My public defender. Wow. I don't even know where to begin, except to say that he was absolutely horrible.
He only met with me one time at his office prior to going my trial. That's it...one time. Typically, attornies dress professionally. I went to his office during normal business hours and he was dressed very casually....jeans and all. Not how I pictured how an attorney would typically dress.
He showed me a picture of my ex's wrist. In the picture, I could see the bite mark, and I could also see what I already knew...that I didn't cause him any bleeding or major damage. No, I'm not justifiying what I did. I'm just writing the result of what my one bite did to his wrist.
He also showed me a picture of the knife.
My public defender told me that if it weren't for the knife, that he would take the case to trial because when the jury took one look at my ex's size, and then looked at me, that he felt that the jury would side with me.
He didn't want to take my case to trial because of the knife though.
He told me that he was going to try to get the prosecutor to give me a deferred judgement. A deferred judgement is when the conviction is dropped, or expunged, once the probation has been completed.
The only time my public defender would talk to me would be in the corrdidor right outside of the court room, just minutes before my trial. I had gone to court a few times with him representing me....the first time, while I was in jail.
When he would meet with me immediately before my case was called, it was literally for about 30 seconds to 2 minutes...and 2 minutes is probably giving him too much credit. I barely had time to ask him my questions. He would tell me what to do and say. I had so many questions that I wanted answered, but he wouldn't give me the time of day to ask them.
This whole thing was so very overwhelming to me. Never had I been in trouble with the law before. I didn't know what was going to happen. I was alone, and scared. I did what he told me to. After all, he was my public defender.
The day that I received my conviction, which I believe was on July 28, 2008, he gave me paper work and he told me to sign it. He also told me what to say. He gave me the paper work IN the court room while another case was being tried. He was whispering to me as to what to do and then he left to represent somebody else.
I THOUGHT that he got me a deferred judgement. I truly did. I mean, he told me that, that was what he was going to try to get for me.
I signed the paper work. I was no longer charged with 2 felonies...they were lowered to 2 misdemeanors. One was for assault, and the other was for menacing. I pleaded guilty to both. I was given 3 years of probation along with a whole list of other things, which I will write about in my next post.
My public defender told me that he fought really hard for me and that I should be happy, and that he got my probation lowered down from 4 years to 3. He also indicated that the misdemeanors were no big deal....that they wouldn't affect me and that misdemeanors weren't a big deal. I would soon learn otherwise, which I will also be writing about in future posts.
I believed him though. I also believed before pleading guilty, that he got me a deferred judgement. I didn't know that he didnt, as he failed to tell me that he didn't get me a deferred jugdement.
So my case did not go to trial, and I plead guilty to 2 misdemeanors. THAT caused my life to continue to spiral downwards.
