 6 months with no help.

The hardest part is that my time left there is so limited. I have 3 more weeks, then I am taking a week and a half off for finals, and then coming in for another week and a half to wrap things up. I'm then going to be studying for the bar exam through the end of July. Unfortunately, this will leave the department with no one for the entire summer. The interview and checkground process takes 3-4 months, so even if they hurry, they most likely will not be able to get anyone before August. Of course, this is what happened last summer, and the bare minimum was covered by my boss, while everything else just piled up.

I've offered to come back and work August through November (when I get my bar results) and help train whomever they hire and get them up to speed. That will help the department AND me, because I am going to need something to do those months so I don't go out of my mind waiting to hear if I passed or not. They are apparently trying to figure out a way to have me do that. So YEAH! :)

Now THIS was COOL!

Oh my gosh, I LOVE MY JOB! Today might have been the most cool experience I have had there to date (and considering I have already had and won a trial in federal district court, you have to know this is a good one!). Thursday mornings is the regular misdemeanor calendar and some weeks are busier than others. Today was a very full day with 14 cases. Even though 8 were mine and 6 belong to my cohort, I appeared on all 14 since he was out ill today. It took until noon to get through 13 of them and the judge ordered the motion I was to argue for 2pm.

Most of my job involves a lot of standard stuff- filing charging documents, sending discovery, writing and negotiating plea agreements, making routine court appearances. I don't often get the opportunity to actually do legal research and write motions or briefs. However, there is a new federal defender who is a motion-writing-machine. I'm having to reply to them, and the first one was his motion to suppress evidence obtained during a wildlife checkpoint in a national park, that he claims was unconstitutional.

The few things I have written while here have mostly been standard things that did not require any original research, but I researched and wrote the reply to the defense motion on my own from scratch. Today was the day to argue it in court.

I have never done that before, nor even attended one, so I had no idea what to expect. My boss suggested making a list of the points I wanted to make, along with ones to counter the defense's likely arguments. I did that, and also called a Park Service ranger to be on hand, in case the court wanted to hear from him.

THANK GOODNESS I DID THAT! I had no idea that the judge expected witnesses, and I had not prepared any questions. But once in court, the judge said he did not know how the checkpoints worked, and wanted testimony on that. Ok, no big deal. I called my officer as my witness, took all my notes, and went up there and did a direct exam on him from the seat of my pants (or should I say from the seat of my very short skirt?!?). Anyway, the federal defender crossed, I redirected, he recrossed, and I wrapped up with a few final last questions.

The judge went through an unpublished case that the federal defender handed him (and me). Neither one of us had mentioned it in our arguments. At first I was like NOOOOOOOO, because the case was clearly distinguishable on the facts, and I was kicking myself that I hadn't said that. But, I didn't need to. The judge went through the rules about checkpoints and showed how the one in that case didn't meet the requirements to be constitutional, but the one in my case did.

After going through an analysis, and wrapping up this 75 minute hearing, the judge denied the defense's motion to suppress. YEAH!!! : ) That was SO much fun. Kind of like moot court and criminal trial practice all wrapped into one. I LOVED IT! I wish I got to do that every day.

Anyway, the officer was so impressed by my written response and performance in court, and so appreciative of the effort I put into it. He is going to send copies of my response to a bunch of the other national parks so they can use and/or refer to it if people challenge their checkpoint programs. :) Yes, very, very cool!

So, I argued a motion in federal court, wasn't even sure what to do, had no prepared questions for my witness, but knew my law inside and out and won my case!

Damn, and now I have to go to Wills and Trusts.....

A Break? Really?

I suppose this is the beginning of my spring break, though it hardly feels like it. I'm behind in stuff at work after taking off time to study for my midterm, so I'm going to work for at least a few hours tomorrow to try to catch up.

Then, of course, next week, I don't have classes, but I still have work. Hardly feels like a week off if I still have to get up at 5am. At least I don't have to attend my 4 classes, but what does that really boil down to- 12 more free hours, maybe 15 if you add in commuting? Doing the reading for those classes that I didn't do this week will take up most of that. If anything is left, I MUST work on my outlines. My Remedies one is current, since we just had the midterm (though I did notice a few things I want to fix), but I have not updated my Evidence and Wills & Trusts outlines since December. I am such a slacker!

