"San Francisco's Hall of Justice." "Its 20 courtrooms are the frontline of the city's criminal justice system." "One of the busiest is called" "Department 15 with the Honorable Judge Tsenin presiding." "Accept your plea of No Contest and find you guilty." "You've got to stay out of that Safeway." "And then we've done this three times before and then you don't show up." "I absolutely love being a judge." "Well the next time you forget about it." "I issued a bench warrant of $10.000." "Everyday the judge sees as many as 200 defendants." "Most need the help of a Public Defender or PD." "A free attorney appointed by the court." "I'm gonna spring you free today." "I have a good faith belief that the items involved then might involve cat food." "We can only do so much." "But if you keep getting arrested it kind of ties our hands." "And you get in the zone where you're just moving." "Most of the PD's are young and inexperienced." "But for their clients." "They are the only defense." "If convicted." "They could go to jail for up to a year." "I'm serious he's getting a lot of charges here." "With dozens of cases a day." "This is where new PD's cut their teeth." "This is a great job." "We are talking about extremes here." "We got nine or ten that are gonna vote guilty and God will remember this." "We're opening up a whole kettle of worms here." "Misdemeanor offenses account for about 70 percent of the new cases in the Hall of Justice." "They total around 10.000 a year." "Okay." "Misdemeanor cases are all cases that are not punishable by a sentence of state prison or death." "The bread and butter cases in the misdemeanor courtroom could include anything from a." "A simple trespassing..." "Or petty thefts." "...to a drug possession case." "Driving under the influence of alcohol." "Homeless people camping out on the street or in somebody's foyer." "So the range is really wide and includes even non-violent to violent offenses and sort of everything in between." "All right." "Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen." "All jurors are present." "Both counselors present." "Your next witness Mr. Mahoney." "Please." "Thank you your honor." "Today." "PD's Lewis Romero and Phoenix Streets are working together." "Phoenix hopes to gain some valuable trial experience." "All right." "This is a case of The People of the State of California versus Felix Trong." "Their client Cantonese speaking Felix Trong is charged with driving under the influence." "The legal blood alcohol limit is less than.08." "Mr. Trong was tested by the California Highway Patrol." "He measured.14. nearly twice that limit." "On the evidence." "DA Patrick Mahoney knows the jury should convict." "Good afternoon." "Notice that the car swerved into the lane and then in erratic moved back into the number two lane that it was traveling in." "Officer Cregger decided to do an enforcement stop." "And the window was down and immediately noticed the smell of alcohol." "Mr. Trong could have settled the case a long time ago." "But he was. "No." "I can't plead guilty because I'm not guilty." "Even if it means doing some jail time if I lose." "I have to go on with this and I have to tell the truth and the truth is." "That I was not drunk." "I only had two beers." "If found guilty." "Mr. Trong faces up to 45 days in county jail." "It's the first time Phoenix has worked on a trial with the more experienced Lewis." "These are my first few months as a criminal defense attorney." "I've only been doing this since May." "Lewis has been doing this for three years." "It's challenging." "But." "But it's part." "Part of the challenge that I. That I love." "It's why I do it." "If it were easy." "It wouldn't be fun." "Man." "I tell you." "It's." "It's amazing to watch him work." "Nothing about this case is gonna contest whether or not Mr. Trong had consumed alcohol." "He in fact did." "It's not at issue." "It won't be." "The State of California will rely largely upon a machine." "This machine was removed out of service for errors 11 times." "An important prosecution witness is Officer Amy Cregger." "She was one of the officers who arrested Trong." "Officer Cregger with whom are you employed?" "The California Highway Patrol." "And how long have you been employed by the CHP?" "Since February of this year." "Did you notice anything about the defendant's appearance?" "His eyes were red." "Watery." "His speech was slurred." "The fear in this case is that the jury might like her." "This sort of girlish." "Sort of..." "Innocence." "Sort of charm." "...yeah." "Just. "I. I. I. I'm brand new and I'm gonna make mistakes and..."" "Yeah." "She is a sweet girl and she is new." "And mistakes are going to be made." "And just to accept that fact and say." ""Well." "Therefore." "Even though we like her we're gonna discredit her on certain things"." "While speaking to Mr. Trong you noticed that he had a strong accent." "Is that true?" "Yes sir." "And you were concerned that." "Perhaps." "He was not understanding you." "Was that correct?" "He'd indicated." "Yes he did understand me." "He understood me." "But you were still concerned?" "I was." "But I know he understood." "You are certain?" "Not." "I'm." "To me he understood." "And you mentioned that he had an unsteady gait." "Yes sir." "Well." "Could." "Could you show us?" "Sure." "Well." "You know..." "Phoenix and Lewis don't dispute that Mr. Trong was walking unsteadily." "But they've got an explanation." "All right great." "Thank you." "As Mr. Trong exited the vehicle..." "Um hmm." "...isn't it true that he said to you that he has a hurt back and that's why he's moving slowly?" "I don't recall." "So he could have said it." "But you just don't remember it?" "I don't remember it." "No." "If he did." "Or didn't." "Thank you very much for your time." "Officer." "Yes sir." "Mister Mahoney." "Any redirect?" "And we don't even know what is going on." "This is first time." "I never had experience like this." "Mister Trong's case will resume tomorrow afternoon." "With hundreds of cases flooding in every morning." "The Misdemeanor Courts couldn't cope if they all went to trial." "Uh-huh" "So a system of horse-trading or plea-bargaining has evolved." "Often the deals are struck in the informal atmosphere of Judge Tsenin's chambers." "Your plate's pretty full at this point." "I'm sorry..." "This morning Lewis is there trying to cut a deal for Victoria Turner who's charged with battery and resisting arrest." "She faces up to a year in jail." "Tell me what happened?" "She's sitting in a taxicab." "She is coming home from a night of partying." "They." "They think she's a little intoxicated." "She has to throw up at some point and the taxi driver stops and proceeds to dehumanize her." "She's maced." "And before you know it the cops are there accusing her of beating him up." "She throws up in." "In the cab." "You're gonna have to pay for that time to clean it out." "She becomes enraged and starts hitting him." "The taxi cab driver said that I ripped off his turban." "Which I didn't." "He said I broke his phone." "Which I didn't." "He said I assaulted him." "Which I didn't." "And." "I was just amazed." "You know." "That he said all those things." "I was really surprised." "Another cab driver sees this happening and he is the one who maces the victim." "The defendant" "Whoa." "Another hot night in the city!" "Basically." "Anyone could accuse you of anything and you could end up in jail." "It it's been going on for a while." "Dude." "Lewis and the DA work out a deal called Informal Diversion." "Victoria has never been in trouble before and as long as she doesn't get arrested in the next three months." "Her case will be dismissed." "But there's some confusion over the math." "Three months." "I thought it was three months dude." "She's been go..." "Look at the." "look at the incident date." "Look at the incident date." "She's been on informal diversion since July." "That's gonna take her like." "That's gonna make it a whole year." "If you add three on to now that gets us into March." "That's like a nine-month crime free program." "Judge." "Can we call the matter of Victoria Turner at line 87?" "Judge we've reached a resolution in this matter." "Under the condition that" "Ms. Turner not pick up any new arrests during that time." "Good work counsel on both sides." "It was a hard case." "Good luck Ms. Turner." "It's a deal as long as Victoria maintains her clean record for three more months." "Her case will be dismissed." "I see a judge often being the peacemaker in finding solutions." "I think that's my favorite part is trying to find solutions." "Trials are fun too because you have the best seat in the house to human drama." "You get to see it unfold you know." "Minute by minute and." "And it's real." "In the Trong trial Lewis and Phoenix face their toughest challenge yet." "On the night of his arrest." "Trong's blood alcohol concentration was nearly double the legal limit." "It's powerful evidence that comes from a machine called the Intoxilizer 5.000." "To win the case." "Phoenix and Lewis will have to beat the machine." "It's an uphill battle because that Intoxilizer is a hard machine to beat." "We're gonna present our experts." "They're gonna present their expert." "Their gonna present their expert first." "And." "Their expert is a guy they always present." "Terry Cottington." "Who is very good at being pompous." "Arrogant and rude." "And then we're gonna present our expert." "Who is very knowledgeable." "Who is very educated." "Very trained in the." "In the field in which we're talking about." "Have you had any training with regards to the effects of alcohol on human behavior and driving performance?" "I have." "Where and when?" "Principally in the '70s." "Between early and mid." "Mid '70." "That's like 20 years man." "That's the way he's reading magazines." "The prosecution expert testifies that the Intoxilizer that tested Mr. Trong was properly calibrated." "Your testimony today in the year 2000 continues to rely on these correlation studies from the '70's?" "Yes." "And the literature which is ongoing." "Can you cite for us three articles in this area that you've read