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Monday, November 12, 2012
Dear General Petraeus:
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Dear Ridiculously Uncoordinated Law Enforcement Agencies of...
Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, Etc., Beware:
I have a self-imposed rule that I will not discuss a pending legal matter on this blog. Until now. This is the one that deserves immediate attention.
I Beg for Justice and Mercy for the poor in the Poverty Capital of America, as my father did before he died of a liquor soaked broken heart.
Today, I found myself celebrating the suffering of martyrs on this fine All Saint's Day in the quiet courtroom of The Honorable Angela Stokes. My first client, who shall remain anonymous for the time being, finds herself held in Cleveland, capable of beginning drug and mental health counseling immediately, but unable to do so because of several outstanding municipal and county (State) warrants from Franklin County and Columbus Municipal Court. These are felony and misdemeanor warrants, probation failures after placement in Drug Court.
When I learned that the only plan available to get this lady from Cleveland to Columbus was a heretofore unpurchased one way Greyhound ticket, BECAUSE CUYAHOGA WONT TAKE HER TO FRANKLIN AND FRANKLIN WONT COME AND GET HER IN CUYAHOGA, I new a better solution. The Ohio State Highway Patrol.
They go up and down 71 ALL FUCKING DAY! I thought before I presented the idea more eloquently to the judge. And the record will reflect that she saw the solution as "brilliant."
She reached out to the Ohio State Highway Patrol and Franklin County and City Court systems by phone, and was rebuffed by each agency in her quest to do their jobs and get this poor lady in front of the Drug Court Judge as soon as possible.
Then, I told them it was a goddam shame that this poor lady is gonna be released to the streets of Cleveland with no family, no support, no living situation, no money, and is gonna go try and make some the only way she knows how. "My name is Scott Hurley, I'll be writing letters. Writs."
So here's my writ: Please Give This Lady A Ride Down 71 Please
I have a self-imposed rule that I will not discuss a pending legal matter on this blog. Until now. This is the one that deserves immediate attention.
I Beg for Justice and Mercy for the poor in the Poverty Capital of America, as my father did before he died of a liquor soaked broken heart.
Today, I found myself celebrating the suffering of martyrs on this fine All Saint's Day in the quiet courtroom of The Honorable Angela Stokes. My first client, who shall remain anonymous for the time being, finds herself held in Cleveland, capable of beginning drug and mental health counseling immediately, but unable to do so because of several outstanding municipal and county (State) warrants from Franklin County and Columbus Municipal Court. These are felony and misdemeanor warrants, probation failures after placement in Drug Court.
When I learned that the only plan available to get this lady from Cleveland to Columbus was a heretofore unpurchased one way Greyhound ticket, BECAUSE CUYAHOGA WONT TAKE HER TO FRANKLIN AND FRANKLIN WONT COME AND GET HER IN CUYAHOGA, I new a better solution. The Ohio State Highway Patrol.
They go up and down 71 ALL FUCKING DAY! I thought before I presented the idea more eloquently to the judge. And the record will reflect that she saw the solution as "brilliant."
She reached out to the Ohio State Highway Patrol and Franklin County and City Court systems by phone, and was rebuffed by each agency in her quest to do their jobs and get this poor lady in front of the Drug Court Judge as soon as possible.
Then, I told them it was a goddam shame that this poor lady is gonna be released to the streets of Cleveland with no family, no support, no living situation, no money, and is gonna go try and make some the only way she knows how. "My name is Scott Hurley, I'll be writing letters. Writs."
So here's my writ: Please Give This Lady A Ride Down 71 Please
Friday, October 26, 2012
Hello, City Club? Can I Bang Your Gong?
Preface-
The very question, "How to improve indigent defense in our court system," itself, raises many questions. How is indigent defense provided, now? Who's indigent? What court systems are we talking about? What unique features of Cleveland Municipal Court and Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court affect how indigent defense is provided? How do we measure the soundness of the legal representation provided? Is there a difference between the quality of representation between lawyers in private practice who are individually assigned by judges to represent the poor and lawyers who work for a governmental agency, such as the Cuyahoga County Public Defenders Office, charged with the same by way of contract with a union of lawyers? How does the taint of corruption and politics affect the matter? And what about Naomi?
The fact is, this discussion is mandated by the Cuyahoga County Charter, and as soon as I found that out, I knew that I had to be a part of the discussion. I have known these courtrooms since my childhood. I care deeply about the manner in which the least among us in this society are constitutionally protected, and treated with respect and dignity by a court system that has been thin on respect and dignity.
