As you may recall, an 80-something acquaintance was named on a trust along with her sister (the managing partner) on a low end rental home they inherited from their mother. The Trust had a PO box associated with it. The sister was diagnosed with cancer in March of 2016 and eventually died. The 80 something, took over management. She sold the property and found a lien that my wife looked into. It turns out that the home was cited for code violations in early 2016 and notifications to the rental property were thrown out. Notifications to the PO box were returned to sender because there was nobody there to sign for them (one notification was sent to the home and one to the PO Box). So the city levied a fine of $1,000/day and sought a criminal indictment that had a max of 18 months in prison. The fine was over $410,000 (the home is worth about $35k). She has a dozen other properties and has never had a single fine for code violations.
The prosecutor decided that the cancer, death, notification were just "noise" and told them on several occasions their choice was to plead guilty or go to bench trial.
My wife is repping the 80-something and decided to bring in a co-council.
The prosecutor decided that the cancer, death, notification were just "noise" and told them on several occasions their choice was to plead guilty or go to bench trial.
My wife is repping the 80-something and decided to bring in a co-council.
- My wife request a trial by jury. She is told she can't have one. She produces a copy of the 6th amendment. She is told it was too late to file (need ten days notice) but that is because nobody knew how to ask for one. She asks for more discovery, takes a month, and gets her request to have a jury trial in to get beyond the ten day limit.
- She shows up for trial with 80 something. Prosecutor again tells her they can plead guilty or take it to trial. "Trial, thank you" was the response the prosecutor got.
- half hour before trail, prosecutor says she is going to make an "extraordinary offer" and offers a low end misdemeanor with five years of probation and a $10k fine. This requires a "guilty" plea. The experienced co-council strongly suggests they take it. My wife tells her to go screw herself.
- five minutes before trial, the prosecutor comes in and says "gee, you know, when this was scheduled for a bench trial, the inspector, the primary prosecution witness, didn't show. If he didn't show up, you could file for dismissal (wink, wink)."
- A few minutes later, they see the inspector leaving the building.
- They go to the courtroom to being jury selection. The judge asks if there is a settlement. "no" comes the reply.
- Then the prosecutor says "your honor, the primary witness hasn't shown up for trial yet". Pause. My wife jumps up and says "Your honor, in that case, we ask for dismissal". Bang goes the gavel. "Case dismissed!". 80 something starts crying. Everyone hugs as the prosecutor makes a hasty retreat.
- Clearly, prosecutor knew she had no case but didn't want to lose.
- So, she told the inspector to leave.
- She, basically, told the defense how to get the case dismissed
- Case was dismissed and she didn't lose
- clear example of how you have to have money and balls. If there wasn't a family attorney and the ability to pay for co-counsel, she'd have paid dearly and been on probation for five years (this includes a monthly meeting to prove all of her properties are in compliance, which is just an opinion). a poor family would have gotten screwed
- clear example of a prosecutor knowing she had no case and still found a way to not lose regardless of the damage it did to the system, the people and the process
- clear example of how the system is protected. a law, passed with good intentions to protect renters, is being used to punish and establish a revenue stream for the city; innocent people be damned
- I've never been more proud of my wife....
