Was thinking of a topic today, after it was suggested that I update from my favorite reader out their in Internetland.
Thought about movies, thought about books that I'm pretending to read, music that I listen to when I shower, viral videos, etc. It all conjured the same reaction: "Meh."
Then something peculiar happened. I came home, in my shirt and tie, blaring Glassjaw and getting double takes as I rolled in to my spot with my "midnight blue" VW bug. As I was walking up to my shoebox, I saw a client. Our eyes locked for not more than 1.5 seconds. I immediately picked up my pace and chanted the following to myself: "He can't remember you, He can't remember you, He can't remember you." Then I hear:
"Hey- Public Defender guy!"
I couldn't read his tone as friendly or angry, so I quickly waved, mumbled something like, "Hey, remember to not violate your terms of probation and, um..." and got the fuck in to my apartment.
Safely inside, I ran through my options. I could simply forego going to the gym, make some dinner, and forget that I've been seen. I decided to get in to my gym clothes and go out. And then I heard:
"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone you live here!"
To which I replied a very simple, very dejected, "Ha."
Frankly, I was offended, and here's why: Most people are aware of the negative reputation that criminal defense attorneys get from the public at large. We're seen as loophole arguing, justice hating, slimy scumbags who would love nothing more than to put a pedophile across the street from every elementary school. And don't get me wrong, I'd love that.
Joking aside, I can deal with that reputation. I thrive on it. I love hearing appalled people going, "How could you defend him?!" To which I simply reply, "Look at your constitution, thumb through it, and kindly shut the fuck up." It's not like we love our clients, believe me. It's just that we, as public defenders, kinda enjoy ensuring that peoples' rights are protected, even if we have to do it through the worst of the worst.
But there's a more insidious reputation that most people don't realize from the outside. And it's from our clients. It's the reputation of "dumptruck."
Dumptruck implies that you, as a public defender, would love nothing more than to simply clear cases by resolving them, by any means necessary. It implies that you're best friends with the district attorney, and you conspire together to come up with long jail terms. It implies, at its core, that you just don't care. It is the "n" word to public defenders. And it sucks; Most public defenders fought really hard to get the position they had, and most, if not nearly all, work unbelievably hard and care for people that most people would rather forget. Yes, we get cynical, and yes, we don't get along with every client. But the caliber of zeal and advocacy that I've seen from public defenders is the highest than any other area of law I've ever witnessed. Any attorney in my office can be given a name, and 1-2 clues about a case before they recall most intimate details involving the matter. To me, that's impressive and it's something that I work to perfect.
And I guess that's why I was more or less offended by my run-in this evening. Yes, of course, I don't really want everyone in my complex to know that I'm a public defender, if for any other reason to keep my work and personal life separate. Other than that, I really don't care if you (former client) see me in my street clothes. Why? I'm not a dump truck, even if I get called one, and no matter how much disdain I receive from multiple angles, I will continue to do my job.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Book Review!
Hey gang,
So... tomorrow apparently equals a week from now. Sorry for the delay, but if it's any consolation, in the mean time I have read another book. I'm not going to review, it, however. My original plan was to review "Wonder Boys" by Michael Chabon and I plan to continue that course. I did read "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. As good as that book was, I don't really have the willpower to think about it (it's REALLY depressing).
So...
Wonder Boys was an excellent read, even if it sadly took me FOREVER to finish. Michael Chabon's style is very engaging, and there were more than a few times where I had to sit back and simply marvel at well put-together the prose was.
The plot, centering around a mid-life crisis plagued author/professor torn between 2.5 romantic interests, was also very enjoyable. Chabon does an excellent job of painting characters, their flaws, and giving them voices.
Finally, I liked that the book was set in western Pennsylvania. I don't know the area well, but it seemed well-portrayed and part of the fun of a good book is getting a feel for places you haven't been.
After I finished the book, I decided to see if Netflix had engulfed the rights to show it through their "Watch Now" feature. They had. I decided to give it a whirl. Needless to say, as with any adaptation, I had my gripes. Katie Holmes is annoying in any context, and in this one, her irritating nature shown through even brighter. Even though her character in the book was my least favorite, she somehow went above and beyond and made me want to punch her in her stupid Joey face even more. On the other side, I thought that Sara Gaskell was perfectly cast by Frances McDormand. Michael Douglas was a middle of the road choice (I would have preferred Alec Baldwin, frankly). Robert Downey Jr.? Always a good choice, and I felt that this was no different. There were obvious gaps in the screenplay that were frustrating as well- a complete neglect to the Passover portion of the story, the Vernon Hardapple mix-ups, etc., but all in all, it was a decent adaptation. The movie, I'd give a solid "B."
