I have a sister-in-law who is a chronic pain patient. She has been in multiple car accidents resulting in her head being crushed, her left arm being nearly completely cut off and many of her bones have been broken. She has glass from a wreck nearly 20years ago still embedded in her face. She has a lot of nerve damage. She is very poor and up until recently was working as a waitress. That not being the highest paying job, she had no health insurance coverage. Having no health coverage she was unable to see a physician/pain doctor for medication and allegedly resorted to other means to aquire it. Now she is in jail in Ashland.
This morning I called her appointed attorney, John Keith Warren, to inquire about her bond.
Some woman named Sheila who sounds as if she has been smoking three cartons of Camel Unfiltered a day for 80 years answered the phone.
"Hello."
"Hi, my name is Loretta Nall and I am calling to find out my sister-in-laws bond amount. Her name is *******."
"Hang on."
So I waited on hold for a few minutes.
"You air?"
"Yes I am still here."
"Well, hang on I gotta look in her file." (I wondered what she was doing while I was hanging on the first time)
"You still air?"
"Yes. I am still here."
"Well, we don't know what her bond is."
"You don't know what her bond is? Isn't this her lawyers office?"
"Well, yeah, but we don't know what her bond is."
"Don't you think you should know that? I mean...its pretty important, right?"
"You'll hav'ta call the clerks office and get that."
So I called the clerks office and got that.
A few minutes later my phone rings and it is Sheila the Camel voiced clerk.
"Well, I just wanted to tell ye that her bond is ....."
"I know. I just called the clerks office."
I decided to try and help the lawyer out by informing Sheila about my sister-in-laws medical history. I told Sheila that Mr. Warren needed to be made aware that Teresa is a chronic pain patient and that needed to be brought up in her trial.
Sheila the Camel Voiced Clerk said,..."Well when he gets the paperwork to prove that he'll bring it up."
"What paperwork are you referring to? I can bring you her medical records."
"No, we need the CRO evaluation."
I said, "The CRO isn't going to know if she is a chronic pain patient or not. We can get you copies of her medical records which document her history."
She said, "No it has to come through the CRO evaluation. If it isn't in there the lawyer won't bring it up. We can't just take ever ole criminals word, you know?"
I said, "Teresa is not a criminal she is a patient. Please don't refer to my sister-in-law in that manner again, especially since you work for the attorney who is suppossedly representing her. And...medical records are not 'just any ole criminal's word'. Unlike the untrianed gal y'all hustled in off the street to extort money from people under the guise of CRO medical records come from trained medical professionals."
Then I hung up before I had a nasty cussing fit.
My God...with defense attorney's like that who needs a fucking prosecutor? I mean if your own lawyer and/or his staff refer to you as a criminal before you have been convicted of anything then the client pretty much doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of proper representation or a fair trial. No doubt, the client is fucked!
I'll be filing a complaint with the local bar association as well as filing a motion on my sister-in-laws behalf for Mr. Warren to withdraw from the case. I will also be informing Mr. Warren about how lovingly his staff referrs to his clients. I hope Sheila the Camel Voice Clerk gets fired...or better yet struck by lightning.
Yeah...that's the ticket!
Ditching The News
1 hour ago
4 comments:
So multiply your case by sixty-seven counties and forty-odd cases per county coming up each day for DWI, drugs, or anything else. Then multiply this by a judge who has little time to debate anything and just wants things cut-and-dry and no real debate by either side.
Then figure a state and county system that puts limited funds in to run the judical system...so the judge ends up with clerks named Wanda who has half of her teeth missing, barely graduated from high school thirty years ago, and knows more about NASCAR than law or the judicial system.
And as for the public defender appointed for cases? This is the guy who has lousy business and is mostly desperate for a steady paycheck. He can't irritate the judge too much because then he'd get dumped off the deal for cases. He'd like to get a pontoon boat but he can barely afford that new Mustang he bought.
At the end of the day...Joe the Plumber, Joe the Drunk and Joe the Robber all end up with Bama justice....dished out as quick as you can do it...without alot of chit chat. This is all simple, unless someone tries to complicate things.
Face it, if you want to ensure a real fair case...pay off the local democratic party chief and he'll ensure the judge knows how to fix things.
I ain't down with paying off crooked bastards who fuck up my judicial system.
However, I do have more pallatable ways to make them dance to my tune and dance they will....very soon.
@The Ripley Porch
...and you could fix it all by stopping all the ridiculous drug prosecution. Sad but true.
My nephew was charged in Southside with contributing to a minor when his little brother and another boy took beer out of the refrigerator while he was asleep. He didn't know they were there, the beer was the mothers who was out of town, and the little brother was suppose to be at his dads. When he went to court the public defender told him he had to plead guilty and do cro because thats what the cro officer said. This guy is now the Judge in Southside. He refused. Every Judge in Etowah Co except Steele will say he has to do what cro says.
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