Put this one in the books

As a public defender, you quickly learn to celebrate even the smallest of things. Today was just such a celebration. Today I retired my longest running client.

I have represented this guy since 2005. His first case (oh yes, you know it's gonna be bad when you start like that) was a dope case. He was arrested with a baseball-sized baggie of methamphetamine, and was charged with possession for sales. We dragged that case out until they arrested his co-defendant, about a year or so. But then my client hit a run. Every time I came back to court he had a new charge. He must have been arrested once a month for about three months. Finally he was unable to bail out, so he committed a crime in the jail for good measure.

By the time the dust settled, he was looking at double-digit prison time for all of his shenanigans. So we dug in. I thought we could beat the first case with a version of the COSTCO defense - my client was merely buying in bulk to support his expensive habit ( two of his new cases supported the drug-addict defense). The second case we had a shot at, because the dope was found stuffed in the air vents of the car he was driving (not his own). The third case, no dope - stolen car - we'd deal with that if we ever got that far. The fourth case, another mere possession case - maybe we could beat that because the cop just got indicted for child molest. Finally, the vandalism of jail property case we would just pretend didn't exist until we got there.

So we set the first case for trial. Trial dates came and went again and again, but for some reason or other, we just could not get it out the gate. My client waited two years without a time-waiver to get to trial - but the co-defendant always got the case continued for some b.s. reason or other.

Finally, last month, we were able to negotiate a package offer. My client would get 3 years, 4 months on three cases, the co-defendant (from whom my client bought the baseball-sized bag of methamphetamine) would plead to an accessory for 60 days.

For those who may not be familiar with the criminal justice system - this was a sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet offer. Problem was, it was a package deal, both had to take it. Co-defendant seemed ready to
pull the trigger, but then would talk to some idiot and change his mind.

My client was literally being held hostage by the co-d. He could not plead. He had to go to trial - and the trial kept getting continued over and over, over our objections.

Finally, my client told me to tell the judge he would agree to any trial date the court wanted, if he would only release him from custody to attend his daughter's first communion.

The judge granted this request.

Again, for those of you who don't do this for a living, this was extremely unusual. Judges just don't let repeat out on bail offenders out of custody, for ANYTHING.

For those of you who do practice the art of public defendering, you've probably made these requests, praying to GOD the judge will call you an idiot and deny the O..R release. The judge felt bad for my client, who, though he made his own bed, really was getting screwed by the co-defendant. He agreed to let him out for the weekend of his daughter's communion.

So we calendared the case for May 9th to have the court release him. But before that date arrived, the co-defendant finally saw the light and calendared the case for a resolution. Everyone took their deals, but the judge delayed sentencing for my client, so that he could be released for one last weekend of madness before turning himself in. The catch: his sentence could be doubled if he didn't show up.

My client got out of jail on Friday. I read him the riot act, and told him that he was going to hold his wife and have to let her go. I told him, even harder than that, he was going to have his five-year old daughter in his arms, and that he would have to put his child down and come back to this hell. I told him never in life would he do anything more difficult than turning his back on his family to do his time. He looked me in the eye, and said, "I'm prepared for that." I told him that no one is prepared for that. I told him he had no idea of the temptation he would face, to blow off his prison sentence for even just one more day with his daughter. He promised me he would not let me, or his family down.

Today, at 1:30 p.m., I journeyed to the basement of the courthouse to see if he would show up. He wasn't there. I checked in and went to cover some other cases in other departments.

I came back down at 1:45 and I saw him, in the hallway, pacing like a caged tiger. He had the look of a man who just kissed his five-year-old who thinks he's just going on a really long airplane ride good by. He was crying. More than that, he was shaking. But he was there.

We marched in and took our place at the table, and he gave the judge a picture of himself, with his wife and daughter at the communion. The judge sentenced him to his time, and thanked him for coming back. He held up the picture and said, "This is waiting for you when you get out. Remember that." My client said this was the hardest thing he had ever done but that it was the first step.

I think it was the hardest step.

The rest is cake.