I had a strange day at work yesterday. Thursday was criminal domestic violence (CDV)day. No, I wasn't beating the Lads. Yesterday I was in Magistrate's Court representing people accused of CDV. Until CDV became an important political issue in South Carolina, neither the Public Defender's Office nor the Prosecutor were involved in Magistrate level CDV first offense cases, because the maximum penalty is only 30 days in jail or a $2,500 fine (I've got serious issues with the politicizing of CDVs, including a blatent disregard for not only the defendant's, but also the victim's_rights but you'll have to get Kate to do a post on that one. Too serious for me). None of my clients showed up. Hardly any of the victims showed up. These aren't office consultations, these are the actual trials of CDV charges. The high absentee rate is a symptom of CDV's generally: couples fight, and one of them wants the police to help them win the fight. Domestic violence is certainly a bad thing; generally, though, the couples remain together, forget their differences, and don't care about the case. So, Steve, the Prosecutor, and I sit in the criminal equivilent of small claims court without witnesses or clients. At one point, I look over at Steve and ask him if he imagines that in the "Big City" on the Thursday before a Monday double murder case, the lead prosecutor and the defense attorney in that case would be sitting in a nearly empty Magistrate's court courtroom revisiting drunken domestic disputes. He doubted it. Such is life in the Boro.I like our prosecutors, even though we're always on the other side of cases. Always kinda thought of us as like Ralph and Sam from the old Looney Tunes cartoons.
8 comments:
Gosh our jobs sound so similar... mind-numbing hours of waiting on our "clients" to show up. I love it when they BEG for help, then no-show. I guess I could use the time to get my freeze vision and flame breath in working order.
Oh, yeah, and here are you stinking glasses!
I was always amazed at the spiral a CDV would set off ... like, couple gets drunk, has a fight, under Florida law if the cops come, someon MUST go to jail, there's no option. So usually guy goes to jail, couple separates ... guy gets convicted and sentenced to probation, judge issues restraining order ... a while later, couple gets back together, ignores the order ... later, couple gets drunk, fights, cops come, guy gets arrested, charged with violating the restaining order which is a probation violation ...
it goes on like this for three years, guy gets busted with small amount of pot, triggers his gazillionth probation violation, he ends up in prison for 6 years ...
weird cycle.
Star, you gamer, you! My Kimari in FFX has flame, water, stone, putrid breath (poison, confuse, sleep, you know, your status attacks), jump, and seed cannon, in addition to white wind healing and mighty guard, so, you know, I'm all set there.
Andy, stop! Don't give back the glasses; everyone will know your true identity!
Chase, you're right. It's pretty bad. Tough part is, some generally abusive folks need to be out of a relationship that could eventually prove fatal to one or the other partner; however, a lot of times, stuff can be worked out without essentially creating a criminal out of a single abusive (or even occasionally contrived) incident. Good community policing can do that, but a "get tough" legislature takes away police discretion, and creates a whole new set of problems.
I don't even want to know what a Seed-Cannon is! What kinds of games are you playing, SD???
SuperD, how depressing. Sorry you are living in that world (most of the time).
Star, a seed cannon is... is... well, uh, a weapon... uh. Guess you had to be there.
Lynne, I'm only in the virtual world a few hours a week. The twins bogart the PSIII mostly. And, like Spock, I only... Wait, I just tied myself in with Sci-Fi now. Okay, maybe a little depressing.
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