Cases

After reviewing earlier blogs, I think a different format may be in order. Rather than just writing from beginning forward, I find at night a million thoughts come to mind, and not necessarily in a lineal order.  So, as events come to my mind, I will write them.  Plus, probably not as stuffy. So, here goes:

Yesterday I told Maxine (wife, remember?) that as a defense lawyer in Orange County, I had a couple of cases before Federal Judges who were well-known for odd behavior. This is my experience before Judge Willis Ritter, Federal District Judge in the Utah district.

While a pretty successful defense attorney, one of the local judges, an ex-marine and Southern Boy, called me and asked if I would represent the son of one of his boyhood friends who had a problem in LA, the Malibu Area, and of course I said “sure.” The problem was the kid was caught trying to sell Hashish,and as you may know, it is a strong form of cannabis from the marijuana plant.  In those days, possession of even the smallest amount of cannabis (marijuana) was a straight felony punishable by State Prison. (marijuana was known as “The Devil’s Weed” a hallucinogenic- today they are thinking in California of making the substance a legal product and medical Marijuana is perfectly legal, and possession for other purposes makes it an infraction punishable by a small fine.) How things have changed. Anyway, I took the Malibu case, and was successful through a suppression motion to get the case dismissed.  I thought that would end it, but later, I got a call from some guy in Salt Lake City telling me he, his younger brother and a couple of other guys were charged by way of a Grand Jury indictment with importation and possession for sale of a large amount of marijuana, and from information from the Malibu client, one of his distributors, I knew what I was doing, and they would like me to represent his younger brother. We made arrangements for me to fly to Salt Lake and discuss the case.  He agreed to pay for my trip, payment for my time, and, if things worked out, to hire me. I agreed. Flew to Salt Lake,  met with the potential clients quoted a hefty retainer which was agreed to.  Then the guy reaches into his pocket, pulled out a large roll of bills and peeled $10,000.00 and barely dented the roll. Damn, I was scared to death to walk around with that kind of cash, but managed.

So, next appearance is in the Federal District Court in Salt Lake. We go before a commissioner for arraignment, enter pleas of not guilty and are informed the Court will let you know when the trial is to begin. What? that isn’t the way it is done in California. By the way, one has to ask to be admitted to the Utah District Court and have a local lawyer as co-counsel. I hired the judge’s old lawyer. (not a bad idea, yes?) So you waited until you are notified, and in this case, I got a call on a Friday telling me the judge will call the case the following Monday. So much for advance notice

 

so, I make arrangements to fly to Salt Lake, get a hotel room, take my paper work and stuff and appear Monday morning. Out of the judge’s chambers comes this short, stout barrel of a man with an enormous head. The clerk calls the Calendar of cases set for trial that morning; about three or four were going to be tried immediately, and the Judge says :”Well see the rest of you fellers Wednesday.”  One of the local attorneys representing one of the defendants in the conspiracy charge pipes up and says “Judge, we got this lawyer from California, can’t we start earlier? The judge says “where is this feller from California?” I raised my hand, and the Judge gruffly tells me to come forward to the judge’s bench, which I do.  He stares at me for several minutes and finally says “what do you want? I say, “I am here at your convenience, and whatever you want is OK with me.” The judge says “see everyone Wednesday.”

The judge had some idiosyncrasies, such as the Court was located in the Post Office Building and one day the Postal people were making too much noise, so he shut down the whole Post Office.  “I asked my co defendant’s lawyers :why was he staring at me and was told he was looking at my eyes and if they were totally brown or black that would be the “Mark of Cain,”  Luckily I have some green with the brown. Another Ritter story which I observed first hand was when there was some commotion in the back of the courtroom; he told the US Marshall to arrest that “long hair” in the back, and the marshal knowing the judge could not see very well to the area of the noise, did his duty and took the young lady into custody.  It worked out and she was released.

The judge was what is known as a “Jack Mormon-” That is, he no longer followed the tenets of The Church of the Latter Day Saints, drank Wild Turkey and coffee and gave the Church a hard time. You get the idea; he was different.  However he was no ignoramus, to the contrary, he previously was a full professor of Law at the University of Utah Law School before being appointed to the Bench and as a classmate of one of the most scholarly California Supreme Court justices, Roger Traynor.  Actually he knew well in advance what was going to be the result of our present case before him.

The facts were simple: the head guy, my client’s brother, managed to import tons of “weed” hidden in secret sections of campers from Mexico and had a distribution organization of lesser sites throughout the US,  with headquarters in Salt Lake, a central area to work out of throughout the United States.

So, what to do from Monday to Wednesday?  I had a case in Orange County involving two brothers who basically were defrauding some people who could not afford it by having them sign without reading a home reconstruction contract based and alleged false representations.  I had one brother and an attorney from Oakland, Bob Brodie, was hired by the Oakland firm to represent the other brother. Joe Dickerson was the prosecutor. One day in the Orange County Judge’s Chambers there was an argument about some detail, and the Oakland Attorney, Bob Brodie, and Joe got into an argument that got heated.  I had been raising issues, and the Judge Herbie Herlands, would make Joe go and answer all the junk I was putting forth, and I guess, it got to Joe, who then challenged me to fight, I accepted, and the judge went ballistic, put on his robe in chambers, called in the court reporter and things calmed down. In Orange County in those days there was a pretty good relationship between the Bench and the prosecution and defense attorneys.  So call it a “good old boys” network if you will. We could fight like hell in Court and at the end of the day meet at the local “watering hole” known as the “Plank House,” unwind from the day before going home. Today I got a call from Joe Dickerson, now quite a bit older, thanking me for recommending a neurosurgeon for his lower back disc injury. In other words, we liked each other and were honest and could trust each other as professionals and our word was good.  Not like today’s practice where things are more “arms length.”  I miss it.

Well, after the brothers’ case which we may visit later, Brodie was not welcome back to his Oakland firm. I suspect they did not to pay him for trial, figuring they would send him down to OC and just plead out his client.  I liked Bob. He was highly educated with a degree from the University of British Columbia, and was sent by the Canadian Unions to University of Caliornia Berkeley where he got a Master’s Degree in economics and then his Law Degree from Berel Law School known then as “Boalt Hall”  So I invited him to come with me, and hired him as an associate in my firm. Well Bob was about the best snow skier I have ever met  He wanted me to take up the sport, but at this time, I was in my early 50s and not thrilled with the idea. Now I have these few days before trial in Utah, so I drive up to a Ski Lift area known as Brighton located in one of the three  canyons in the Wasatch mountains, get an Austrian Ski Instructor, get boots (in those days the ski boots were leather, and I got  Fisher skiis. The instructor said “you will follow me.” I tried, but was falling all over the place; my feet had no circulation, and I told the instructor to bring me back to the lodge as I was not happy.  He loosened the laces on my boots, blood flowed and the pain left, showed me how to snow plow and I fell in love with the sport.

During the course of the case I had several occasions where I returned and learned more about skiing at another nearby resort, Park City, which I visited with my two kids.

Well, I had to go back to Court the following Wednesday, and what happened is another story which we will visit on the next blog.

Marshall