Eye on the Courts: A Recipe for Disaster, Narrowly Averted in Woodland

I have heard the horror stories, this year among all others.  Misdemeanor courtrooms where attorneys are nowhere to be seen.  Defendants in custody for months on minor charges, without having seen an attorney, and the judge completely indifferent.  That does not happen in Yolo County.

Still, what I saw last Monday disturbs me for what could have been, rather than for what was.  It had all of the recipes for disaster.  We start with a young 23-year-old defendant who was apparently cited by the CHP, driving on I-80 at excessive speeds with a suspended license.  At some point, someone told her she did not need an attorney as the misdemeanor would be dropped.

Without an attorney representing her, Judge Sam McAdam did the right thing initially – he made sure she did not want an attorney.  He asked her multiple times, informing her of her right to an attorney, but she felt she did not need one.

The brew in the courtroom was a problem – it was a heavy Monday calendar.  There were only two defense attorneys in the room, both public defenders.  They were busy trying to talk to their clients.  A third private attorney was in and out.  And there was only one deputy DA, fairly young, Brandon Linn.

With the lack of attorneys, the calendar was running late, the courtroom was bogged down and the hearings were sporadic.

No one I talked to really remembers what happened in the courtroom in this case.  Deputy Public Defender Emily Fisher had a vague recollection before she was briefly appointed, and then un-appointed, to handle the case.

In felony courtrooms, we have a court reporter.  For misdemeanor trials, there is no reporter but the proceedings are audio recorded.  There was no recording.  The only record of the proceedings are the minute orders which tell virtually nothing about what happened.  This, by itself, represents a huge problem.

I saw what I saw.  What I saw was a miscarriage of justice only mitigated by the fact that the only actual right that was violated was a young lady’s right to contest her speeding ticket.  But there is a principle here, a right to a fair trial, and the idea that perhaps this is not an isolated incident, which has troubled me enough to continue to pursue this matter.

This is what I saw.  I saw the young lady who claimed that if she got her driver’s license back, the misdemeanor would be dropped.  At no point did Brandon Linn correct this perception.

In fact, I saw Mr. Linn move to drop the charge, the judge agree to dismiss it once it was confirmed that she had a valid license – which they were able to do during the proceeding in court.

Judge McAdam then asked the young lady if she wanted to contest the speeding violation.  She said yes.  At no point did Mr. Linn interject that this was a plea agreement and, in order for the misdemeanor to be dropped, she had to plead to the speeding ticket.

What I did see was Judge McAdam spend the next five minutes or so fumbling around figuring out how and when to move the case to the appropriate courtroom for the next step.

Finally, after finding the right courtroom, he was just about to schedule her and issue her a minute order.  That is when Brandon Linn, the deputy DA stepped up and said that it was a plea agreement and that she could not have her cake and eat it too.  If she wanted the charge dropped, she could not contest the speeding charge.

So suddenly, Judge McAdam told her that she would have to face the misdemeanor charge now.  Now the young lady was confused and began to cry.  At this point Judge McAdam did the right thing and asked if she wanted an attorney and appointed Emily Fisher to represent her.

Eventually, the young lady took the DA’s agreement – she copped to the speeding violation and the judge dismissed the misdemeanor.   But no one I have spoken to believes this was handled correctly.

Judge McAdam clearly was trying to do the right thing here – he made sure that the young lady initially knew her rights to an attorney, which is something that does not happen everywhere.  But, at the same time, he’s a relatively inexperienced judge and this is his first criminal court assignment.

Several attorneys told me that there is a one dismissal rule for misdemeanors, so if this were on the record, the misdemeanor dismissed cannot be un-dismissed.   One said, “Once the misdemeanor was dismissed that was it; a misdemeanor once dismissed is forever gone. It cannot be resurrected no matter what Finn thought was the deal. McAdam should have known that.”

Judge McAdam should have clarified if this were a flat dismissal for getting the driver’s license reinstated or if it were a stipulated agreement.  Up until the very last second when Mr. Linn spoke up, it seemed to be an agreement for getting the license renewed.

One prosecutor told me that if a DA makes an offer that is unclear, the DA should stick by the offer as understood and take the hit if it was not properly explained.

Judge McAdam should have stood by his guns and told the DA that the charge was already dismissed and he could not undo it.  But he failed to do so.

We are actually quite fortunate that the worst thing that happened here is that the defendant was forced to plead to a traffic violation, but it would be instructive to know who informed her that she did not need an attorney and that the misdemeanor would be dismissed once she got a valid license, as well as who first informed her that there was a plea offer from the DA.

Mr. Linn certainly sat back for a good amount of time while the judge was trying to schedule the matter for traffic court – why did he not speak up sooner?  Since last Monday, Mr. Finn had another run-in with a defense attorney in a trial, and several other attorneys have complained Mr. Finn has not honored his agreements and has at times tried to add additional conditions at the last moment.

The most troubling question is whether this represents an aberration or a pattern, and, unfortunately, if the misdemeanor court has no court reporter or recording device regularly, we cannot even monitor it.

—David M. Greenwald reporting