in the last six months?" "In the last six month?" "No." "There have been articles published." "I couldn't tell you their title or author." "Okay." "But can you tell us how many you've read?" "No." "How about in the last year?" "Can you tell us how many you've read in the last year?" "No." "I don't keep a score card on reading articles." "Really great working with Lewis." "He has so much knowledge and he's really quick." "He's an amazing thinker on his feet." "To see whether the alcohol was coming from the car or his breath." "Reasonable doubt." "Ladies and gentlemen." "Lewis and Phoenix now bring in their expert witness." "Can you sight an article that you may have read in the last six months?" "The latest would have been a 20 or 30 page compilation on the interpretation of alcohol results." "And in the last couple of years about how many journals have you read?" "Well over a hundred." "I lose track on those things." "Okay." "That's fine." "I think we get the point." "The defense needs their expert to focus on the machine and question its reliability." "And if I could alert your attention to a calibration record for March 1 st the year 2000." "Okay." "And if you could state what the calibration readings were on that date." "The readings were zero." "Zero." "Zero." "The second reading also was zero." "Zero." "Zero." "There's obviously a problem with the machine because it's not supposed to be reading zero." "When you have a.08 vapor of the solution pumped into the machine." "If there's nothing wrong with the way that it was operated then the machine must be taken out of service." "There's no documentation that it was taken out of service or repaired." "No further questions." "Thank you very much." "Next Mr. Chong will take the stand." "But before his testimony." "Phoenix offers a little coaching." "Stay calm." "None of your answers should be long." "It's like your one leg." "I'm the other leg." "And so." "We're walking." "We're taking steps." "And so." "No." "You can't take a long step." "If you take a long step." "We're both gonna fall down." "Okay?" "She said. "Are you drunk."" "That was the first thing she asked you?" "I said. "Yes"." "Wait a minute." "You said yes?" "Yes." "Do you understand what the word drunk means?" "Drink." "Yes." "Okay." "This is..." "Okay." "This is." "This is fine." "This is." "You misunderstood what she meant." "What she was asking you was whether or not you were intoxicated?" "I didn't understand that." "What does that word drunk mean to you?" "I thought that I did drink." "So I said yes." "I did not understand exactly what that mean." "Okay." "What would your answer be?" "Yeah." "Good." "If I was to ask you now were you drunk that evening what would your answer be?" "No." "Not drunk." "Thank you very much your honor." "Mr. Trong did very well." "He actually believed in that old adage that the truth shall set you free." "Well." "We'll see." "Tomorrow the jury will reach a verdict and" "Mr. Trong will find out whether he'll be going home or to jail." "Phoenix and Lewis are back on their drunk driving trial." "They've decided that Phoenix will deliver the crucial." "Closing statement." "It's his last chance to speak to the jury." "First major mistake the government made in this case was that it jumped to conclusions." "Mr. Trong was asked to leave the vehicle." "Got up slowly." "Why?" "Because his back is hurting." "The second major mistake the government made is that it trusted a faulty." "Malfunctioning machine." "The people have proved beyond a reasonable doubt the Intoxilizer was working properly on the day that it tested the defendant and we ask that you come back with a guilty." "Thank you." "Right." "So if you would gather your belongings and go to our luxurious jury room and hopefully you will have a chance to deliberate this afternoon." "So what do you think?" "How are you feeling?" "So you know what's going on?" "You know what the jury's doing?" "They're talking to each other." "Trying to decide whether or not to find you not guilty or guilty." "And before they could ever say guilty." "All 12 have to agree." "All rise." "Department 15 of the Superior Court of San Francisco." "After three hours the jury are back." "But all 12 of them can't agree." "It's good news for Mr. Trong." "Right." "It now appears to this court the jury's hopelessly deadlocked." "I will now declare a mistrial and discharge the jury from any further services in this case." "A mistrial is declared and Mr. Trong walks free." "The case is dropped." "Okay." "Take care." "Bye-bye." "See ya." "For the DA." "The jury's indecision is inexplicable." "The smell of alcohol." "Red watery eyes." "Failed the FST's and was staggering and I asked the jury afterwards." "You know "Did those who were voting not guilty." "Did you think he was sober?"" "And they said. "Yes." So you know." "What can you do?" "Hey man." "We beat the machine baby." "We gonna have a little celebratory..." "Cocktail." "...cocktail." "This is a litigator's tradition." "Lewis and Phoenix are just two of 16 misdemeanor public defenders working in the hall of justice." "Each one handles up to 25 cases a day." "Just nine months into the job." "Phoenix is still very committed." "I see it as." "As helping my people." "The poor." "My brothers." "My sisters." "My uncles." "My aunts." "My friends." "Everyone I meet." "New people on the job." "The clients." "They all seem familiar to me." "Phoenix is back in court and this time he's flying solo." "His client Lionel Worthy is charged with animal abuse." "He could go to jail for six months." "All rise." "I hate this man." "That's why a lot of brothers plead guilty because they don't want to have to come see these people's face." "What this case is about." "What this case is really about is simply misunderstanding and misinterpreting a situation." "You don't have a human victim that's gonna be able to take the stand." "His treatment of dogs in general is wrong and abusive and it's a behavior I don't feel he's capable of correcting at this stage in his life." "Calli." "Cal." "Calli." "A pit bull." "Is the alleged victim in Phoenix's new case." "She's been living at the Animal Care and Control Center since her owner." "Lionel Worthy was arrested and charged with being cruel to her." "For the DA there's a lot at stake." "If I lose this case there is the possibility that Mr. Worthy will get the dog back." "I don't want him getting Calli back." "I don't..." "I want this dog to have a chance." "Lionel Worthy had his puppy." "A two month pit bull." "Secured to a fence with a choke chain around its neck taunt." "Tight so that its feet were barely touching the ground." "It was screeching." "It was yelping." "It was so sad as a little puppy." "Some people just want to cuddle." "Cuddle." "That's all they want to do with dogs." "Just cuddle them." "Just hug them." "Which you know." "Hey there's nothing wrong if that's what you want to do." "But you shouldn't force your need to simply cuddle the dogs on the people who want to play with the dogs as well." "The prosecution have three witnesses who all claim they saw Mr. Worthy abusing Calli." "I saw him you know slapping the face of the dog when the dog was trying to lunge forward." "But actually couldn't really much because its the chain was so short." "How did the dog appear to be reacting to the treatment he was receiving?" "It was crying." "Yelping." "Or as much as it could get." "Get a voice out and it seemed to be distressed." "Do you know what this particular puppy sounds like when it's off the leash?" "No." "How did the defendant react to your." "You and your friend the first time that you saw him with the puppy?" "The defendant was glaring at us so we just." "We just kept walking on." "Why did you keep walking on?" "I guess because of the way he was looking at us." "We felt threatened like he was challenging us not to say anything." "Here you have three upper middle class white women who believe that hey you play with a dog a particular way." "They come to his neighborhood." "They see him playing with his puppy in a manner in which they believe is not appropriate." "But it is appropriate because he's not hurting the dog." "I believe he committed the crime." "I believe he tormented and cruelly treated this puppy and I feel like I have an abundance of evidence that shows that." "Had he been some rich white kid up in Pacific Heights sitting in his front yard." "The cops wouldn't have came and harassed him." "The cops wouldn't have came and threatened to take away his dog." "The cops wouldn't simply sit there and only talk to three witnesses." "Some strangers on the street." "With 120.000 dogs." "San Francisco is a city of dog lovers." "But a shadow has been cast over Phoenix's case by news of a fatal mauling and reports that the dogs involved have been trained to fight." "San Francisco prosecutors are looking into allegations the dog who mauled 33 year old Diane Wipple to death last" "Friday in her Pacific Heights apartment building may have been trained to kill." "Investigators are looking at the possibility the animals once belonged to two convicts who may have used them for fighting." "Tomorrow the DA hopes the jury will hear testimony alleging" "Mr. Worthy was also involved in dog fighting." "It's not good news for Phoenix." "Good girl." "Jump!" "Yeah." "Very nice." "The mood of Phoenix's dog abuse trial has become darker following the news that a local woman has been mauled to death by a dog." "Lisa." "The DA." "Has a new witness." "Officer Runge from Animal Care and Control." "She is an expert in illegal dog fighting and was at the scene when Lionel Worthy was arrested." "Mr. Worthy was seen by at least four witnesses beating and choking an eight-week-old puppy." "Essentially training it to be aggressive on the street." "If he held on to that dog until its adulthood." "That would have been an aggressive." "Dangerous animal I have no doubt." "Yes." "What a good dog." "Calli is the third dog to be removed from Lionel Worthy." "The DA wants the jury to hear this evidence." "Phoenix does not." "Objection." "Leading." "It's very crucial that the evidence does not come in