Aimee Weber

Oh you guys are gonna love this.

Welcome to Marikafka County, Arizona - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

Long story short ... during a court hearing a detention officer slides up to defense attorney's table, looks through her papers, finds one of interest and hands it off to another officer who absconds with it. Not only was this done in broad view of an active court, but it was all caught on VIDEO.

But here is the best part. The defense attorney wants the officer to be held in contempt of court for violating attorney-client privilege. Seems like a no-brainer. But the judge says she can't do that unless the court is permitted to examine the stolen documents to prove they violate attorney-client privilege ... and the only way to do that is for her client to waive attorney-client privilege. Errr ... wtf?!

Our legal system isn't even pretending to be fair anymore.

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"I asked the Ouija Board about the ideomotor effect, but it just told me to f*ck off."

Cubey Terra

To be completely fair, your legal system hasn't been fair for decades.

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Cubey Terra
Terra Aeronautics @ Abbotts Aerodrome
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Aimee Weber

Yes but they used to pretend! It was comforting!

Cubey Terra

Maybe becoming transparently unfair is a step forward for justice.

Gigs

The judge had to have seen it.

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"It is the paramount duty of governments and of politicians to secure the wellbeing of the community under the case in the present, and not to run risks overmuch for the future" - JM Keynes

Aimee Weber

No kidding. It wasn't subtle. Plus they have the video.

It seems like there should be much bigger sentences for court officials stealing documents like this. Even bigger than contempt of court. I hope the ACLU takes an interest in this.

Gigs

The police aren't the ones I'm concerned about. Slap them on the wrist or whatever.

The judge's behavior here was the real problem. She should not be on the bench.

Aimee Weber

More information on the case.

Detention officer tries to explain why he swiped attorney's file - Heat City

CoyoteMomiji

Saw this last night - and I am enraged, but unsurprised.

Arpaio is a thug and his deputies fit his mold.

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Slick closed until further notice.

Recidivist Sideways: YOU'LL TAKE MY ROUGH, BUTTERY FRIENDSHIP, AND YOU'LL LIKE IT

Gigs

Oh, this is him again? It's crazy how often that guy is in the news.

CoyoteMomiji

His little mobsters, yeah.

Jerboa Haystack

Why does attorney-client privilege even enter in? They should be held in contempt for rifling through the defense attorney's files during a hearing, while court was in session, and without a warrant. The contents of the letter they took shouldn't even matter.

Tess Whitcroft

This Joe Arpaio?




Tess

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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt

Trout Recreant

If I had to guess, I'd say the defense attorney freaked out and made the wrong request and bolloxed everything up. Yes - attorney client privilege might apply here, and I suppose the judge could demand an in camera review of the documents, especially if it's a jury trial. When I refuse to produce discovery on the grounds of privilege, I have had to at least let the judge know generally what the contents of the privileged material are.

The attorney probably panicked and screamed privilege, at which point, procedurally at least, there has to be a determination that the documents are actually privileged, and the only way to do that at that point is for there to be a review.

If I were the judge, I probably would have held the officers in contempt on my own volition - sua sponte - rather than on the motion of the defense. I would have had at least the one who took the documents remanded to custody. I doubt he or she would have stayed there long, but I would have potted him or her anyway. I probably would also have referred the case to the prosecutor's office in a neighboring county to see if they wanted to do something with it, although I doubt it would come to anything. But if the defense attorney had also screamed privilege, I think I would have had to look at the document also - just procedurally. I might have been able to pull in another judge to do that.

I would have at least entertained a motion for a mistrial.

To be honest, I've never had anything even close to this happen in a trial. I fight with other attorneys all the time over discovery, but in those cases, we have plenty of time to deal with the objections and bring motions, etc., so it's just not that big of a deal.

Sooz Pascale

I tend to agree with Trout. One can't really blame the defense atorney becuae this is a VERY unusual situation. Like Trout I've never seen anything close to this. The judge SHOULD have remanded the officer for contempt, at the very least. What the HELL was the bailiff doing while this was happening anyway?

I think a mistrial or at least a motion for amistrial would be approriate...more of less on the "Fruits of the poisonous tree" theory.

There is something very seriously wrong here.

Also it THEFT...plain and simple THEFT. Law enforcement offices should KNOW that taking other people's stuff is wrong. One of both of them should be FIRED at the very least.

Sooz

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Gigs

The deputies in question were the bailiffs.

Toward the end of the video she lectures the defense on how the deputies are given wide latitude to do whatever they think is necessary to keep the courtroom safe.

Trout Recreant

I'm pretty sure I'd completely freak out if something like this happened. I'm pretty calm under pressure in courtroom situations, but that one would absolutely blow me away. I can see how the first thing that would pop into my mind would be privilege. I think I would recover and give the judge about a dozen other reasons why contempt is warranted, but there would be a couple seconds where I would just be spinning my wheels.