Yeah, so, it's not really a break. Just a time to do more work. :(

Clock Fairy

Last night, I fell asleep on the couch and apparently moved to the bed sometime. This morning I woke up around 4:30am. As I often do when I wake up early, I stayed in bed, somehow hoping I would fall back asleep. After about an hour and realizing that was not going to happen, I got up and checked my email. When I glanced down at the clock on the bottom of my screen, I noticed it said 6:30! I then remembered Daylight Savings started this morning- I think this is the first time I've ever forgotten to change all the clocks before going to bed. I then went around the house, moving all of them forward an hour.

I spent the day yesterday studying for my Remedies midterm which is on Tuesday afternoon. I'll be doing the same thing today and tomorrow too. It's weird to think that this is my last midterm. After this exam, there will be just 4 finals left to take in my law school experience. Two months from today they will all be over. Makes me nervous to think about. So much to do! I'm going to have to use my spring break to do some serious preparation.

Nothing too exciting going on at work. I still love it, but nothing new or different there lately. The only trial in my future now appears to be the jury trial starting April 1. (There's something else I will need to work on over spring break!) All the other cases I had on my calendar have either signed plea agreements or indicated that they will.

Remedies is calling me, so I suppose I should get back to the studying. You know how exciting specific performance, injunctions, restitution and punitive damages can be......

Am I Really That Close to the End?

It's March. Classes end in April. My last final is May 6. It doesn't seem possible that I'm so close to being done. Of course, things aren't really over until August 1. And even then, not really until I actually pass the bar. But this will be the first step in being done.

Nothing new in my classes really. I do have a midterm in Remedies next Tuesday. Ugh. I last updated my outline 3 weeks ago, so I need to do that today. I don't have any other tests until the finals though. Remedies is April 28, Evidence is April 30, Wills & Trusts is May 2, and Legal Process is May 6.

I had a meeting with my LP professor yesterday. Our final in there is a 3 hour "performance exam" (one of the 3 types of tests given on the bar exam). We have done 2 of them so far for that class, and will do one more in a couple weeks. There is no possible way to study for that sort of thing because they just give you a set of facts, a library of law, and a set of instructions. Your job is to draft whatever kind of document they tell you to within the 3 hour period using only what they give you. So really, after my W&T final I can relax a bit (at least until the bar studying begins).

I'm still loving my internship. It actually makes me sad to think about leaving in 2 months. I want to find out if there is anything I can come back and do from August to November when I get my bar results. Hopefully they will want me, as I can't imagine sitting around doing nothing for three months.

It's weird to be so close to the end. I know it is coming, yet in some ways, it is hard to believe because sometimes I thought it would never end. And there's such conflicting emotions. There is comfort in difficult things, because at least I know what to expect. Not a whole lot of comfort in the unknown. I know there are people I will miss too. But with things moving at a whirlwind pace around me, it is not like I even have extra time to spend with them before it's all done. Weird, sad, frustrating, yet hopeful because I'm excited about the future and what it will bring.

Round and Round

I know I haven't posted much lately. I guess for the most part I am thoroughly bored with school and I don't see much need to comment on anything going on there. It's just the same old crap- lectures that could be completed in half the time, reading that never seems to end, annoying people that you wish would shut up! Of course, it's not all bad. It just seems that the good stuff isn't what happens in the classroom, except on rare occasion. An example is something that happened the other day in Evidence, which has become my favorite class this year even though at the beginning I felt totally lost. Anyway, when I'm assigned a case to brief in there, I do an exceptionally thorough job. I had a case this past week, and after I had finished, the professor made some comment like, "Oh, if you could all do it that way on your exams!" Yeah, I know we don't brief cases on our exams, but I took it to mean that I was thorough and well thought out in how I presented it.

The intensity of my dislike of my last year of law school is probably only matched by the intensity of my love for my internship. I would so much rather be working full time doing my job than having the annoying little chore of finishing law school. (And let's not even mention studying for and taking the bar exam!) I love what I do and I know I'm good at it. It is incredibly fast-paced, which is perfect for me because I thrive on that kind of challenge. Anything without that pressure bores me.

I was supposed to have a bench trial on Thursday. However, the defendant failed to show up. UGH! I hate that! I go through all the effort to prepare my opening, closing, direct exam questions, prep my witness, get exhibits and everything, and now it is just a file sitting in my drawer. The judge did issue a warrant for the guy though, so who knows? I guess a trial could still happen someday.

