Going to Prison

[Scarrlette]

I will be tried in August for 2 counts of felony child endangerment - which I am not guilty of. They have lowered the exact same charges against my husband to midameanors but will not on mine because i turned them in a few years ago for illigal practices and they have been waitning to get back at me. The motion for discovery papers are full of lies including direct quotes I am supposed to have madethat i never said. I had a private lawyer but after 2 years and selling everything we owned to pay him he decided it wasnt enough and turned my case over to the public defender. I saw the public defender for the first time a few days ago and he has no intentions of trying to get the charges lowered - only to get me as low of a sentence that he can. This is a letter i wrote to my friend after seeing him.

My first meeting with the public defender went much worse than I expected. The first thing he did was stuck a list of all his clients in my face and told me how busy he was, how he never got to sit down in court and said he only had about 1 minute and 30 seconds a week to spend on my case. He told me I was doing the worst thing I could possibly do expecting him to defend me. Then he said the good news was that I was only looking at 12 years. ONLY??
He didn't want to hear anything I had to say. He would ask me a question and then stop me. He asked if I noticed he wasn't taking any notes. He says he is not my secretary and that he never takes notes, that it is up to me to write down everything that happened. Thankfully I had that done already because after 2 years I don't remember most of the small details. He has been unable to get this information from the other lawyer though because he says he can't find it.
Then he tells me it was stupid not to have accept their 3 year plea bargain when it was offered. I told him it really wasn't in me to plead to something I wasn't guilty of and he just stared at me.
I can't believe this is happening and guess it was over with before it started. There isn't a thing I can I do, no one to help with this and the jerks already have it won. So I guess I just sit here until August so they can finish this farce and tell me how long I'm going to be gone.

I have many health issues and barely get around in my own home after 2 years of threats on my life and living behind chained gates. I will not live through going to prison. Why is this kind of thing ignored and even condoned in America? Why can't anyone do anything to help me? I have had no life the past 2 years except inside my home and now they are going to take the rest away. I am terrified and helpless against them.

[LindaJM]

The lawyer you have sounds worse than nothing. I would be documenting his abusive verbiage to present to the judge as proof you have inadequate assistance of counsel.

Sixth Amendment - US Constitution: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

You can write up your own legal declarations to present in court. That's a start. You're going to have to be your own paralegal.

If you tell the court your attorney isn't providing adequate counsel, you'll have something to appeal on if it comes to that.

Keep us informed of your progress.

[monkette31]

I think that public defender is full of sh*t. They just do that to try and scare people. Since it's a criminal court, fight it, they will drop it down eventually to avoid the cost of a trial which they can't win. The lawyer just wants you to cut a deal so that you don't have to go to trial.

[Scarrlette]

I cannot afford a lawyer. I paid one for over 2 years and he dropped my case because he wanted more money and I do not have it. My trial is August 15th and while I know what the public defender did and said is all wrong I don't know who to go to. This is a very tight community - they ALL have lunch together. This needs to be made public but after almost 3 years of trial delays, threats on our lives along with everything else and serious depression I am so tired its all I can do to even post on here. My daughter was here the day DHS came and was a witness to it all and the only witness I have that their accusations are not true. They took her son 2 years ago and told her it was in her best interest to not testify in my trial if she wants her son back. Now they supposedly tested her for drugs and it came back positive even though she immediately went and had her own test done and it was negateive. They have forced her into a 6 month drug rehab center and said she is too unstable to let out to testify for me even if the court says she has to, they said it would cause her to go back on the drugs she was supposedly using. The local DHS are the ones that made contact with her counselors and made sure they would do this. And no way will i get a fair trial after being in the newspapers and television news in 4 states. I just don't know where to go or who to turn to. There seems to be no one.

[Momoffor]

hrm ...continuance ?