Brad Haywood
@BradleyRHaywood
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Founder of @JusticeFwdVa ; Public Defender for Arlington County & Falls Church, VA. This is my personal account.
Joined January 2020
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Of the 15 who died “in the line of duty,” 13 died from COVID. The other two were killed in vehicle-related accidents. Nearly 20% of border patrol agents remain unvaccinated.
Copaganda at its finest.
More Border Patrol Agents died in the line of duty during 2021 than in any other time since the agency’s inception. The line-of-duty deaths of 15 Border Patrol agents mark a grim milestone in the agency’s history.
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Today in random acts of cruelty: a woman convicted of shoplifting in Arlington, who is pregnant and due in May, was sentenced to three months in jail—i.e. possibly sentenced to have her baby in jail—despite both the prosecutor and defense attorney recommending no jail time.
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The NY Times skipped the press briefing, as well. Cops & loss prevention corporate spin a salacious tale of mythical shoplifting gangs putting poor Walgreens out of business; the truth is property crime declined in 2020 & these store closures were announced over 2 yrs ago
Walgreens will close five stores in San Francisco next month, citing what it described as a continuing problem of "organized" shoplifting in the city. One of the stores was targeted at least five times by the same man, the authorities said.
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Pearl clutchers offended by jury nullification — the idea that citizen jurors need not enforce unjust laws — allow me to tell you a story. The year was 2001, two years before Lawrence v. Texas, when oral and anal sex were both punishable as felonies in Virginia.
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Why is public defender Twitter not more critical of oversharing? Our primary obligation is to our clients. Your story may be awesome, it may have immense retweet/like-potential, but if you learned it in the course of representation, you probably ought to keep it to yourself.
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THREAD: What if I told you that almost everything Off'r Gutierrez did in his interaction with Lt. Nazario finds at least some justification in the law? This is what we need to be talking about right now, because if we don’t, nothing will change.
1/16
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Things that are better than Drug Treatment Court: drug treatment (without court part).
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Also, to be clear: these weren’t my office’s cases. We’re not “oversharers”: we were just present when the sentencings went down.
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Court costs remain a scam in Virginia. Allow me to tell you about a 1st-offense felony drug possession client. He reached a plea deal whereby his charges will be dismissed after 2 yrs if he stays out of trouble. He's indigent. The clerk still charged him $2400 in costs.
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If everyone had the opportunity to work in a public defender’s office for a year, the world would be a much better place.
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New t-shirt alert.
Should probably start handing these out for free in the states that had trigger laws.
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The real reason public defenders are underpaid and under-resourced? They don’t ACTUALLY want us to do a good job.
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This is the future so many women are staring at right now. Will jurors where women are charged w/ felonies for having abortions muster the courage to do what those amazing Fairfax jurors did, and do what’s right, even if it’s not what they were instructed? I sure hope so.
13/13
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Why inoculate cops, sheriffs, DHS therapists & homeless shelter workers in phase 1b, but NOT a group (public defenders) that is almost identically situated in terms of contact w/high-risk individuals & inability to observe public health protocols? Im sure the answer is depressing
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Justice was done. And the only reason justice was done was because that blessed jury knew the law — and knew they could speak THEIR values, the values of the community, through their verdict, rather than reflexively putting a stamp on bigotry and tyranny.
12/13
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All public defender agencies should offer if not require sabbaticals after every 5 years of service.
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Here’s a big difference between public defenders and prosecutors: defenders can be at the very top of their game and absolutely wax their adversary at trial… and still lose.
Yes, it was one of those weeks.
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There’s a patrol officer in Arlington who made $244,536 in 2021. I imagine most of that was overtime. I am the only person in my office who makes even half his salary. And he’s not even brass.
The huge gap between the pay of teachers vs. the pay of cops/sheriffs in Los Angeles should be one of the great scandals of modern local government. It reflects a deep moral rot in our society, and a profoundly anti-science approach to both public safety and human flourishing.
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@HealthUntoDeath
@HilarieAshton
How does one “run” a “portfolio of companies?” I “run” an office of 12 lawyers and I feel irrelevant half the time even with just one little team.
Seems like those companies are all operating w/o her assistance & she’s just reaping the benefits of others’ labor. Capitalism!
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Hey defender Twitter, y’all should congratulate
@ineedazannax
for winning her VERY FIRST JURY TRIAL! Jury was out like 3 minutes. Total dominance!
