Teacher-Teacher
Teacher-Teacher
Sitting on the bench today was the one and only "Judge James Anthony Murphy III". Everybody in the courtroom knew he was in a foul mood and they had one foot towards the door. Judge Murphy's voice was not a calm judicial bellow expected of a judge of 20 years but a rambling yell that that shook the breezy windows of the century old Criminal Courts Building. He yelled at the defendants, he yelled at the lawyers, he yelled at the clerks. He even yelled at his wife on the telephone, the phone he kept next to him on the bench and never hesitated to answer even if he was in mid-sentence handling a matter before the bench.
The first hour or so was devoted to the court's daily calendar. About 15 cases of confused, downtrodden and "falsely accused" stood waiting for their cases to be called. Their lawyers were either in the hallway talking on their cell phones, hustling other counsel for new business( or boring them with war stories of their latest "win") or sucking up to the assistant district attorney handling their respective client's case in hopes that the DA had some sense of compassion hidden beneath their latest JC Penny attire.
Before the calendar was completed Judge Murphy would sentence a 17 year old "adult" to 15 years mandatory state prison time (no parole, no work time credit). The poor boy was caught driving a rented Nissan during a large drug transaction between an undercover officer and a South American businessman (who had been in the "import" business for 10 years but who now was working as a government informant and expected to be granted probation for the combination of his illicit deeds and "government service"). No one else on the Daily Calendar fared as bad, although a young woman with a two year old child and a bad habit of shoplifting the child's diapers would learn the hard way what a women's prison was all about, even if for only a period of two years. The balance of the cases were simply spinning the wheels of justice....continuance...continuance...plea...plea...trial date.. well ....Judge Murphy will set the date next time around..
THE TRIAL...Yes, given today's swift hand of justice with the virtual elimination of voir dire (questions to determine if a juror hated the defendant as much as he or she hated the overbearing gym coach who made them run the mile in first grade without stopping, all the while yelling not to cry like a baby) a trial on a routine felony...burglary...unarmed robbery...drugs...drugs and more drugs....could be completed in about as long as a double episode of the Simpsons. Today's trial was "People v. John Norey"...
John William Norey was a third year chemical engineering student at Westorf State with a grade point average that was well below his parent's expectations but high enough to get him call back interviews with Xerox and Dow Chemical. He had been accused of cultivating marijuana in the woods behind his dorm room. Three wilting plants with a total weight of about 8 ounces. The law with which he had been charged assumed, however, that each plant carried a weight of one kilo......Three kilos....mandatory five years in state prison...(goodbye Xerox.. goodbye aromatic dream world of Dow Chemical.)
Norey's lawyer, Michael Friggins, was a short, beer bellied, balding man in his forties who had a disdain for overzealous prosecutors, especially the ones that had so little heart that they were about to ruin a young man's life forever. Before during and after the trial he had called the prosecutor every curse in the English language as well as some that have no known origin. (He had similar words for the Judge, but not to his face and not in the courtroom). Although the Judge disliked Friggins, Friggins had successfully overturned his rulings several times in the past. As a result, the Judge was extremely cautious not to lose his temper on him, except he continued to yell his rulings on objections and other Orders of the court.
April Williams, the DA, was an experienced manipulator of the evidence. She had enrolled a fellow student of Norey's, Wanda Wixell, to turn on her classmate and testify that it was Norey who had planted the illegal plants. Although Williams knew that Wixell had a serious drug problem and was about to be thrown out of school for cheating on her biology exam, Williams never told Friggins about it. That was not to say that Friggins did not know that Wixell was the campus vixen who often slept with her professors in hopes of getting higher grades...but such would hardly be admissible at trial.
When Friggins was cross-examining Wixell one could see his face redden with anger...more or less the same feelings he had to the prosecutor. Wixell, wearing a high necked Laura Ashley print dress, calmly explained how shocked she was when she saw Norey watering and pruning the plants. she testified that Norey's "illegal drug activities"were such a discrace to the college. Despite repeated attempts to trip Wixell up and force her to admit that her only hopes of staying in college was to gain the assistance of the DA by helping in this trial....she was unflinching.... All appeared lost.... Until....
Just before Friggins had asked his last few questions and was ready to excuse Wixell ...into the courtroom walked Professor Peter Rosenfield, the same biology professor who had caught Wixell cheating (still unbeknownst to Friggins). He was also the same biology professor who had refused to allow Wixell to write her term paper on the many advantages of Hemp (commercial grade marijuana) and the cultivation thereof (also unbeknownst to Friggens). Proffessor Rosenfield had simply stopped in to see how one of his students, Norey, was "surviving" the trial..
It was now Wixell's face that reddened. Her calm demeanor and eloquent answers turned into...uhhs and I don't remember...Friggens was on a roll. Now Wixell rambled...looked away from Rosenfield and at the floor. Her testimony continued.... "well...maybe Norey wasn't actually watering the plants maybe he was just near them...and... it was kind of dark out....and ....it was a while ago... and.... I really was staying up late studying and was tired so I could have been confused...." ...
Trial over... Even Judge Murphy wasn't going to let this one get to the jury... case dismissed !!!
As Friggens hugged his client, boasting to himself what a great job he had done (and thinking of how his colleagues would congratulate him during tomorrow's Daily Calender) professor Rosenfield walked up to Norey shook his hand and said "good luck with the interviews".....
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