Absolutely despicable behaviour by cops

[Andrew D]

I have a rather more cynical view, keld feldspar.

When I started in this business, I thought that judges are, on the whole, among the cream of the profession. I thought that most of them got their jobs because of their legal acumen. I thought that most of them carefully considered the arguments presented to them and strove earnestly to decide the questions before them in accordance with the law as best they understood it.

Now I know better.

Many judges are not the brightest bulbs in the legal chandelier. Many of them, especially in State courts and especially at the trial-court level, got their jobs through political connections, and the people involved in putting them on the bench did not know and did not care whether they could reason their way out of a closet. Many of them are profoundly lazy. And whether they are lazy or not, almost all of them are assigned far too many cases.

(One notable exception is US Supreme Court Justices. It is truly astonishing how little they actually do.)

And it's even worse when judges are elected. "Elected judge" means "judge chosen mostly by people whose entire knowledge of the law would not fill even a single page of newsprint."

On the other hand, lifetime tenure and near-impossibility of removal don't exactly tend to promote industriousness either. (One federal judge, having been convicted of some crime or other, collected his salary for months while sitting in a prison cell, because it took that long for Congress to get around to impeaching and convicting him. Your tax dollars at play.)

Most briefs that are filed in courts are never read by the judges. They are skimmed, and some bits of them are read, but most of them are never read all the way through by the judges. (Or by the judges' clerks.)

Many of us lawyers spend a great deal of time carefully crafting legal arguments. And most of the time, our briefs would be equally effective if we just typed a few terms in really big letters like some bizarro-world bar exam.

Even the ones who want to understand the arguments presented to them don't have the time. Last time I looked at the numbers -- three years ago maybe? something like that -- the Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals had 28 full-time judges. That court decided 15,000 cases in one year. Do the arithmetic: A client is lucky if the brief filed on her or his behalf gets ten minutes of semi-careful judicial attention.

The amazing thing is that the legal system manages to function at all. I am constantly astounded by the fact that it hasn't just ground to a sreeching halt and collapsed.

[Sue U]

Everything Andrew just said is true. But for a little perspective, in my state, where judges are appointed, I would say about a little more than a third of those in our trial and appellate courts are pretty smart and work pretty hard to get the legal issues right, notwithstanding the political aspect of their selection. About a third are just government employees doing a workaday government job, essentially processing paperwork. The remaining judges, probably a bit less than a third, are objectively bad, whether through stupidity, arrogance, laziness, meanness or actively working a social/political agenda, or some combination of those features.

Many of us lawyers spend a great deal of time carefully crafting legal arguments. And most of the time, our briefs would be equally effective if we just typed a few terms in really big letters like some bizarro-world bar exam.

I have actually started taking that approach in my motion briefs: essentially just providing an outline of the arguments and supporting case law and using bold italics in the text for a few key points. I've pretty much given up on actually trying to explain things in any detail.

[rubato]

I wonder how often defense attys suborn perjury? It is any different from prosecutors?

I was on a jury last year for a DUI case and the defense witnesses testimony "miraculoso" matched exactly their experts testimony about how many drinks she had to have in the interval between the accident and being tested to achieve the blood level indicated. Even though the weight used for the estimate was from her driver's license and you didn't have to work in a carnival to know it was a long ways from accurate.

yrs,
rubato

[Guinevere]

There is no doubt judges of all stripes (except perhaps the US Supremes, and maybe other state supreme courts that have an intermediate appellate level) are overworked and many don't spend as much time on a matter as they should. But I've found that one of the reasons why the wheels of justice grind slowly is that many of the judges at least try to prepare themselves, and write meaningful decisions, and that takes time.

My view is not quite dso glumy as Sue and Andrew, although I agree that judges are far from the ideal we were fed in law school (or dreamed up ourselves). We don't have elected judges in MA, thank god, and we have a fairly rigorous nomination and screening process by an independant counsel of lawyers who then advise the governor. You must apply to even be screened, and plenty of lawyers don't make it through the screening. So there are, I think more than a third of the pool, who are good judges, who work hard, who make reasoned, supported decisions.

