07 January 2008

More Banishment

So, yesterday I discover banishment. Guess what happens today? Yep, I had to deal with a banishment. Well, almost.

I got called up to the Circuit Court to deal with a probation violation. Supposedly, it's one of the people I prosecuted. However, we quickly figure out that unless I was prosecuting back in the 90's it wasn't mine. I start handling it anyway and, whatdoyaknow, one of his violations is for ignoring his banishment from the county.

Of course, I never got to try it. I spent an hour talking to probation officers and the defense attorney. Finally, we're ready to try it. Then the judge looks at the court file and looks up: "Mr. Defense Attorney, I was Commonwealth Attorney when your client had his last probation violation. I don't even remember him, but I wanted to let you know."

You guessed it, after 10 minutes of intense whispering over at the defense table the defendant decides not to waive conflict and the case gets carried out a month to be put in front of another judge.

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BTW: Of Counsel, Defending People & Simple Justice all also wrote about banishment.

2 comments:

Windypundit said...

Dude, banishment is *hot* on the web now! I think you owe it to your readers to banish someone and then tell us what it was like!

Anonymous said...

It is, indeed, a perfect storm of banishment on the crim blawgs. Of course, a tiny blog like mine is basking in the attention. Thanks, as always, for the link.