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They acquitted. They ACQUITTED, goddamnit. The defendant started crying. The jury was *already* crying. Several of them came down from the jury box to give him a hug. Honestly, but for the prosecutor and her interns, the entire courtroom was in tears.
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Hey, they happen. You think you're dying, you tell your friends you think you're dying, they tell you no one has ever died from a pot overdose, you reflect a moment, eat a slice of pizza then fall back asleep.
@SenAmandaChase
Senator Chase, can you provide a medically documented example of a marijuana overdose?
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As someone currently representing several ppl charged w/murder, the idea that I could do a constitutionally-adequate job defending them in 13.89 hrs (Va's current cap for ct appt'd fees in murder cases) or even 18.8 hrs (cap after the 2025 increase takes effect) is ludicrous
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Considering filming a documentary which I will call “Courthouse Inefficiency: the Silent Killer (of Public Defender Resources”
An attorney who waits 4 hours just to get 2 cases called has effectively spent 10% of their workweek on those 2 cases. It’s nuts.
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There’s more to this. Under the compromise, 2 new crimes would be created: pot in a car & possession by kids (enforcement of which will be racially disparate). And pot wouldn’t be legal until ‘24. From the standpoint of racial justice, that’s arguably worse than the status quo.
Marijuana legalization may derail in Virginia after all if no bill passes this week. Both chambers have passed (different) bills legalizing marijuana, so this really is inches from the finish line.
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To those wondering what can be done about judicial misconduct, the answer in Virginia is almost nothing
@changeservant
@AndyElders
JIRC hasn’t formally disciplined a judge in 4 yrs. Not even when Judge Fisher in Loudoun put an att’y in jail, thereby subjecting her to a strip search, merely because she had the gall to preserve her record. Similarly, none of this led to discipline:
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One of the most amazing experiences as a public defender is when you have a terrible day in court & feel powerless against injustice your client faced … then he calls, or you visit, and he tells you with the utmost sincerity how much it meant that you fought so hard for him.
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Walgreens admits their complicity in encouraging the media/politicians to lie about the effects of reform on retail theft.
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So that’s part of what we mean by "give police less to do/less power to do it." Stop using traffic laws as an investigative tool. End pretextual policing. Reanimate the 4th Amd & let Black people go about their lives w/o being subject to the racist whims of law enforcement
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The defense attorney spent pretty much the entire trial building up his client’s character, and directing seething cynicism toward the cops and prosecutor. The jury knew what was up. They hated the cops and hated the prosecutor for trying to ruin this man’s life.
10/13
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@AndyElders
Same judge nearly rejected 3 speeding pleas (reduced from reckless driving) in the past 2 wks. Two military guys trying to keep their jobs & another civilian worried about losing his security clearance. All had compelling mitigation. All were absolutely lit up by the judge.
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You haven’t really been a public defender until you’ve told a judge your client missed court because of his dad’s funeral, then later you find out his dad died 15 years ago.
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Let’s talk about why drug possession should never be a felony. First, background for fellow Virginians. Simple possession of a schedule I or II drug (most drugs of abuse, incl. cocaine, opiates, amphetamines, MDMA, LSD, etc) is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
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We’ve given police too much to do. And we’ve given them too much authority to do it. That’s how you end up with Lt. Nazario “lawfully” stopped, “lawfully” ordered out of his vehicle, and “lawfully” subjected to force when he “failed to comply.” Let’s flesh that out…
3/16
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Cops can get away with many things that the general public would find completely outrageous if they were paying attention. And they can get away with them because the law allows them to.
12/16
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Those of you following the redistricting mess, is it fair to say that the Dem legislature created a commission that will very possibly cause it to lose its majorities in both chambers? Every update looks increasingly terrible.
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This morning, 6 out of 6 Republicans on the Va Senate Judiciary Committee voted against pay equity between prosecutors and public defenders. I would like any single one of them to explain that vote to me, and why they believe fairness is a partisan issue.
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Mind you, he'll remain on probation until ALL costs are paid off. If he's late on payments, he'll incur interest. And this is just from one, fairly minor drug case! I'm sure my defender colleagues can cite many examples that are even worse than this. It makes no sense at all
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I’m sorry, but this is mind-blowing. The Fairfax delegation, made up ENTIRELY of Democrats, almost all of whom have pledged to support criminal justice reform, had FOUR judgeships to fill, yet they did not pick a single former public defender. How do you let that happen?
