-Caveat Lector- This is one thing that really annoys the hell out of me, effing useless defence barristers/attorneys who don't want to defend a charge when they can plead guilty to it. They don't seem to understand that a defence is not something you use as a tear-jerk mitigating factor when pleading for a lenient sentence after a guilty plea. If this poor guy did have an attack of encephelitis why the hell should he plead guilty to anything? It's either Automatism, which is a complete defense to absoloutly anything (the legal equivalent of sleepwalking) or it's a text-book not guilty by reason of tempoary insanity. Sure this idiot lawyer will probably claim that it's not worth the 'risk' of having a jury trial because you 'might' be sentenced to prison. Could you see anyone, anyone at all, on a jury convicting this guy? That's assuming the judge doesn't just listen to the expert evidence and throw the case out. I have had idiot 'defence' lawyers try to convince me (this is a few years back) that there was no point challenging search warrants that were invalid on their face (strangely enough they were clearly invalid, and we also found out that the affidavits for the warrants hadn't been dated either and were doubly worthless), that there was no point requesting copies of the 'evidence' against me because the police must have it or they wouldn't have laid the charges. (Strangely enough the evidence didn't exist outside of some dumb cop's desire to clear their unsolved petty crimes files). This idiot even told me (after a great deal of arguing) that if I requested this information the prosecution were going to start looking at it again very carefully and try to find some more charges to lay. The main thing to remember with lawyers, even expensive ones, is 1) They're lazy and will do anything to avoid having to do anything other than plead for mercy on your behalf, 2) They're quite possibly incompetent. 3) They tell you what they think you want to hear. 4) Try asking them a few basic questions during a conference or court appearance. See if they know what your name is, what the crime you're charged with is, when it's supposed to have happened, where it's supposed to have happened etc. I strongly recommend the following. Tape record all your conversations with your solicitor/barrister/attorney. You might think this sounds paranoid, your lawyer probably sounds like a nice, competent guy. Maybe he is, but do it anyway. Write the date of the tape and sign it when you do so. Don't tell him/her if possible. Just wait until you sue him for incompetence or make a complaint to the professional body and he routinely denies ever having told you anything of the sort, informing you of this and that, trying to charge you this amount etc. Wait until after he has been interviewed and made a statement on oath then copy the tapes and give them to the investigator/Judge. I may be coming across a bit strong but with every single legal professional I have dealt with I have found incompetence and corruption. A few examples. 1) The legal firm of Slater and Gordon (Australia). Halfwit told me my appeal against the public service insurer not to pay me c.$2000 worth of compensation owed to me had no chance of succeeding because they were disputing my version of events. Actually told me he'd want $5,000 up front to run the case, and I could do it myself but they would know that he had dropped the case and would brand me a vexatious litigant. I did it myself and won the case, costing the government, I'm told, around $200,000 for their incompetent barristers. (The incompetence can work both ways). 2) The halfwit barrister who went behind my back to my mentally ill father and told him that, after I had spent the night in jail, if he didn't pay him $400 I was likely to be remanded for c. 2 years over a petty dispute of under $100. Given that he was already retained by me, he had no business approaching 3rd parties for money. To add insult to injury because he had been paid already legal aid wouldn't foot the bill (who would have otherwise). Then he did such a terrible job, he kept calling me by different names (all wrong) until even the magistrate asked him if he was representing the correct client. I swear if I had known about the money he took from my Dad at that time I would have belted him right there in the courtroom, even if it would have cost me a month in custody. 3) Incompetent number 3. Solicitor who I refused to pay legal aid for because he was so hopeless (mainly) and also as a stalling tactic to allow me to appeal legal aid refusal etc. As I was representing myself I needed the case files, which I was having trouble getting. The magistrate was getting quite angry with me (not a good thing) as we had to postpone once as I hadn't received the files. After several delays I finally was able to talk to him (the solicitor) by phone. He claimed that legal aid had told him not to release the files to me until the money (a petty amount in any case) was paid. He 'didn't know' if Legal aid had the power to do that but he wasn't going to give me the files. Practising enormous self restraint, I went and approached the magistrate in question through his clerk. After several phonecalls (I don't think he really believed me at first) I was contacted by the solicitor who advised me that 'he' had prevailed upon legal aid to release the files to me. (Thus proving to me what I'd suspected, that he was a liar as well as an incompetent and a fool). 4) Legal aid themselves. After another 'big trial' (almost) a few years ago when the prosecution realised I wasn't going to plead guilty to anything and dropped the charges, legal aid forgot to bill me $1,500 or so. I think the reason was becasue it was fairly complex to someone of ordinary intelligence, it kept getting passed on and one until they lost track of it completely (I wouldn't be surprised if they hadn't lost all the paperwork). Neither did they realise this a few years later when I reapplied sucessfully using the same details and address (and my 'real' name is quite distinctive). Anyway, I had to get that out of my system. On Fri, 20 Oct 2000 23:21:11 -0700 Steve Wingate <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >-Caveat Lector- > >Inflamed brain caused Alaska Airlines attack > >By KIM CURTIS, Associated Press > >SAN FRANCISCO (October 20, 2000 7:23 p.m. EDT >http://www.nandotimes.com) - A passenger who broke into the cockpit of >an Alaska Airlines plane and lunged for the controls last March was having >a rare reaction to encephalitis, lawyers on both sides agreed. > >Prosecutors and the defense attorney for Peter Bradley, 39, were working >Friday on a plea bargain. > >Bradley has no memory of the attack, and experts needed weeks to unravel >the medical mystery, according to his attorney, Jerrold Ladar. They >concluded that encephalitis - an inflammation of the brain - had made him >delirious. > >The plane was traveling from Mexico to San Francisco on March 16 when >Bradley, returning from a family reunion, began babbling incoherently, >stripping off his clothes and wandering from seat to seat. He then broke >into the cockpit yelling, "I'm going to kill you!" and grabbed for the controls. > >The pilot momentarily lost control of the jet as the co-pilot used an ax to >fend off Bradley, who is 6-foot-2 and weighs 250 pounds. Passengers >tackled him and held him down. > >Bradley was charged with committing a violent act likely to endanger an >airplane and assaulting a flight crew, federal offenses that carry up to 20 >years in prison each. A trial had been set for Oct. 30. > >He was freed on $100,000 bail and returned to his job as a carpenter in >Blue Springs, Mo. He has suffered no subsequent outbursts. > >Bradley's behavior mystified doctors and lawyers, friends and family. He >had no alcohol or illegal drugs in his system and no history of psychiatric >problems. His only run-ins with the law were two traffic violations in 1979. > >He had been suffering from headaches for almost a month, however, and >his condition worsened with a lack of sleep and the changing air pressure >in the plane, his lawyer said. Doctors finally considered encephalitis. > >Doctors on both sides agreed on the diagnosis, Ladar wrote in court >papers. "Two highly qualified neurologists ... concur that Mr. Bradley was in >a delirious state as a result of encephalitis," the lawyer said. > >"When he read the reports from the passengers about what happened, he >was horrified," Ladar said. > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >}}}> ANOMALOUS RADIO <{{{ - Techno, Ambient, Talk (33k+) >http://www.live365.com/cgi-bin/directory.cgi?autostart=anomalous > >}}}> RADIO ANOMALY <{{{ - Techno, Ambient, Jazz (Cable, DSL) >http://www.live365.com/cgi-bin/directory.cgi?autostart=stevew168 > >Anomalous Images and UFO Files >http://www.anomalous-images.com > ><A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> >DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER >========== >CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic >screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
