I spoke with my lawyer yesterday afternoon. I was feeling pretty good about having representation. I felt like a weight had been lifted - I would be vindicated now that I had a lawyer who could navigate the legalese for me. This is how I felt until I spoke to my lawyer.
I had her for about ten minutes on the phone right before she was trying to get out of the office to begin her vacation. I asked her what the chances were that she would be able to have my case dismissed. She said "None." I brought up the point of the evidence not meeting the burden of the law ( See definition and charge of child neglect under VA State Law). She responded that Officer Bostjank is "notorious" for charging women with neglect and that the judge assigned to my case has always sided with this officer, no matter how ridiculous the charge is. For example, he charged a mom for neglect because she pulled up to the curb of the post office, got out of her car to drop envelopes into the blue box outside of the post office and didn't bring her children with her. She was found guilty.
Needless to say I am feeling rather deflated right now. I have some ideas on how to proceed & ensure that every shred of defending evidence is presented at my hearing; however, I am still not certain that it is going to help in light of what she has told me.
Any ideas?
10 comments:
Any chance of doing some background work on this officer and finding out if he/she or spouse has ever done something like this?......maybe a little detective work? How about following the judge?
I am exploring the possibility.... I have to find out what the judge's name is! He didn't have a placard up & his name wasn't mentioned... I've never done this kind of detective work before so I am going to have to learn some new skills :)
This is really, really frightening Sarah. Personally, I do not believe that what you did was neglectful and I also have huge issues with our government making efforts to legislate stupidity to the point where so many of our basic rights and freedoms are removed.
You cannot really force an idiot who sends his kid down a mountain on a bicycle to be responsible by making it illegal for said child to ride w/o a helmet. Etc.
You need to research your ass off. Do you know anyone who is a paralegal? Ask for some research advice and go off in search of precedent that backs up your actions. In court? Keep your mouth shut. (This is an issue for me, too. I've had judges tell me to shut up.) You need solid evidence that cases like this have been dismissed in the past and don't depend on your CAA to do that for you. She's just doing her thing and it sounds like her thing is giving up the fight before she's fought it.
Let me know if I can help in any way.
do you have a 1st name for officer buttcrack? I googled him and only found your page.
Okay, so I know now the judge's name is Massey. I cannot, for the life of me, find the officer's first name. I am going to call the precinct that he works at today & see if I can get it from there. I tried googling just his last name & norfolk, va and still nothing came up. I am wondering if the law enforcement is somehow protected from being found on the internet? Is that possible?
i think you should begin thinking that you might have to appeal this. have you talked to your state legislator or the local media about this? if you can find the names of other women this has happened to-- going in a group could add weight to this officer's strict interpretation of the law. i smell mysogeny and discrimination here. i don't know if it's a news story in norfolk-- but it would be in portland.
Well, I have had a turn of events that I will write about soon. Here it is in a nutshell: I have found a new lawyer & have much reason to believe that I will be found not guilty/records expunged. I am going to get my name cleared first, then I am going to go after this guy with a vengeance. Clearly he is a misogynistic asshole who needs to stop ruining women's lives for his own personal vendetta. I plan on taking it to City Council, the media & pretty much wherever I can go with it to keep any more women from having to go through this horrible situation.
good luck girl, my thoughts are with you!!
Sara,
Thoughts are with you. I'm ALWAYS paranoid the bad guys are gonna get me while I'm getting the kids out of the car (distracted, back to the outside world is when they grab you)...god this could happen to anyone...maybe you could claim mental anguish, because it is anguish to have to decide whether to leave them locked in where you can see them or turn your back and have someone grab you...then to worry about the police...charging you for making a sound decision...Be careful posting things like "Clearly he is a misogynistic asshole" they will use it against you. http://www.recombinantrecords.net/docs/2009-05-Amusing-Ourselves-to-Death.html
Hey there,
I have not posted the outcome to this case & it is WAY overdue. The case was dismissed out right the second time we went to court because the judge was on vacation, a middle aged woman was sitting on the bench & all of a sudden the cop had a change of heart. Ridiculous, right?
Thanks for commenting =)
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