because it's prejudicial and the jurors are just gonna be thinking about dogs that are trained to be vicious." "And they're gonna think about times such as." "Which has occurred recently." "A dog has attacked and killed somebody and they'll be." "Their mind will be so focused on that." "That they won't think about what's actually going on in this case." "They won't be able to concentrate and focus on the facts." "The jury has been sent out so Judge Tsenin can hear about Lionel Worthy's history of alleged dog abuse and decide if it should be admitted as evidence." "Do you recognize anyone you see in court today from past encounters involving dog abuse or suspected dog fighting?" "Yes I do." "I recognize the gentleman in the yellow colored shirt." "When's the first time that you saw Mr. Worthy." "In April of '99." "I was patrolling in the neighborhood and I saw Mr. Worthy with a unleashed pit bull running in the street and I noticed bite wounds on the dog." "Its ear was completely severed." "It was split down the middle." "I noticed bite wounds to the top of the head." "I was concerned that he had been street fighting the dog." "And why were you suspicious that street fighting had been occurring?" "I received many calls in that area for street fighting." "What ultimately happened with that dog?" "This dog was tested for dog aggression and it did not pass behavior and we could not put it up for adoption it had to be destroyed." "Can you tell us whether or not this dog was involved in a fight that was organized or if it was just in some fight with another dog in the park perhaps?" "No." "I cannot." "Thank you." "No further questions your honor." "All right." "Thank you Officer." "No charges were brought against Lionel Worthy in that case." "Judge Tsenin rules that any evidence relating to it is speculative." "It could unfairly influence the jury." "Officer Runge's testimony can not come in." "It's a small victory for Phoenix." "This is the trial process." "Lewis has been a Public Defender for two years." "He's defended over I.000 clients." "Today he has a tricky case and he's trying out his legal argument on a sheriff." "Check this out." "Client." "He's outside waiting tables." "Some old man comes up on him and calls him and Italian Mother F..." "My client says. "What's up?"" "The client puts his." "I mean the victim puts his arms up." "Client clocks him." "Yeah." "You can't just." "Because someone makes a statement to you that doesn't give you the right to go clock him." "No." "But." "But the defend." "The victim raised his hands as though he was gonna hit my client." "In a threatening manner?" "Right." "And three people saw it." "What brings you here?" "Nino Mostriani is in court with his wife Anna." "He's been charged with two serious misdemeanors." "Battery causing great bodily injury and assault." "Nino's an Italian guy." "He's working in a little cafe in North Beach and this person comes by and he's hurdling the racial insults at him." "It's probably not a good place to." "To make derogatory remarks about Italian people." "But he does so." "I hear you know basically." "Italian Mother and basically a push on my left hand." "Which you know thanks to my you know quick instinct" "I just stepped back you know and had to defend myself." "And at that point Nino punches him." "He just clocks him and." "And the." "And the." "The guy falls down." "His lip is busted and his tooth falls out." "It was not the first time he abused Nino." "Verbally abused as both of us because when we practice sometimes the meditation in the park here in the close by." "He was walking by with putting the finger up." "The DA's made an offer." "If Nino pleads guilty to battery he'll get probation." "Not jail time." "If he turns down the deal and goes to trial." "Nino risks up to a year behind bars." "I told them that I didn't think you'd accept it." "I told them we were seeking a dismissal." "My client is innocent." "But it's my obligation to." "To let you know what the offer is." "That's the offer." "I don't recommend it." "And I don't think you want to take it." "Okay." "So I should be the not guilty?" "Oh yeah." "We're gonna continue on the case." "On the case?" "Yeah." "You're not guilty." "One of the key witnesses." "The guy who owned the place who actually saw this crazy guy mouthing off to Nino." "Being aggressive towards Nino and if the District Attorney speaks with him." "It'll support our case." "Nino's case won't go to trial today." "But Lewis has a new witness statement that backs up his claims of innocence." "Carl Zapp was aggressive." "Gives Nino the middle finger and calls him a F..." " Italian." "I think those are fighting words." "If you ask me." "Then the guy raises his hand to Nino and then Nino reacts." "That's perfectly within the realm of." "Of the self-defense instructions that we have." "Talk to him." "Lewis wants the DA to talk to his crucial new witness." "He's a very reputable person." "Ask him this?" "Tell me what happened?" "Line 17." "Nino Mostriani." "Just." "I think." "I think." "I think the phone call will be quite fruitful for you." "Back at Lionel Worthy's dog abuse trial." "The defense relies on just one witness." "He was with Lionel when he was arrested." "But will he turn up to give evidence?" "I'm looking for my witness." "He's suppose to be here at 1:30." "I have grave concerns that he may not show up." "Willie Thomas is the only witness that I am calling." "So." "It will be us versus their mountain of State Police and dog cuddlers." "You're supposed to be here so that you can assist us especially" "Mr. Worthy from going to jail." "I figured you be willing to come and help your brother out." "But if not this is how we're gonna do it." "I will." "If I have to." "Have the police come out and arrest you." "So." "I suggest you get here and get here relatively quick." "Mr. Streets." "You indicated that you may need me to issue a body attachment?" "Phoenix wants Judge Tsenin to order the police to arrest his missing witness and bring him to court." "Willie Thomas." "I feel that it's important to have this witness in here to testify as to what he observed and not only what he observed on this." "On this particular day." "But on the days prior to this incident and how" "Mr. Worthy treated this puppy." "Well." "You know if we get into how Mr. Worthy treated this puppy and Mr. Worthy's history of how he did anything before this incident." "We're opening up a whole kettle of worms here." "You know what your honor." "No." "I. I'm not gonna do that." "If he." "If he doesn't want to come and do the right thing." "Then he just doesn't want to come and do the right thing." "Okay." "And God will remember this." "Our witness who was gonna say." "It didn't happen." "He wasn't abusing his dog." "Mr. Worthy was not abusing that dog." "Two miles away in the Italian district." "Nino Mostriani is in the middle of his daily drum meditation." "He's oblivious to a sudden turn of event back at the Hall of Justice." "The DA's made some calls." "It's good news." "There is an independent witness who indicates that the victim raised his arm first and was exchanging an aggressive." "Verbal behavior." "We can't prove the case." "Line 17." "Nino Mostriani." "Your honor." "The People have a motion in this matter." "Okay." "Motion by the People." "Yes your honor." "The People will be unable to withstand their burden of proof and." "Therefore." "In the interest of justice dismiss this 1385." "Hello." "Hi." "Good Afternoon." "Nino." "I want to tell you." "Your case was dismissed today." "Bye-bye Nino Mostriani." "Welcome Mr. Astube." "Antonio Batista." "Sebastian Simpson." "Angel Novice." "Those are my next Mostrianis." "So." "That's for tomorrow." "In Department 15. with no witnesses." "Phoenix faces a big decision." "Okay." "Let me ask you." "Is Mr. Worthy going to take the stand?" "It's a terrible idea to put him on the stand." "I mean come on." "I think he's unstable." "Talking to him like this." "Don't do that." "Don't do that." "I think he has a tremendous attitude." "Which is negative." "I would like the jury to have a sense of that." "Don't do that in front of the jury." "Not taking the stand is a big risk as well." "Because not taking the stand is." "Because the jurors want to hear what the defendant has to say in every case." "And they're swayed more towards guilty if the person doesn't testify." "You know what." "To hell with it." "He's gonna testify tomorrow." "Provided" "I don't change my mind between now and tomorrow." "Next morning Department 15 goes from dogs to cats." "Judge Tsenin and Lewis are powering through their caseload when a defendant makes an unscheduled appearance and wants Lewis to represent her." "So it's got to go to trial between now and December 14th." "Josephine Slackman." "A methadone addict is charged with stealing." "Cat food." "I can help you if you can just wait toward." "To the end." "Okay." "Are you willing to do that?" "Sure." "Okay." "Do you think we can be seen today?" "I. I'm not sure but if you wait until the end of the calendar." "I can help you." "Judge." "May we address a matter that's not on calendar?" "Oh." "The problem with it Mr. Romero is this is the fourth time this matter's been added to calendar." "That means every time it gets added to calendar we have to pay people to put on the computer the fact that it's added to calendar." "Somebody has to go pull the file." "The file is pulled by the District Attorney's office." "The file is pulled by Hold on." "Hold on." "I did." "I... the Public Defender's office." "And then we've done this three times before and then you don't show up." "I couldn't help." "But I was too sick." "But each time?" "How do we know that if I do this you're gonna show up again?" "Can we go get the cal." "The docket now?" "She's here." "What's the charge." "Do you know?" "We'll recall the bench warrant." "Don't worry about it." "Probably from the face of the complaint we can verify that the." "The." "The alleged victim was Walgreen's." "I have a good faith belief that the items involved then might involve cat food." "I'm the lawyer for Ms. Slackman and we just want to verify