Re: Man With Suspended License Joins Court Zoom Hearing While Driving

Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

On May 30, 2024 at 1:49:58 PM PDT, Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

This is amazing.

I just feel sorry for his poor lawyer, who's stuck trying to defend
this idiot while he's committing crimes in real time in front of the
judge. That's not something they cover in law school.

https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1795899966591803394/vid/avc1/480x270/Fth6y5IP9TumkjF3.mp4?tag=14

His lawyer further pissed off the judge by saying he was only charged
with driving on a suspended license as the judge was looking at his
license record and could see that it was still suspended.

I saw the Steve Lehto video this morning. I was thinking of posting
about it but you beat me to it.

I must have missed the “How to Deal With Dumbass Clients Who Commit Crimes
*In* Court” class in law school.

With as heavy a LART as you can carry, applied directly to the skull,
having first asked the judge's permission to confer with your client?

I'm going to have to withdraw my initial impression of this matter and
apologize to the defendant. It turns out he was caught in a Kafa-esque
nightmare of bureaucracy.

However, my initial impression of his lawyer still stands. She sucks.
She needed to consult with her client, to draw out of him exactly what
was going on, and then present it to the judge to gain sympathy.

Under legal ethics, a lawyer is obligated to represent the client to the
best of his or her ability and that's not what happened here.

There was a followup Steve Lehto video. In his earlier veto, he
explained that video clips from this judge's courtroom get posted to
social media frequently because he just doesn't take any guff.

After this defendant was exposed to worldwide humiliation, the Detroit
tv station with the nation's most famous call letters WXYZ tracked him
down.

Historic note: In radio days, WXYZ was a major source of programs fed to
the Mutual Broadcasting System. The Lone Ranger and the Green Hornet,
both of which began as radio dramas, were produced in the Detroit radio
studios of WXYZ.

He was fucked.

His driver's license was suspended in 2010 for failure to pay child
support. He must have gotten the child support matter cleared up because
a judge lifted the suspension. Now, there is no automatic process to
file a judge's order with the state driver's services bureau. He was
relying upon something called "Michigan Friend of the Court" to perform
this duty but they failed to do so. I have no idea if he could have
obtained a copy of the judge's order then gone directly to the
appropriate state office to file it to receive an immediate lift of the
suspension on their records.

Ah.

"Michigan Friend of the Court" is the intermediary between the court and
the state child welfare bureau. He needed not just the judge's order but
paperwork from this office to file with the state's driver's license
bureau. While there is an automatic process in which the driver's
license bureau notes that there is a suspension due to a judge's order
or other court action, there is no automatic process lifting the
suspension (if there isn't something else on the record suspending the
license) because the driver's services bureau may also impose its own
fee to process paperwork lifting the suspension in their database.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMqGCQN2Gx4

Fees, fines, and court costs are simply revenue raising matters to avoid
raising taxes.

Until the state driver's service bureau shows that the suspension was
lifted on their records, then both the police and the court using their
system continue to see the suspension.

I don't know what his earlier traffic stop was for but that cop found
the suspension and issued a ticket for the additional charge.

All of this should have been taken care of in 2010. Still, you'd think
he was very well aware of this as his driver's license would have
required renewal at least three times! Clearly, even if the record of
the suspension was in error, he was still driving on an expired license.
Sometimes paperwork floats around for a long time before landing, it's
possible that he wasn't prevented from renewing the license during this
period and may not have been aware of the problem.

The very first thing his lawyer should have done was to follow through
with the state driver's services bureau to get them to acknowledge the
judge's order from 2010 that lifted the suspension.

Why was he driving to the doctor during this court hearing? His wife was
in medical distress. All that was on his mind was getting her help.

His lawyer should have spoken with him immediately. Once she was told
about the wife's medical emergency (which she should have been told
about BEFORE the hearing), then she should have spoken with the judge
and I'm sure the judge would have lifted his order requiring him to
report to jail. He spent two nights in jail.

. . .