quote:

Originally posted by rangemaster:

I'd write a letter to the judge asking for an explanation.

That's rich.

The judge was probably the least involved in this. The DA cut this deal. All the judge did was sign off on it. Which is what judges are supposed to do in our system. If the litigants make a deal, the judge should approve it most all of the time. Judges aren't investigators or prosecutors. They are referees. Just as the referee in football doesn't call the plays or run the ball, the judge doesn't make the decisions about how the case is handled. They can't try every case. We'd have to quadruple the number of courts.

I'm not saying that this the best way to handle these cases, but getting out of where we find ourselves would be very difficult and VERY expensive.

quote:

You have to be on a first name basis with the assistant district attorney that is handling the case and the detective too if possible.

That doesn't work either. Like an great defense attorney once told me; "Good lawyers know the law, great lawyers know the judge."

Strange, I have worked cases where the victims of a crime were related to a judge, and the suspects got the max sentence in those crimes, compared to probation for similar crimes for other victims. I wonder what the was the difference in those cases????

quote:

Originally posted by jsbcody:

quote:

You have to be on a first name basis with the assistant district attorney that is handling the case and the detective too if possible.

That doesn't work either. Like an great defense attorney once told me; "Good lawyers know the law, great lawyers know the judge."

Strange, I have worked cases where the victims of a crime were related to a judge, and the suspects got the max sentence in those crimes, compared to probation for similar crimes for other victims. I wonder what the was the difference in those cases????

In spite of your anecdotal experience, staying involved with the prosecutor and the detective was effective for me, twice.

If a judge was related to the victims in a case and both he and other attorneys that were involved knew that but sat on their hands, both would seem to be guilty of some sort of legal malfeasance.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:

quote:

Originally posted by jsbcody:

quote:

You have to be on a first name basis with the assistant district attorney that is handling the case and the detective too if possible.

That doesn't work either. Like an great defense attorney once told me; "Good lawyers know the law, great lawyers know the judge."

Strange, I have worked cases where the victims of a crime were related to a judge, and the suspects got the max sentence in those crimes, compared to probation for similar crimes for other victims. I wonder what the was the difference in those cases????

In spite of your anecdotal experience, staying involved with the prosecutor and the detective was effective for me, twice.

If a judge was related to the victims in a case and both he and other attorneys that were involved knew that but sat on their hands, both would seem to be guilty of some sort of legal malfeasance.

The judge the victims were related to wasn't the judge handling the case. Yes, in a smaller area, staying in touch with the prosecutor and cops will help. In high crime area such as big city urban area, good luck.

You really want to see a true legal clusterfudge, have a case where the victim is a prominent member of the Public Defenders Office......that criminal fully experienced the effects of karma catching up to him.

quote:

Originally posted by rangemaster:
I'd write a letter to the judge asking for an explanation.

In which case you'd receive a nice form letter from the Judge's clerk or case coordinator, explaining that it's against the judicial code of conduct for a Judge to receive ex parte communication.

Just like every one of the other dozens of people who thought they'd just "write to the Judge" that week.

The Judge will never see the letter. They have to remain impartial, and are only allowed to consider evidence that is properly admitted in Court. They can't just read any old thing that's sent to them.

Besides, as has already been pointed out by an esteemed member of the Sigforum Bar, the Judge had little to do with the case other than rubber-stamping their signature on the plea deal that had already been worked out by both parties.

After a week of voicemails with the DA, we finally got a call back. We were told that the probation was part of a deal. They perps also have 5 years to repay us for the damage but were supposed to start some kind of payment by July. Apparently they were given our address for a money order?? Not that they didn’t know where we lived, but that is just messed up.

We also learned that all 3 were out on bail within weeks of being arrested. Two were out right away, the other was in a little longer. So it doesn’t appear to be jail time served.

I have a gun safe and they didn’t try and break in. I did have one gun hidden, as well as another in a small handheld safe next to my bed. It wasn’t bolted down, so I got lucky there. I believe they just had knives and a crowbar when entering my house.

My wife went back and found where they were supposed to notify us of court dates, releases, etc. All this was in a paperwork we received when doing our victim witness statement or whatever that was called. We were never notified of any of those things.

The crime was in Germantown, but apparently Germantown doesn’t handle crimes of this magnitude, so it was passed to Memphis.

The DA was going to notify the probation officers that no payment has been received, not sure what would actually come from that.

The justice system is absolutely worthless. All you can do is hope they pick the right house next time and catch a bullet.