that she's been getting treatment there so we can get rid of the case that she has here." "It will help Josephine's case if Lewis can prove that she's being treated for drug addiction." "Are you the nurse there?" "Wonderful." "Thanks a lot." "Your honor." "Ms. Slackman is receiving regular treatment at the local methadone clinic and I verified this information and spoken with the treating nurse and..." "It's across the street." "It's across the street." "Your case is dismissed." "But you still have to stay out of that Walgreen's." "All right?" "Don't go back there." "Okay." "All right." "I had prostitution cases." "Five in one year." "Right?" "Are we?" "We're off the record." "Are we off the record now?" "Okay?" "Well." "Yeah and they knew I was doing well and everything and so I didn't want to do that you know." "And so." "Good for you." "Good for you." "And so I didn't have this cat food and so." "Okay." "Good for you." "Keep up the good work." "The last day of Phoenix's dog trial and there's one question still to be answered." "Mr. Streets." "What's the position of the defense?" "It's your case." "Do you want to testify?" "No." "Okay." "Well your honor." "Mr. Worthy has decided not to testify." "Okay." "All right." "So defense rests?" "Defense rests." "With no witness and Mr. Worthy deciding not to take the stand." "It's time for the closing arguments." "And how did Ms. Coleman say Mr. Worthy was hitting the puppy?" "If you remember her hand gestures." "It was like this." "Not like he was doing this." "He wasn't beating the puppy." "Supposedly there's a presumption of innocence." "The police officers when they arrived on the scene they ignored that and presumed him guilty." "I think once you put it all together." "You will find that abuse did occur." "That the defendant tormented and unnecessarily was cruel to his dog and that the dog suffered and that you will convict him for this." "Thank you." "If you would all gather up your belongings and follow" "Deputy Yanguis into our lush jury deliberation room." "The jury's out." "But in court." "Mr. Worthy appears to be talking to Phoenix about previous dog fighting experiences." "If he was wriggled." "They let him go." "I used to be from a project and if the dog lose." "We'd throw him off the roof." "Hear me?" "That's how they do it." "I didn't say this." "We." "We I. Oh man." "Let's keep him." "You don't have to throw him off the roof." "We'll keep him." "Well." "He ain't got to fight." "Give puppy's." "You feel me?" "Come out over here." "Mr. Worthy exits the courtroom and Lisa." "The DA speaks to Judge Tsenin." "Can I put in my testimony that I overheard him talking about fighting dogs two minutes before we started back again." "He said. "I'm not a bad person." "I don't throw the dog over the roof when it loses."" "I heard that." "I heard that." "Well." "If you don't get him on this one." "You'll get him on another one." "God!" "I'm about to break out into a sweat." "I'm so anxious over this." "The next morning the jury is back in the dog trial." "But they haven't reached a verdict." "One of the jurors has quit." "A juror has been replaced by an alternate juror." "One of the two people that I believed was going to be going to be good for us." "A hold out." "Came back and said that he didn't feel that he could be fair." "Not to my case." "But for the prosecution." "Right." "So if you would gather your belongings and go to our luxurious jury room." "The jury will now have to start all over again." "With the alternate juror." "He said that he doesn't believe that a black man can get a fair trial in America." "And this was a white juror." "By the way." "He's been saying exactly what I've been saying all along." "But he was supposed to weigh the evidence with that in mind." "But he said he couldn't weigh the evidence." "So." "That's really too bad." "Will the new jury find Lionel Worthy innocent or guilty?" "Phoenix's jury is still out." "But in Department 15." "Judge Tsenin and Lewis have a new case." "William Crosby is charged with driving with a suspended license." "He has a string of previous convictions for the same offense." "How you doing Mr. Crosby?" "Hello." "How you doing sir?" "Good morning." "My name is Lewis Romero." "I'm with the Public Defender's office and I'm gonna." "I'm gonna spring you free today." "I'm gonna tell you how we can do it." "Okay?" "Three floors above Department 15 in the Hall of Justice is the County Jail." "William has already spent ten days there waiting to appear in court." "The DA offers him a deal." "If he pleads "No Contest" and admits to the offense." "He'll get out today." "But will he take the deal?" "So far he's been less than cooperative with the forces of law and order." "He's been wooing that when Mr. Crosby was arrested." "He very poetically said to the officers "You blue eyed." "White devil punk." "Mother F... honkies." "Take that." "Take off that gun belt and I'll kick your ass."" "It's nice to meet someone whose got a little personality." "Assuming your defenses in this case would include telling the jury or a judge that you had no knowledge of this suspension" "or that you weren't driving." "Or that there was a necessity..." "U-huh." "...for your driving." "There was." "I had a sick lady in the car." "Sick 75. 80 year old lady." "If you were driving on this day to take her to the hospital." "To take care of a sick person and" "I mean that's the only reason you were driving." "That was the only reason." "Okay." "Then you should fight this case." "Since I've been fighting this case so long" "I just want to get it over with so I can." "I can you know go ahead with my life." "If you want to end it today." "You have to plead "No Contest"" "and give up your right to have a jury trial and to bring that defense." "You wouldn't have to come back to court any more." "I want to end it today." "All right." "Okay." "That's okay." "That's fine." "It's not a bad deal." "This is kind of a gift." "Sentenced to ten days in the County Jail." "Credit for having served ten." "Mister Crosby." "Don't drive unless you have a valid driver's license." "Yes your honor." "All right?" "Okay." "Okay." "So." "Will I go home?" "What?" "Will I go home today?" "One can only hope." "Okay line 89." "Mr. Mallet again." "I liked the poetry here." "Remember saying this to the cop?" "Just remember they write everything down." "Just be careful." "I know you're a funny man." "I know you've got a lot of poetic justice brewing inside of you and I understand it and I read it and I like it." "Some people won't like it." "So be careful." "Okay?" "Phoenix's jury has at last reached a verdict." "The court reassembles." "But someone's missing." "Mr. Streets." "Mr. Worthy's not here and there's a verdict coming in from the jury." "Do you waive Mr. Worthy's presence for the reading of the verdict?" "Yes your honor." "We the jury in the above and total cause find the defendant guilty of the offense charged misdemeanor to it violation of Section 597B penal code dated February 8. 2001." "Thank you." "Ladies and gentlemen." "You have now completed your service as jurors." "We'll recess for about 15 minutes if you want to talk to the jurors." "Then we'll meet to reconvene." "Hey." "Is this my case?" "Yeah." "Oh." "Okay." "What's going on?" "Nothing's going on." "That's it." "Well." "What happened?" "They voted and found you guilty." "Oh didn't they suppose to come to a verdict the other day?" "Yeah." "And they did come to a verdict." "But why did you say they didn't and why did you." "If they did why didn't you say" "I told you." "Listen to me." "Listen to what I just told you." "They just reached a verdict." "Right before." "Right before you walked into the room." "But the first day." "They didn't reach the verdict." "So what does that mean?" "That means that they had another day to deliberate." "And that day was today." "And they did that when I wasn't here?" "But they were supposed to start with me." "They just can't start like this without me." "Yeah." "I'd like to speak with either Officer Grenucci or Officer or Sergeant Shiff." "Don't you agree the case should have started when I was there?" "We got a guilty." "I just though I'd let you know." "It's over with." "Done with." "Alleluia." "So what we could do is do an Appeal." "What's an Appeal?" "An Appeal is when it..." "Is it." "Will I get paid?" "No." "That's not what I'm looking for." "I'm looking for the big smash." "Well." "You're not gonna get the big smash from this." "Well if she." "If she took every right from me and." "And she don't have a right to do everything." "But you can't sue her." "Man." "You can." "You can sue her." "But you won't win." "Why do you say that?" "Because." "Because she has immunity." "Lionel Worthy didn't get to sue Judge Tsenin." "He failed to turn up for his sentencing hearing and is now in custody on a drug charge." "Lewis Romero has quit the PD's office and is now a private defense attorney." "Phoenix Streets is still working as a PD." "But he's made some changes." "Yeah it was time to get a hair cut." "Calli." "Lionel Worthy's puppy is now full grown and living with a foster family." "And Judge Tsenin is still bringing justice and humor to Department 15." "It's a typical Friday afternoon in San Francisco." "A police undercover narcotics team is at work." "During the course of the evening they'll make six arrests." "Yeah." "The guy in the white." "The guy in the white." "The Cuban guy in the white." "I think he bought." "Stand by." "Stand by." "It's a move in move in." "He's holding something in his hand." "Every weekend in San Francisco the police arrest over 300 people for offenses ranging from petty misdemeanors to murder." "Most have been in trouble before." "Heroin." "One." "Two." "For the city's 20 judges the priority is to stop the cycle." "You did it." "And did it." "And did it." "And did it." "Whatever the "it" is as a kid and it's got consequences." "I'm not allowed to get off the bench and pick you up and shake you and that's really what I really got to do here." "I don't want you to feel that you're being thrown on a garbage heap of humanity." "But now the courts have a new