Popular Posts

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Hey, Can You Spare a Couple of Xanax Bars?


National Inventory of the Collateral Consequences of Conviction, or how a minor drug offense can ruin your life. Collateral consequences are the bad things that happen to a person convicted of a crime, in addition to the criminal penalties themselves (direct consequences). If you are charged with a crime, before you plead guilty you owe it to yourself to know what effect a conviction may have on your employment, eligibility to enter the military, obtain financial aid for college, obtain or keep a professional license, have a hunting license, own a firearm, register as a sex offender, and so on. The ABA prepared this interactive website at the direction of Congress. ____________________________________________________________________________________
Hey, Can You Loan Me a Xanax Bar? Did you know that if you give a friend a xanax bar, diet pill, adderall pill, or prescription sleeping pill you've just committed the felony crime of distributing a controlled substance and could go to prison and be fined up to $10,000? If you accept money or anything of value, the offense level goes up (longer sentence). Police departments across the nation, including Kerrville, use snitches to set up their friends. They even sign written "confidential informant" contracts. Say Mary Smith gets busted for a little cocaine. If she'll rat on her friends, her charges go away. So, Mary calls her friend Suzy and says she has a big exam and has to pull an all-nighter, could you sell me a few adderall. The police officers tell Mary to ask Suzy to meet her outside the campus bookstore. Guess what - now they can enhance the charge to delivery in a drug free zone, which kicks the offense to the next highest level. Of course all the telephone calls are recorded, and Mary will be wearing a wire when she meets Suzy. Another trick the police use is to set the meet in or near a city or state park, or within 1,000 feet of a playground or school. Once they bust Suzy, then it's her turn to be a snitch. I've noticed another disturbing trend. A boy and girl have consensual sex, the girl's parents find out and can't believe their little angel would do something so vile, the girl cries rape or claims she was so drunk she couldn't defend herself. The law almost always takes the girl's side, the boy gets charged with sexual assault, expelled from school, and depending on his age (under 17 is still a minor) can get sent to reform school or prison. Meanwhile, there are con-men running all around the Hill Country lying, cheating and stealing with impunity. I reported one of them who committed perjury in a deposition by claiming he was a "highly decorated Vietnam vet" who was awarded the Bronze Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Purple Heart flying helicopters, when the truth is that he was in the National Guard and never left the US. But it doesn't involve drugs, so the police and prosecutors here don't care.

9 comments:

  1. Good post Richard. It speaks to the "two" Kerrvilles, defined by a segregated power church and a prosecutorial environment that preys on low end crimes committed by poor minorities which carry stiff prison sentences. White collar crime is rarely recognized, and almost never prosecuted. The District Attorneys understand the game and serve up plenty of red meat to a community full of fear.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks. I forgot to mention that the man who committed perjury in a deposition is a multi-millionaire with stroke with the Republican party.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That is a good post, but fails to mention that in a felony case the Defendant (one way or the other) will have a lawyer. Seems that warnings to the Defendant would be the lawyers job. Problem is that the town is over run with lawyers, and that lawyers with no experience as Criminal Defense lawyers are (for the need of money) holding themselves out for court appointments. This town has professional prosecutors who pray on rookie lawyers to the destruction of the Defendants.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You have yet again failed to print my post that "lightly" criticized the local "wanna-be" criminal defense lawyers. I guess we wouldn't want to hurt their feelings. Hell, I don't even call names?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I didn't check comments for a couple of days.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is off topic, but I submit it to you for you consideration:

    Here is an email I received some months ago which was originated by Emil Prohl. I was very glad to see Mr. Prohl engaged in political activism, and I support his right to be an activist. My hope is that Mr. Prohl will be an inspiration to other convicted felons to speak their minds and engage in the political process. Too many convicted criminals are afraid to speak out against the same government that put them in jail and prosecuted them.

    As a hard core liberal, I was disappointed to see Mr. Prhol take a position that is so damaging to so many poor and disenfranchised, while enjoying the benefits of a sweet taxpayer funded retirement program.

    He got his.

