[kattygirl]

My husband and I are scraping like mad to try and get enough money up for a real lawyer. The public defender so far has been aweful. We are very close to having the 15K but need at least another month before we will hear from the bank about the estimate on our house. If we do a review of councel and then don't get the money we are trying for can we request a new public defender?

[Fr_Chuck]

You can "fire" your public defender and request another one, but you will need to tell them why,

Not being rude but most don't work like TV ( actually I don't know none that do) they will review the evidence to see if it was collected legally and object to any that was not. If you want or need any expert witness, you have to pay for all for that yourself, their office does not do that normally, you can ask the court for some specific tests to be redid.

I mean if he was caught "red handed' with a bus load of nuns as witness, no attorney will get them out normally

[kattygirl]

It is a case of he said/she said and the she owes us money which is how this all got started. There are no witness and no evedince at all except her claims.

So far every time we ask the public defender for something he goes and seems to do the opposite of what we asked. And since if found guilty my husband will be gone forever we need someone who actually tries.

[excon]

Hello k:

You can fire him. Send him a letter telling him why his services are no longer needed. Send your letter certified, return receipt requested. Send a copy to the judge and one to the prosecutor. The judge will appoint another one, but he WON'T be from the public defenders office. When you fire your lawyer, you fire his whole office.

That'll be GOOD for you.

excon

[JudyKayTee]

It is a case of he said/she said and the she owes us money which is how this all got started. There are no witness and no evedince at all except her claims.

So far everytime we ask the public defender for something he goes and seems to do the opposite of what we asked. And since if found guilty my husband will be gone forever we need someone who actually tries.

I would guess that what you are asking the Attorney to do is either not in your husband's best interest or is against the law - unfortunately, Attorneys get direction all the time from clients who haven't the vaguest idea what the law says.

Otherwise, agree with what has been posted - not that they need me to agree with them.

Your husband will be gone forever over a debt?

[kattygirl]

Judy Kay --no not a debt from us the other person owes us and is now accusing my husband of terrible things. Also one of the first things we asked for was for our lawyer to try to get my husbands bail lowered to 30-50K so we could make bail. The lawyer never told the judge the amt we asked, tried to lowball and the judge laughed and said no I don't think so and then only reduced it to 75K. Other things like that, we say please ask this and then the lawyer ignores us or does it so sloppily that the judge doent even consider what was requested.

[excon]

Hello again, k:

IF your husband is facing a long time in the slam, THIS is NOT a time to be coy. I don't know who you are from Adam, and I don't care.

We can HELP you, but you need to tell us what these "terrible things" are. In fact, you need to tell us the whole story, because there's obviously a lot left out.

We know, for example, that with just a persons accusation, and NO corroborating evidence, they don't press charges. So, it appears to be MORE than just a he said, she said kind of thing. We know further, that even if they press charges, unless there's a flight risk, and/or the charges are so henous that for public safety reasons the judge needs to make sure hubby stays in jail, reasonable bail WOULD be granted because it IS a Constitutional guarantee...

So, there IS a lot more to this story. Given the above, it's really hard to assess whether your PD is doing a good job or not. I only told you HOW to fire him above. I didn't tell you that you should.

excon

[JudyKayTee]

Judy Kay --no not a debt from us the other person owes us and is now accusing my husband of terrible things. Also one of the first things we asked for was for our lawyer to try to get my husbands bail lowered to 30-50K so we could make bail. The lawyer never told the judge the amt we asked, tried to lowball and the judge laughed and said no I dont think so and then only reduced it to 75K. Other things like that, we say please ask this and then the lawyer ignores us or does it so sloppily that the judge doent even consider what was requested.

Agree with Excon - "we" need more of the story. A PD who does not do his/her job is going to be fired and nobody wants that on his/her record.

You know how to fire the Attorney; again, I question whether it's a good idea and if you understand how the system works well enough to make that decision.

