Thursday Night Dinner was cancelled this week due to an illness. Wendy has what she termed "the plague" so our hearts go out to her and we hope that she does not develop corpuscles or whatever else happens with the plague.
Since we were not gathered together, each Thursday Dinner Regular will have to update for him or herself.
I for one have had a big week of trials. On Monday, I argued a trial where the defendant was charged with engaging in a riot, a first for me, and also for the prosecutor, who had to run for her books to see what the crime actually entails (curious? see my article on riot here). The "riot" was actually a very large fight after school right across the street from a high school campus. My kid was found not guilty, largely based on the fact that no one observed him actually participating in the fight, just walking to and away from it (though sweaty and breathing hard after).
Then this morning, I argued another trial, this time for disorderly conduct: tampering with power lines. My defendant was a homeless woman who went to visit a friend who was squatting in a condemned house which had illegally diverted power from the power line outside. She was the only one present when the police raided on suspected prostitution activity, so she was arrested for the tampering and illegal diversion of the power. We lost this one based on the legal presumption that if someone is found enjoying the economic benefit of diverted power, she can be presumed to have accomplished the tampering. Still, we beat the prosecutor's initial offer of 180 days in jail, and she was sentenced to only 60 days, and will be released tonight for time served. So not too bad.
3 comments:
My mom was once accused of rioting when in fact she was only holding the coats.
that is quite literally the funniest thing I've read all week!
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