The book, however? I would rate it at least A-. A solid read, and further proof that Americans can still produce SOLID literature.
With that breath, I will note that I have moved on and accross the pond to a Nick Hornby novel, "Slam." Hopefully I'll finish it before it gets fit for the big screen, but I have a tendancy of being crappy. Wish me luck!
So... tomorrow apparently equals a week from now. Sorry for the delay, but if it's any consolation, in the mean time I have read another book. I'm not going to review, it, however. My original plan was to review "Wonder Boys" by Michael Chabon and I plan to continue that course. I did read "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. As good as that book was, I don't really have the willpower to think about it (it's REALLY depressing).
So...
Wonder Boys was an excellent read, even if it sadly took me FOREVER to finish. Michael Chabon's style is very engaging, and there were more than a few times where I had to sit back and simply marvel at well put-together the prose was.
The plot, centering around a mid-life crisis plagued author/professor torn between 2.5 romantic interests, was also very enjoyable. Chabon does an excellent job of painting characters, their flaws, and giving them voices.
Finally, I liked that the book was set in western Pennsylvania. I don't know the area well, but it seemed well-portrayed and part of the fun of a good book is getting a feel for places you haven't been.
After I finished the book, I decided to see if Netflix had engulfed the rights to show it through their "Watch Now" feature. They had. I decided to give it a whirl. Needless to say, as with any adaptation, I had my gripes. Katie Holmes is annoying in any context, and in this one, her irritating nature shown through even brighter. Even though her character in the book was my least favorite, she somehow went above and beyond and made me want to punch her in her stupid Joey face even more. On the other side, I thought that Sara Gaskell was perfectly cast by Frances McDormand. Michael Douglas was a middle of the road choice (I would have preferred Alec Baldwin, frankly). Robert Downey Jr.? Always a good choice, and I felt that this was no different. There were obvious gaps in the screenplay that were frustrating as well- a complete neglect to the Passover portion of the story, the Vernon Hardapple mix-ups, etc., but all in all, it was a decent adaptation. The movie, I'd give a solid "B."
The book, however? I would rate it at least A-. A solid read, and further proof that Americans can still produce SOLID literature.
With that breath, I will note that I have moved on and accross the pond to a Nick Hornby novel, "Slam." Hopefully I'll finish it before it gets fit for the big screen, but I have a tendancy of being crappy. Wish me luck!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Thinking outside the box
A colleague, one who should know better than to ask my dumbass for advice, has asked me to think of some ideas for her current jury trial. A felony case that runs the risk of some very serious consequences. After much thought and painstaking analysis, my suggestion is for her to do exactly this:
Book report to come tomorrow I swear!
Book report to come tomorrow I swear!
Monday, August 9, 2010
Weekend Recap!
Good morning all,
So I thought this post would be dedicated to my weekend happenings w/ Ms. LLK, of whom I celebrated 3 years of unadulterated, unbridled, unmistakable schmoopiness! (We're still trying to make as many friends and well-wishers vomit. My goal is still seven.)
All establishments will be subsequently reviewed via Yelp.
Friday evening we began at the Carter House Inn, one of the swankiest establishments in the 'Boldt. The thought was originally to scam food from them for their happy hour and imbibe swanky beverages. Unfortunately, they did not have free food at the time. (Lame!) Still, despite this place's reputation as a high-end joint, we were still able to get a draft beer, and a well-crafted lemon drop for $7.50.
We then ventured north to Arcata for foodstuffs. Again, despite our best original intentions, we were forced to improvise. We had planned to consume Japenesey noodles at Japhy's, a place which has held a lot of promise to us, but for whatever reason has always been closed; Imagine our chagrin then, when we discovered that this place would be out of commish until 8/15/2010. To quote my travel-wearied companion, "le boo."
So we ventured next door to Stars, a appropriately hyped burger joint w/ locales in both Eureka and Arcata. I say appropriately hyped because Stars is reasonably priced, no-fuss, and very solid. I had the chili cheese burger and LLK enjoyed a guac/bacon adventure of which I vultured most, if not all the salted piggy meat.
