From the Boregonian:
Prosecutor of bottom-swatting boys is arrested in alleged assault
Debra Markham, a Yamhill County deputy district attorney who made national news in 2007 for prosecuting two McMinnville seventh-graders for swatting the bottoms of girls at their middle school, now faces criminal charges herself. Markham was arrested last month in Lincoln City for allegedly punching her husband in the face during a dispute...
On the way back from Twin, and stuck for the night in Oregon. On account of snow. In June.
I wish I was on the highway back to Olympia.
From the Oregonian:
Oregon public defender changed the system - Thirty-seven years ago, James Hennings started a movement in the interest of justice
James Hennings thought he'd stay two years when he agreed to start one of the nation's first nonprofit law firms for people who were accused of crimes but couldn't afford an attorney. Thirty-seven years later, he's finally ready to leave. Hennings, one of Oregon's most powerful and passionate voices for the down-and-out, announced that he'll retire at the end of June...
Can't imagine how playing the tape of this defendant disparaging his court-appointed lawyer might affect the jury in a, you know, right to a fair trial kind of way:
"Defendant: If you and Jodie cannot get me a good lawyer, I'm going to go do my f*cking time, I'm going to sign my kids over to the State of Oregon, and you guys will never f*cking see me again...
-- I'm telling you what I'm going to do, and you can count on it. If I go to court with this f*cking attorney, I'm f*cked...
-- No. All I'm looking for is go find a lawyer. I don't give a f*ck if it's goddamn Mr. Magoo and on his first case. I'll pay for whatever it takes when I get out of here..."
Or at least the trial judge couldn't. The Oregon Supreme Court could, though:
"(I)t would be extremely difficult for him to advocate for the defendant in front of jurors who knew that defendant had 'called (him) every name in the book' and did not believe that he was competent..."
Trials go forward all the time when the public defenders know this - we just try not to share that knowledge with the jury.
Via Evidenceprof Blog and the ABA Journal.
(Good old Malheur County! You know, the DA there was #1 in my class. This issue must not have been on the final.)
In the comments on the post, "Do You Facebook?," Kirsten reminds the Urban Mamas (and the rest of us):
I work for the public defender and I can't tell you how many people get in trouble for what they post on their mySpace pages...
Welcome to the public defender blogging ranks, live from the Federal Public Defender for the District of Oregon in Portland, OR, it's Tex Clark with Go West Young Tex.
My boy welcomes our new neighbor.
For twelve years we've taken a road trip on our anniversary. This year we were back in Portland, savoring the burek and the sarma at the Two Brothers Serbian Cafe, introducing the boy to the joys of the children's section of Powell's City of Books, and wondering how a big statute of Joan of Arc got to the middle of 39th and Glisan.
Fun fact: there's a neighborhood in Portland called Boise, but there is no neighborhood in Boise called Portland (though Boise could use one).
This week Project Hamad has a guest post from Brandon Mayfield, who knows something first-hand about false accusations and unjust incarceration:
His story is a cautionary one for anyone who thinks the suspension of habeas corpus, or the passage of the Patriot Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), have no implications for the civil rights and liberties of law-abiding citizens. A Kansas-born U.S. citizen, a former Army lieutenant, an attorney in Portland, Oregon, Brandon Mayfield was wrongly accused and incarcerated for the terrorist bombings in Madrid, Spain...
Used to be a trip to the big city meant hitting the book shops and record stores, maybe some live music or an Irish bar. Now when we're in Portland, like this weekend, it's a trek to find statues of the characters in the Beverly Cleary books, and a visit to the science museum.
Project POOCH - "Positive Opportunities = Obvious Change with Hounds” -
successfully pairs youths incarcerated at the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn, Oregon, with homeless shelter dogs.
Youths (guided by professionals) learn to train the dogs, groom them, and find them new adoptive “forever homes.” The dogs leave the program ready to be great pets, while their trainers re-enter the community with new job and personal skills and increased compassion and respect for all life.
Here are some canine alumni and some dogs ready for adoption.
If you're in Portland this weekend, you can visit Project POOCH at the Rose City Classic Dog Show.
