Port of Call: Clevelandia

pic.twitter.com/hHS6mn7YbV

— Ulysses Bloomsday (@BloomsdayDevice) April 19, 2014

Dear Task Force on Judicial Excellence: Having dipped my toe in a recent judicial election, I thought you’d be interested to hear my ideas behind my campaign, and what I learned from the results. As someone intensely familiar with the inner workings of the Cleveland Municipal Court, I often thought my insights on “what works” and “what doesn’t” in a courtroom would make me a good judge. I thought of it as a well-deserved raise for a underpaid public servant. However, my often-vocal distrust of Democratic party politics-as-usual kept me out of the running. There was, in theory, another way. Win public support as 1) the most qualified candidate in the race, 2) the candidate most supported by bar associations, 3) the candidate who won’t take money or spend a dime on advertising, 4) the candidate with bi-partisan support from both Democratic and Republican party leaders, 5) the candidate with Plain Dealer and Call & Post endorsements, 6) the candidate with full union support, as a current member of a collective bargaining unit, etc. I thought there would be plenty of opportunity to get the message out that I was a “message candidate” with a new way to run for judge. Somewhere that plan went awry, and despite a well-received Facebook page, I succumbed to my own messaging failures. It was a great experience, but its lessons proved my hypothesis wrong.

Mr. Hurley Goes To Washington

Labor Day Matters [UPDATED: 10/17/13, LABOR ENDORSEMENTS!]

Great Thanks to AFSCME and IBEW LOCALS for your endorsements!

I sincerely appreciate your support. As a union member, I know the power of collective bargaining, and collective action. In a judicial campaign where I'm accepting no contributions, the voting voices of organized labor will determine who wins. I promise to be worthy of your support at every turn.

 If you want to know more about me as a candidate for Cleveland Municipal Court judge, I'd suggest you check out the website of the Judicial Candidates Ratings Coalition of local bar associations, Judge4Yourself.com.  They gave me the highest rating of all candidates in my race.

Cleveland.com's voter guide is also a great resource for voters to learn about judicial candidates.

Sincerely,


Scott Roger Hurley


p.s.:

Here's a song for the Labor Day Soundtrack

420, Dude

Bloomsday enters the crowded, stinking lobby of the Cuyahoga County Public Defenders Office yet again to call out the name of another in the daily wave of understaffed intakes.  This will be the eighth advisement in an hour, but dozens of others remain, waiting to talk to a free lawyer about their criminal case.

Occasionally, we can't represent someone.  Perhaps they make too much money. Perhaps their matter is, technically, not criminal.  Like cleaning ladies who "don't do windows," we at the public defenders office don't do minor misdemeanors.  Disorderly conducts, speeding tickets, and possession of small amounts of marijuana carry no jail time in Clevelandia. Ergo, we don't represent.  But, that doesn't mean we simply turn folks away without the wisdom of our experience.

The kid is young and small, with a strange tuft of hair on his head.  He's well dressed, carrying a folder thick with documents.  I lead him to a spartan intake office, hand him my card and begin my advisement as I always do:

"First, I want to make sure we both understand what's on your plate, so I'm going to look into the court systems docket so we both have a clear understanding of what you're charged with, what the charges mean, how each charge is defined under the law and what the potential consequences of a conviction could be."  (I say this as I type away, seeking information tethered to their Social Security number.)

I quickly see that the kid has no other cases in the system but the one that brought him here today, and I see he's charged with a minor misdemeanor possession of weed.  This fact, which renders him ineligible for our services because he can't go to jail, interrupts my standard advisement for the "good news/bad news" corollary.

"I have good news and bad news. The good news is that you can't go to jail for this. Possession of small amounts of marijuana in Clevelandia are punishable by up to 150 bucks and costs. No jail, no probation. The bad news is, we can't represent you.  The Constitution provides you with Assistance of Counsel only in matters for which you could lose your liberty."

He's suddenly sad and teary.