Next it was The Humboldt Crabs season-ender. They were playing Folsom in a WCL tournie, and I felt it was needed to check out the locale sports flavor one last time. Unfortunately, due to miserable weather, and obnoxious patrons in front of us who were taking up too much space, it was really only enjoyable for about 5 innings. What I like about the Crabbies is the local flare, cheap beer, and casualness. What it lacks, however, are the accoutrement of "bigger" minor league ball, like w/ the SJ Giants. The Giants has a lot more creature comforts and I feel like it's a lot closer to MLB than the Crabs, which sadly is a closer kin to your local high school game. But you can't drink (openly) at your local HS game, though, so it will have to do until I am a season-ticket holder for the more-enjoyable Giants.
So that lands us to Saturday morning. We opted for Renaeta's in the morning, the local creperie in Arcata. Crepes are pretty much awesome, so it was a good call. We got a savory and sweet crepe. The savory one contained chevre, spinach, almonds, and ham. The sweet had figs, pears, strawberries, and freshly whipped cream. They were both awesome. LLK even got passed the syrupy nature of the strawberries, which is a huge testament. It is akin to me indulging in something w/ mayonnaise.
Then it was the zoo! I have a big soft-spot for zoos. We used to have season passes to the SD zoo and Wild Animal Park, and as a child, I thought zoologist would be the career for me. I still work with animals, but unfortunately they're called district attorneys and even though they no where to poop, they are by no means as cute or interesting. (Snap!) Anyway, the zoo here is indeed small, but what it lacks in size it makes up in heart and an overall well-thought out layout. There were gibbons, monkeys, a black bear w/ fox, flamingos, and red pandas! Red pandas incidentally are pretty rad and are the "I wish I could domesticate that" of the moment.
After zoo it was back to Arcata for some light bumming around and a visit to Heart Bead for the ever-crafty LLK. Granted, I don't know much about crafting, but this place seems pretty awesome, and its steady stream of crafty customers proves it. However, there was a "pet" peeve egregious error committed here during our stay. This is definitely one of LLK's biggest annoyances, and to be honest, it has now been adopted by me as well. While we were in store, a guy thought it wise to bring his gargantuan, albeit very friendly, dog in store. A dog w/ no orange vest that was kind of all over the place. Let me elaborate- this is a store w/ I'm guessing tens of thousands of beads, placed in tables, placed at waist's height. This situation had disaster all over it. And yes, yes I love dogs. And yes, yes I pet the goggie and scratched it's cute head. But still, I can't imagine what situation any responsible pet-owner thinks that's appropriate. I mean, this guy was clearly waiting out his wife and kid- You can't just fucking wait outside? Also, it was crowded as hell in there- God-forbid there's someone w/ allergies. Blah...
Ok, so then we ate at the afore-blogged Hole in the Wall. The Arcata one is as good as the Eureka one. Oh, sammiches....
The evening eventually rolled around and it was dinner and a show! Dinner at the Arcata-swanky "Follie Duce," where we got wood-fired pizzas. Enjoyable.
Then it was off to HSU's Van Duzer theatre for the local production of Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance." Lemme tell, that musical basically stole a bunch of Animaniacs' sketches. All blatant-plagiarism aside, it was a very good production, with one minor blemish, which happened to be.... major.
The "major" general- While I understand their casting in terms of appearance (the guy looked like an old stubborn, stodgy, general), he absolutely blew the marquis number. And by blew, I mean blew. At one point he had to look at the cast on stage for help. It was cringe-worthy at best.
Notwithstanding that "major" guffaw (sorry for the pun), the rest of the production was very, very enjoyable. Yes, I am more or less in the sticks. But it's very comforting to know that if I need to, I can get some certifiable culture amongst the meth and marijuana!
All in all, it was a very awesome weekend, and a reminder that even in places a bit (ok, a lot) removed from the "city-life," as long as you have great company (and I did), you can carve out an awesome time.
Finally, here are my blawg goals for this week:
1 culture opinion entry (TV, book, music or trio)
1 current event entry
1 more food entry
Enjoy your week, my handful of dedicated!
So I thought this post would be dedicated to my weekend happenings w/ Ms. LLK, of whom I celebrated 3 years of unadulterated, unbridled, unmistakable schmoopiness! (We're still trying to make as many friends and well-wishers vomit. My goal is still seven.)
All establishments will be subsequently reviewed via Yelp.
Friday evening we began at the Carter House Inn, one of the swankiest establishments in the 'Boldt. The thought was originally to scam food from them for their happy hour and imbibe swanky beverages. Unfortunately, they did not have free food at the time. (Lame!) Still, despite this place's reputation as a high-end joint, we were still able to get a draft beer, and a well-crafted lemon drop for $7.50.
