Being put in a vulnerable position is one of the worst places to be. It often means that you may make decisions that are not in your best interest or that will result in not getting the best possible outcome. Those who take advantage of the vulnerable are among the lowest forms of humanity. Those who prey on the elderly and children are among the most heinous, the vomit of society. I recently heard that a friend of mine’s elderly parent who suffers from dementia was scammed out of over $200,000, her entire life savings. This left a pit in my stomach and caused me to ponder and question the human condition. Prosecutors and many defense lawyers are even worse.
When a person is charged with a Federal crime they enter the most vulnerable state of their lives. Before they are allowed to admit guilt or refute the allegations a prosecutor will pile up charges and superseding indictments to bring you to your knees. The response will cause panic and your mind will take you into unchartered territory to find help. Enter the defense lawyer. Predators’ of the lowest form. Like a lion who pounces on a wounded deer, they are lurking and waiting to devour their prey. 97% of all Federal indictments result in a plea deal and never go to trial. Defense lawyers know this and they will charge outrageous fees often in the hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars only to get their client
a sentence that any first year law student could produce. They are more like bounty hunters than defense lawyers.
I personally got to know 3 people that spent over a million dollars each and they received 24 month, 59 month and 110 month sentences respectively. Only one went to trial and he received a guidelines sentence of 24 months,the others took plea deals. Think of it, a million dollars!! For what? How does anyone with even a minimal standard of ethics justify this type of money grab? The crazy part it is not only legal but encouraged and justified by the Courts. A Prosecutor dreams of the day when he leaves his salaried government job knowing the ins and outs of the system and ready to exploit those charged with crimes to achieve financial nirvana. I write this not as an observer but as a victim. The day I was in the Boston Federal court house to affirm my plea I met with my former lawyer in the courts cafeteria. Before entering the court he slid a paper across the table and said “this basically says that you paid me for a trial that did not happen but I’m keeping your $40k over payment because I have been preparing for a trial.” Wait, What? I thought to myself. We have a written contract that spells out our arrangement, X amount for legal representation short of a trial and X amount if it goes to trial and this guy now wants to change our contract when I’m ready to go into the court room. I had no time to review, was pressured and knew I was being taken advantage of. Out of fear of not being represented correctly or losing my plea deal and a host of other thoughts and fears of being in a vulnerable position I signed the paper under duress. He took the paper and looked at it and in a mocking way said to his colleague, “I love Dana’s signature, see how it just loops around” he gloated. Fast forward a few months and he sends an email apologizing for not responding to probations pre sentence report which was due that day. In that email he goes on to explain he has been very ill and that he had been “Essentially incapacitated” for the 5 weeks leading up to his surgery. This is the same 5 week period before I had a trial date and just a few weeks before I pled. He continues in his email that he still experiences “foggy brain” and that is why he did not respond to the pre sentence report. Based on his written admission and lack of presenting any justification other than taking advantage of someone at their most vulnerable, I filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Legal Fee Arbitration board and there will be a hearing on October 19th. Luckily, there are good people including Prison Professors and their
ever growing team of justice impacted people who want to change the system. There are resources made available at no cost for those who want to put in the time that provided detailed step by step instructions on self advocating. They also put me in touch with RightingWrongsLaw.com who advocate against those legal professionals who abuse and take advantage of the vulnerable. They have been great and drafted the argument that the fee amendment presented in the court room is invalid for a number of reasons. My exposure to the legal system has been eye opening to say the least. It is in desperate need of a massive overhaul. Way to many people are in prison for way too long. The system is rigged for those who can afford it and is heavy handed on those who cannot. Presidential pardons often can be secured for a 10 million dollar donation to a supporting political action committee (PAC). I would not have believed this until I arrived at a Federal Prison Camp and met a few who are connected. If you break the law there should be consequences without question and without prejudice. More often than not the punishment is not equal to the crime and those who are low income or of modest means receive the harshest sentences. A Boeing aircraft killed over 300 people because of poor quality control, cutting corners while those in charge were never charged criminally. Google and Microsoft pay millions in fines on a regular basis because of ethics decisions made by upper management who never face criminal charges. I suppose there is not enough band width on this site to list the hundreds of thousands of other examples. I’ll close this posting with a paraphrased quote from a song by the late 1970’s rapper Grand Master Flash. I think the name of the song is Freebase. “Street kid gets busted, just a petty crime and he’s going do some time. Businessman gets busted with 24 kilos. He’s out on bail and out of jail and that’s the way it goes.”