I think The City Club has a valuable role in this discussion. First, it's attended by many respected and important people in Cleveland's legal, business and education communities, many who have no idea how bad things really are in the courtrooms of the Justice Center. I believe those individuals would find themselves engaged by the task of improving the legal system for all, in unprecedented ways. Second, it serves as a soap box for generations of forward thinking people to change people's minds about how things are, and how things should be.
I intend nothing less then creating a model for mass indigent defense, one that breathes life into the constitutional rights of the poor, one that meaningfully segregates mentally ill and/or developmentally disabled people out of the criminal system, one that provides superlative remedies for substance abuse and addiction problems, one that maintains the presumption of innocence, the burden of proof, and the Sixth Amendment right of effective Assistance of Counsel.
Ten Ways To Improve Indigent Defense Services
The Cuyahoga County/Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association Criminal Law Clinic
A public-private partnership, supplemental to existing indigent defense service structures, providing needs-based indigent defense in criminal matters in courtrooms across Cuyahoga County.
Joint Cooperation between Cleveland Marshall School of Law, and Case Western Reserve University School of Law to select a staff of interns, certified to practice law with supervision OF THE COUNTY LAW DIRECTOR, to assist at all levels and stages of criminal proceedings.
Regularly televised courtroom proceedings available for public review.
Tele-Justice Task Force, specifically designated to identify constitutionally questionable practices involving cameras, microphones, recording devices and telepresence technologies that impact due process, the attorney-client privilege, the constitutional guarantees of effective assistance of counsel and confrontation.
Legal Advice available to every individual arrested and booked within 3 hours.
The Preliminary Hearing/Preliminary Indigent Defense Screening/Preliminary Mental Health Screening
The immediate availability, upon request, of court reporters available to provide verbatim transcription, act as custodian of records in all criminal proceedings, and facilitate swift appellate review in indigent matters.
An appointment/assignment process free of political influence.
Minimum standards for lawyering.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Pynchon's Mass Delusions: A Thesis in Progress
Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 is the work that captured my attention most in high school. It was passed among and discussed with great fervor by the Royal-tron Intelligensia. It is, among other things, howlingly funny at times, paranoic and cynical, and it captured the insanity of America after the assassination of Kennedy.
Mad Men mines the same historical territory, reminding us now how utterly deluded America has been about itself in the past. Mad Men also reminds us that we're being advertised to. At all times. By Energy, by Chemical, by pharemecutical, by Frito-Lay, by Coke or Pepsi, by Democrats and Repulicans.
How to talk about the subject of mass delusions without sending the listener scurrying off to hide under a rock? (or a bed?) Humor doesn't hurt. I think a good starting point is Marshall McLuhan. The Medium is the Message. Throw in some humorless Chomsky. Then consider the preposterous limits of consumerism tethered to this advertising/public relations industrial complex and you start to see how prescient Man Men really is.
There is something downright Cartesean about this media study. "I consume. Therefore, I am."
***
This week's episode of Mad Men took an unprecedented step. It showed how our fears and collective hysteria could be packaged and sold back to us. Remember Ginsburg's second pitch?
Mad Men mines the same historical territory, reminding us now how utterly deluded America has been about itself in the past. Mad Men also reminds us that we're being advertised to. At all times. By Energy, by Chemical, by pharemecutical, by Frito-Lay, by Coke or Pepsi, by Democrats and Repulicans.
How to talk about the subject of mass delusions without sending the listener scurrying off to hide under a rock? (or a bed?) Humor doesn't hurt. I think a good starting point is Marshall McLuhan. The Medium is the Message. Throw in some humorless Chomsky. Then consider the preposterous limits of consumerism tethered to this advertising/public relations industrial complex and you start to see how prescient Man Men really is.
There is something downright Cartesean about this media study. "I consume. Therefore, I am."
***
This week's episode of Mad Men took an unprecedented step. It showed how our fears and collective hysteria could be packaged and sold back to us. Remember Ginsburg's second pitch?
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Our American Spring
I've been called many names by prosecutors, judges, cops, clients. But the one that stung the most, that stuck in my brain and required a passionate, reasoned response was "anarchist."
Perhaps it was the setting. I was in the midst of jury selection in a criminal trial, trolling for fair and impartial minds, when I found myself attempting to rehabilitate a juror who had no faith in the system.
