Why are Seattle Area Prosecutors so High Strung?
I get it. Seattle area prosecutors are under a lot of pressure. Their cops are out there making mistakes left and right all the time, they have heavy handed Seattle criminal attorneys taking advantage of every misstep and constantly trying to whittle them down on plea deals. But does that in and of itself create the high-strung, no nonsense mood of the prosecutors, or are people of that nature just drawn to that side of the law?
For example, I recently had a case that came down to the statement of an eyewitness. The witness gave some statements right after the incident that led me to believe he didn’t actually see what happened and was just guessing that it was my guy that committed the act. So I wanted to interview this guy to see what his true story was, to see if he had any skeletons in his closet, and to see if there was any movement on his statement.
First of all, was there ever movement on his statement. I’ve come to expect, as a Seattle criminal attorney, that witnesses, if their stories are a little shaky at the beginning of the process, seem to become a lot more confident in what they’ve seen and heard as time (and their time with the prosecutor) goes on. And it’s also convenient that more often than not at a motions hearing where the case is on the line the witness magically remembers some suppressed fact that saves the case and destroys the basis of my argument.
As I suspected this witness became much more confident in his statement than the police report would lead you to believe, so much so that at one point he said “I am 100% sure it was your guy that did the thing he is accused of doing.” Ouch. That is not good. And so based on that statement I advised my client to take a plea that was in part based on the possibility that the case would be dismissed if the judge didn’t believe the witness. So the case is closed.
About a week later I get a call from the prosecutor. They say “um, yeah, we forgot to give you some discovery that was lost in the shuffle when the case was transferred from one division to another. Sorry. But it shouldn’t change much about the case.” So I took a look at it. In black and white (or taped, based on whether you heard the interview or read the transcript) it says that the witness did not see who did the thing. All the witness says is that he didn’t see what happened but when he looked over my guy was in the area (with some other guys). Sort of different from what I heard when I interviewed him.
Now, back to the point of the post – prosecutors having no funny bone in them. After reading this new discovery I shoot the prosecutor an email letting them know that I thought the information was important and that it would have been nice to have before I interviewed the witness (though I was still facing the same dilemma as previously – one that every Seattle criminal attorney faces – take the deal and know what you are getting or roll the dice and potentially get something much worse). I inserted a couple of fun barbs in there, but nothing serious. And then I get a response. And it is not very nice. It includes quotation marks and not one hint of friendliness.
The way I see it, the only way to survive as a Seattle criminal defense attorney is to work hard, make sure the cops (and prosecutors) follow the rules, and do it all while maintaining my professionalism and temper in the process. This means throwing around some playful remarks from time to time. Maybe it was lost in translation (email doesn’t do a very good job of conveying sarcasm or funny business). I think in the end though they just need to lighten up a little bit, don’t you?
Like the posts at the Seattle Criminal Attorney Blog? Let us know. We want to hear from you.
Related Posts:
Trackbacks