"But wait! There's more good news!  First, I want you to leave hear with a full understanding of your charges, your rights and your choices. I know you waited in our unpleasant lobby for some time for advice, and I intend on giving you some. So listen: half the time, cops don't show up on these.  When you go to court, the matter will be dismissed if the cop doesn't come.  If he's there, you certainly have the right to contest the charge: they have to prove it was marijuana and they have to prove it was yours.  But, sometimes, in order to avoid a conviction for a drug offense (which could have ridiculous collateral consequences for your future) often times the prosecutor will change the charge to something that isn't drug related, like a disorderly conduct."

"But, what if I have a prescription?" he says, as he opens his folder to reveal a wealth of information about his lawful smoker status in the State of California. I stare at him blankly for a few moments, digesting this.  He's come to our office for a pot head slam dunk in court.

"Well, you seem to suggest a defense to the charge is found in the fact that you're lawfully able to possess marijuana in another state.  Are you attempting to suggest that, because your marijuana usage is lawful in one state that it should be lawful here?"

"Yes."

"Well, you can't win the argument that you have the right to smoke pot here, but there is a method to get to the same end."

"I don't understand."

"Have you ever heard of the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the United States Constitution?"

"No."

"The Full Faith and Credit Clause doesn't give an individual charged with a crime any rights.  It's not like the rights of criminal defendants enumerated in the Bill of Rights.  Instead, the Full Faith and Credit Clause is a judicial remedy; It a way for a court in one state to resolve a dispute with deference to the laws of another state.  Ohio doesn't have to let you smoke pot because California does, but an Ohio judge could exercise discretion and apply the Full Faith and Credit Clause to resolve a case with deference to the laws of California.  It's a rarely used tool in a judge's toolbox. But it's there."

"So how do I use it?"

"You mean, how do you get the judge to use it?"

"Yes."

"The short answer is, 'GO READ THE CONSTITUTION WHEN YOU'RE NOT HIGH, then try to weave a convincing argument that the judge has the power to respect the will and judgement of another state on an issue that is divided among the states."

"Do you think the judge will buy it?"

"I wouldn't put it that way. I'd ask, 'Do you think the judge might exercise a constitutional court-based remedy designed to respect the will and judgement of another state on an issue that is divided among the states?"  I say.  "Seriously, ask me it that way."

"Do you think the judge might exercise a constitutional court-based remedy designed to respect the will and judgement of another state on an issue that is divided among the states?" He asks.

 I turn to the computer once again to find the name of the judge assigned to his case. "As a matter of fact, it's kinda crazy...but it just might work."

Gideon's 50th: Smell The Metaphor

celebrate it, anticipate it, yesterday's favorite

Talk Talk - Life's What You Make It by Zambeaux

Notes for a City Club Luncheon Lecture

Next Tuesday, I'll give a presentation on "indigent defense" at a meeting of the City Club of Cleveland's Charter Review Discussion Group.

Why is this discussion happening?

Specifically mandated by the County Charter

Section 12.09 CHARTER REVIEW COMMISSION

**

The Initial Charter Review Commission shall include in its deliberations consideration of changes in this Charter for the purpose of providing more effective representation of indigent defendants, for adequate funding and support for the operation of the office of the County public defender, and for the appropriate method for selection of the County public defender.

Three matters of concern for the Charter Review Comission:

1)  "providing more effective representation of indigent defendants"

                   All can agree this is a worthy topic of public discussion. It's why I'm here.

2)  "for adequate funding and support for the operation of the office of the County public defender"

                  Red Flag:  Political influence/corruption/conflict of interest

                                   Public Defender Office is an independent county agency

                                   Acts against county interests in every case

                                   (City of Cleveland/State of Ohio/Cuyahoga County VERSUS our client.)

3)  "for the appropriate method for selection of the County public defender"

                  Election?    http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/06/cuyahoga_county_reform_advocat.html

                  Someone other than the Cuyahoga County Public Defender Commission?

My Opinion:  Matters 2 and 3 are dead on arrival power grabs that will never see the light of day as a voter referendum and would, nevertheless, be struck down as contrary to statute and state and federal constitutions.

 

Dear General Petraeus:

Some of our nation's greatest military leaders have admitted mistakes.

WELCOME TO THE KUBRICK KITCHEN

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

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.

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?

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.

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?"