I forgot to mention that the defendant in my 2 day trial in January was sentenced last week. We were hoping for some time in custody for him. The judge did sentence him to 90 days incarceration, but allowed for home detention with monitoring. He is also on probation for 3 years and subject to some other terms, including some pretty stiff ones regarding his computer and internet usage. I think it is likely that there will be a probation violation sometime over the next 3 years and the judge did say if there were, the defendant would be spending time in custody. Nice!

An appeal has already been filed in this case with the Ninth Circuit. The defendant's brief is due in May, and ours in June. Since I'm leaving in May, it is doubtful that I will be working on that at all. I would have loved to have been able to do that! My boss predicts this case will be around for years, so I hope I can continue to follow it long after I leave.

Even with all the crazy defendants and new and interesting stuff that happens at work, a lot of it is just a cycle of the same sort of stuff over and over- more DUIs, more possession of controlled substances, more unauthorized accesses at IRS, more informations being filed, more discovery being sent, more plea agreements being negotiated, more defendants being sentenced. Not a bad thing, but sometimes it feels like it's not worth an update on here.

Sigh, Continuances....

The jury trial I was going to have beginning on Feb. 26 is now being moved to early April. It's probably better this way, but I'm still kind of disappointed. The bench trial for this Thursday is still on however. Of the 2 others on my list, one defendant signed a plea agreement, and the other one probably will.

Monday is a holiday and since Mondays are the only full day I work, I'm going to have to do a bit of work either in the office and/or at home this weekend to make up for it. There's not much choice if I want to be fully prepared for court on Thursday, which of course, I always am.

I have some reading I still need to do for next week's classes and I should be working on my outlines too. I much rather spend a day or two of the weekend sitting around reading "The Appeal", but doubt that will happen. Oh well. Maybe I can at least get in a few hours.

Two Trials in Two Weeks

Over the next 2 weeks, I have 2 trials. First, next week I have a bench trial for a violation that occurred in one of the national parks. Then the following week, I will be working with my boss on the previously mentioned unauthorized access IRS case for my first jury trial. Since Monday is a holiday, I'm planning on working a lot of this over the coming weekend.

Since I probably won't post tomorrow:

More Trials

I checked my cases at work the other day and found that I have 3 scheduled for trial in the next couple of months. One is just a bench trial next Thursday, so that one is no big deal. (Have already had 3 of those- all convictions, of course!) The other two will probably end up pleading out, but you can't be sure until you have the signed agreement in your hands. One case is a DUI and drug case. The other, if I remember right, involved an assault and under the influence charge.

I really enjoy any time I have in court, but now that my internship is in its last few months (sob, sob!), I'm wanting as many trial experiences as I can get. So, it certainly won't bother me any if these cases don't settle. I haven't had a trial against any of the federal defenders yet and would love the opportunity to go up against one of them.

My boss is probably going to trial on another one of our misdemeanor cases at the end of the month. The case is one of our IRS unauthorized access cases. I'm not sure if I'm going to be involved in that one or not. It is scheduled to begin on a Tuesday, a day I don't work. I already missed one of my Tuesday classes for my last trial. Ugh. The annoyance of having to finish school when you have a job you love and want to keep.

Hard to believe in 3 months school and this internship will be over.

Super Sunday

My parents have had a Super Bowl party for about 20 years now. I always enjoy it, not because I care about football, but because it is a family event that is just fun and easy. No fancy food, no gifts, no dressing up- just hanging out together, snacking, enjoying the game, commercials and each other. It's a nice break from the stress of school, which along with work, has been keeping me very busy. Doesn't seem like there is much new- just always tons to do. I think there are about 6 trials currently scheduled for my department for the next couple of months, but I believe most of them will reach an agreement before trial. I could be doing a couple of them though. We'll see. Love the experience, but don't like to get too excited about the possibility, because I don't like being disappointed when they settle or get continued.

Feedback

I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email that was sent to everyone in my office, from the chief of the entire office, congratulating me on my trial victory, and complimenting me on my preparation and presentation of the witnesses and evidence. I responded by thanking him, and asking what he thought I could have done better or should have done differently. Today he came and found me and told me that I did very good and he didn't think I could have done anything better! He asked me if I was nervous, and I told him no! He said I looked very confident.

I am so thankful for a job that I love, that I apparently do well, and where I am appreciated. I wish I didn't have to leave in May!

