Don't do what the "Adios girl" did

In case you have not seen or heard about the "Adios girl."  Here is what happened.  An 18 year old young woman was in custody in Florida on drug possession charges.  She must have been appearing at some kind of first appearance calendar where PC to hold is found, or a bail hearing.  Anyway there is a video of it, and it has become a viral sensation.

Basically the woman appears in front of a Judge.  She is laughing, playing with her hear, and kind of flirting with the Judge in her own weird way.  The Judge takes this as a sign of disrespect, and sets her bail at $5000.  He then says "bye-bye."  She responds by saying "Adios," as she is walking away.  The Judge then gets mad over this comment and calls her back in front and doubles her bail to $10K.  He then dismisses her and says, "Adios."  She gets outraged by this increase in bail, and says F- You to the Judge before flipping him off.  He then calls her back and immediately sentences her to 30 days in custody for contempt in court.  

Clearly this woman lacked any kind of manners, or common decency.  I mean I understand you're pissed off that your in jail.  But it is probably not a good idea to piss off the one person who is deciding whether to keep you in custody or not.  Below is a picture

This spectacle reminds me of case I once saw.  It was back in Seattle Municipal Court.  It must have been 6-7 years ago.  Anyway I remember it was in front of this Judge who was very similar to the one from this video.  Often times he would just go off on defendants.  Impose year long sentences from the stupidest things.  Frankly I don't know why it took him so long to get voted off the bench.  

But anyway I digress.  I remember this incident like it was yesterday.  It was the day before Christmas.  The afternoon calendar.  Nobody was really there, it was pretty light.  The case was where some defendant was trying to fire his public defender because he wanted his misdemeanor charge to be a felony so he could have a twelve person jury instead of six.  I know it sounds crazy, but this is what the defendant really wanted.  Anyway he started to argue with the Judge about the twelve person jury thing.  I remember the Judge took his fingers and put them in his ears and starting singing, "Nah Nah Nah I can't hear you."  It was really quite funny.  It was kind of like this Judge was saying, "nener-nener" like a little kid.  

The Judge then told the defendant to shut up and he was done talking about this hearing.  As the defendant was being hauled back into custody he said something to the Judge.  I want to say it was an F-bomb, but I cant exactly remember.  The Judge then calls the defendant back into custody and imposes a sentence of 1 year.  Even though the defendant hadn't plead guilty or anything.  This was still in the pretrial stage.  Both the defendant attorney and prosecutor told the Judge I don't think you can do that.  But he said I don't care and stormed off the bench.  It was really bizarre and as everyone in the courtroom was left wondering what the hell just happened.  

So what is the point in bringing all this up other than for the humor.  Well the moral of this story is very simple.   Don't piss off the Judge who is presiding in your case.  Whether you're at a bail hearing.  Whether you're at a motion hearing.  Or whether you're at a sentencing hearing.  Judge's are human too.  They let things get to them.  Their buttons can be pushed.  And like everyone else they can act irrationally.  

As a Criminal Defense Lawyer the first thing I always tell clients before they appear in front of a Judge is to act in a respectful manner.  Judge's eat that stuff up.  Particularly this is very important before we do a sentencing hearing.  I always tell my clients the same thing.  "After the Judge is done speaking with you about the plea form, they will ask you if you have anything to say regarding sentencing.  You can choose to say something or choose not to.  If you don't feel like you should be here, or this whole situation is BS.  Then it is probably best to keep those thoughts to yourself and not say anything.  Remember this is the person that can decide whether you stay out of jail or go to jail for a long time. It is best not to piss them off right before they sentence you."  

Someone should have told Ms. Soto this before she appeared in front of that Judge in Florida.  Poor girl now has to sit in custody for 30 days because she was acting like a brat.  

_

Matthew A. Leyba is a Seattle DUI Attorney in Seattle, WA.  His practice focuses on representing those accused of DUI and other serious traffic offenses.  If you have been arrested for DUI contact our office immediately for a free no hassle consultation.     

Happenings in Court

I was in a local municipal court earlier this week.  In this particular courthouse there are generally two Prosecutors per courtroom.  There is a negotiating Prosecutor that is outside in a separate room, and there is a Prosecutor inside the courtroom that is in front of the Judge.