We then ventured north to Arcata for foodstuffs. Again, despite our best original intentions, we were forced to improvise. We had planned to consume Japenesey noodles at Japhy's, a place which has held a lot of promise to us, but for whatever reason has always been closed; Imagine our chagrin then, when we discovered that this place would be out of commish until 8/15/2010. To quote my travel-wearied companion, "le boo."
So we ventured next door to Stars, a appropriately hyped burger joint w/ locales in both Eureka and Arcata. I say appropriately hyped because Stars is reasonably priced, no-fuss, and very solid. I had the chili cheese burger and LLK enjoyed a guac/bacon adventure of which I vultured most, if not all the salted piggy meat.
Next it was The Humboldt Crabs season-ender. They were playing Folsom in a WCL tournie, and I felt it was needed to check out the locale sports flavor one last time. Unfortunately, due to miserable weather, and obnoxious patrons in front of us who were taking up too much space, it was really only enjoyable for about 5 innings. What I like about the Crabbies is the local flare, cheap beer, and casualness. What it lacks, however, are the accoutrement of "bigger" minor league ball, like w/ the SJ Giants. The Giants has a lot more creature comforts and I feel like it's a lot closer to MLB than the Crabs, which sadly is a closer kin to your local high school game. But you can't drink (openly) at your local HS game, though, so it will have to do until I am a season-ticket holder for the more-enjoyable Giants.
So that lands us to Saturday morning. We opted for Renaeta's in the morning, the local creperie in Arcata. Crepes are pretty much awesome, so it was a good call. We got a savory and sweet crepe. The savory one contained chevre, spinach, almonds, and ham. The sweet had figs, pears, strawberries, and freshly whipped cream. They were both awesome. LLK even got passed the syrupy nature of the strawberries, which is a huge testament. It is akin to me indulging in something w/ mayonnaise.
Then it was the zoo! I have a big soft-spot for zoos. We used to have season passes to the SD zoo and Wild Animal Park, and as a child, I thought zoologist would be the career for me. I still work with animals, but unfortunately they're called district attorneys and even though they no where to poop, they are by no means as cute or interesting. (Snap!) Anyway, the zoo here is indeed small, but what it lacks in size it makes up in heart and an overall well-thought out layout. There were gibbons, monkeys, a black bear w/ fox, flamingos, and red pandas! Red pandas incidentally are pretty rad and are the "I wish I could domesticate that" of the moment.
After zoo it was back to Arcata for some light bumming around and a visit to Heart Bead for the ever-crafty LLK. Granted, I don't know much about crafting, but this place seems pretty awesome, and its steady stream of crafty customers proves it. However, there was a "pet" peeve egregious error committed here during our stay. This is definitely one of LLK's biggest annoyances, and to be honest, it has now been adopted by me as well. While we were in store, a guy thought it wise to bring his gargantuan, albeit very friendly, dog in store. A dog w/ no orange vest that was kind of all over the place. Let me elaborate- this is a store w/ I'm guessing tens of thousands of beads, placed in tables, placed at waist's height. This situation had disaster all over it. And yes, yes I love dogs. And yes, yes I pet the goggie and scratched it's cute head. But still, I can't imagine what situation any responsible pet-owner thinks that's appropriate. I mean, this guy was clearly waiting out his wife and kid- You can't just fucking wait outside? Also, it was crowded as hell in there- God-forbid there's someone w/ allergies. Blah...
Ok, so then we ate at the afore-blogged Hole in the Wall. The Arcata one is as good as the Eureka one. Oh, sammiches....
The evening eventually rolled around and it was dinner and a show! Dinner at the Arcata-swanky "Follie Duce," where we got wood-fired pizzas. Enjoyable.
Then it was off to HSU's Van Duzer theatre for the local production of Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance." Lemme tell, that musical basically stole a bunch of Animaniacs' sketches. All blatant-plagiarism aside, it was a very good production, with one minor blemish, which happened to be.... major.
The "major" general- While I understand their casting in terms of appearance (the guy looked like an old stubborn, stodgy, general), he absolutely blew the marquis number. And by blew, I mean blew. At one point he had to look at the cast on stage for help. It was cringe-worthy at best.
Notwithstanding that "major" guffaw (sorry for the pun), the rest of the production was very, very enjoyable. Yes, I am more or less in the sticks. But it's very comforting to know that if I need to, I can get some certifiable culture amongst the meth and marijuana!