The Menagerie conducts a little field anthropology:
There is a type of young, male lawyer that keeps popping up as opposing counsel in my practice... They haven't figured out that different people require different approaches, so they use the only one they've got: both guns blazing right out of the gate...
I find this really amusing. Unfortunately, YMALs do not appear to have a sense of humor... Their act makes me laugh, and the longer I talk to them, the more amusing I find them. This seems to increase their annoyance and the chest beating behavior escalates, which, in turn, makes me want to laugh, so I end up sounding even more bemused...
They also get jobs as interns in prosecutors' offices. Judging from our recent discussion, apparently some p.d. interviewers favor this sort of young lawyer too.
Oregon police say cold drug registry cut meth making:
The new state pseudoephedrine registry appears to be making a dent in the illegal drug trade built on turning the over-the-counter cold remedy into methamphetamine, authorities say.
The number of meth labs found in Oregon fell by one-third the month after pseudoephedrine was moved behind the counter while state officials crafted the registry rule last year. It fell again by nearly half after the registry began in April, according to Oregon State Police figures...
Commercial fisherman, crabber, pilot, soldier, diver, sailor, deputy sheriff, public defender.
"I’m never bored in the practice of law," said the 63-year-old (Earl) Woods, who just came out of retirement to work as a defense attorney for the Intermountain Public Defender’s office. He started at the Pendleton-based office Nov. 1 at the request of IPD’s director, Doug Fischer...
He’s tried 26 murder cases as both a defender and prosecutor over the years.
I'd missed this news story last month, but still wanted to pass it along for educational purposes. It's a good illustration of the way clients can dig themselves a deeper hole, fighting with their public defender, relying on legal advice from their cellies, and expecting to be released from jail immediately when up on a serious charge:
Accused gambles for speedy trial - A murder suspect fires his court-appointed lawyer, who urged patience as he prepared a defense
Domenicke Sanders stood in the... courtroom one recent afternoon to again tell the judge he did not need a lawyer and was ready to face a jury and stand trial on a charge of murder.
The Multnomah County circuit judge, Nely Johnson, had fretted for weeks that Sanders was willing to bet his life by rejecting legal help provided by the state. She decided to gauge his preparation for trial.
"Do you know what jury selection is?" she asked.
"Yes," he replied.
"What is it?"
Sanders said, "I'd rather not answer that question."
Puzzled, Johnson tried again. "Do you know what goes into a jury selection?"
"Yes."
"How would you do it?"
"I'd rather not answer that."
Johnson: "Do you know what motions you are entitled to file?"
"Yes."
"What are they?"
"I'd rather not answer that."
The exchange continued in that vein, and at the end of the hearing, Johnson said to Sanders, "I can't say that you understand what you're doing."
Sanders' case illustrates a common theme within criminal justice: Judges appoint taxpayer-funded lawyers to represent people who cannot afford legal help. But while officially on the same team, court-appointed lawyers and their clients sometimes do not get along...
Sanders' unhappiness with his lawyer led him to seek the counsel of a man who seemed to have all the answers -- a man who was also in jail. The man said Sanders could represent himself, and if he messed up, an appeals court would overturn the conviction.
Within days, Sanders fired his lawyer. His family tried to talk him out of it, and when they failed, they promised to pull together their assets to hire a private lawyer. Over their objections, Sanders told Johnson he wanted a speedy trial...
A Multnomah County circuit judge appointed Kenneth Walker, a veteran Portland criminal defense lawyer, to represent Sanders... Walker counseled Sanders to be patient because the lawyer needed time to prepare the case, especially since conviction could mean a life sentence. But Sanders wanted to be freed from jail immediately, and he grew frustrated with Walker.
Walker said he thought he had a good rapport with his young client, so it came as a surprise when Sanders told Walker he was fired for not getting him a speedy trial... Like most criminal defense lawyers, Walker has for years endured complaints that court-appointed lawyers work for the system.
"I've heard a couple of people say, 'I don't want a public pretender,' " he said. "I know people who work in the public defender's office who are personally committed to making the world a better place by making sure that people's rights are protected. People dedicate their lives to this... To be ragged on about working for the state is really difficult to hear."
In mid-July, Sanders went before Judge Johnson to fire Walker. By then, though, he had lost his "jailhouse lawyer"...