"The system is rigged. Too many innocent people in jail. I know," said the weary, and not inconsequentially middle aged black man. "I don't want to be a part of it."
I pointed out that jury service was not only a civic obligation, but that, finally, he could be a part of the solution. "What if all the people who agree with you that the system is unjust found themselves on American juries and actually held the prosecutors to their burdens. Maybe that wave of 'not guiltys' would restore their faith in the system --"
"Mr. Bloomsday," the judge interrupted. "I'm not going to let you call for anarchy in my courtroom. Move on."
I did move on. I never gave the passionate, reasoned response required by the judge's ignorant assertion.
Until today.
I am no anarchist. My belief in the rule of law as a system of governance is stronger than my belief in God. It is a belief that is superlative to all, except one: that you judge a society by how it treats the least among its citizens.
However, I also belief that the rule of law in American society has been perverted by self-serving frauds, racists, criminals, through an assortment of institutionalized methods so removed from public view and common understanding, that to articulate them gets you labeled an anarchist.
In that moment in the courtroom, I hinted at a restoration of order, not it's annihilation. I attempted to breathe life into the rule of law, not suffocate it. I offered a prayer for Justice, not a curse upon it.
Maybe I'm some obscure mutation of lawyer, and my beliefs about the American justice system are too volatile for public consumption. I don't think so. I think if you begged for justice and mercy in the Poverty Capital of America as your father did before you before he died of a liquor-soaked, broken heart, you'd be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that you were on to the truth of things, too.
Welcome to Our American Spring. May it last a thousand years.
.JPG)
Perhaps it was the setting. I was in the midst of jury selection in a criminal trial, trolling for fair and impartial minds, when I found myself attempting to rehabilitate a juror who had no faith in the system.
"The system is rigged. Too many innocent people in jail. I know," said the weary, and not inconsequentially middle aged black man. "I don't want to be a part of it."
I pointed out that jury service was not only a civic obligation, but that, finally, he could be a part of the solution. "What if all the people who agree with you that the system is unjust found themselves on American juries and actually held the prosecutors to their burdens. Maybe that wave of 'not guiltys' would restore their faith in the system --"
"Mr. Bloomsday," the judge interrupted. "I'm not going to let you call for anarchy in my courtroom. Move on."
I did move on. I never gave the passionate, reasoned response required by the judge's ignorant assertion.
Until today.
I am no anarchist. My belief in the rule of law as a system of governance is stronger than my belief in God. It is a belief that is superlative to all, except one: that you judge a society by how it treats the least among its citizens.
However, I also belief that the rule of law in American society has been perverted by self-serving frauds, racists, criminals, through an assortment of institutionalized methods so removed from public view and common understanding, that to articulate them gets you labeled an anarchist.
In that moment in the courtroom, I hinted at a restoration of order, not it's annihilation. I attempted to breathe life into the rule of law, not suffocate it. I offered a prayer for Justice, not a curse upon it.
Maybe I'm some obscure mutation of lawyer, and my beliefs about the American justice system are too volatile for public consumption. I don't think so. I think if you begged for justice and mercy in the Poverty Capital of America as your father did before you before he died of a liquor-soaked, broken heart, you'd be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that you were on to the truth of things, too.
Welcome to Our American Spring. May it last a thousand years.
.JPG)
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Letter to the Editor
I appreciate David Marburger's barbed effort to push the reset button on our understanding of the U.S. Attorney's involvement in the corruption of our local governments. But while those tried and true Commerce Clause charges may seem over-reaching, most of us who have witnessed, first-hand, the corruption of public stewardship in local government and prayed for the Feds to come to the rescue feel a bit like Peggy Lee these days. "Is that all there is?"
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Leap Day
For Mr. EssenStreusel:
Every four years our nation hits the reset button by electing a new PResident. Sorta like how we hit the February 29th button. The difference is, every leap day signals a renewal of the seasonal clock and announces the onset of Spring. Every presidential election signals a return of a fraudulent political process that disgusts us all and announces that a new regime may arrive, or not. The War, The Economy, Our Paychecks, Poverty, Crime, Terror, Surveillance, Corruption. All just talking points. Our Democrats and our Republicans are little more than two shady management teams for the same corporation. There is no hope.
I disagree.
Many years ago, an old friend and I joked about the coming Love Connection Democracy. Remember Love Connection? Yeah, neither do I, really, but I know it was hosted by Chuck Woolery and it was a sort of dating game where the audience decided who'd date whom. Near the end of the show they always, very ceremoniously, pulled out the little voting devices and pressed away. Instantaneous. Democratic. In a way, more democratic that our republic. It would be an actual democracy, wouldn't it? Ever seen one of those before? I don't think so. And I don't think you're going to see one any time soon, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't aspire to it. We have the technology.
