Things to do in Springfield when you're Poor

Today I had a "trial" with a bully of a judge. I represented a man charged with felony larceny. His crime? Failing to make (totally) good on an agreement to purchase parts and perform labor on some other dude's car.

Cash was delivered. An ad-hoc agreement was signed. Some work was done. Lots of it wasn't. Parts were ordered, twice. My guy gets charged with a crime.

I want you to pause and really digest that for a moment or two. In the United States of Fucking America, a man who breaches a contract is charged with a crime.

Now, granted, there are snakes out there to be sure. There are sneaky dudes who claim they're fully licensed wallet inspectors and then *poof* no more wallet. These things, they happen, and they are larceny.

However, breach of contract, no matter how bad, is not a crime. Partial performance of a contract means that the prosecution cannot prove that the recipient of the big old wad of cash intended to permanently deprive the owner of that cash without giving back anything in exchange. At least not when the money was originally taken. Later on, things, they can happen. Other crimes can be committed vis-a-vis the monies. But not larceny.

There's actually case law on this point. In Massachusetts. Can't even get to a jury. Gotta toss the case.

My prosecutor knew this. I knew this. The prosecutor, in theory, had an ethical obligation to dump the case because he couldn't get a conviction. But, alas, Mr. Bully Grumpus the Third, Judge Presiding, wasn't convinced. He wouldn't grant my proper motions, wouldn't bang his (metaphorical) gavel and give my guy his Not Guilty. Instead, he let him sweat, forcing him to work out a deal with the complaining witnesses.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is freeze dried bullshit. My client faced the power of the Commonwealth, and the aggreived party got a %100 free lawyer to prosecute their case. That lawyer could ask for a cash bail at arraignment. My client, meanwhile, faced the possibility of a criminal conviction PLUS mandatory restitution if convicted.

But somehow, to this particular judge, it didn't matter whether this was a civil case or a criminal case, as long as we "worked it out."

I call bullshit. I have never been as angry as I am right now about my job. My client today was railroaded into a restitution agreement after being threatened with a criminal conviction by a judge who fucking knew the law and by a prosecutor who admitted to me that he couldn't prove his case, but chose to prosecute it because it was "easier" than running the risk of his "clients" complaining to his superiors that he dumped their case.

They will never have to follow proper procedure. They will never have to hire counsel to file a civil suit or go to small claims court. Instead, they will have had the Commonwealth put the motherfucking squeeze on my client with a totally bogus felony charge, that, even if dismissed, will always appear as a charge on his record. My client had to post bail to stay out of jail during the pendency of this case. If he had ever failed to show up, he'd have lost that money and an arrest warrant would have issued.

As a very wise (but totally insane) judge has said many, many times before, this would have never been a crime in the suburbs.

So, things to do in Springfield when you're poor: get arrested and charged with a crime for breaching a fucking contract, even if you've done some of the fucking work already. And they wonder why nobody has a goddamn job! If you're going to get tagged anyway, why bother trying to work?

Fuck everyone and everything about this fucking case - except my client of course, who, at the end of the day, is the only one who got fucked.

Fuck.