Let’s Pretend The Truth Is Important (For Just A Minute, Anyway).

February 15, 2017 by admin

Kids who may be victims of abuse are put through something called a “victim sensitive interview.” Since children, in theory, don’t necessarily want to talk about being abused the entire interview process is a staged affair with few onlookers (that the child knows about, anyway) in a comfortable setting. These interviews are (or should be) … Read More

The Regular Person Standard.

April 27, 2015 by admin

I don’t know much about a lot of things. Nobody will dispute that. I might know a little about a few things. At least, people ask me questions as though they think I do. Of course, I’ve got a philosophy degree so I know that I really know nothing. That’s what the bearded, hippie, teaching assistants told me, anyway. I don’t know enough to disagree with them, that’s for sure.

My favorite legal questions are when friends and family of people without much exposure to law enforcement have that first “experience” and want to know what to do.

“The police were banging on my brother’s door and screaming for him to come outside. What should he have done?”
“Some investigator showed up at my friend’s house and asked him to come talk at the station. The Investigator wouldn’t say what it was about. Is that normal?”
“The police wouldn’t let me answer my phone and were asking me weird questions. Why would they do that?”

Cop Games, Due Process and the CPD “Black Site.”

February 24, 2015 by admin

“Sorry to disrupt, but I’m here for Mr. Innocent.”

One of my favorite things to do at this job is to show up at police stations. If a client is inside an interrogation room, manages to wade through the coercive Reed Technique garbage and get a call out to me, I’ll drop almost anything I’m doing and try to get there if I can. It hardly every happens, though.

Cops play all sorts of games to prevent it- despite what the Constitution says.

If I can talk to the cop directly, they’ll do everything they can to interfere. My favorite is when I ask “You’ve arrested Bob Innocent, my client…” to which the response is always, “No, sir, Mr. Innocent has not been arrested“, Because, as you know, even though a man is handcuffed and locked in a police interrogation room, he might be arrested to you or me, but that’s not “arrested” to the cops.

So, you have to say “detained”. That’s the magic cop word that means “arrested” to everybody else. If you don’t use their magic words, they play dumb.

The Legalization of Marijuana Doesn’t Solve Financial Problems. So What.

January 12, 2015 by admin

For years I’ve been saying that legalizing marijuana so we can “tax the stuff” and put the money to good use was a really bad idea. That’s not to say that marijuana should be prohibited. It shouldn’t. That is to say, however, its legalization shouldn’t be championed by people claiming the extra tax revenue would solve the world’s problems.

I didn’t always distrust the police.

September 15, 2014 by admin

People ask me if I went into criminal defense because I don’t trust the police. Oddly, that couldn’t be further from the truth. I went into criminal defense for a lot of reasons- mostly because I’ve always been concerned about my rights and how to protect them. Also, because the “cool kids” always wanted to “put the bad guys away” and if the cool kids are doing one thing, I’m doing the opposite.

Even when I first went into criminal law, I wasn’t necessarily suspicious of what the police did/said/wrote.

“Sorry to disrupt, but I’m here for Mr. Innocent.”

The Lawyer People With Problems Call For Help.