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!)

No comments:

Post a Comment