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

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.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Indecision 2012 - Colbert Super PAC - Coordination Resolution with Jon Stewart
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

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.

P.O.E.

The End of John Kasich As We Know Him (And I Feel Fine)

First of all, John Kasich is not a public servant.  He has no interest in serving the public.  He serves the special interests that have made him their spokescreature.  I suppose you could call him a private servant, since he serves such private interests as the Koch brothers, Murdoch, the ALEC agenda, all those hideous despicable frauds who have made the twentieth century so shitty.

If you reverse Kasich's pedigree, back past his million dollar contribution to the Republican Governor's Association from Murdoch, back past his stint as a whore for Lehman Brothers, past his Fox News days spouting propaganda for the aristocracy and the Bush regime, past his renunciation of Catholicism once his parents died, past even further to his college days, when, incensed by having to pay his fair share for a broken window in the dorm at Ohio State, he bitched to the university president, who took him to shake Richard Nixon's hand at a Republican fundraiser, you see him as substantial as the Pillsbury dough boy.

That's all he's been: a spokescreature.  He stands for nothing but self-interest.

Yesterday's renunciation of his signature piece of governorship may have punctured his lung (he keeps saying he needs to "catch his breath...") but it is less a win for unions than it is a wake up call to every citizen of democracy.

Perhaps Kasich felt he could not bite that hand that feeds him.  After his fluke gubernatorial win, he knew he had to cater to those who paid his way.  But if there's a paradigm shift possible in his arrogant mind, let it be this:  When you're governor, you serve the people.  Once they've decided you're a fraud with no intention of public service, they will bite back.

I hope, on Friday, when some strange compulsion to look at the clock arises, he'll see 11/11/11 at 11:11:11 and something will click in his head. He'll see his part in the twentieth century that stayed a decade too long, and, unlike so many self-serving frauds beyond redemption, he'll find the strength to atone, to finally begin the promise of a twenty first century that has been denied us; a century when looking out for the least among us constitutes the highest form of public service known.

I doubt it.  More likely, he'll get run over by our bus.

On the Eve of Constitution Day

Yay! Happy Constitution Day! What the hell is Constitution Day? It's the anniversary of the day the Constitutional Convention signed the document to be presented for ratification by the states. There was no Bill of Rights included, of course, but since that's the part of the Constitution that now matters most to individual citizens (Rememba: The Articles of the Constitution create our government; the Bill of Rights puts limits on government power) I thought I'd give my schpiel today. Enjoy.

 If you live in the United States of America, you know that the Bill of Rights, those first ten changes to the Constitution, give each citizen certain powers and protections from the government. But while these rights contained in the Bill of Rights, commonly understood, provide essential freedoms to us all, very few people in our society actually know what they say. So you never forget, so our government never forgets, here are some of your rights:

 THE FOURTH AMENDMENT: Your right against “unreasonable searches and seizures,” and your right against government warrants based on less than “probable cause” are found here. These rights concern your first interactions with law enforcement, and define the limits of governmental power when they search for evidence and when they arrest people. Choices that citizens make both before and after law enforcement gets involved in their affairs may later affect the admissibility of evidence against them at trial: certain conditions at the time of a traffic stop or a police investigation or pursuit may result in evidence being “suppressed,” removed from a criminal trial, because the evidence was tainted by the government’s “unreasonable” conduct. But even unreasonable conduct may be excused, and the evidence admissible, if the citizen’s choices don’t coincide with the Supreme Court’s requirements for the Fourth Amendment to apply. If you don’t know how the Fourth Amendment has been interpreted by the Supreme Court, then you don’t know your Fourth Amendment rights.

 THE FIFTH AMENDMENT: Your right against double jeopardy, your right to remain silent, and your right to “due process of law” are found here. These rights control how the criminal justice system may prosecute you. While you cannot directly control how police, prosecutors and courts do their jobs, you do have direct control over your right not to be “compelled” to be “a witness against [yourself.]” If your decision to provide information is voluntary, then evidence that you provide may be used against you. Investigators are allowed much discretion when interrogating suspects. They can even mislead a criminal suspect about what evidence they have so far, and they can make assurances to suspects that may prove to be false. Unless these tactics are documented and preserved, it may be your word against the police during your trial. Only citizens who understand this right to begin with will receive its protections later.

