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Public Defense

: Of a Public Defender's Life

Muddying Up Cases

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I wonder sometimes if keeping up with this whole anonymity thing is worth it. It becomes such a pain in the ass sometimes.

I mean, would it be too obvious if I closed down this blog and started another Public Defender Investigator blog a week later? I really do think it would make things easier on me sometimes.

Wishful thinking I guess.

Well, work has been interesting. Our office has had a healthy influx of new attorney's which has been great for everyone. As much as I love and appreciate most of the super experienced attorney's in the office, sometimes that also means they're super bitter or super burned out so the fresh faces are good for the clients and good for the investigators. Why? Sometimes it means we get more creative investigation requests from attorney's who are willing to approach cases differently than those that have been around the block a zillion times. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

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I think everyone who is active online is familiar with services like Yahoo Groups or Google Groups?
Basically, they're large email lists where one person can send out emails to a large group of people who are members of the same group instantaneously.

There are large Public Defender Groups like CLARANET, which is available to members of the California Public Defender Association and even Defense Investigator and Public Defender Investigator specific groups. In theory, these groups are a great benefit because you can share information and resources with a quick email.

Most of the time.

I'm not an active member of any groups currently but I was forwarded some emails recently on a thread that had been going about PD Investigators and Private Investigators carrying concealed weapons, which included paragraphs like the following (taken out of context but still accurate):

As an investigator whose job is to "muddy up a case" sort of speak to assist an attorney in defending a client in a manner in which to avoid any IAC complaints, I am sure that you will agree that you win some, you lose some. Those that the attorney represents spend time in prison and have plenty of time to think of ways to get back at the attorney and his investigator for getting them in the position they are in. This is a scary predicament to be in and you should have the option to fight back if the opportunity presents itself. and I realized why.

I should say that this snippet was part of a much longer post but as an investigator who has been doing defense work for more than 14 years, I'm a bit horrified by investigators who publicly make posts saying their job is to muddy up cases and assist attorney's to the extent that they are helping them defend clients just to avoid IAC.

Just makes me shake my head sometimes. I don't know if the investigator that made the post above (who identified himself at the end but I will not) followed up with an explanation or not but its a small reminder of why I don't use the Groups that often.

Should you use them? Give em a try yourself and tell me what you think. Maybe It's because I haven't had my coffee this morning and I'm overreacting.

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080113/FRONTPAGE/801130363

Full post as published by Of a Public Defender's Life on January 14, 2008 (boomark / email).