weapon." "Under California's controversial "three strikes law" thousands of repeat offenders are in prison for life." "For them it's three strikes and you're out." "In San Francisco." "As in many other American cities sentences are getting longer as judges clamp down on repeat offenders." "This get-tough policy seems to work." "Crime rates are falling." "The critics say it's barbaric and point to a prison population that has soared to two million in the United States." "For small-time criminals like Eric Cornute." "Selling marijuana can be the first step to a much longer sentence." "Please describe your first contact with the defendant." "John Keene is an undercover cop." "I was standing on the northwest corner of Haight and Maso and I asked him for weed." "Keene recently busted Eric for dealing marijuana in this undercover sting in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco." "He asked me if I was with those people." "Who did you believe the defendant to be referring to?" "The police." "And I said." ""No." "I'm not the police."" "He's talking to." "See that guy out there." "They're doing a deal right now." "He's doing a deal with John right now and he's either looking at the money or something." "See if he's looking at product." "Looks like." "Okay." "He's smelling it to see if it's the real deal." "He handed me a bag of suspected marijuana." "What happened next?" "I inspected it and then handed him 60 dollars in marked city funds." "Okay." "Now look at this." "See there it goes." "There's the signal." "Let's move in." "Move in." "It's gonna be a black male there any second." "Black male five eight." "He had five eighths of marijuana." "Each one goes for approximately 60 dollars a bag." "Now as a result of John Keene's evidence." "Eric has no choice but to plead guilty." "The deal on the table is probation." "But the D.A. Insists that the crime is recorded as a felony because Eric has a prior conviction for selling marijuana." "His attorney Greg Goldman wants to persuade Judge Kramer that he is only guilty of a misdemeanor." "Is he working anywhere besides selling marijuana?" "He works at Safeway in Diamond Heights and he also." "He manages hip hop and rap bands." "What's his record?" "He has a prior sale..." "Right." "...in 96..." "Right." "That's the main problem and he was going for and he was convicted." "Convicted of selling marijuana back then." "Right going for mercy." "He's hoping for a misdemeanor and you know it might be a long shot but." "You know." "I'm." "I'm." "Really pleading for that really based on sort of who he is outside of this activity." "But Eric's past has caught up with him." "The problem I have is that four years ago he did the same thing." "He went through probation and apparently didn't learn his lesson." "So I think we've got to give this guy an escalating message not a deescalating message and I'm willing to give him the same message from the preliminary hearing but not lighter than that." "He's got to stop." "Judge Kramer is taking a tough line." "Eric will get 90 days community service and a felony conviction on his record." "There's a down side to it." "Yeah it's 90 days." "Yeah." "It's felony probation." "But on the other hand you're not going to jail so that's you know." "That's the up side to it too." "18 year old Oscar Lopez has been living a life of crime as a juvenile." "Now he is facing his first conviction as an adult." "Oscar was caught by undercover cops selling crack and carrying a knife." "According to DA Pam Picora Hansen he's just another gang member who should be taken off the streets." "This guy has a pattern of hanging out on gang turf." "Wearing the gang colors." "Being involved in conduct that is consistent with gang members." "Like many others." "Oscar has racked up a string of arrests as a juvenile." "This is basically police reports from a period of a year." "He's been pretty busy." "There's about 13 or 14 police reports in here." "But jail is the last thing Oscar needs according to his defense attorney Marla Zamora." "He's got potential and unless somebody harnesses that potential and helps him he's gonna be doomed when he could do." "This kid's got it." "Whatever he's got." "He could do great things." "For not only himself but for his community." "But the D.A. Is less sure." "That's a photocopy of the knife and it is a little over eight inches." "He may have dimples but he still carries a knife and narcotics." "For Eric it's time to plead guilty and take his punishment." "So this is it?" "It's the end?" "Okay." "Mr. Eric Cornute what is your plea to sale of marijuana as alleged in count one." "A felony?" "Guilty." "Mr. Cornute your lawyer tried very hard to get you off even easier than this." "He did everything except whack me on the side of the head back there." "I think you got more going for you than what this behavior indicates." "I'm not allowed to get off the bench and pick you up and shake you but that's really what I really got to do here." "You just got to get this behind you and do better stuff." "All right?" "I will." "Thank you." "Give me just one minute." "One more felony conviction and Eric will join California's growing prison population." "This type of situation." "Oscar's chances of keeping his freedom depend on Marla's ability to convince the court that he's reformed." "Look innocent." "He's an acknowledged gang member whether he's active now or not." "He's not in a gang anymore and it's frustrating." "How long is this so called non-gang status?" "When did you sever your ties?" "He says a year ago." "On my case seven months ago he's at 2232 Mission wearing blue saying" "I have to carry this knife to protect myself from rivals." "The Nortenos okay?" "He's wearing blue." "That's a gang color." "At 2232 Mission that is turf." "Judge Warren decides not to intervene." "Oscar will go to trial and everyone knows the likely outcome." "The likelihood as a sales case." "Particularly with your history which the court will take into account." "You're gonna go to jail." "Quite frankly your past has caught up with you." "It appears that you did it and did it and did it and did it as a kid and it's got consequences and the consequences are facing you right now in court." "To make matters worse." "Oscar is an illegal immigrant." "He'll go to jail." "There'll be an immigration hold put on him and when he finishes his term he'll be sent back and dumped in Tijuana with no family." "No nothing." "Half these people come back illegally anyway again so you're gonna make him a criminal." "You're gonna make him a fugitive and what's that gonna solve?" "I don't want a gang member who's a drug dealer." "Who carries weapons in the community." "I don't think any." "Anyone in the community wants that kind of person hanging out on the street." "So I'm sorry if Oscar gets deported." "But quite frankly he doesn't contribute to the community in any positive way at this point in his life and so I'm sorry but that's the way it goes." "For Judge Warren." "Oscar's story raises a key question." "Will a jail term teach Oscar a lesson or will he carry on committing crime?" "There's a core of about 20 percent that you know are gonna come back." "And you know can't do it." "There's an equal number I'd say that you think are really gonna have a chance." "You have a real good sense that this person has reached the end of the road or maybe a young person that made a terrible mistake and then there's that huge middle ground." "You don't know." "You don't know." "Judge Warren's next case involves a man who has failed to learn any lessons from the criminal justice system." "Larry Davis has a criminal records stretching back 20 years." "He's been convicted of stealing from 11 separate premises in the past." "And is back in court charged with the same offense again." "Although Larry has always been a non-violent criminal." "Today he's facing a life sentence." "Under California's tough three strikes law anyone convicted of a serious felony can be given a strike by the court." "Each strike escalates the sentence for new offenses." "If you get three strikes you face between 25 years and life." "Larry already has two on his record." "This could be his third." "Ladies and gentlemen my name is Bob Gordon and it is my privilege." "And I mean that when I say it." "T o represent the people of the city and county of San Francisco and of the state of California as the prosecutor assigned to this case." "Let me say very clearly at the outset." "In this case I will prove to each and every one of you that that man behind me in the brown shirt committed a residential burglary." "He entered those premises not by accident but for the purpose of committing a theft or a larceny." "Larry's attorney has an alternative version of events." "The evidence will show that Larry Davis is homeless." "That he wanted to get out of the cold and that when he went in the premises he had no intent." "No specific intent to commit larceny." "Larry's accused of breaking into a first floor apartment and stealing 520 dollars in cash." "Danielle Berell was asleep when the break in happened." "...at that time the thud woke me up." "And I shot out of bed and the." "The bedroom doors are translucent and with the light from the street you can see shadows" "When I shot up I saw a figure of a person come through the window." "Bill Marcy was Danielle's boyfriend." "The first time I heard it I did not know what it was." "I woke up and went back to sleep." "What happened next?" "I heard the same sound a second time followed by the sound of glass breaking and paper tearing." "What did you do." "Or where did you go at first." "Immediately?" "I immediately jumped out of bed and dialed 9-1-1." "I could hear someone go up the stairs." "The footsteps of somebody going up the stairs." "Almost simultaneously the 9-1-1 operator told me that the police were on the scene so Danielle and I ran out the door with the cordless phone." "I ran out the main door." "Pretty much right over an officer who was trying to get in." "Danielle ran in the other direction down the hallway towards the garage." "Larry was arrested inside the apartment." "Bill