I know about technology in government. Every day, every word I say in court is videotaped and audio recorded. I access government records online dozens of times a week. If truth be told, I've left quite a record. And so has Mr. EssenMeusil.
Your tour of duty has ended, sir. You may return to the sanctuary of your home, a wiser public servant. Just don't vote for fucking Santorum or I'll fucking punch you. That guy DOES NOT speak for any white Catholic males I know. You can sing his praises as a moral man, in your opinion, but if you think that fucker should be president, you is crazy. He's Pit-Pat for the Religious Right.
Happy LeaP Day. Days like this only come every four years.
Sincerely,
ULysses BLoomsday
Ambassador to PRague, Dublin, CLevelandia
Every four years our nation hits the reset button by electing a new PResident. Sorta like how we hit the February 29th button. The difference is, every leap day signals a renewal of the seasonal clock and announces the onset of Spring. Every presidential election signals a return of a fraudulent political process that disgusts us all and announces that a new regime may arrive, or not. The War, The Economy, Our Paychecks, Poverty, Crime, Terror, Surveillance, Corruption. All just talking points. Our Democrats and our Republicans are little more than two shady management teams for the same corporation. There is no hope.
I disagree.
Many years ago, an old friend and I joked about the coming Love Connection Democracy. Remember Love Connection? Yeah, neither do I, really, but I know it was hosted by Chuck Woolery and it was a sort of dating game where the audience decided who'd date whom. Near the end of the show they always, very ceremoniously, pulled out the little voting devices and pressed away. Instantaneous. Democratic. In a way, more democratic that our republic. It would be an actual democracy, wouldn't it? Ever seen one of those before? I don't think so. And I don't think you're going to see one any time soon, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't aspire to it. We have the technology.
I know about technology in government. Every day, every word I say in court is videotaped and audio recorded. I access government records online dozens of times a week. If truth be told, I've left quite a record. And so has Mr. EssenMeusil.
Your tour of duty has ended, sir. You may return to the sanctuary of your home, a wiser public servant. Just don't vote for fucking Santorum or I'll fucking punch you. That guy DOES NOT speak for any white Catholic males I know. You can sing his praises as a moral man, in your opinion, but if you think that fucker should be president, you is crazy. He's Pit-Pat for the Religious Right.
Happy LeaP Day. Days like this only come every four years.
Sincerely,
ULysses BLoomsday
Ambassador to PRague, Dublin, CLevelandia
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Shall We Begin?
Tis true, I've been dreaming of an, ironically, white Martin Luther King day three-day weekend. There's been so few sledding opportunities. And my dream has come true. But before I bundle up against the chill, warding off the snot fountains of myself and my brood, I thought I'd offer some observations about the current state of things.
First, in our McLuhan and Chomsky Walk into a Bar (TM) segment, pay attention to this Colbert/South Carolina thing. It's real-time political satire, and is informative about the corrupt stupidity of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision last year. Remember how you didn't seem get how it would impact our political realities? Beloved Colbert will spell it out for you, with the help of his lawyer.
Next, on The National Front (TM), remember this week as the week the President laid the "better government/smaller government" trap for the Republican frauds among us. Wait for a dozen or so other announcements like this that will leave all the racists who pretend to hate him for non-racist reasons mumbling incoherently.
First, in our McLuhan and Chomsky Walk into a Bar (TM) segment, pay attention to this Colbert/South Carolina thing. It's real-time political satire, and is informative about the corrupt stupidity of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision last year. Remember how you didn't seem get how it would impact our political realities? Beloved Colbert will spell it out for you, with the help of his lawyer.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Indecision 2012 - Colbert Super PAC - Coordination Resolution with Jon Stewart | ||||
| ||||
Next, on The National Front (TM), remember this week as the week the President laid the "better government/smaller government" trap for the Republican frauds among us. Wait for a dozen or so other announcements like this that will leave all the racists who pretend to hate him for non-racist reasons mumbling incoherently.
Meanwhile, Here in Our Beloved Clevelandia (TM), The corruption trial has begun. So far I've heard very little about how the county Democratic Party was the slushfund/bagman in the process, but I think I hear the jingle of a newly-minted Masonic Coyne in someone's pocket.
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