(Once again legal columnist Harry K. has graced these pages with another insightful story. Thank you, Harry.)
Powerless, hopeless people sometimes overcompensate for those feelings with anger and rage the court system generally does not tolerate, let alone understand. I learned this from Juanita fairly early in my career of representing poor people accused of criminal activities.
Juanita took $400 worth of merchandise from Filene’s Basement. She admitted her guilt and was placed on probation with a sentence of 60 days in jail if she screwed up. It should have been easy, but for Juanita, it was anything but.
Just a month shy of finishing probation, Juanita was driving her jalopy out to a decidedly white part of Boston in order to braid a friend’s hair. A police officer saw her approaching the parking lot at a “high rate of speed.” He followed her, watched her legally park the car, and then pulled in behind. She was already halfway to her friend’s door when the officer stopped her to request a license and registration. Juanita’s temporary license was at her mother’s. She knew that being stopped without having it might be cause for a problem, so she asked the officer “What for?” in what was probably not a particularly respectful tone–if her voice in the retelling was any indication.
“You were going a little fast back there.”
The cop said Juanita shoved him. Juanita denied it. The cop said he tried to arrest her and she “flailed her arms” screaming all the while. Juanita denied it. The cop said it took two officers to arrest her and that she shoved the second officer too. Juanita denied it.
Juanita was unable to meet with me in advance of her probation violation hearing so we met in the hallway of the courthouse and talked for some time about what had occurred. In the course of our conversation I realized that there was a problem with dates. The police report of the incident said that Juanita shoved the officers on June 9, but the document giving her notice of the probation violation said that she had committed an assault and battery on a police officer on June 10. It turns out there was another police report for another incident on June 10. It involved the same cop and the same parking lot. Supposedly, Juanita had tried to run him down with her jalopy. She was not arrested or charged, but it could NOT have been a charge of assault and battery on a police officer as recited on the notice. So which was it? The notice said the right date but the wrong offense or, the right offense on the wrong date. These due process defects were going to be my reasons to request a continuance.
I started to explain my thinking but she went on and on about how she hadn’t done anything wrong. I told her I believed and understood her, but it was not something I needed to tell the judge at the hearing. I explained that I would ask for a dismissal, but we could really only hope for some more time (during which one hope, among others, would be that she would demonstrate good reasons for not being sent to jail for 60 days). Her back stiffened, her speech switched from play-by-play to color commentary about what had happened. She was especially mad because I was going to argue a legal point rather than telling the judge that she had done nothing wrong and was a good person.
Suddenly she said, “I don’t want you representing me no more. If you ain’t gonna tell the judge I didn’t do nothing wrong, I just don’t want you.” I apologized, realizing that enthusiasm for my own agenda had overshadowed my client’s need to be heard.
“Juanita, I’m sorry, I will tell the judge whatever you want me to, so long as it does not hurt your case.”
She had me practice what she wanted me to say in front of her. “No, no, you ain’t saying it right. You ain’t saying I didn’t do nothing wrong!”
To borrow a term from the police report, she flailed her arms. “You gotta tell ‘em that other charge (she had been charged with hitting a cop several years before) was bullshit and was dismissed.” I, though, didn’t think it should mentioned at all.
“Who ARE you, anyway? Are you my lawyer or what? I want you to tell ‘em that wasn’t nothing and I ain’t done nothing and this here is bullshit too! And you know what? I want another damn lawyer!”
I tried capitulation, cajoling, both to no avail.
Juanita shook her head and walked away waving dismissively, “Yeah, yeah.”
The cop arrived and Juanita approached him in the hall, hand on hip, head cocked to the side. “Did you say I hit you? DID you?” I told her not to speak to the officer. She said, “I’m just asking him a question, I can do THAT, can’t I?”
She had a point.
Her case was called and I moved to withdraw as her lawyer. The judge asked Juanita if that was what she wanted. She hesitated almost imperceptibly, but then said, “I don’t want HER no more, that’s for damn sure.”
A new attorney was appointed and the judge gave him a date to return for a hearing– just one week later. Juanita had apparently liked my plan of getting much more time, because she went ballistic. Her arms truly flailing now, she started yelling, “NO, NO, NO. I want another date. I have two kids. I can’t be here then, I need another fucking date man, this is more bullshit!”
The judge simply said, “Take her into custody.”
Juanita calmed slightly and said, “Ahh, what the fuck. Shit man, okay, okay.” Ramping up again and worried she might not be able to reach her new attorney from jail, Juanita yelled to the assembly, “Don’t I get no piece of paper or nothing? Fucking shit ass bullshit motherfuckers!”
My briefcase was packed and I headed for the door. I heard her shout “Raggedy ass BITCH!” I hoped she was yelling at her probation officer so I kept walking away chagrined, but grateful to Juanita for an important lesson learned. If I planned to remain in this line of work, I’d better learn to listen to my clients–even if their powerlessness speaks with rude profanity.
“The greatest oak was once a little nut who held its ground….”
Great story, better lesson.
It’s an important lesson for all walks of life…Thank you, Susan.
Great story, Harry. It’s always sad when you try to help someone and either from confusion, anger, or bitterness they brush you away and try to wing it on their own. Especially when you’re a professional at playing the game, and they don’t even know the rules.
But from your description of her, Juanita felt she was someone special, someone that society’s rules didn’t apply to. F. Lee Bailey himself could not have defended Juanita. He wouldn’t been good enough for her, not by her personal standards. if she’d decided to live her life in that manner all the time, jail was never far away. She was “flailing her arms,” banging on the cell doors to be allowed in. I’m sure in your practice you have discovered people that, while they may have had other disadvantages, were simply no good or so stupid they were a danger to themselves despite all efforts from others to help them. Not everyone is a good person. That’s something so simple and basic that many of us good (well, reasonably good) people forget even it when they’re staring us in the face.