Trial Notes

I'm starting to feel back to normal, well, kind of. I'm still behind in my reading for school, and am trying to get caught up on that this weekend. But the whole trial-rush thing appears to be behind me. It was very cool at work yesterday to have so many people tell me "Congratulations" for getting a guilty verdict. I also asked my boss for feedback on my performance, and he only said good things, which pleased me. I called and spoke with the victim in the case and informed him of the outcome. Because some personal information about the victim's life was revealed during the course of the trial, my boss thought doing a press release might embarrass him so thought we wouldn't issue one. On his suggestion, I discussed it with the victim and found out that he is very much in favor of a press release, even if his name is used, because he wants people to know that they cannot do this sort of thing to someone. After relaying that to my boss, it appears that we will issue a press release about this case after sentencing.

I took a lot of notes during the trial. Here's some of them, in no particular order:

The case was about computer intrusion- the defendant broke into the victim's email account, changed the password, prevented the victim from accessing his own account. (Then proceeded to do bad things with that account.) Anyway, one of the things discussed was the existence of a file shredding program on the defendant's computer. The file that was shredded was an incriminating image file that the defendant had emailed to people in his effort to ruin the victim. I thought it was highly amusing that on cross exam, the defendant's attorney asked our computer witness what shredding programs are used for, and he answered, "destroying things that people don't want others to know." The attorney suggested some things that might typically be shredded, such as sensitive financial information or porn. The expert agreed and said that there was porn on the defendant's computer, but THAT had not been shredded! LOL

The defendant's attorney called 6 witnesses, including the defendant, during his case in chief. The first of these witnesses was a lady, I'm guessing early 60s, with6-8 inch long fingernails. (I am NOT exaggerating!) The defendant's theory (one of them) was that he was conducting a personal investigation of a variety of crimes in the community, some involving "big names", and he was selectively prosecuted because of this investigation. This witness was there to talk about shenanigans that apparently happened with some lawyer and judge, in relation to a criminal case involving her son.

This son was another one of the witnesses. The crime he was involved with? Child molestation. He had apparently just gotten out after serving 6 years. Nice huh? Nothing either of these 2 said had anything to do with the crime the defendant was charged with here. It was all about this whole other conspiracy thing going on the side.

The defendant himself did the most damage to his case. He told so many blatant lies and got caught. One that I caught was this- during a search of his home, a document that had been printed out from a web site was found. He claimed that it was used to investigate the victim for some misbehavior in a certain case. That case was in 1999. I noticed the page was printed out in 2001. We asked the defendant to verify that date, which he did. And no explanation was ever given. Very bad for him.

There had also been a deposition in an earlier case in which both the defendant and the victim were present. At some point, the victim became aware that the defendant had a loaded weapon on him at the time. When asked about it, the defendant's reason for why he had the weapon with him at the time was because the opposing party was known to carry a gun as well, and he feared she might try to kill him. So, of course, we asked him, what was he expecting? To have a shoot out with her right in the middle of a crowded law office?

The defendant admitted he was "investigating" the victim. There had been some murdered prostitutes in the area, and in his effort to tie the victim to the crime, he claimed to have obtained the shoeprints and cigarette butts of the victim. When we inquired HOW exactly he did this, he said he paid some local homeless people to help him. Ok, can you say CREEPY?!?

The defendant apparently kept all his notes about his "investigation" written in some code. He claims this notes were taken in the search of his home and never returned. He refused to answer a question about what languages he knew, because he feared this would allow his notes to be interpreted. What a freak!

Before the judge announced his verdict, he spent about a half hour going through all of his findings. In the end, he said the defendant was an "intellectual vigilante" and that there was no reasonable doubt that the defendant was the one who had committed this crime. Considering it was a petty offense for a computer crime, it was a fascinating case that ended up involving violence, murder, bribery and sex. Sounds like a good one for movie of the week....

I Got A Conviction in Federal District Court!

How incredibly cool is that! :) Just a law student, but have 3 convictions in federal magistrate court, and now a conviction in federal district court! My trial wrapped up this afternoon after 2 full days. It was such a great experience and I enjoyed every second of it, even though I'm so physically and mentally worn out I feel like collapsing.

I'm too tired to really post anything more. Hopefully I'll be up to it tomorrow. Just had to post about the outcome. Could not have gone any better! :)

I'm in Trial!