 THE SIXTH AMENDMENT: Your right to a “speedy and public trial” by an “impartial jury,” your right to confront witnesses against you, and your right to “Assistance of Counsel” are all found here. These are significant protections for a criminal defendant. Even the poor are provided counsel, though most agencies providing such services are increasingly underfunded and understaffed. A lawyer is supposed to fight for you as hard as possible within the bounds of the law. But a lawyer must also help you make informed decisions about how to handle your case, and offer an explanation of risks and consequences of your choices.

 THE EIGHT AMENDMENT: Your right to reasonable bail if arrested, your right to reasonable fines, and your right against “cruel and unusual punishment” are found here. These rights deal with what the government can take from you before, during and after criminal prosecutions. Do you have to mortgage your house to get out of jail? Can you be fined so much that you can’t afford food or housing? Can the government legally kill or torture you? These questions are answered by the Supreme Court’s interpretation of this amendment.

 Know your trial rights.

 Any person charged with criminal prosecution has a right to a trial. If the charge is punishable by jail, then the defendant has a right to choose a bench trial (in front of a judge) or a jury trial. The defendant has a right to force the government to prove each and every essential element of the crime with evidence that convinces the judge or jury beyond a reasonable doubt. There is much debate over the meaning of that standard of proof; it is higher than a preponderance of evidence, it is higher than clear and convincing evidence. It is the highest standard of proof that exists in our laws. Judges and jurors have to be really, really sure about their verdict so that innocent people aren’t wrongfully convicted.

 Defendants have the right to effective assistance of counsel. This means you have a right to have a lawyer at trial who will try to show that the evidence against you is a lie, a mistake, or simply not enough to convict you.

 Defendants have right to testify at their trial, and to tell their side of the story. But they don’t have to. They also have a right to say nothing, without anyone commenting on their silence, or suggesting that their silence means guilt. Remember, the defendant has nothing to prove, no burden of proof. The government has the burden of proof of evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. If they fail to meet their burden, the defendant wins.

 Defendants have a right to compel witnesses to testify, to force people to come to court and tell what they know if what they know will help your case.

 Most people chose to waive, or give up, these rights in order to get a better resolution. Your lawyer must be convinced that you know and understand your rights. The judge must also be sure you know your rights, before asking you to give them up. Accordingly, be sure to educate yourself about your trial rights.

I'm Out with the Out Crowd

For most of my professional career as a lawyer serving the least among us, I've been appalled by the cynical self-serving actions of those who pretend to be guardians of a free and just society. Way, way too many corrupt frauds in public office, or more generally, in public service. Long ago, I spoke out about a very powerful judge who had many allies in the system. Particularly, he/she had many allies in the county prosecutor's office and in law enforcement. They were The In Crowd in Cuyahoga County government and politics.

As a result, I wound up on a "No Deals" list inside the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office. A No Deals list is exactly what it sounds like: Your clients are screwed because they have you as a lawyer. Unless you can convince a jury. And I convinced a number of juries in those days that the prosecution was, as esteemed jurist Louis Brandeis often posited, "total bullshit."

How I dealt with that crippling blow to my career is worthy of a screenplay. Perhaps, there's one in the can already. Suffice it to say, I took the long view that federal investigations would, one day, right the Poseidon once again. In the meantime, I'd do my best Hackman with a law degree, leading lost souls to the top masquerading as the bottom, while The In Crowd lead others to their doom by heading to the bottom masquerading as the top.

And now, Cuyahoga County is deep into a federal takeover, with investigations at every level of public service. Judges are going to jail. Prosecutors are cutting deals to rat out their supervisors. Cops, too. The most powerful people in Clevelandia have been forced to look back on their own lives and find themselves despicable. Suddenly, that corrupt In Crowd is now The Out Crowd.

And, me, Out with The In Crowd for so long, now find myself Out with The Out Crowd.

Do you know what that makes me, now? When you're Out with the Out Crowd, you are, by definition, The In Crowd.



Welcome to the Bloomsday Manifesto.