Posted on 07/07/2009 5:03:01 AM PDT by marktwain
By NORM PATTIS
Candor is more than a cardinal virtue among lawyers. It is a professional requirement, something like the air we breathe. Whether dealing with the court or third parties, lawyers are expected to be truthful and fair. Perhaps that makes us quaint. It certainly makes us easy marks for those who view deception as part of their craft.
A young lawyer in my office was recently made the dupe of some liars. And when the lawyer confronted the liar, things got even worse. I wish that jurors could see what the lawyer has seen: Truth sacrificed to tactical objectives and then lies adopted as a matter of self-defense. All this done by our guardians, state troopers strutting their stuff in the name of public service.
It started easily enough. A young man is stopped by state troopers for some reason or another. He is ticketed. The police seize his car. When he asks his lawyer why the cops took his car, he doesn’t get an answer. So his lawyer calls the Troop I barracks in Bethany for an answer. Getting none that makes any sense, the lawyer writes a letter demanding return of the car.
A trooper calls. The legal department has cleared return of the car. So the lawyer and client appear at the barracks to retrieve it. When they arrive, the young man is whisked off in cuffs, arrested on a warrant the state troopers had perfected while they held the car.
Veterans in the business of cops and robbers see this for what it is: Another lie blessed by the self-proclaimed strategic needs of law enforcement. Hasn’t the Supreme Court condoned such modest acts of deception? We don’t require candor of cops, yet those who lie to law enforcement can face prosecution, an odd asymmetry in a republic.
The young lawyer was incensed. Our office has for many years now represented folks charged with crimes. That sometimes means turning a person in who has an active warrant lodged against them. We’ve also turned over firearms and other contraband. We don’t counsel flight from arrest.
After the client was booked and processed, the lawyer returned to Troop I to confront the liar with a badge. The trooper was incensed, no doubt counting the lawyer among the naïfs that officers are free to bilk in the great game of liar’s poker they call a day’s work.
I am not sure why the lawyer returned to the barracks. In a sense, it was refreshing to see a soul so possessed of a sense of honor that it was capable of being wounded by routine deceit.
Things turned ugly. The lawyer spoke bitter words. When the trooper threatened an arrest for breach of the peace, the lawyer reminded him that an officer’s peace cannot easily be breached. The trooper then shoved the young lawyer, who defended himself by raising his hands. On impact, the lawyer was forced backward, injuring a finger he uses to pick chords on the guitar he plays with professional ease.
“I tripped,” the trooper now said, so accustomed to lying.
The lawyer demanded that a criminal complaint be sworn against the trooper. For hours, he waited in the lobby of the barracks for someone to take his complaint. When one was finally taken, word filtered out from state police that troopers were now seeking a warrant for the lawyer’s arrest. And they intended to file a grievance against the lawyer, too.
Bring it on, I tell the state police brass later. There will be no pleas here. This prospective prosecution is a farce. Give us a chance to educate a jury about cops playing liar’s poker and calling it justice.
Plato once wrote that there are three sorts of souls. One class is incapable of knowing the truth, but possesses the spirit necessary to defend. I often think of these clueless mastiffs as police officers. The courts do us no favors by requiring us to obey those free to lie to us. That is the very essence of unthinking authoritarianism. •
I have always found this to be odd. An FBI agent that was an instructor of mine said that lying was legal, but usually bad policy.
Sorry, but my head exploded there.
How many lawyers jokes are there?
Sadly, only three. The rest are all true.
As to above, it'd make much more sense to know the various crime(s) suspected of the young man...
ping to see where this thread goes
Another in a long series of anti police blogs here. Any lawyer with any sense would not be dealing with troopers at the barracks level with a complaint such as this. There are channels to handle this sort of thing, not just walking up to a trooper and demanding this or that.
It is all about the ego of the cop. Justice takes a back seat.
The author is a very poor writer. He writes the whole article and leaves out so many details, it’s ridiculous. I’m sure the author thinks he quite the wordsmith. It’s tortuous reading.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8z7NC5sgik
Welcome to Connecticut, but it is usually the local police department that lies
like when a drug dealer asks and undercover if they are a cop. hollywood has told us that a cop HAS to say yes when the opposite is true. of course the cop will lie and say they are not a cop.
lying on an affidavit or any sort of legal paperwork is perjury and not easily tolerated.
Like all aspects of our Republic, there have to be effective checks and balances. Often the balance is shifted in favor of the criminal, but not always. I have been tailgated by State Troopers who were going WAY over the speed limit and just wanted me to move so they could continue speeding, although they had no lights on and were not in pursuit of anyone. They just wanted to get where they were going faster. Above the law. Putting my life at risk (yes, their driving was that aggressive). I am almost always on the side of the police when it comes to the usual finger pointing that occurs, but it does no one any favors by defending arrogance and abuse of power. Having said all of that, I certainly don’t know anything about the specifics of this case.
The Connecticut Law Tribune is a blog?
“Whether dealing with the court or third parties, lawyers are expected to be truthful and fair. Perhaps that makes us quaint.”
And what happens when these lawyers become politicians then?
Between Clintoon and the Obamaloon, we have enough lies for the rest of time.
Which is why, guilty or not, the only words out of your mouth should be "I want a lawyer."
> How many lawyers jokes are there?
Every single one of the lawyers I have engaged to represent me have proven to be decent, honest gentlemen who have earned an honest fee for services rendered. I would far rather trust a lawyer than a mechanic, a computer repairman, or a real estate agent.
Lawyers don’t lie? Lawyers are honest?
Huh?
It’s been my experience that lawyers are twisters and manipulators of the truth. I have little respect for them. The good and honest ones, IMO, are few and far between.
> The author is a very poor writer. He writes the whole article and leaves out so many details, it’s ridiculous. I’m sure the author thinks he quite the wordsmith. It’s tortuous reading.
For a short piece it read fine to me. I thought he wrote well. More detail would have made the piece unnecessarily long. He was able to make his point by being succinct.
“Candor is more than a cardinal virtue among lawyers. It is a professional requirement, something like the air we breathe. Whether dealing with the court or third parties, lawyers are expected to be truthful and fair. Perhaps that makes us quaint.”
PLEEEZE!!!!
What tripe. Cops ay be liars but they don’t make a living at lying. Lawyers have refined mendaciousness to a fine art.
Well, with the ease and frequency with which law enforcement abuses the Constitution and other laws, it's not surprising, and a good thing. Scumbag cops need to be exposed. For the good of the people, and for the good of the police department.
Why is it that cops protect scumbag cops, as they make the whole profession look like the 40-60% of cops that really are dirty (That number from a cop, and not some cranky rooky, either). Cops should police their own, and can the scumbags.
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