Ok, how cool is it to be able to say that? And I was kept in court last night until 6pm!

My trial was set to start at 10am yesterday. However, I logged into the court's website when I woke up, just to check and see if anything had been filed since Friday. I wasn't expected anything, but with this defendant, you can never be sure of anything. I was shocked to see that 10:30pm on Monday (a court holiday), the defendant had filed to substitute an attorney to represent him (instead of representing himself), and that the attorney filed a motion to dismiss the case.

I had no idea what was going to happen because I thought the judge could easily continue this case once again to give the new attorney time to prepare for trial. I didn't think it likely the motion for dismissal would be granted, but I was doubting I'd actually have trial yesterday. The judge, however, would have none of the defendant's shenanigans and did not delay the trial. The new attorney opted to sit in as "co-counsel", not wanting to commit malpractice by proceeding without being fully prepared.

It was so cool- here I was in this gorgeous courthouse, in a beautiful 7th floor courtroom (not "lowly" 6 floor magistrate courtroom- lol!), giving my opening statement. As the day continued on, my boss and I took turns with our witnesses- I had 8, he had 5. He has to finish on his last one this morning before we rest and the defendant begins. I have no idea what to expect from him, other than to know it is likely to be long- he loves to talk!

I'll also be doing the closing, whenever we get to that. Each side was given 7 hours to present its case, and we've only used 3 hours of our time so far (defense has used a bit over 2). I suppose we could finish today, but I kinda think it will be tomorrow before we're done. I think I'd prefer that, just so I can go in completely fresh and focused, instead of having to do the closing after a long day of testimony. Either way, I am totally enjoying this! It just feels so normal to be doing this- I love that I'm not bit nervous about it too.

Well, I gotta run. My trial resumes in about 2 hours!~

Just to Clarify

I received some email from non-law types, asking me a couple questions about my last post. I admit that it is easy for me now to think only in legal terms, forgetting that they may not be familiar to all. Sorry! Anyway, here's the answers:

What does it mean to "submit on the ticket"?

I've never heard an official explanation for this, but basically, when you are in court, and the judge asks your opinion about something, and you want to say that you agree with a certain document (ticket, probation report, plea agreement, etc.), you say that you "submit on" that, meaning whatever that says is what you want to submit to the judge and have him/her to do.

I had already forgotten that the phrase struck me as odd when I first started this internship because I quickly saw how it was being used.

What is a non-magistrate judge?

Let's work backwards. A magistrate judge is appointed for a term of 8 years, by other judges in the federal district court. You might consider them to be a step below the regular, non-magistrate judges. The district court judges (what I referred to as "non-magistrate"), on the other hand, receive a lifetime appointment after being nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

I'm not sure exactly how cases are assigned between the judges, but I know that for my work in the misdemeanor unit, I always appear before one of the 3 magistrate judges in our court. I'm not really sure why this case and trial is before the judge who has it now. But in my view, because it is, it is a little more serious.

Yeah, I've Been A Slacker

Ok, I know I haven't posted in a week. I may have slacked on posting, but it's only because I've been so incredibly busy. (Yeah, yeah, what else is new?) I did have some cool experiences this week, so let me recap a few of them.

First of all, I had my big monthly court day this past Thursday. It's always kind of like a circus because so much goes on, so quickly, but it's easily my most favorite day of the month. You never know exactly what to expect, which I think is one of the reasons I like it so much. Much more challenging when you have to think on your feet!

All the people who are there to appear on their violations start showing up around 9am. From 9-9:30, they are all supposed to check in with the court clerk, and then speak to me, if they want to give me a reason why the government should consider reducing their fine. I have total discretion to do so or not. (How much fun is that for a law student??? But of course, I'm always fair and reasonable!)

During this time, I was speaking with a defendant at the government's counsel table about his violation. All of a sudden my eyes shift to the man who was walking into court, and up to the clerk. He was wearing leopard print cat ears! I just looked at him, stopped talking, and almost fell out of my chair! WTF? I then had to go to the clerk myself, and tell her the reduced fine I had agreed to, while leopard boy was standing there. The clerk, court reporter and I exchanged looks and just tried not to laugh. Unfortunately, he didn't need to appear, so I wasn't able to see what the judge would have said. He left without incident, seemingly oblivious to what was on his head.