[kattygirl]

Basically he is being charged with molestation. 1 day after we told them they needed to pay us back or we would take them to small claims they took their daughter to the hosp and said my husband molested her. The daughter validated the story. Their daughter has been known to lie for them in the past. The dr checked her out and there is NO physical evidence to support the claim. No one ever saw him touch her and so it is he said she said. But if I was a 7yr old girl whose parents scream at her and lock her (literally ) in her room every day I would learn and tell whatever story that was wanted of me. The problem is how do you prove something like this didn't happen. We have many letter from people who came by the house while Jerome was watching the kids and they all state the children were very happy and showed no fear. We have told them about the mom calling cps on her ex boyfriend once for the same issue. The other two children who were always there state no one touched them and they never saw anyone else touched. The state I live in is VERY big on this issue and just a statement by a child is considered guilt. We are doing everything we can to try to get real money for a lawyer but if we can't I am scared to death of what will happen with the one we have. 3months and he has only spoken with us once for half an hour other than the bail hearing where he said what we didn't want and left.

[excon]

Hello again, k:

Here's some news that you don't want to hear. SOMEBODY needs to be on top of his case. One would HOPE that one's attorney would do that. In this instance, however, it appears that's not the case. Bummer. Your hubby can't do it because he's in jail.

Guess who's left to do it? Yup, and with OUR help, you might just succeed.

First off, that's a sad story. Somebody is going to pay mightily for it. Let's HOPE it's not hubby.

But, in order for us to help, we need to know more of the legal stuff. I STILL can't tell if your PD is doing his job or not. I understand he didn't do what you wanted him to do at the bail hearing. That could be because he knew what you wanted would NOT be granted, or it could be because he's a jerk. In any case, he should have communicated with you better.

PD's are very busy lawyers. Although they SHOULD, they don't get the chance to communicate with all their clients they way they would like to. That doesn't mean they're BAD lawyers. It just means they're bad communicators. Even GOOD lawyers sometimes don't know how to communicate well outside the courtroom.

But, EVERY lawyer/businessperson greases the squeaky wheel. So, you need to become a squeaky wheel. I don't mean that you should be impolite. I DO mean that you should be assertive. So, you're going to need to meet with him. I don't know HOW you're going to do that. If it were me, I'd be calling his office regularly. If that didn't work, I'd be visiting his office. If that didn't work, I'd be tracking him down in the courthouse.

What I WOULDN'T do, is let this thing take its own course. If you let that happen, kiss hubby goodby.

So, I need to know what court procedure is next. How long has he been in jail? What did he plead? Did he waive his right to a speedy trial? Speak to the lawyer about a bond reduction hearing...

Once you have answers, get back to us. By the way, by YOU being assertive, you're going to find out before any of us do, whether he's competent or not.

excon

[kattygirl]

He is out of jail. His father sent me the money because he said he did not want him in there any longer. I wanted to use it for a lawyer but his father insisted it had to be to get him out if he was paying. That is why we wanted the lawer to say 3-5K so the rest we could use with our savings to retain a lawyer. When the pd lowballed and said 1K and the judge laughed we knew we were introuble. So he is out but no money left with what we were given for the lawyer. We are trying to get a refinance approved on our home but if that falls through we are scared. The pd did get a continouance for us to try to get documents we need to show the mothers instability. I am just scared because of lack of communication and the few times we have spoken he was not so eloquent. Can he be a terrible speaker in one aspect and great in the courtroom. You know that sometimes is can all come down to the way something is worded. This kind of crime is VERY hard to defend yourself from. I remember the last day we spend with the kids the girl (on her own) climbed into my husbands lap and asked him to help her read. An hour later she said something her mom didn't like and she was told off and dragged and locked in her room. I listened to her banging on the door for a half hour before I told my husband that was it and we were leaving. I should have called CPS but my husband said they were family and you don't do that to family. Now I wish like hell I had.

[excon]

Hello again, k:

Doesn't sound like he's doing a bad job so far. I think you're stuck with him.

excon

[kattygirl]

Crud, OK. I just wish he would talk to us. I am only allowed to email and so far the responses have been no more than two words at a time.

[excon]

I am only allowed to email and so far the responses have been no more than two words at a time.

Hello again, k:

See, here's the thing. Even though the state is paying him, he WORKS for you. Any time I've had people working for ME, I set the communication parameters - THEY DIDN'T.

It's time you established who is working for who. SCREW email. Go down there - TODAY!

excon