I enjoy working with jurors. They are upstanding citizens doing their civic duty, sometimes at great personal sacrifice. However, like everything else in the criminal justice system, jurors can be unpredictable. Murphy's Law overrides the entire criminal justice system. They Can/Can’t Get By Without Me at Work I had one woman prospective juror who tried to … Continue reading “My” Unpredictable Jurors, Pt 1
Background and Observations on Domestic Violence (DV) Cases The Paradigm Shift From Laxness to No Tolerance One of my judicial specialties is domestic violence cases. Every day, I deal with 5-10 DV cases. In the last 40 years there has been huge paradigm shift in how DV cases are prosecuted. When I was a Deputy … Continue reading Domestic Violence, and the Case of the Wife Who Super-Glued Her Husband’s “Member” to His Abdomen
As a rookie D.A. I was assigned to West Court in Westminster, California. (Coincidentally, that is also where I began my judicial career.) The Stanton Police Chief personally invited me to go on a police ride along with his officers. Stanton had a small underfunded, understaffed, underpaid, and under-equipped police department. (A few years later, … Continue reading My One and Only Hair-raising Police Ride Along
"We don't catch the smart ones." “Dumb and Dumber” and “Dumbest” Under California’s “three strikes” law at the time, if a defendant committed two serious or violent felonies in the past, if he commits a new felony, no matter how minor, he faces a mandatory 25 years to life in prison. (Some California DA’s Offices … Continue reading More Entertaining Dumb Criminals
The London Edition 