This is powerful, but I want to wait to make sure the February hearing is indeed cancelled; also that he doesn't end up with an arrest warrant for "failure to appear." -- S
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: David Merrill Date: Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 5:07 PM Subject: FW: Refusal for Cause Dear Suitors; This email just in. ------------------------------ -----Original Message----- *From:* Suitor *Sent:* Friday, January 23, 2009 4:34 PM *To:* David Merrill *Subject:* Refusal for Cause Thank you. ------------------------------ Earlier today this suitor called me because he wanted some help about a State Patrol ticket he had R4C'd and today was the "arraignment" - sometimes called the *First Appearance* or something clever for *Cattle Court*. Therefore the first thing I instructed was that he make sure the legal name he gave the trooper was on the docket - it was. In the city/state where this happened, the suitor had some choices at that juncture - 1) proceed to the cash register (plead guilty and pay up) 2) proceed to court before the black-robed attorney for a hearing or arraignment, or 3) proceed to the district attorney assistants for the benefit of discussion, plea bargain etc... The suitor and his witness chose 3) and found themselves in a spartan concrete metal desk - jail cell type of a room with an assistant district attorney, ADA. The suitor showed a copy of the ticket Refused for Cause with the clerk instruction to federal court and the ADA became upset and claimed that he had no idea what that paper was or what it meant. Soon there were three ADA's all badgering and belittling the suitor and his witness. The meeting quickly culmintated in setting a court date in mid-February with the ringleader of the DA team declaring that if Suitor didn't show up he would be facing an FTA warrant for arrest and that the R4C was going straight into the garbage where it belonged! I gather it was from in front of the courthouse that Suitor and his Witness called me back and described the turn of events. I tried and tried for a few minutes to regain control of a lifetime of mental conditioning and was able to get it across in terms of *objective*. The objective of going to the courthouse and making a restricted appearance was to correct and/or prevent any fraud upon the court. That is to say, that when Trooper received the Presentment R4C'd timely, it was encumbent on Trooper to either intercept the Process on its way to the courthouse or to inform the courthouse that it had been R4C'd. Apparently that had not been done. The suitor is an engineer-type and when he wanted specific directions understood that I could not imagine the options before him - like writing software in block diagrams and the three choices in the first paragraph above. So I implored that he just remain calm and objective-minded. He did. Rather than go all the way home to print out another image of the R4C'd Presentment he chose to locate the ADA and retrieve his copy from his wastebasket; only to discover that it was sent up to the 5th floor courtroom instead of being discarded. Not only that, it would appear the ADA ring studied it and had completely changed their tune about the R4C! The ADA inquired about the clerk instruction and commented that the federal court had no jurisdiction. Suitor replied that he was not arguing jurisdiction - only that the record was being kept at the federal courthouse. Suitor went up to the 5th floor to locate that copy of the R4C so he could inform the judge about potential fraud on the court. - Only to find the ADA up there too, who located the R4C and gave it to him with directions about getting the audience of the court. And so that transpired; Suitor approached the bench and handed the R4C to the judge and walked to the podium - however for symbolic reasons stayed in front of the podium - perhaps the metaphysics of the podium being an altar is objectionable? Anyway when it was time Suitor explained that he was showing the R4C to the judge so as to prevent any fraud from being perpetrated on the court. The judge said, "Okay" and accepted the R4C into the record. The jubilant Suitor and his witness called again, I imagine from in front of the courthouse, and I suggested they go find the ADA and confirm the hearing for mid-February was cancelled. Regards, David Merrill. P.S. I recall several years ago something quite similar happened to one of you.