And I totally agree - this stinks to high heaven. I'm in a small enough county that I am familiar with all of the judges on the bench here, and I am certain that any the judges we have here would go absolutely bananas if someone pulled this stunt. It would be known throughout history as "the day everyone went to jail" or "The day a Judge (insert name) had a coronary on the bench and then sent everyone to jail except the guy trying to give him CPR".

Heh - it's actually pretty funny to imagine what a couple of them would do. I've seen them throw hissy fits over much smaller things. I'm thinking it would be like one of those big Fred Sanford-style heart attacks.

Gigs

Useless trivia: When Redd Foxx actually had a massive heart attack and died, everyone thought he was messing around at first.

Trout Recreant

I had no idea. That's actually terrible, but ironic, considering he was famous for those dramatic fake heart attacks on Sanford and Son. Those were hysterically funny on the show.

Sooz Pascale

I would have gone ballistic. Privilege of course comes to mind as do theft, conversion, illegal search and siezure etc. etc. I would have moved for a mistrial and probably a complete change of venue to another county. I practice in several large counties, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside and all too rarely San Diego. We have a wide variety of judges here, but I can't imagine any of them aside from a couple of well known looney toons letting this one slip by.

In the courthouse I am most familiar with, my home court so to speak, the Main Civil Courthouse in downtown L.A. - the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, I can only think of 2 judges [the aforementioned looney toons] not sanctioning the bailiffs or whatever they are immediately. If I caught a deputy sherriff or a bailiff going through MY personal stuff or MY file at the counsel table I would most likely tell him to GET HIS FUCKING HANDS OUT OF MY FILE. for courtroom decorum I would probably eliminate the "F" word or maybe I would just say it anyway and then "Apologize" for the breach of Decorum in the heat of the moment.

Sooz

Evola

The freelance journalist's blog linked in the original article posted seems to give more info

Detention officer tries to explain why he swiped attorney's file - Heat City

If it's not a violation of attorney client privilege for court and Sheriffs officials to review and stamp the documents in the first place, why would it be a violation for this cop to take a second look? I also fail to see how it was "stolen" after it was returned to the lawyer, following a re-review of the document to make sure it hadn't been passed unlawfully between the defendant(who is already a convicted felon serving time, from what I gather) and lawyer, especially considering he's also a member of a gang who's been caught with drug runners for lawyers passing contraband in court and jails. At no point did the document ever leave the court room or go unaccounted for.

I'm inclined to agree with the commenter on the link above:

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Tess Whitcroft

Includes video of the actual act in question.


You be the judge...


Tess

Sooz Pascale

First, a letter is quite obviously NOT a drug, firearm or any other contraband.
Second, inmates in CA anyway can communicate confidentially with their attorneys, including writings. I don't know about Arizona.
Third, when did the attorney get the letter? If she got it though mail prior to the hearing it WOULD NOT be inspected by law enforcement officers when she entered the court. If the defendant brought it in himself, it may have been.
Four, not theft? Since when? If someone "borrowed" the deputy's car and then brought it back, he wouldn't be guilty of a crime? This is a completely nonesensical argument.
Fifth, it seems that on reviewing the video, the deputy knew what he was looking for.
Sixth, the courtroom has an unusual layout at least from my experience and I have been in literally hundreds of courtrooms. Usually, at least where I practice, you argue your points from the counsel tables and the podium is usually [about 90%] of the time only used for trials. Even then the podium is usually placed between the counsel tables or off to the side. In those cases, an attorney would always have the file in front of her or at least immediately to one side.

There are several things that can be done aside from the expected motions. One is for the defense attorney and her colleagues to meet with the presiding judge of that county and insist that bailiifs be instructed that an atorney's file is to be secure and any search" of the file only be done upon notice to the notice and permission given by the judge. Another thing is for every defense attorney to keep all of his her papers locked in their briefcase and to make a great show of unlocking the briefcase and pulling the documents out only when needed. This of course will delay things and judges hate delays. When questioned, the attorney simply says, "Sorry your honor but ever since the Lozano case, its clear that an attorneys' files and papers are not secure in this courtroom and I have to take steps to prevent theft."

I hope they create a huge uproar over this. The judge was clearly a spineless wimp.

The sound quality was so bad, I had difficulty hearing and understanding everything that was said.

Sooz

Evola

Of course letters can be contraband, why do prisons inspect inmates mail, because they're looking solely for drugs or weapons? They look for gang communications too.

Aimee Weber

Thanks for all the input on this. It's handy to have folks who understand the law to weigh in on this stuff!!