But I’m reminded of something my college psychology professor spent a day lecturing on. He asked the class if any of us had ever had “a streak of bad luck?” A period of time where it simply seemed we could do nothing right? A time lasting from days to even weeks that we seemed fall into arguments with friends and family, make regrettable and unexplainable decisions, drive too fast for reasons unknown even to ourselves, become verbally aggressive, and during this period run afoul of the law–maybe two or three times?
Slowly, several hands went up in the class–including mine.
The professor explained that these things can and do happen to otherwise “good” people. You can be stopped for speeding on your way late to class on a test day. Now you have a ticket and a blown test. These problems occupy your mind and on the way home you roll through a stop sign. Another ticket, two in one day. Now you’re worried about your grades and traffic court. The tension from that can make you lash out at people leaving wake of bad feeling behind and distancing you from you normal support group. God help you if you are a drinker, because you many turn to the bottle for a little comfort–which in your fame of mind can lead you into all kinds of other trouble–and very often does.
The professor gave several examples. None of them were major crimes, simply carelessness. But he demonstrated how even a gentle man or woman can suddenly find themselves a bucket of trouble with the law, their jobs, their schooling. and their friends and family, all seemingly out of the blue.
He explained that problems can “cascade,” preoccupation with one can lead to another while your social attention may be distracted by other worries you are not used to dealing with. There is no such thing as good luck or bad or luck. Only good decisions and bad ones. Those of us who’ve had a run of bad luck are often simply overwhelmed by many problems at once nagging at our conscious and subconscious minds which throw us into tailspin which only concentration, attentiveness, and yes, a little help from our friends can help us pull out of.
Did Juanita’s flagrant display for what she thought about you, the court, and the judge land her in jail? Of course it did. You and I would be been taken had we behaved like that. This was no reflection of her economic or social status. No siting judge in country would have allowed that in courtroom from anyone.
There is one wonderful thing about jail. It gives you plenty of time to think. Perhaps Juanita will reflect that maybe speeding while on probation wasn’t such a good idea. She will think about her children. She may decide to use a better vocabulary when dealing with people, and not to steal anymore merchandise Down that path lies a hard road indeed. Above all she needs to learn one paramount lesson. You never, ever, put your hands on a police officer. Some will merely push her back. Many would Tazer her until she didn’t know which time zone she was is in. And some would simply shoot her. Cops are like the rest us. Some have already had a very bad day.
With no more charges against her than what you mentioned, Juanita has a very good chance of returning to freedom, raising her children, even finding gainful employment. But that will not be decided by any attorney, judge, of police officer.
It’s up to Juanita herself.
Kent
Kent, I appreciate the comments – and especially the story from your psychology class. You’re quite right about the snowball effect of bad luck. It can make rabid dogs of us all. The trick is to know when and where you can vent and when and where you can’t, eh?
You might be interested to know (and perhaps you already do) that there are times under our system of law when it is justified to put your hands on a police officer – and indeed, the legal justification has some ethical oomph to it. If the officer is using excessive force, a suspect may use enough force to repel the officer’s use of excessive force. Many years ago, I witnessed the end of a car chase. The man got out of the car, hands in the air. Several officers threw him to the ground and beat him, one with a baton. I suppose if the man had used force to repel the officers it would have made things even worse for him, but he would have had a defense to a resisting arrest or an assault and battery on a police officer charge. I’m also reminded of the time when an officer almost ran over my brother and me in a crosswalk. My brother screamed “CROSSWALK!” which resulted in the officer screeching his brakes, getting out of his car to run towards us, and yelling. My brother quite wisely apologized. He understood the balance of power.
Thanks for reading.
-Harry K.
Wow. As a Store Detective I spent way too much time trying to kindly tell people it would be in their best interest to, “just be quit.” Some will not do it, they think everyone is out to, “get them,” even when most of us are just there to do a job, and that job was not always to send people to jail. I can recount at least six times, faces and all, when if the subjects would have just kept their mouth shut they would have walked out of our store with no legal action taken. People can only be helped if they want help. I hope this woman is introduced to someone that can get through to her.
Good write-up!
Thank you Don. I know in my bones that Juanita wanted my help. Help to her meant having me listen to her. The lesson was mine to learn, not hers. Just doing my job meant ensuring that she felt confident that I was protecting her best interest. I failed. But I learned. I hope I carry the lesson with me every day.
As Ron White put it, “I had the right to remain silent, but lacked the ability.”
Spending a day in misdemeanor court in urban America is an eye opening experience. Assembly line “justice” in which experience favors the prosecution.
The judges have surely heard just about everything, so it’s rare to witness one that is actually paying attention. What that looks and feels like to an inexperienced defendant should be considered in the process.
While I admire and appreciate the efforts of attorneys to represent their clients, I hold out hope that the “system” will find more proactive ways to deal with, and understand, the individuals being fed into the machinery. These days, the calculus just sucks for a majority of transgressors. Expedience and efficiency isn’t justice.
Hear hear! The best judges look at, listen to and respect the people in front of them. Thanks for reading!
Great post and some interesting comments. I once worked with a woman who had issues in with another person in her department. Instead of the departmental issues being addressed, she was simply moved to another department. Although she was removed from the situation, she had a lingering sense of not having her claims validated. It resulted in an “everyone’s out to get me” mentality that had her on the defense and everyone walking on eggshells around her.
I think it’s very easy to underestimate the importance of people needing to feel like they were heard, understood and stood up for.