My friend is poor and he is in jail. Please read and send your comments

[cpamomfromtexas]

I will preface this in advance by telling you he is quite cantankerous and actually believed that if you are innocent, you couldn't possibly go to jail. He has learned the hard way that if you are poor, you WILL end up in jail.

friscopaul.blogspot.com

Please visit and read about it. If anyone has ideas about how I should get the word out, please let me know who I should notify.

[Zalatix]

1. Experience is a great teacher.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Working link here:

http://friscopaul.blogspot.com/

I'm too tired to read all that but hoping that someone will summarize, I posted a working link to the blog above.

[qanda]

3. I, too, need the summarized version

Thanks for the working link.

[maddezmom]

4. same here n/t

[Chan790]

5. Okay.

That needs the Joe Friday treatment, just saying. I read the whole thing and it's so long, overwrought and burdened with editorial comment as to be incomprehensible by-and-large. It seems the facts are:

Mr. Bailey's son called the police reporting that his father was suicidal. The police failed to correctly identify themselves upon showing up. A standoff ensued. Mr. Bailey discharged a firearm into the wall. Mr. Bailey's son entered the home subsequent to law enforcement and stole Mr. Bailey's wallet. Mr. Bailey was arrested. The first responder policewoman subsequently committed suicide. Mr. Bailey's son was arrested for CC fraud for attempting to use Mr. Bailey's CCs. Mr. Bailey's public defender was incompetent and/or lazy. The public defender is the best-friend of the husband of the first responder and disliked her. (N.B. This is irrelevant. It is neither grounds for recusal or mistrial. It likewise is not an issue for the bar or an issue of misconduct. It's merely coincidental fact.) The DA overcharged. Mr. Bailey is sitting in jail. There were issues regarding conduct and procedure in Mr. Bailey's trial.

It seems the help Mr. Bailey needs is a better lawyer for his appeal, even if that means the liquidation of his assets to finance such an appeal. Likewise, that lawyer should (and you should NOT) reach out to the media.

[cpamomfromtexas]

6. Concise summary but one dimensional

And Collin County is considered the number one corrupt system in the country, and there is not a single public defender willing to go up against it. Now they have the judge in Dallas helping them. So much for justice--it is just a fantasy these days gone the way of the dinosaur.

Going to be interesting watching this play out.

[Chan790]

7. Unfortunately on the 1D.

I was trying to be as value neutral as possible. While I have no doubt that your friend is being railroaded there, getting away from empirical fact into opinions and suppositions becomes problematic because opinions and even rational suppositions are difficult to establish in court. I was serious, he needs a better lawyer. You're in a philosophical sweet-spot where if you can keep your friend from saying anything cantankerous or much of anything at-all, it's possible to obtain legal assistance from both sides of the political divide:

*The local chapter of the ACLU would likely have concerns over the violation by law-enforcement of his civil liberties in how this was handled procedurally.

*The NRA would have concern that he was being persecuted for his use of Castle Doctrine rights and the discharge of a firearm in the defense of his home from persons unknown to him. It's not unreasonable to argue further that he was prosecuted more harshly for cause of the discharge of his firearm.

Try both, if you can get either to send a high-powered scary lawyer, you may just be able to bull over the BS of the CC court system. Judges and prosecutors don't like dealing with litigators likely to make a small-town "invisible" case draw attention because they don't like being publicly-humiliated or overturned on appeal in a high-profile case. In either case, your new friends are going to undertake a media strategy but the less information is out there that might need to be refuted later, the better. It'd have been better if you'd called them before his PD "shat the bed" so to speak. If you can't get legal help, then call a reporter or reporters to keep it public. Let them make this a fiasco for the DA.

[cpamomfromtexas]

8. Thank you for the input, we are working on this angle

[antigone382]

9. Make sure he insists on a jury trial

Make it clear that under no circumstances will he accept any type of plea bargain. Jury trials are expensive and take a long time to set up. They will try to convince him to plea, and he will have to wait a long time and probably undergo multiple psych evaluations, etc., but tell him to keep insisting that he will not plead guilty to anything but wants a trial by jury.

Well, OK, check out local context. All I'm saying is that in a similar small southern town, this worked for a friend of mine in a similar, trumped up situation. It was helped by the fact that he had several witnesses to the event (including myself).