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I'm sure rural prosecutors love the idea of a Dem AG in 4 yrs barnstorming their counties to strictly enforce gun laws.
This is grandstanding, pure and simple.
NEW - Attorney General-Elect Jason Miyares says he and Gov-Elect Youngkin will look to change Virginia law to allow the AG authority to step in when local officials feel the Commonwealth's Attorney is not doing an adequate job. Miyares specifically references northern Virginia.
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Remember a couple of weeks ago, when a Loudoun County judge unlawfully had a victim in a DV case abducted, detained, assaulted and strip searched? I’m sure you’ll be glad to know that no one in power has done a damn thing about it!
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Va’s capital defender offices are a fine example. When they opened in ‘04, Va was “the capital of capital punishment.” CDOs were so well-resourced, tho & the cap. defense bar so well-paid, that at the time of abolition in ‘21, no Va. jury had delivered a death verdict in 11 YEARS
The real reason public defenders are underpaid and under-resourced? They don’t ACTUALLY want us to do a good job.
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Uhhhh
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@changeservant
@AndyElders
JIRC hasn’t formally disciplined a judge in 4 yrs. Not even when Judge Fisher in Loudoun put an att’y in jail, thereby subjecting her to a strip search, merely because she had the gall to preserve her record. Similarly, none of this led to discipline:
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@AndyElders
Same judge nearly rejected 3 speeding pleas (reduced from reckless driving) in the past 2 wks. Two military guys trying to keep their jobs & another civilian worried about losing his security clearance. All had compelling mitigation. All were absolutely lit up by the judge.
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Governor doing what the “progressive prosecutor” didn’t have the guts or the integrity to do.
BREAKING: 9NEWS confirms Colorado Gov. Jared Polis reduced Rogel Aguilera-Mederos' sentence to 10 years from 110.
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It's pretty wild how "victims' rights" statutes and amendments basically never give victims the right to decline prosecution if they want. It's almost like their "rights" depend on their interest in retribution...
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Drug residue presents no risk to anyone. It can't be used. People who "possess" it think they're clean out of drugs. It req's a chemist to identify. But "possession" of residue remains a felony in Va & progressive prosecutors still seek felony convictions for it. Disappointing.
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A reminder that my office is hiring. With the 22.5% county supplement, a candidate hired as an Assistant Public Defender II would make around $91k & a candidate hired as an APD I would start at around $80k. Not bad for the greatest job you’ll ever have.
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“Homicides are up across CA & the blame experts are aiming outrage at the usual suspects…But the biggest risks came in conservative counties w/iron-fist sheriffs/DAs, places where progressives in power are nearly as common as monkeys riding unicorns.”
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One problem, tho, as the defendant was soon to find out: the handsome stranger was, in fact, A COP. And he was hitting on him because the FFX County Police were engaged in a fucking STING OPERATION to crack down on what they described as “gay cruising.”
6/13
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Ok, I thought about this more. Strike “arguably” from my tweet. This bill is definitely worse than the status quo.
Someday Virginia Dems will stop turning to carceral policies to solve social problems. Today is not that day.
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If anyone is interested in spreading the word, we have t-shirts! We're selling these through Bonfire, as a fundraiser for
@JusticeFwdVa
.
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Jason Miyares just tweeted this. Johnny Cash was a lifelong advocate for prison reform and second chances. There are few people Johnny Cash would have found more despicable than Miyares.
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“I believe if you deal drugs and someone dies, you should be charged with felony homicide, full stop, no questions asked,” Youngkin said. “We cannot coddle drug dealers.”
About that, Governor…
(A thread about SB 52, the very unwise fentanyl overdose murder bill)
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There are criminal defense attorneys in the world who oppose criminal justice reform because it would result in fewer clients and less business for them. I hate those people. Viscerally.
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Public defenders have to move mountains in order to achieve justice for their clients. And somehow find a way to forgive themselves when they simply can’t.
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If you grew a cannabis plant in the last 21 minutes, congrats: you have lawfully obtained and may now freely consume marijuana in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
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And y’all wonder why
@JusticeFwdVa
told Dems to stop focusing on “police reform.”There is no reforming this institution. The abuse of their power comes from the power itself; it won’t be mitigated until we take seriously the idea that police & prisons do not solve social problems
Fairfax Police department pointing their guns at a person for recording their arrest.
