More than a dozen police officers chased Eric Pomatto along Escondido streets. Bomb squad members found jars full of explosives in the Escondido home of George Jakubec. And DNA evidence linked John Gardner to the rape and murder of Poway teenager Chelsea King.
So why is it that these men and people like them ---- those who appear to be criminals caught red-handed ---- plead not guilty when they first face a judge at arraignment?
It would be irresponsible to do anything else, several local attorneys say.
And it's not about finding loopholes or trying to get a client off. It's about making sure the results are fair and constitutional.
"It would be malpractice if an attorney was to plead a client guilty without understanding what the facts are," said criminal defense attorney Randy M. Grossman. "Sometimes, the case is not as strong as you might believe. Everybody in the world thought O.J. was guilty, and look what happened."
Athlete turned actor O.J. Simpson was famously acquitted of two counts of murder in the 1994 slaying of his wife and her friend in Los Angeles County.
Grossman, who is also an adjunct professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, said it is a defense attorney's job to review the entire case to be sure the constitutional rights of his or her client are upheld.
"My approach is that it is not my job to get off everybody I represent," Grossman said. "My job is to make sure they are dealt with appropriately. If they committed a crime, they should be punished. But the punishment should fit the crime."
Many people, when they first face the judge at arraignment, have not hired or spoken with an attorney; oftentimes, a deputy public defender is on duty in the courtroom to step in and handle representation of such clients. And even if a defendant had already spoken to an attorney, the great likelihood is that attorney doesn't yet have all the facts.
At arraignment, the only thing the defense attorney has is a list of the charges that his or her client faces. The attorney has no police reports, no lab findings, no witness statements.
That is true even for the high-profile cases. Take Gardner, whose case was already steeped in wall-to-wall local media coverage when he stepped into a downtown San Diego courtroom to face a judge the day after King's body was found. His attorney had spoken to him for about a half-hour before the arraignment, but he had nothing in terms of what the actual evidence against Gardner was.
"Without a full knowledge of the case, you need to investigate," said North County defense attorney Lynn Behymer, who was not associated with the Gardner case but who handles serious felonies. "You really can't plead guilty. I don't advise my clients to plead guilty without knowing what it is that they (the prosecution) actually believe he did."
Behymer, a retired Marine Corps major, said that in his experience, prosecutors sometimes files charges that are harsher than the actual crime.
"We have to deal with not what our clients did, but what the prosecutor can prove they did," Behymer said. "Sometimes they differ. The idea is to look at what can they prove and what is in my client's best interest."
Conducting an investigation "is the biggest thing that defense attorneys do," Grossman said. "You really need to understand what the facts are, what the evidence against the client is."
Deputy Public Defender Kathleen Cannon is a veteran attorney who has defended many people accused of murder, among them Adrian Camacho, who is on death row for the 2003 shooting death of Oceanside police Officer Tony Zeppetella in front of dozens of witnesses.
Cannon declined to speak about any specific case, but spoke in general about her work as a defense attorney.
"I have been wrong when I have assumed things about a case," Cannon said. "That's why we have to trust the adversarial system, the ability to go after what is true and not true" ---- even in the face of confessions and scientific evidence.
"We have legions of cases where people have been found to be not just not guilty, but actually innocent," Cannon said.
Cannon, who is based in Vista, said there are generally three types of defendants: those who are innocent, those who are guilty, and those who are not as guilty as it may seem, given the charges they face.
Cannon said she sees a lot of cases that she believes were "overcharged" ---- in other words, the charges brought by the prosecution were harsher than the crime that was committed. And that, she said, means she has to spend a lot of her time working to have the charges downsized to match the actual crime.
"It's scary these days because it is really hard for a jury to believe that a prosecutor can get it wrong," she said.
Cannon also points to the Innocence Project and the number of cases in which a defendant has been exonerated.
Those cases, she said, "should be at the front and center of the criminal justice system. They represent the tip of the iceberg, and they tell us they (prosecutors) were wrong."
In recent years, Cannon spent time as part of an international effort to improve the justice system in Azerbaijan ---- a system she said included no strong defense attorney, but rather the judge listening only to the prosecution and then making a decision.
"That was an eye-opening experience," she said. "It was so lopsided there. It affirmed that you have to have these strong checks and balances."
She said defense attorneys have a unique role in American justice.
"There is nobody like us in the system," Cannon said. "If we fail, then so much fails as a result."