    The position is exacerbated by the fact that Mr. Prohl was widely known as a punitive judge while on the bench, with his harshest sentences reserved for poor and minorities. It seems like Mr. Prohl still retains the punitive mindset, while kicking back in comfortable government funded retirement.

    One thing that has changed is that he will now be subjected to critical thinking and vocal opposition now that he has entered the world of political activism.

    I look forward to a civil and lively debate with Mr. Prohl.

    From: Emil Prohl
    Date: July 11, 2012 3:14:17 PM CDT
    To:
    Subject: Fwd: Obamacare please read Karl


    Sent from my iPad
    **
    Page 50/section 152: The bill will provide insurance to
    all non-U.S. residents, even if they are here illegally.

    **
    Page 58 and 59: The government will have real-time access to an
    individual's bank account and will have the authority to make
    electronic fund transfers from those accounts.

    **
    Page 65/section 164: The plan will be subsidized (by the
    government) for all union members, union retirees and for
    community organizations (such as the Association
    of Community Organizations for Reform Now -
    ACORN).

    **
    Page 203/line 14-15: The tax imposed under this section
    will not be treated as a tax. (How could anybody in their
    right mind come up with that?)

    **
    Page 241 and 253: Doctors will all be paid the same
    regardless of specialty, and the government will set all
    doctors' fees.

    **
    Page 272. section 1145: Cancer hospital will ration care
    according to the patient's age.

    **
    Page 317 and 321: The government will impose a prohibition on
    hospital expansion; however, communities may petition for an
    exception.

    **
    Page 425, line 4-12: The government mandates advance-care
    planning consultations. Those on Social Security will be
    required to attend an "end-of-life planning" seminar every five
    years. (Death counseling..)

    **
    Page 429, line 13-25: The government will specify
    which doctors can write an end-of-life order.

    HAD ENOUGH???? Judge Kithil then goes on to identify:

    "Finally, it is specifically stated that this bill will not apply to
    members of Congress. Members of Congress are already
    exempt from the Social Security system, and have a well-funded
    private plan that covers their retirement needs. If they were on
    our Social Security plan, I believe they would find a very quick
    'fix' to make the plan financially sound for their future."

    - Honorable
    David Kithil of Marble Falls , Texas

    All of the above should
    give you the ammo you need to support your opposition to
    Obamacare. Please send this information on to all of your email
    contacts.


    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you. I honestly hadn't realized that a blog is a time consuming matter. Mr. Ellison, you perform a valuable service, and you are the only one of your kind that has the stomach for it. I started practicing law at 24 in 1974. In a town of 110,000 people+ the young lawyers hung with the old lawyers and learned to practice law. We had an informal apprenticeship, and we lived and loved to fight it out in a court room. We were competitive and out to make a reputation. But for us, money was never an object - everyone was making money from the roustabouts to the Dr.'s and lawyers. We had the privilege to show-off our stuff. Now, it seems that capitulation is the rule for most of these lawyers. The system should be (is designed to be) an adversarial system. I learned, early on in my career, that in either a criminal case or a personal injury case the lawyers that were offered the best deals were the lawyers that were willing to "call the opposition's bluff". Lawyers that relished suiting-up and showing-up were the lawyers that got the respect - meaning they did the best job for their clients. I just hate seeing a 1st Offense DUI defendant (no wreck, no fight, no profanity) spend $2,000 for some lawyer who hasn't gone to trial in 20 years, wind-up with exactly the same plea as he could have gotten for himself - had he only asked.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Come on, Richard, your blog is about as boring as watching paint dry. Why have you stopped writing about the local lawyer mafia and their "associates"? Need some material? I have plenty. Also, why did you remove that blog entry about Lou Chamberlain and her ties to Scott Monroe? I have a copy if you'd like to repost. Did you "get in bed" with these hoodlums? Politics does make for strange bedfellows. Can you not keep them honest because maybe you became just like the rest of the horde?

    ReplyDelete
  9. I didn't know I deleted your comment about Monroe and Chamberlain, and I'll be glad to publish if you'll repost.
    RLE

    ReplyDelete