So I was waiting to speak with the negotiating Prosecutor in the little attorney conference room with other defense attorneys.  The defense attorney in front of me was someone I had never seen before, nor heard of.  So it was probably a newer attorney, or someone who doesn't practice in the area of DUI Defense.  Typically when there is a long line of defense attorneys waiting to speak with the Prosecutor I try to give the defense attorney in front of me some privacy.  I have had situations before where I'm trying to negotiate a case with a Prosecutor and some defense attorney is right up on my business completely violating my personal space.  So I don't do that.

But due to the tight quarters I couldn't help but overhear.  I guess the defense attorney was asking for some plea deal on a Seattle DUI charge, but the Prosecutor said they wouldn't consider it until the defendant got an alcohol and drug assessment.  Which is typically inquiry from the Prosecutor so I didn't think it was any big deal.  The Defense attorney moved on, and I moved up in line.

After I was done speaking with the Prosecutor I walked out of the attorney conference room, and I started to look for my client to discuss with them what I had negotiated.  As I was looking for my client I saw the defense attorney that was in front of me getting yelled at by his client.  All I heard was the client saying how he has been in court four times, and the attorney has never told him to get an alcohol and drug assessment, and how upset he was for not hearing about this sooner.

Usually the first thing I do when I met with a client is tell them they need to get an alcohol and drug assessment.  In fact I have written about the importance of getting an alcohol assessment previously on this blog for this very reason.  

In my experience it is important to get an assessment done for two reasons.  First often times it can help with negotiation especially when a Prosecutor wants to know whether there will be any lengthy treatment obligations.  Additionally unless the DUI gets completely dismissed, any plea deal that gets offered and accepted will require the assessment.  So you might as well get it done ahead of time so you have all the information in front of you before you make a decision.  Obviously this defense attorney did not know what the assessment was, or didn't place a great emphasis on its importance.  Either way he pretty much wasted his clients time, but not knowing one of the essentially items to do in representing someone accused of a DUI.  

_
Matthew A. Leyba is an experienced DUI Attorney in Seattle, WA.  His practice focuses on representing those accused of DUI and other alcohol related offenses.  

Washington Toxicologist: No spike yet in Marijuana DUI cases

The Washington State Toxicologist spoke at a legislative hearing on Olympia this week.  One of the topics she spoke about was the recently new Marijuana DUI laws here in Washington State and whether there has been an increase in blood samples submitted from law enforcement to analyze for Marijuana.  

Surprisingly she testified that there hasn't been an increase in work.  She estimated every year the Washington State Patrol receives about 6000 blood samples from drivers.  Of those 6000, she estimated about 1100 typically are for Marijuana related alcohol offenses.  DUI cases, vehicular assaults, felony DUIs, vehicular homicide cases, etc.  

She said that since the law took effect on 12/6/12 the lab has finished analyzing all the blood samples submitted from December.  Per a previous blog post, stats show this was about 300 cases and now that they have been analyzed, DUI charges are coming down the pipeline.  

She was quite to point out however that this a relatively new law, that the lab has already started analyzing blood samples from February.  With the legal limit at 5 nanograms of active THC, I also suspect this number will increase.  

It is this Seattle DUI Lawyers opinion this is an extremely low level, and everything I have read suggests it is not on par with the alcohol level of .08.  But the push to legalize marijuana by some was so important that they would have agreed anything, including an extremely low legal level.  Yet despite this law I don't believe Washington State will see a dramatic increase in Marijuana DUIs or Green DUIs as they have been coined.  

Unless an individual smokes an extreme amount, most studies suggest the legal limit currently in law here does not show significant coordination issues, or decrease in fine motor skills.  So really the only way for an individual to get arrested for a Green DUI is when there is an accident.  Or an officer just happens to stop someone and smells the odor of Marijuana.  I don't think we will be seeing too many cases where Officers pull someone over for weaving or crossing lanes of traffic.  Which happen to be the most common reasons an individual gets stopped for a DUI. 

_

Matthew A. Leyba is a DUI lawyer in Seattle, WA.  His practice focuses on representing those accused of DUI and other alcohol related offenses.  If you have been charged with a DUI contact our office immediately to set up a free 60 minute consultation.