Marcy's money clip containing the 520 dollars was missing." "But neither the clip nor the cash were found when Larry was searched" "For Irwin Frederick it offers the only possible defense." "Well what I'm trying to achieve in this whole case is to establish." "Like I indicated in my opening statement." "Is that somebody else took out that window and that same person took the 520 dollars." "He's stuck with the fact that the crook's inside." "He can't get around that." "So what he's trying to show is while he was inside." "He was inside for innocent reasons." "He's supported in that fact by the absence of the 520 dollars." "Which has just disappeared into thin air." "I think the defendant swallowed it." "But I can't prove it." "The three strikes law was intended to protect society by taking repeat violent offenders off the streets." "Critics argue that it is now being used to lock up petty crooks." "Homeless people and drug users for minor crimes." "John Times is a typical example." "He faces assault and robbery charges and has a string of burglary and drug convictions since he started living on the streets." "I didn't start getting into trouble until I was about 30 years old." "So I waited late in life to start." "I waited pretty late in life to start getting in trouble because I always had good jobs." "You know?" "I was doing pretty good in my life." "But once I started going to the clubs and staying up all night and one thing led to another." "Times faces up to 20 years in state prison because he's been charged with two strikable offenses." "Which double any potential sentence." "You know how they say there's never any police around when you need them?" "This time there was." "Every once in awhile crimes are committed and people are actually caught and they don't always want to admit to what they were doing." "That's the situation we have here." "It's that simple." "When the evidence finishes coming in." "Ladies and gentlemen." "You will find Mr. Times guilty of robbery and assault." "But defense attorney Marla Zamora isn't going to roll over." "Sometimes they go. "Oh it's like D.A.'s shooting fish in a barrel." ""You know." "Well." "Yeah." "You think it's gonna be easy?" "You're got to work for this conviction." "Because even if our clients did do what they say they did they don't deserve to go to state prison." "The prosecution call their first witness." "John Coleman." "Coleman says Times tried to rob him as he and his friend walked home late one night." "Now you're in the middle of the street." "What's the first thing you notice?" "Somebody asking me for money." "What tone of voice?" "Aggressive." "Determined." "What words does the person use?" "I believe he says give me some money and I really just didn't focus more on." "Next thing I know I'm just being hit." "Where are you being hit?" "Face and in the chest." "How hard are you being hit?" "I. I taste my own blood after like the first hit." "While the attack is happening do you ever feel him grabbing at your bags?" "I don't remember." "I. I knew I had them." "I knew they were on my shoulder then they weren't." "John Times has a very different version of the events." "Coleman wanted to buy some drugs." "That's what we was gonna go do." "Buy some drugs." "He was gonna give me some money for taking him to buy some drugs." "We going across the street and I guess." "I don't know what it got to do with his friend but he kind of like pushed on me and I'm like." ""Man." "You done last your mind or something?"" "And next thing I knew me and him was fighting." "Did you stop and talk to this gentleman right here?" "If the gentlemen spoke to me I might have just kept walking." "Okay." "You didn't request him to assist you in purchasing drugs that evening?" "No I did not." "Did you not state to Inspector Warren that you kicked this individual in the face and in the chest?" "I believe the way I phrased it was I tried to protect myself and I might have struck back and tried to push or kick the person away from me in self-defense." "Did you state that you kicked this individual hard enough to make him bleed?" "If I did kick with any force to inflict injury it was in a method to escape." "After this incident you had no loss from your property." "Correct?" "My bags were returned." "I stated if anything was lost it was a small amount." "A few dollars or some change or whatever was in my pockets." "She's turned it into a fight instead of a robbery so it becomes a question of credibility." "Who do you believe?" "Nobody saw it start." "It was John Coleman and the defendant out there when this started." "In the Larry Davis trial D.A. Bob Gordon is wrapping up his closing arguments." "The evidence has shown." "Now that you've heard it." "Not only beyond a reasonable doubt." "But really beyond any doubt that Larry Davis committed this burglary." "Show me the money." "There's no even reasonable explanation offered by Mr. Gordon of where the 520 bucks is." "The jury will only consider whether or not Larry is guilty." "They've not been told that this is a three strikes case and that if they convict Larry he could go to jail for life." "...levied against him." "And all of them." "And if the judge were not to show any leniency." "Which in this set of facts I doubt he would." "Then he would get a term of 35 years to life." "After just three hours Larry Davis is back in court." "The jury has reached a verdict." "It appears to be in order." "Mr. Rosemary would you read the verdict please?" "Yes sir." "In the case of the People of the State of California." "Plaintiff." "Versus Larry Davis." "Defendant." "We the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant" "Larry Davis guilty of the crime of burglary." "Larry's never hurt anyone." "But unless Judge Warren shows mercy when he returns to court to be sentenced he'll go to prison for at least 25 years." "The man is now 35 and a half." "That would put him at 65 or so." "So it really is effectively for the rest of his life." "Unfortunately." "Too bad we were even trying this case in a way." "But that." "That's the real world." "The next witness in the John Times trial is Officer Helmer." "The cop who arrested him." "He looks up and he sees the lights and he stops for a second and he freezes." "What do you say or do when you jump out of the car?" "As a policeman one of the things you're always looking for is you're looking at suspect's hands because you can be hurt by many things but most often it's the hands that will kill you." "You know?" "I mean that's where they hold guns." "That's where they hold knives and those are usually your greatest threat." "So I'm looking at the guy's hands." "What's Mr. Times doing?" "Well." "I though he was gonna run." "So I came I. I started to reholster my weapon and I came running around the car and I. I tackled him." "What did you do?" "I held on to him and I picked him up and I threw both of us to the ground." "What." "If anything." "Do you notice?" "Well." "I noticed there was a telephone pole on the corner and it was coming." "Well." "It was too late then because we're both like in the air." "But it was coming at me and coming at him and I clenched my teeth down because I thought it was gonna hit me in the head." "But it didn't." "But it bonked him in the head." "The cop that ran my head into the pole." "I think he would have felt better if he would have just shot me." "Did he fall backwards and hit the top of his head against the pole?" "We went back and I remember seeing the pole and the next thing I knew I." "Bang." "His head contacted the pole." "I thought my head was gonna contact it and thank God it didn't." "I don't know how to explain it to you any better than that." "You think this is funny?" "You said that you saw him pulling on this bag." "Are you sure that Mr. Times was not merely just standing there?" "Yeah." "This is on view robbery." "It's a serious crime." "On view." "Oh." "It's an on view robbery?" "Yeah." "What did he take?" "That black bag I was telling you about." "Oh." "He had it?" "He took it?" "Well." "I can't tell you if there was complete absorption." "Which is." "I don't know if it was completely in his person but it looked like an on view robbery to me." "At least an on view attempted robbery." "Okay." "Did you remove that bag from his person?" "No I didn't." "I think the officer did fairly well on the stand." "Young." "Yes." "Enthusiastic." "But I think the important thing is" "I don't think it looks like he's lying." "Marla spotted contradictions between Helmer's evidence and the report written by his partner." "Officer Malcolm Anderson." "She intends to expose the contradictions in the prosecution's case when she cross-examines the second cop." "This was written right after the incident." "This is the police report of his partner Malcolm." "This is the testimony of his partner Malcolm." "Which is totally different from this jerk." "His partner says that he arrived at the scene and he saw my client." "He was merely standing there." "But Ana isn't going to play into Marla's hands." "I assume Zamora is going to expect me to call all my officers." "I'm not." "The more witnesses you have." "The more potential conflicts in the testimony." "I just want to get my witnesses on and off as quickly as possible." "And I would just as soon catch the defense unprepared for how rapid it's gonna go." "No further questions." "When Ana wraps up her case." "Marla realizes she's been outfoxed." "My whole game plan went down the toilet." "But that's okay." "You got to rally on these things." "Huh?" "Could you imagine having all these witnesses." "But it's my fault." "I should have subpoenaed him." "Today Larry Davis will be sentenced." "Davis was found guilty of breaking into the apartment of Danielle Berell and Bill Marcy." "He already has two strikes on his record." "His only hope of avoiding a third is that Judge Warren will give him one more chance." "His attorney Irwin Frederick believes that Larry shouldn't get life in prison for a non-violent offense." "He's 36 years old." "He doesn't look in the best of shape to me." "I'm no doctor." "But he doesn't look in the best of shape." "A 25-to-life sentence in this case." "For him." "Probably is exactly that." "Is a life sentence." "Prosecutor Bob Gordon wants Larry to be struck out and given the maximum sentence." "And when I look at the defendant with the data before me" "I see a person who has rejected attempts to help him with drugs." "And I see a person who as soon as he is free from custody preys upon the public once again." "The court has very carefully considered the case." "I have a reputation of always sending people to programs." "I always give them a chance." "But once you give them the chance they've got to take it." "And here the chances have been given over and over and over again." "In 1982. your first conviction for misdemeanor larceny." "83. 