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The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward the comfort and convenience of privileged people, including those who say “the arc of the moral universe is long” to make themselves feel better for doing nothing to shorten that arc.
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People want the simple fix: training, bodycams, “bad apples”/duty to intervene,etc. That’s also what police & the tough on crime crowd want you to focus on. Just don’t take away their power! Yet it’s their power—and acquiescence by courts & policymakers—that’s the problem
2/16
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$890 for his public defender
$600 jury fee b/c he didn't plead guilty soon enough (i.e. day before trial)
$375 "Fixed Felony Fee"
$150 "Drug Offender Assessment Fund"
$30 "Internet Crimes Against Children Fund"
$20 "Courthouse Security Fee"
etc, etc
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The Windsor Police aren’t an anomaly. Cops are trained to know the line between lawful & unlawful conduct, then come as close to the line as possible without stepping over it. That line is WELL beyond where it ought to be. True reform requires erasing it and starting over.
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They'd be even safer than that if
@JCarrollFoy
or
@JennMcClellanVA
were governor.
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He was taken into custody & charged w/felony attempted “oral sodomy.” The FFX prosecutor, ever the bastion of progressivism, didn’t exercise discretion to drop the charges, but rather took it all the way to a jury, where the defendant faced a felony record and prison time.
8/13
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According to the law at the time, he was guilty as SHIT. 110% guilty. Almost beyond ANY doubt.
Then a funny thing happened, though.
9/13
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Really, tho, they were only illegal for gay people. This was never more evident than in a trial I watched that summer in Fairfax County, VA, where I was a public defender intern. It concerned a man’s attempt to hook up w/a guy who’d been hitting on him at Barnes & Noble.
2/13
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Last year
@JusticeFwdVa
prioritized eliminating pretexts for police stops & succeeded—bills carried by
@HopeforVirginia
@SenLouiseLucas
were enacted 3/1. Don’t fall for glossed over “police reforms” we know don’t work. Reformers nationwide reach out, we’re here to help.
16/16
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The media bought this BS hook, line & sinker. But they’ve moved on, & correcting the record doesn’t sell ads, so the mythical crime wave they breathlessly reported on is now just poison in the brains of the public—w/only, you know, an entire civil rts mvmt hanging in the balance.
A data analysis found overall crime is down in the Commonwealth of Virginia. “Contrary to the media narrative, overall crime decreased in 2020 compared to 2019” by more than 10%—Virginia was one of 22 states, & D.C., analyzed for a study exploring crime rates across the country.
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Just a reminder that public defenders have impossible jobs. We’re responsible for protecting 5 of the first 10 constitutional amendments, for about 75% of all defendants, yet there isn’t a single city, county or state in the US that gives us enough resources to do so effectively.
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Whren v. U.S. held that the subjective reasons for a traffic stop are irrelevant. Cops can literally stop motorists because they are Black, so long as they come up with a good enough cover story (i.e. any of the thousands of traffic infractions in the Code).
4/16
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Might I suggest closing 26% of the prisons?
Va prisons scrambling to solve 26% officer vacancy | Tap on the picture to learn more 🔽
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Ten felony probation violation clients today, none went to jail. Great success!
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Why do you think Windsor Police haven’t settled the lawsuit? Why did they wait for media attention to fire Gutierrez? Probably because they think he barely did anything wrong. Probably because they know they trained him to do most of it.
13/16
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I’m sorry, but “progressive prosecutors” constantly asking for more money — and they’re almost all doing it — is a really bad look. Progressives ought to be reducing their caseloads, thereby making less work for themselves.
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We have a 50 yr drug war that’s militarized the police, created an opioid crisis, disenfranchised millions, & utterly laid waste to communities of color, yet here WaPo is playing up fears of an “addiction” less common or harmful than alcohol or caffeine
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Public defenders don’t write their appeals and big motions at night because they’re procrastinators. They do it because there’s no other time to write them.
If labor laws applied to us, the government would go bankrupt.
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In fact, pulling a gun on someone doesn’t even turn a traffic stop into a “custodial arrest” for 4th Amendment purposes. That’s right, a cop can genuinely put a driver’s life in jeopardy and STILL not trigger the full protection of the 4th Amendment.
7/16
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Mimms v. Pa. held that traffic encounters are “inherently dangerous” for cops (yes, really) and occupants of a vehicle can therefore be ordered to exit, even if the officers do not have any specific reason to believe they represent a threat.