All in all, it was a very awesome weekend, and a reminder that even in places a bit (ok, a lot) removed from the "city-life," as long as you have great company (and I did), you can carve out an awesome time.
Finally, here are my blawg goals for this week:
1 culture opinion entry (TV, book, music or trio)
1 current event entry
1 more food entry
Enjoy your week, my handful of dedicated!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Hey, It's Tuesday
Which is stupid. Tuesday's mean afternoon calendars, three more days until LLK, and more or less three days since LLK. (Don't check my math on that one, I'm pretty sure I'm right.)
You can get drunk on Tuesday, sure. Taco tuesday's, two-for-tuesdays, etc., but at the end of the night, you're still staring down the barrel of three more hellish days of work, right? Right?!
Well, in the interest of softening the blow of Tuesdays and how much they blow, I thought I'd throw all y'alls some tidbits.
1. My first Humboldt yelp review. (Yes, I'm that self-involved.) Enjoy, specifically if you're in the area and want a sandwich (protip: there's another location in Arcata!):
Hole in the Wall!
2. Foreign Music Tuesday! Although embedding is disabled on this video, I strongly encourage you all to partake in this song. Cafe Tacvba is more or less the U2 of Mexico. Or would that make them the Coldplay of Argentina. Blah, I'm confused. Regardless, this song is good and a fine listen for the Tuesday blues... aka.... BLUESday! (you all hate me now, I know):
Puntos Cardinales
3. Today's "my two cents of the day:"
Celebrity and jail are two terms that together, conjur a whole mixed-bag of emotions from most people. "Blah blah blah they get off scott free," and "Blah blah blah money blah blah," are what pop in to my mind. So let's consider the Lo-Lo scandal, shall we? So, on the face of the story, I can easily see a lot of people getting very indignant. She was sentenced 90 days, and has thus far served 14. And now she may be released to serve out the remainder in in-patient rehab.
It's seems bogus, but if you can believe it, it's not unbelievable favoritism. Let's explore why:
a. First, Lindsay has plead to a probation violation. Standard sentences on violations vary from county to county, but should a person violate misdemeanor probation, the court, along with defense counsel and the district attorney, have a wide lattitude in options for a sentence.
Further, people can violate probation in a whole myriad of ways. They can pick up a new case, provide a dirty piss test, or in the case of Lo-Lo, just fail to do what was asked of her because, presumably, she was too good to do what a judge tells her (editorial comment.) With that said, the above lattitude is generally used to determine the appropriate remedy for the violation.
I'm guessing that that's what happened here. The judge, DA, and defense counsel came up with a game plan that included jail that worked for all parties. Before you get all pissy about the "Hollywood" aspect, believe me, I've been able to work better deals for clients who more of train wrecks.
b. I'm envisioning the knee-jerk reaction of any, let's say, "Tea-party" douche bag to be as follows: "She served 14 days?! 14 days?!! They should put her away for a LOT longer. 'Merica!"
That's fine, Joe/Mary Teabagg. But, remember how you're also pissing and moaning about taxes and how blah blah blah 'Merica? Yeah, our state can't really afford to house nonviolent offenders for very long. That's why California Penal Code Section 4019 exists. Yup, not only am I reviewing sammiches, I'm dropping penal code knowledge. So, 4019 essentially provides that any misdemeanor time (including that of probation violations for misdemanors) gets 2 for 1 credits. That means, in essence, if I'm sentenced to 120 days in county jail, I will only have to serve 60. I know this may piss off a lot, but before it does, stop and ask yourself, do you really want to lock up those menacing "driving on suspended license" criminals? Or those pesky drunk-in-publics? I can understand DUI's, but believe me, there's enough penalties in that charge to really fuck with a person.
So for Ms. Lo-Lo, if this article is accurate, she's served 14 actual days. Which is to say, she's served 28 days pursuant to Penal Code section 4019. That's not special treatment. My homeless clients would get the same calculation. So now she's got 90 days minus 28 days credit time served, and if my math is correct that would be 72 days left to serve. Which leads us to "c."
c. She's getting admitted to an "in-patient" facility. So Hollywood, right? You're actually wrong. Believe it or not, my indigent (po') clients can get assistence in to SSI funded in-patient facilities that would lead to the same result. Obviously, it wouldn't happen as seemlessly as for Ms. Lohan, but it can happen.
