We Are F*cked.

Unfortunately...the voters have spoken. Good luck to all the PD offices in California...we're in for a shit storm of a magnitude I've never seen before.

California voters on Tuesday soundly rejected a package of ballot measures that would have reduced the state's projected budget deficit of $21.3 billion to something slightly less overwhelming: $15.4 billion.

The defeat of the measures means that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state Legislature will have to consider deeper cuts to education, public safety, and health and human services, officials have said.

Prop 1A (spending caps, taxes)	Yes	35.4%
	No	64.6%
Prop 1B (payments to schools)	Yes	38.8%
	No	61.2%
Prop 1C (lottery borrowing)	Yes	36.7%
	No	63.3%
Prop 1D (diverting child development funds)	Yes	35.7%
	No	64.3%
Prop 1E (reallocating mental health funds)	Yes	35.1%
	No	64.9%
Prop 1F (elected official pay)	Yes	75.2%
	No	24.8%

68.4% of precincts reporting

PDI Blawg Recommendation

I don't recommend too many sites here, but I recently (a few hours ago) came across a new blawg run by another member of the brotherhood from a county in Southern California. Recruitment seems to be an inside view of the inner workings of the Riverside County Public Defenders Office.

The blawger goes by the name Hugh, although I'm certain that its not his real name and it seems to be a pretty accurate portrayal of an office in budget and personnel turmoil. If you have any interest at all, you should check it out!

Recommendation: From one fellow blawging PDI to another, change the name of your blawg! Recruitment doesn't really seem to be fitting for a title....how about: RIVCO - Public Defender Investigations

What Price Justice ?

I had an attempted murder case last year where our material witness was in Placer County Jail on an unrelated charge and we needed her for our case. I found out that she had two outstanding felony warrants in our home jurisdiction - nothing reallys serious (receiving stolen property) but enough I believed to "warrant" extradition. In my own experience as a former police officer, I'd seen the state authorize this action in the name of justice (i.e. to prosecute the offender with the warrant).
I should have known better. Justice isn't really factor when bringing a low level offender to justice also assists in the defense of a person accused of something more serious. The judge immediately complained about the cost of this project and directed me to find out if the public defender's office would absorb the cost for travel (lodging, at least for the witness wasn't a problem - she would have had a bed waiting for her at the "county country club").
I took the stand and the prosecutor wanted to know exactly what the witness had told me about the case. I told him I had no idea becasue I didn't ask and didn't read the file. The judge was incredulous. "You didn't read the file? You didn't interview the witness?" he asked.
Of course I didn't. I'm not about to take the chance our witness may decide to say something different.
In the end we never got the witness back and the client took a plea. The whole episode was an exercise in cost-benefit analysis.
Sort of reminds me of the lyrics from Dylan's Hurricane:
"Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land where justice is a game."