The full article is here.
A Daily Astorian Special Report - This is your brain on meth: North Coast doctors label meth a ‘social disaster’
Calling Jack Shafer:
“People don’t die of methamphetamine overdoses, that’s very rare,” said Dr. JoAnn Stefanelli, Clatsop County’s medical examiner. She estimates that in the last five years, she’s only seen one person who died of an overdose, possibly of a heart attack. But she believes that the drug plays a big role in many of the suicides and prescription drug overdoses that she sees, she said.
And methamphetamine has severe effects on the brain.
“It biochemically changes the brain,” Stefanelli said. “It interferes with all the pleasure senses, you actually have to take the drug to get back to baseline ... the pull of that sort of drug is so powerful.”
From the Oregonian, describing the effects of meth using the dreaded "e"-word:
The children of meth:
Oregon's meth epidemic creates thousands of "orphans," abused and neglected children who fall into the state's care after their parents are arrested
When Sadie's parents were ramped-up on methamphetamine, they fought. Vicious fights, with fists, screams, guns and blood.
Sitting in Carol Chervenak's examination room at the ABC House in Albany, the 9-year-old girl recalled standing in the driveway, watching her dad, high and wild-eyed, hammer on her mother's head with the butt of a pistol...
...Sadie was on her way to a Linn County foster home, about to join the growing list of what police and social workers call Oregon's "meth orphans."
I'm reasonably certain that children like Sadie aren't a myth: I represented parents like hers for years, and this is the same Oregonian which Slate's Jack Shafer praised for its methamphetamine coverage.
Jack Shafer of Slate admits that he doesn't know everything about meth:
... I ridiculed as "stupid" this news story... about "meth heads" who... "sit in the bush with hundreds of parts just fiddling with them all day." Proving that I, too, should search the medical literature before cracking jokes about meth coverage, I received a polite e-mail... inform(ing) me of the neurological concept of "punding," the restless and repetitive assembling and disassembling of mechanical devices (watches, carburetors, radios), the obsessive lining-up of small objects, or the picking at one's own skin.
That was a joke? Predictable of Shafer to have called "stupid" that which he doesn't understand. "Punding." A good word to add to my vocabulary, as in "I have clients and neighbors who go in for punding stereos and lawn-mowers."
But, to give the old devil his due, it's decent of Jack Shafer to give some credit to some journalists who really do know more about meth than he does...
... don't, don't, don't write a column inch on the subject before you read the Oregonian's comprehensive methamphetamine package from head to toe. That's not a blanket endorsement of the Oregonian's work, but it's close. Steve Suo and the other Oregonian journalists who worked on it are intellectually honest and intrepid reporters... Suo disputes critics who say the extent of meth use has been overstated...
... even if it took Shafer twelve days to link to Suo's critique. If you're at all interested in this subject, you ought to check Suo out.
(Regular A&C readers (you, you, that other p.d., and the one prosecutor who's been lurking) already know about this great Oregonian series, because I shared it with you back in February.)
A slice-of life article with a fairly odd tone in The Oregonian takes pity on a BigLaw attorney turned prosecutor who has fallen down the rabbit hole:
Since he'd resigned from Stoel, he had sensed private-practice attorneys treating him differently. The unspoken assumption was that the smartest lawyers end up in private firms, not making $49,500 at the Multnomah County district attorney's office.
In his old life, he ate at the best restaurants, took European vacations and served on civic boards. As a rookie assistant DA assigned to Misdemeanor Row, Stanford made $80,000 less a year, worked out of a cramped office, handled the most minor of crimes and grabbed lunch from street vendors.
The complexities of the criminal justice system still confused him. He was discovering a world tinted by shades of gray rather than the black and white he'd expected...
As Jeremy Irons said, "You have no idea..."
Follow Portland, Oregon public defender Chris O'Connor on the assembly line at the Multnomah County Courthouse:
O’Connor, 29, has been a public defender for about a year and a half... Idealism flows out of him only in a measured way, but it is there. “Sometimes yours is the only voice these people are going to have in the whole process,” he said.
Decent guy; cut-rate system
Bonus links:
Some other good work that this young p.d. has done.
Stumptown Confidential - PDX past in postcards and photos.
