"I did hit her, but..."

Today I had a client in tears telling me that he had been in and out of jail for several months based on "these females" and lies. He was pretty upset in the holding cell outside the courtroom, and didn't want to enter a plea that would give him 60 days to serve followed by probation. That's far too long to spend in jail for "these females." So we had a bond hearing to try to get his bond reduced to something he may be able to make. Before the hearing I told him not to talk about the facts of the case itself, and not to make any admissions because they will use those against him. During the bond hearing he insisted on talking to the judge, so I reminded him not to mention anything about what happened on the night he was arrested. He told the judge that he had a job and that he wanted to get out, and then he said, "I mean, I did hit her, but..." and then I cut him off. Good work. If you were trying to get your bond denied and trying to give the State evidence to use against, you... mission accomplished!

Injury keeping me out?

I have court in 7 hours and I am suffering from a soccer related injury. I think I tore my ACL or MCL in my knee. It's bending the wrong way, which is never a good sign.

Tomorrow is jail pleas, but luckily it is a short calendar and then I'm off to the doctor... wish me luck!

"I have nuclear powers"

A defendant came into court for Jail Pleas on Friday. He was clearly crazy in a "holy crap that's some crazy shit he's saying, no, for real, crazy like he actually believes the voices in his head." Not in a, "wow that lawyer asked for a formal arraignment he's crazy" kind of way.

I didn't talk to this guy, but I saw him at the podium talking to the judge and taking a plea. When she asked him how old he was, he answered by asking her to follow the recommendation of the prosecutor. Not so crazy yet. Then when the judge finished getting him through the plea, the real fireworks started. He had several exchanges with the judge and all of them were pleasant enough, there was no yelling, ranting, raving, etc.

He asked if she could do anything about the software in his head. (she said no). He then told her about how nervous he felt in the courtroom because there were a lot of people in there and he felt like they could explode any minute. (She told him he was safe) Then he told her that he had power. Real power. Nuclear power. In fact, he warned everyone that he might go off at any time and they should be careful because he didn't know what might happen. Again, the judge told him that everything would be fine.

Then one of the deputies told him that he was going to have to get back on the spaceship, to which he replied, "OK, let's get going."