That being said, there are still a handful of judges I've run into (and I only practice in Superior court and Federal court -- there are hundreds of judges in District court and the Probate & Family courts I never come into contact with) who are absolutely disgraceful, horrible, arrogant, conceited asses. But there are a selection of those in any profession. Most of them, I find, are good lawyers who try to keep on top of their awful work load, and find themselves failing more often than they would wish too.

[@meric@nwom@n]

who are absolutely disgraceful, horrible, arrogant, conceited asses

Ah, they weren't supposed to go to law school, they were meant for medical school.

[Guinevere]

For a really darkly comedic view of the world, try sitting on the shoulder of a lawyer representing a physician, as I have done in multiple employment cases. The view is high-sterical no matter which side of the courtroom you sit on (Plaintiff or Defendant).

[Sue U]

Yeah, the docs all think they're lawyers. (And med mal lawyers all think they're doctors.)

[@meric@nwom@n]

I suppose they attempt to out "God Complex" each other.

[Guinevere]

I don't know about that, ego has no place in a courtroom. Transmtting that fact to physicians can be quite the challenge.

[@meric@nwom@n]

Ah. Got it.

[BoSoxGal]

I can think of several attorneys I've practiced with who never got the memo that ego has no place in the courtroom - but, things are a little different in criminal law.

We struggle every time we put one particular local doctor on the stand in involuntary commitment proceedings - the arrogance & disdain for the process is almost overwhelming, as this doc oozes an attitude of 'because I said so, let's be done with this already I have office hours to get back to' as we go through the questioning necessary to meet the statutory requirements.

[Sean]

'because I said so, let's be done with this already I have a golf game to get back to'.

Fixed that BSG.

[BoSoxGal]

Back on topic, I found an interesting resource while looking for an update on the story in the OP:
http://www.hivlawandpolicy.org/resources/download/456

I'd also recommend a Google search on 'man bites cop HIV' - the results might provide some perspective as to why generally low-paid law enforcement officers are hyper-sensitive to the issue.

[rubato]

"... the results might provide some perspective as to why generally low-paid law enforcement officers are hyper-sensitive to the issue.

Low paid?

A HS diploma and a short course in the police academy gets you around $100,000k a year.


http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_15204969

45 police officers have total pay over $100,000/yr in Santa Cruz


In states like Louisiana where corruption is part of the local traditions and culture, and they want to keep it that way, cops receive low pay. (its so much easier to bribe someone making $30,000 /yr)

yrs,
rubato

[BoSoxGal]

$100k/yr. is far from the norm salary for street cops - the ones who face potential bite wounds from suspects - in any local law enforcement agency, unfounded accusations of widespread corruption aside.

[rubato]

$100k/yr. is far from the norm salary for street cops - the ones who face potential bite wounds from suspects - in any local law enforcement agency, unfounded accusations of widespread corruption aside.

It is the norm in much of California. Santa Cruz is a city of ca 50,000 people, And these are all "line officers" not a sergeant, captain or lieutenant in the group.

yrs,
rubato

[Andrew D]

Things look different from a "State" whose biggest city would be just a suburb in real America -- you know, the part of America where most Americans actually live.

[Scooter]

Back on topic, I found an interesting resource while looking for an update on the story in the OP:
http://www.hivlawandpolicy.org/resources/download/456

I'd also recommend a Google search on 'man bites cop HIV' - the results might provide some perspective as to why generally low-paid law enforcement officers are hyper-sensitive to the issue.

I'm sure that police are bitten by suspects every day of the week. I'm sure a fair number of those bites involve a suspect who is HIV+. But the fact that (a) the number of cases where HIV transmission would be even theoretically possible in such circumstances would be infinitessimal, and (b) there is not a single documented case of transmission in such circumstances, should be a clue to police that they are misusing laws that were intended to protect people in situations where there was actually a risk of transmission (i.e. sexual activity)

btw - Broward County Sheriff's office has recommended dropping the charge of criminal transmission. It would appear that the charges would have had to be dropped even if he had been HIV+ and knew it, since the elements of the crime according to the statute would not appear to have been met, something that Browad County Sheriff Al Lamberti appeared to recognize early on in the case.

[rubato]

A human bite can be a serious injury even without HIV.

yrs,
rubato

[Scooter]

Then charge him with the appropriate degree of assault, rather than trumping up charges that have no basis in fact or law.