85. 86 two counts of misdemeanor burglary. 89. 90 narcotics." "Burglary." "June of 93. you're out of state prison." "You're on parole." "Burglary." "There is nothing worse." "Mr. Davis." "Than telling somebody" "I cannot help you." "But that's what I have to say." "The judgement of the court is as follows you are sentenced to a term of 25 years to life in the state prison." "Does prison work?" "It works better for society than it does for the individual." "I think." "Because you have a criminal who is off the streets." "Nowhere in the San Francisco area is the three strikes law used more rigorously than in San Jose." "Here." "Public defenders like Casey Cliff believe it's being used too widely." "The issue though is is this law too broad?" "Do you put a guy away who committed two robberies in the 70's for drug possession in the 90's?" "Or the year 2000?" "Someone who is a 20 year old who committed violence when he was young and is now 50." "That's the issue." "Casey's latest client Gregory Bedford is accused of assault and threatening a police officer." "If he gets convicted of the assault with a deadly weapon Mr. Bedford will be sentenced to the rest of his life in prison." "Gregory Bedford has kept out of trouble for the past six years." "But his record stretches back to the early 80's." "And includes several violent assaults." "He already has two strikes on his record." "Now he's accused of attacking a security guard." "Leland Lutz." "With an iron pipe." "Lutz had just finished a late night shift and was phoning for a ride home when he was attacked." "The next thing I remember is being struck in the head real hard." "And I turn around." "You know." "And I started running." "You know." "And I..." "When you saw the person still pursuing." "Coming after you." "What did you do then?" "I ran in the middle of the street and I saw a police car coming." "I flagged down the police car." "The victim was frantic." "Officer Granado was first on the scene." "He had blood pouring from an open head wound and was emphatic and excited that the suspect was right around the corner." "The guy who had done this to him was standing around the corner and I could clearly see there was one individual on that corner." "One suspect." "No one else" "Granado drove 200 yards around the block and arrested Bedford." "Who claimed he was just walking home from a night out." "He stopped me." "I stopped." "I asked what was." "I was cooperative and everything." "I heard coming over the radio the description." "I'm not six feet five or even." "I'm closer to six feet but I'm not way." "Well over six feet." "They could see that." "I'm absolutely positive." "I'm absolutely sure that our suspect." "Mr. Bedford." "Is the one that I saw on the corner that night." "Despite Officer Granado's confidence." "Casey believes the evidence is full of holes." "There's no description that fits it" "Other than he happens to be a blackmale that falls into the age range between 25 to 40. that's it." "They didn't find a weapon." "There was no blood or anything on Mr. Bedford." "This all equals reasonable doubt." "And although Lutz later picked out Bedford at a line up." "He could not be completely sure that Bedford was his attacker." "What did you write on the form?" "I wrote possible." "To the best of my recollection this was the person that." "That did this." "I wanted to be as fair as I possibly could and I could not help but feel some." "Some empathy for the people on the other side of that glass." "I. I you know I should have wrote positive in the first place." "But there's also a second charge against Gregory Bedford." "In addition to being accused of attacking Leland Lutz." "Bedford is charged with later threatening to kill the cop who arrested him." "The more troubling aspect of this case is that the officer now says" "Mr. Bedford threatened him while he was at the jail with charges of felony." "The things that Mr. Bedford said were clearly threats to myself." "My family." "Implying that he would see me at a point in time where I was not on duty." "Where I didn't have my badge on." "He also made the threatening motion with the clenched fist punched his left." "Open left hand with a closed right fist." "What you really have is a black man who's just upset and angry that he was wrongly arrested under." "Under limited evidence." "I'm guilty as far as cursing the guy and that I did do." "Which I told my lawyer and everybody else all along that I did do." "I was angry but I didn't threaten the guy." "Bedford told me that in time quote you'll see unquote." "He then made a slashing motion across his throat with the noise as best as I can imitate it was." "The only person who can refute Granado's evidence is Gregory Bedford himself." "But will Casey risk allowing his client to take the stand in his own defense?" "In the John Times case defense attorney Marla Zamora faces the same dilemma." "If Times gives evidence the jury will hear about his criminal record" "Nobody with a prior criminal history wants to take the stand." "They're all afraid that because they had prior convictions they'll be convicted and generally they're right." "She needs at this point to put in her story." "He's a pretty smart guy." "I don't know how effectively I'm gonna be able to rip it apart." "So it becomes a question of credibility." "Who are they gonna believe?" "Are they gonna believe Mr. Coleman or are they gonna believe the defendant?" "I don't know." "If I put him on the stand I don't feel." "I mean those convictions." "You know?" "And some of those jurors I think they like him now." "Let's leave it that way." "Once they hear his prior criminal record they are not gonna like him anymore." "In the Bedford case defense attorney Casey Cliff has decided that his client won't testify." "...they would have known about his prior strike convictions." "But Mr. Bedford that was one of the reasons" "Mr. Bedford chose not to testify and that is an example of how the system slowly strangles you." "I think a lot of young people don't realize that they commit crimes and not a lot happens to them." "But that noose slowly tightens around their neck and before they know it they're looking at the rest of their lives behind bars." "Casey's strategy is to use the constitution to persuade" "Judge Lee to dismiss the second count against Bedford." "That he threatened to kill a cop." "It's common for people to say I wonder what you're like without that badge." "Officer." "It's usually a comment that goes to cowardice." "This appears to me to be protected speech and criticism underneath the first amendment." "I think he's got a first amendment right there." "He's got a right to criticize the government." "As precious as the first amendment is to us there are a number of crimes that can be committed by the use of words alone." "Anything from terrorists threats to blackmail to all sorts of things." "I don't think that the right of criticism of our government has ever included the right to criticize an officer's family." "Accordingly the 1118.1 motion is denied." "Is there anything else before we call for the jury?" "I think that's it." "It's now time for closing arguments." "First Casey talks about the police investigation." "I'm not saying everybody's racist here." "But I'm saying that if it was a white man." "That they said it's a white guy 25 to 40." "A little taller than six feet they would have questioned Mr. Lutz a little closer." "How reasonably probable do you think it is that someone who comes that close to being a clone of Mr. Bedford ran down that particular street at four o'clock on that particular morning and disappeared and Mr. Bedford was there too?" "Count two is basically saying he threatened an officer." "There's threats." "You know." "Usually a Mafioso." "They're investigated and you call them up and say." ""You drop the investigation or I'll kill your family."" "Dissuading an officer of the performance of his duty." "Not this." "This is." "This is the stuff you see bleeped out on cops shows all the time" "What do you consider to be the reasonable interpretation of stash throat?" "So." "So the trial's over and now all we have to do is wait for the jury." "I think the evidence came in as well as it's gonna go in." "But we'll see." "I'll see you Monday..." "Okay." "...all right?" "All right." "Mr. Bedford's been waiting for a year on a verdict so." "And I'm sure the anxiety is now with Mr. Bedford is it's down to the." "You know." "Down to D-day." "In San Francisco John Times has decided he can't risk giving evidence in his own defense." "If I was to testify and they heard about my past record." "That wasn't gonna do me no good." "And even though that's the past and they shouldn't judge me on it I don't see no way of me speaking on my past criminal activity that was gonna help me in this case." "His attorney Marla Zamora has decided not to call any other defense witnesses." "So all that remains is for the attorneys to deliver their closing arguments." "First the jury hear D.A. Ana Gonzalez." "The defendant wanted money." "So when he saw the opportunity." "And he saw John Coleman walk out of that store alone." "He decided to take what wouldn't be given to him." "All the. 