The big excitement for the day, however, was the bench trial I had for a parking violation at the VA hospital. I know that sounds like a snoozefest, but it was both the most frustrating and the most fun I've had in court yet. Generally, these trials last less than an hour- I bring my witness (the officer who issued the citation) and have them tell me what happened, and then the defendant, without an attorney, tells their version. There is a little bit of cross-examination, but I never object to anything during the whole process because first, I know the pro per defendants don't really know what they are doing, and secondly, I don't want to seem like a bitch, and finally, I don't think it's really necessary.

If I tell you that this "little" $25 parking violation turned out to be a 2+ hour trial, would you believe me? The defendant had parked his oversized camper truck diagonally over two parking spaces. I began with my direct exam of the officer who issued the ticket. Then the defendant, who I believe to be a wanna-be actor, got up to cross. Instead of just asking a question, he started basically presenting his case. I gave him a little leeway, but when I could see he wasn't going to stop, I stood up, "Objection, your honor. Defendant is testifying." "Sustained." Ok, that was cool.

That really didn't seem to deter the defendant much. He got out his several theories (the officers had unfairly sought to ticket him, the slash marks on the second space denoting it as a no parking area were too faded to believe they were current, the officer did not announce a warning over the hospital PA before ticketing his vehicle, his intention in parking that way was to be considerate to other people and not have his vehicle block them, the paint from the previous striping had leeched up through the asphalt and confused the striping, etc., etc., etc.) while keeping me hopping and objecting the entire time. The objections I remember making are: "ambiguous", "argumentative", "asked and answered", "counsel testifying", "improper characterization", and "irrelevant". But I made most of them numerous times and I'm sure I probably lodged at least 4 dozen objections. At several points, I was so frustrated, I just stood up and declared, "Your honor, OBJECTION!" The judge, who had to be getting tired of the defendant's shenanigans kept sustaining them. Mind you, this is all over a $25 parking ticket!

After going round and round, back and forth, the defendant at one point started some argument, then cut himself off. "I don't want to waste the court's time," he said. In a non-professional move on my part, I couldn't help but mouth, "TOO LATE" to the court clerk and court reporter, who had been making "WTF is he doing?" faces at me for over an hour. Eventually, the judge declared him guilty (maintaining my 100% conviction rate) and asked for each side's request for fine amount. I submitted on the ticket ($25 plus $25 fee and $10 assessment). In yet another eye rolling moment, the defendant said he thought "time served" was appropriate. When the judge said that he had never been arrested, the defendant explained he meant his time in court. UGH. This guy would not give it up. The judge gave him a $25 total fine. It won't surprise you to hear he then announced he would be appealing. OMG!!!!!!!!

I forgot to mention that earlier in the morning, a large group of students from Bullard High School came into the courtroom to observe. There seemed to be 3 shifts of them, coming in to watch, at various points, so I estimate 100-150 students were watching me in action. As I left the courthouse that morning, a Fresno Unified bus was parked in front, with all the students inside. I crossed the street in front of it, making my way to the garage. As I walked away, I heard one of the students call out, "Hey Gov-a-ment........" Too funny!

Ok, so that was Thursday. Yesterday I went to a Stalking seminar down in Visalia. It was actually very interesting and even though it made for a very long day, I think it was helpful and actually eye opening in many ways. I have no doubt I will be using some of that information soon (and no, not to stalk anyone, you pervs!).

So, looking ahead to the coming week, I'm going to be super busy again. Tomorrow is a federal holiday, so I don't have to work, but I am going to go in for a bit and just get all my last minute stuff ready for my trial that starts on Tuesday. This will be the biggest trial I've had so far, as I have 14 witnesses and it is expected to last about 3 days. It will be in front of Judge O'Neill, my first in front of a non-magistrate judge. While my boss is doing the trial with me, I'm doing the opening, closing, and I believe questioning 9 of the witnesses. The defendant is quite the sly one, and loves to talk, so I'm sure this trial will probably be even more interesting than the one I had last week.

Because of the trial, I will miss my Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon classes this week (Remedies and Evidence). I hate missing classes, but I wouldn't miss the opportunity to do this trial for anything! My Wills and Trusts class doesn't meet this week, so that leaves me with only one class I'll be going to this week (Legal Process on Tuesday night).

Now, I need to get working on my Legal Process assignment (doing one Performance Exam) and doing some work on my opening and closing. Going to be an interesting week.