Tragedy Strikes Fellow Investigator & Her Family

Breaking news from the St. Petersburg Times:

By Letitia Stein and Dong-Phuong Nguyen, Times Staff Writers 

TAMPA — A 32-year-old investigator, a rising star in the federal public defender's office, was accidentally shot and killed Saturday by her father while they were cleaning guns together…

My prayers go out to Melissa’s family, friends and co-workers.  I can’t imagine anything worse than losing a child like this and from the amazingly nice things her boss, Federal Public Defender Donna Elm, it seems like she is going to be sorely missed at an office where she was really appreciated and loved:

Melissa Kupferberg was writing a book about approaches to investigations that drew on her background in mental health, said Donna Elm, the federal defender for the middle district of Florida in the Tampa office.

She excelled at her job, a coveted position in the federal public defender's office, and was being invited to speak at national conferences. She was involved with the National Defender Investigator Association.

"At 32, this is all very remarkable," Elm said, adding that she was also beloved by her co-workers.

"She's one of those really optimistic, positive souls who always smiles and loves a joke and is very cheery."

And in the world of public defense, that's not easy.

We should all be so lucky to work with, and know someone like Melissa.

The Decline Of The Blawg

I'm clearly not an attorney, but being an investigator in a Public Defender office, I've considered my blog a blawg (or a semi-legal blog) since I first heard the term.

At the end of July this year, one of the first legal blawgers I ever started reading, hung up his keyboard. Skelly at Arbitary and Capricious who had been writing about his life and work since 2004, shut his site down.  Actually, the site is still up but Skelly has taken a "Hiatus" as is the title of his final post, and is no longer updating his site.

Fellow Blawgers and a few attorneys I know have been discussing the recent cases and stories of attorney blawgers who have lost their jobs and more for blawging about work related issues and experiences.  I find it all very unfortunate.  In my time, I've seen a lot of blawgs come and go, most by authors with a TON more interesting and useful things to say than me.  NOTE:  If you click on the link for the New York Times Story, you'll find an extremely well written comment by fellow blawger and producer/writer favorite legal show, David Feige.

Personally, I've had more than a few hiccups in my time blawging.  Three years ago, a co-worker figured out who I am from an out of office experience I wrote about and we just made an agreement to never talk about it.  I've had a few people ask me if I ever read PDIblog.com and hinted at me being the masked author.  We laughed about it but it never went farther than that.  A few other things have occurred that I can't write about without giving up the whole enchilada but all are things that have in the last year or more, caused me to be the Myspace Investigations Expert instead of a blawging Public Defender Investigator...and it sucks.  Its one of the reasons that my posts have become more and more infrequent.

I'm not embarrassed or ashamed of being found out but I do love my job and I worry about losing it.   Is this still the place for me to share my work experiences?  I don't know yet but Skelly's exit is looking mighty nice

Focused...Like A Shotgun

Posting has been slow going for me lately...Not because I haven't had anything worth writing about,  but quite honestly I've been getting my ass handed to me so much lately that I'm just a tad on the discouraged and beaten down side.

I could use a nice vacation.

I guess its kind of a dickhead arrogant thing to be saying considering I just had a paid, three day weekend but I really could use it.  

I've worked up a few trials to death with a multitude of reports, only to have them plead out the week/day trial is scheduled to start.  In the meantime, my other active cases have not gotten the attention they've deserved while I'm focusing like a laser beam on the cases supposed to be going to trial and I'm put in a position where I have to really dig in and just get shit done on my initial and supplemental investigation requests...I wish we got paid overtime.

I really shouldn't complain.  Writing reports is way better than digging ditches or spreading hot tar on roofs, both things I did when I was in high school to make money...high school sucked.

Getting the morning started with a glass of orange juice and an avocado sandwich...the perfect fuel to start a day which will consist of interviewing the mother of a 288 victim (In some cases, I would ALMOST rather have my fingernails pulled out with pliers) and canvassing a neighborhood for witnesses to a shooting last month.

The good times continue.

Shot In The Arm and You're Too Late....

CARRIE GLEAVES

Yes, regurgitating news YET again, but it's an important story (from The Tennessean):

Intern with Nashville public defender's office is shot

By Kate Howard
THE TENNESSEAN

An intern working in the Metro Public Defender's Office was shot Monday while working on a case in the University Court public housing development.

Carrie Gleaves, 35, was shot in the arm while helping Assistant Public Defender Laura Dykes interview a client. Metro Public Defender Dawn Deaner said Gleaves, a student at the Nashville School of Law, had just begun volunteering in the office. Gleaves' injuries were not life-threatening, police say.

Link to the VIDEO OF THE NEWS STORY HERE.

Hopefully Gleaves is recovering nicely and avoiding reading all the douchebag comments in the online story from The Tennessean.

Not Exactly Our Best Foot Forward

Sometime I’m amazed at the shit that can come out of an attorney’s piehole. In this case the piehole belongs to Bob Slameka, a Public Defender in Michigan for over 40 years. I wanted to feel sorry for this PD in the beginning and by the end of the story, I was just horrified.

You can read a bit about him in the new NPR piece on the lack of resources for indigent defense:

When asked if he really thought his own client should be executed, Slameka said yes, that's what he wrote at the time and that's how he felt.

"That's exactly what I wrote. That's exactly how I felt," he said. "You know something? Because of people's actions, a lot of people don't deserve to live. OK? You take people's lives — I'm not saying, an eye for an eye — but because of the nature of your behavior, sometimes maybe you don't deserve to live on this Earth."

When reminded that Lloyd was exonerated and never actually killed anyone, Slameka brushed it off. He said he didn't have DNA evidence at the time, and criminal defense is a very different job now.

If you are so inclined you can look at Slameka’s Michigan Bar Record by clicking here. As far as I'm concerned this guy just needs to stop practicing law and at MINIMUM not be allowed to take PD cases.