5/16
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420lb back squat today. Pretty sure I’m the strongest public defender in Virginia, and perhaps the strongest Chief Public Defender IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD.
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Earlier this month, Virginia passed a law adding a hard cap of 0 days in jail for a first technical violation of probation (14 days for a first absconding). Goes into effect on July 1. Today, an Arlington Circuit Ct judge gave a client of mine TWO YEARS in prison for absconding.
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Dems: nothing is to be gained by attempting to out-cop your opponents. You will never be as tough/dumb on crime as Republicans are.
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No sir. These are de minimis touchings, 70% of which don’t even hurt the officer’s feelings. Police often charge A&B LEO as leverage to coerce a guilty plea, or to cover up their own misconduct…
…and that’s injustice and that’s beneficial to your garden
@BradleyRHaywood
So they’re assaulting officers and interfering with police during their duty? I don’t think is the point you tried to make, but we can all agree it’s justified if this is the example.
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So they get to the car, continued the sexy talk, w/discussion of oral sex. Not for $$, just consensual oral sex.
When the defendant made the move towards the cop’s pants, lo & behold, on came the lights/sirens, and a rack of cops waiting in a panel van descended on them.
7/13
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There’s the option of an Internal Affairs complaint, I suppose, which might end up in the officer’s file—a file that no one in Virginia can access, because police personnel files aren’t available to the public (or even to defendants in criminal cases)
9/16
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Actually yes: if you seek a felony and 6 mos mandatory time for someone who, while experiencing a mental health crisis, pushed a police officer or slapped their hand away, inflicting no injury other than hurt feelings, then you are definitely a bully.
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The way to fix policing in America is to give police less to do.
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Hey Va. Gen’l Assembly: which of you esteemed public servants would like to carry a bill requiring pay parity between prosecutors & public defenders in localities that provide salary supplements? You get to burnish your progressive credentials while pissing off almost no one!
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By the end of Virginia’s 2022 legislative session, zero crimes will have been repealed, but multiple new crimes will have been created, all with bipartisan support.
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@QHPodcast
Arlington County elected a true progressive prosecutor about a year ago,
@parisa4justice
. Ever since she took over, the Circuit Court completely changed its stance regarding prosecutorial discretion. Although plea deals were never scrutinized before, now they always are.
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Two life offenses yet the jury only needed one hour to acquit on both.
Congrats to Rachel Collins & Helen Randolph of the Arlington PD's Office for their phenomenal work earning true justice for our client.
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The defendant was a teacher at a nearby private school. Teacher of the year, in fact. Had a wife & 3 young kids. By all accounts a stellar guy. On the day of his arrest, he was spending a lunch break browsing books at B&N when a tall, good looking young fella approached him
3/13
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"Offering" pot or "consuming" pot in public is a class 4 misdemeanor (class 4 misdemeanors have a long history as pretexts for police to harass Black people). You know what's considered "public" in Virginia? Your own front porch. Yeah, folks, this is not well thought out.
2/2
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The Portsmouth Police Dept just broke every rule in the book to arrest a state senator & multiple pub defenders. Yet Portsmouth Del
@SteveHeretick
opposed the repeal of qualified immunity. How is this not bigger news?
@ACLUVA
@vaplan2018
@kofiannan321
@LegalAidJustice
@JeffMBourne
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Defenders: Next time a judge hassles you for not investigating or litigating a case like you work for Sullivan & Cromwell and have 10+ associates/paralegals at your disposal, invite them to join you in advocating with local leaders for public defender pay & resource parity.
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Cop searches a car after a pretext stop. Finds drugs. He’s later caught on bodycam bragging that he stopped the driver b/c “he gave me the felony stare” (per his report: “looked at me in a manner consistent w/criminal indicators”)
Tell me, what’s the gender & race of the driver?
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People who shouldn’t be serving as state criminal law experts on national TV, ranked:
4) Civil litigators
3) Anyone with “Yale” on their resume, including but not limited to Neal Katyal
2) Former federal prosecutors
1) Glenn Kirschner
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The stranger struck up conversation, which moved pretty quickly toward flirting and sexual innuendo. I’ll never forget the key lines:
“Have you eaten lunch?”
“Umm, yes, actually.”
“OK, but are you still HUNGRY?”
4/13
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