So, if you consider "a-c," you should reach a couple of conclusions. First, Ms. Lohan, although adorned by media and lit up by the spotlight, is not really receiving unfair treatment by the "system." Second, she probably could have saved a boat-load in attorney's fees and stuck with her local, trust-worthy, neighborhood public defender. I coulda gotten that bitch out in a week.
Happy Tuesday! (Sorry, LLK!)
You can get drunk on Tuesday, sure. Taco tuesday's, two-for-tuesdays, etc., but at the end of the night, you're still staring down the barrel of three more hellish days of work, right? Right?!
Well, in the interest of softening the blow of Tuesdays and how much they blow, I thought I'd throw all y'alls some tidbits.
1. My first Humboldt yelp review. (Yes, I'm that self-involved.) Enjoy, specifically if you're in the area and want a sandwich (protip: there's another location in Arcata!):
Hole in the Wall!
2. Foreign Music Tuesday! Although embedding is disabled on this video, I strongly encourage you all to partake in this song. Cafe Tacvba is more or less the U2 of Mexico. Or would that make them the Coldplay of Argentina. Blah, I'm confused. Regardless, this song is good and a fine listen for the Tuesday blues... aka.... BLUESday! (you all hate me now, I know):
Puntos Cardinales
3. Today's "my two cents of the day:"
Celebrity and jail are two terms that together, conjur a whole mixed-bag of emotions from most people. "Blah blah blah they get off scott free," and "Blah blah blah money blah blah," are what pop in to my mind. So let's consider the Lo-Lo scandal, shall we? So, on the face of the story, I can easily see a lot of people getting very indignant. She was sentenced 90 days, and has thus far served 14. And now she may be released to serve out the remainder in in-patient rehab.
It's seems bogus, but if you can believe it, it's not unbelievable favoritism. Let's explore why:
a. First, Lindsay has plead to a probation violation. Standard sentences on violations vary from county to county, but should a person violate misdemeanor probation, the court, along with defense counsel and the district attorney, have a wide lattitude in options for a sentence.
Further, people can violate probation in a whole myriad of ways. They can pick up a new case, provide a dirty piss test, or in the case of Lo-Lo, just fail to do what was asked of her because, presumably, she was too good to do what a judge tells her (editorial comment.) With that said, the above lattitude is generally used to determine the appropriate remedy for the violation.
I'm guessing that that's what happened here. The judge, DA, and defense counsel came up with a game plan that included jail that worked for all parties. Before you get all pissy about the "Hollywood" aspect, believe me, I've been able to work better deals for clients who more of train wrecks.
b. I'm envisioning the knee-jerk reaction of any, let's say, "Tea-party" douche bag to be as follows: "She served 14 days?! 14 days?!! They should put her away for a LOT longer. 'Merica!"
That's fine, Joe/Mary Teabagg. But, remember how you're also pissing and moaning about taxes and how blah blah blah 'Merica? Yeah, our state can't really afford to house nonviolent offenders for very long. That's why California Penal Code Section 4019 exists. Yup, not only am I reviewing sammiches, I'm dropping penal code knowledge. So, 4019 essentially provides that any misdemeanor time (including that of probation violations for misdemanors) gets 2 for 1 credits. That means, in essence, if I'm sentenced to 120 days in county jail, I will only have to serve 60. I know this may piss off a lot, but before it does, stop and ask yourself, do you really want to lock up those menacing "driving on suspended license" criminals? Or those pesky drunk-in-publics? I can understand DUI's, but believe me, there's enough penalties in that charge to really fuck with a person.
So for Ms. Lo-Lo, if this article is accurate, she's served 14 actual days. Which is to say, she's served 28 days pursuant to Penal Code section 4019. That's not special treatment. My homeless clients would get the same calculation. So now she's got 90 days minus 28 days credit time served, and if my math is correct that would be 72 days left to serve. Which leads us to "c."
c. She's getting admitted to an "in-patient" facility. So Hollywood, right? You're actually wrong. Believe it or not, my indigent (po') clients can get assistence in to SSI funded in-patient facilities that would lead to the same result. Obviously, it wouldn't happen as seemlessly as for Ms. Lohan, but it can happen.
So, if you consider "a-c," you should reach a couple of conclusions. First, Ms. Lohan, although adorned by media and lit up by the spotlight, is not really receiving unfair treatment by the "system." Second, she probably could have saved a boat-load in attorney's fees and stuck with her local, trust-worthy, neighborhood public defender. I coulda gotten that bitch out in a week.
Happy Tuesday! (Sorry, LLK!)
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