In the Slammer

I will be sleeping in my own bed tonight. I can't quite say the same thing for George Coney. I gave an impassioned closing argument, but it seemed to only convince myself. It would seem that no matter the quality of the confidential informant, the jury just couldn't get around the fact that my client had the marked bills on his person that the police had given to the confidential informant a mere ten minutes earlier. I can't say that I blame them.

It is interesting how I wind up believing in my own case once a trial starts, no matter how crappy the case is. And make no mistake: this was a crappy case. It went probably as well as it could have gone, too. But in the midst of it, I started thinking that maybe George had a chance. Well, now he will be in prison for the next 13-16 months. But this cloud is not without its silver lining: I will not have to deal with drop-ins and rambling phone calls from him for over a year. That will be a good thing.

Meanwhile, I had a classic assnose client today. I am on a list that allows me to be appointed by the court to represent people sometimes. Today I represented Pud Grogan. I was appointed by the court to do so. When someone gets an attorney appointed for them, they are given the name and number of the attorney. When my office receives the appointment sheet, we also send the person a letter encouraging them to come meet with me before their court date.

So Pud is charged with a felony. He does not make an appointment to come meet with me prior to his court date. He also does not call for any reason at all. Today is his court date for a felony. The first contact I receive from him is this morning. He calls at nine-fifteen. He is rude to my secretary and demands to know where I am and why I am not in his courtroom. He tells her that he can't have his case continued today because he is here from out of town. I am very busy with my jury trial wrapping up and other matters in other courtrooms. Pud tracks me down in one of the courtrooms (not the one his case is in) and starts frantically trying to get my attention. I have no idea who he is. He starts launching into me for not being in his courtroom. Meanwhile, I am trying to take care of the matters in that courtroom at the time.

It was incredible. I mean, here is a guy who couldn't be bothered to contact his attorney for a felony bitching at said attorney for not being ready to jump for him. Wow. Just bugged the crap out of me. I finally got to his case in the afternoon. I spoke to the DA and worked out a deal to have the case dismissed (that would be a felony dismissal for those of you keeping track at home) if Pud will pay 300 dollars in restitution. Reluctantly, Pud agrees to the deal. I can assure you that neither the words "thank" nor "you" escaped his lips at any point, much less consecutive to one another.