So why is it that these men and people like them ---- those who appear to be criminals caught red-handed ---- plead not guilty when they first face a judge at arraignment?
It would be irresponsible to do anything else, several local attorneys say.
And it's not about finding loopholes or trying to get a client off. It's about making sure the results are fair and constitutional.
"It would be malpractice if an attorney was to plead a client guilty without understanding what the facts are," said criminal defense attorney Randy M. Grossman. "Sometimes, the case is not as strong as you might believe. Everybody in the world thought O.J. was guilty, and look what happened."
Athlete turned actor O.J. Simpson was famously acquitted of two counts of murder in the 1994 slaying of his wife and her friend in Los Angeles County.
Grossman, who is also an adjunct professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, said it is a defense attorney's job to review the entire case to be sure the constitutional rights of his or her client are upheld.
"My approach is that it is not my job to get off everybody I represent," Grossman said. "My job is to make sure they are dealt with appropriately. If they committed a crime, they should be punished. But the punishment should fit the crime."
Many people, when they first face the judge at arraignment, have not hired or spoken with an attorney; oftentimes, a deputy public defender is on duty in the courtroom to step in and handle representation of such clients. And even if a defendant had already spoken to an attorney, the great likelihood is that attorney doesn't yet have all the facts.
At arraignment, the only thing the defense attorney has is a list of the charges that his or her client faces. The attorney has no police reports, no lab findings, no witness statements.
That is true even for the high-profile cases. Take Gardner, whose case was already steeped in wall-to-wall local media coverage when he stepped into a downtown San Diego courtroom to face a judge the day after King's body was found. His attorney had spoken to him for about a half-hour before the arraignment, but he had nothing in terms of what the actual evidence against Gardner was.
"Without a full knowledge of the case, you need to investigate," said North County defense attorney Lynn Behymer, who was not associated with the Gardner case but who handles serious felonies. "You really can't plead guilty. I don't advise my clients to plead guilty without knowing what it is that they (the prosecution) actually believe he did."
Behymer, a retired Marine Corps major, said that in his experience, prosecutors sometimes files charges that are harsher than the actual crime.
"We have to deal with not what our clients did, but what the prosecutor can prove they did," Behymer said. "Sometimes they differ. The idea is to look at what can they prove and what is in my client's best interest."
Conducting an investigation "is the biggest thing that defense attorneys do," Grossman said. "You really need to understand what the facts are, what the evidence against the client is."
Deputy Public Defender Kathleen Cannon is a veteran attorney who has defended many people accused of murder, among them Adrian Camacho, who is on death row for the 2003 shooting death of Oceanside police Officer Tony Zeppetella in front of dozens of witnesses.
Cannon declined to speak about any specific case, but spoke in general about her work as a defense attorney.
"I have been wrong when I have assumed things about a case," Cannon said. "That's why we have to trust the adversarial system, the ability to go after what is true and not true" ---- even in the face of confessions and scientific evidence.
"We have legions of cases where people have been found to be not just not guilty, but actually innocent," Cannon said.
Cannon, who is based in Vista, said there are generally three types of defendants: those who are innocent, those who are guilty, and those who are not as guilty as it may seem, given the charges they face.
Cannon said she sees a lot of cases that she believes were "overcharged" ---- in other words, the charges brought by the prosecution were harsher than the crime that was committed. And that, she said, means she has to spend a lot of her time working to have the charges downsized to match the actual crime.
"It's scary these days because it is really hard for a jury to believe that a prosecutor can get it wrong," she said.
Cannon also points to the Innocence Project and the number of cases in which a defendant has been exonerated.
Those cases, she said, "should be at the front and center of the criminal justice system. They represent the tip of the iceberg, and they tell us they (prosecutors) were wrong."
In recent years, Cannon spent time as part of an international effort to improve the justice system in Azerbaijan ---- a system she said included no strong defense attorney, but rather the judge listening only to the prosecution and then making a decision.
"That was an eye-opening experience," she said. "It was so lopsided there. It affirmed that you have to have these strong checks and balances."
She said defense attorneys have a unique role in American justice.
"There is nobody like us in the system," Cannon said. "If we fail, then so much fails as a result."
Call staff writer Teri Figueroa at 760-740-5442.
Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/sdcounty/article_cdac849b-b7a3-51c4-b92e-7261f21b760d.html#ixzz1YRvyofC2