'Oh." "Weren't you gonna buy drugs?" "'" "'Weren't you on drugs?" "'." "Didn't happen." "Not true." "In fact the only evidence you have all points to one conclusion." "And that is that the defendant tried robbing someone and in order to succeed in that robbery he violently attacked" "John Coleman and then he pulled that property away and was trying to run." "And you will find him guilty of all those things." "Thank you." "Just really charging someone with a crime does not mean that they did it." "You should demand that the prosecution provide evidence to you that leaves your mind in such a state that you feel an abiding conviction that the charges are true." "And if your mind is not left in that state after hearing all the evidence." "You return a verdict of not guilty." "Thanks." "After a day and a half of deliberations the jury reach a verdict." "Verdict." "Count one." "We the jury find the defendant John Times guilty." "Assault upon Jeffrey Praw by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury." "Count two." "Guilty assault upon John Coleman with force likely to produce great bodily injury." "Count three." "Lesser included charge." "Attempted robbery of John Coleman." "Guilty." "The clerk may record the verdicts." "Mr. Times you were caught doing some bad things." "That doesn't mean you're a bad person." "If there's anybody who can write a letter on your behalf." "An employer." "Family member." "Anybody." "It could help you." "Don't despair that there's not more that can be done for you." "Ana's boss calls to find out what happened." "Guilty." "Guilty." "Guilty." "Guilty." "They gave me the lesser on the robbery." "But guilty on everything else and true on the GBI." "The jury's verdice makes Marla regret her decision not to call any defense witnesses." "I thought that if I presented evidence it would confuse the." "The issue or fill in the gaps in the DA's case because I couldn't believe how." "I thought the evidence that they presented was like crapola." "John Times knows that when he returns to court to be sentenced Judge Douglas will send him to state prison." "The question is for how long?" "If the judge decides not to impose strikes for his two convictions he might get as little as seven years." "But if the strikes are imposed he could spend 20 years behind bars." "Supported by his sister Ida." "John Times has an opportunity to address the court." "Do you mind if I stand?" "Whatever you feel comfortable with." "Thank you your honor." "You honor I stand before you today to receive my final justice in this case." "I place a lot of blame upon myself for being back in the court system facing you today." "I am at fault and I will take full responsibility for having an altercation with John Coleman." "But as for all other charges brought against me I say today I am not guilty of and one day I pray to prove that." "I was represented by Marla Zamora." "Who I feel did not do nearly enough but walked me towards a guilty verdict." "With that said and done your honor I stand before you to be sentenced because I will never give up the fight for my freedom." "Thank you." "Thank you Mr. Times." "You didn't help yourself with your statement." "While you started out acknowledging guilt." "You seemed to go into a 'it's other people's fault' and blame the victim sort of philosophy." "Which." "Which didn't help you." "I declare count one with the great bodily injury allegation found true is a violent felony making it a strike." "Likewise the attempted robbery is a serious felony making it a strike." "Which means as I'm sure Mr. Times knows that if he is convicted of a felony in the future he faces a potential life term." "Sentence for count one is six years in state prison." "Count two." "The choice of term for count two will be the four-year high term." "This was a direct attack on Mr. Coleman." "Sentence on count three is the three-year mid term." "That's double." "That's total of 16 years in state prison." "Good luck to you." "I don't want you to feel that you're being thrown on a garbage heap of humanity." "That's another reason I gave you the two breaks" "I did and I hope you have a good life." "It's kind of shocking actually." "Especially when you think about the number of years we're talking about now." "As a two-strike felon John Times will have to serve at least 80 percent of his sentence." "Or 13 years." "Before he eligible for parole." "He also knows that if he gets into any trouble while in prison he risks getting a third strike." "Which would mean life." "I think it was unfair." "You know." "I got to walk on pins and needles now because I could get struck out and never come up out of that place." "You know?" "I definitely don't want that to happen." "In the Gregory Bedford trial the jury has been out for two days." "Bedford has been charged with two felonies." "Hitting Leland Lutz with an iron bar and threatening to kill the police officer who arrested him." "The jury has been unable to reach a verdict on the first charge but they are unanimous on the second." "The jury indicates they've reached a verdict as to count two but not as to count one." "Will the defendant please rise?" "Verdict count two." "We the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant" "Gregory Lynn Bedford guilty of a felony to wit resisting or deterring officer in violation of penal code section 69." "Gregory Bedford already has two strikes against him." "He has a long criminal record and has already spent a quarter of his life behind bars." "Although on this occasion he has only been convicted of making threats." "He knows that Judge Lee could impose a third strike and send him to prison for life." "I could see if I actually hit the guy or." "Or did something to that effect but to give me 40 years to life for something." "That's ridiculous." "Things are getting brought up from what happened when I was a kid." "Now." "You know." "So I feel." "I'm real bitter." "Real." "Real bitter as far as that goes." "He's frightened." "I mean he understands that his life is in Judge Lee's hands and he may spend the rest of his life in prison." "But his won't happen if Casey Cliff can persuade the judge to reduce the conviction from a felony to a misdemeanor." "Which could carry as little as a year in county jail." "I find myself before a court where." "Where we're dealing with a judge who was a police officer himself and was involved in the arrest of many suspects I would suppose over your career." "This is not a very egregious case." "There are threats on the officer but there was absolutely no physical violence whatsoever." "Based on the conduct of Mr. Bedford I would request the court reduce it to a misdemeanor at this time." "I think that Mr. Bedford and his." "His acts in this case and his prior criminality fits both the letter and the spirit of the three strikes law and that therefore there's not a good basis for reducing this from a three strikes case to something less." "In this case I agree with Mr. Cliff that in the world of felonies." "That the three strikes law applies to." "The verbal and gestured threats that Mr. Bedford made to the officer are relatively minor." "But in reviewing the rap sheet I was struck." "As the people were." "By the fact that somewhere in the midst of his 28 or so criminal convictions." "That he has been convicted" "I think six times previously of resisting." "Delaying or obstructing officers." "Mr. Bedford." "I think that we have literally tried everything that we know how to do." "We sent you to a drug program." "You've got short jail sentences." "We tried longer jail sentences." "We tried short state prison sentences." "We tried long state prison sentences." "And that's basically all we know how to do." "On this record I don't think I can find that the defendant is outside the spirit of the three strikes law." "I order the defendant be committed to the California Department of Corrections for a term of life with a minimum of 25 years." "Unfortunately the only way to." "To safeguard the community effectively is." "Is to warehouse Mr. Bedford." "Larry Davis." "John Times and now Gregory Bedford have all joined the 57.000 other second and third strike prisoners currently being warehoused in California's state prisons." "Most will not be released until they're old men." "If at all." "The size of the sentences that they're handing out today." "I mean you become numb to it." "I. I don't know how." "You know." "How does one handle that." "I don't know." "I. You know." "You just do it one case at a time." "Keep moving forward." "Do the best you can for your client." "San Francisco is one of the wealthiest and safest cities in the United States." "But even here." "Not every one is immune from the most serious crime of all." "Homicide." "Last year. 58 people were murdered." "The D.A.'s Office Homicide Team is responsible for bringing the killers to justice.D. A..." "Terence Hallinan leads the team." "It's an open investigation and it's gonna take some time before we have enough information to make a decision on it." "He's flanked by Homicide Prosecutor." "Jim Hammer." "A murderer's walking around and there's a good chance he'll kill again and some other kid'll die." "That's got to stop." "Prosecutor." "Kimberly Guilfoyle is dealing with the highest profile death in recent history." "But is it murder?" "And her body just." "You know." "Was mangled and mauled and torn apart." "I can't imagine what her last moments must have been like." "I mean truly." "Truly horrifying." "If you commit murder in San Francisco." "This is the team that will come after you." "Prosecutor Jim Hammer has been a D.A. For eight years." "He's now working on the homicide team where there's no such thing as an easy day." "This morning." "He's arguing for the maximum sentence against a killer he convicted last month." "The defendant was found guilty of beating Seth Woods to death." "At today's sentencing hearing." "Judge Warren will hear from both sides before deciding how long the killer will spend in prison." "First." "A statement from the victim's mother." ""I miss my son." "He was taken from me and can never be replaced." "The beating was brutal and unmerciful." "Sometimes I look at my family pictures and still can't believe Seth's gone" "I'm hurt." "Tired." "Sad." "And angry." "I need to see justice done." "Maybe then I can rest"." "Okay." "Is that all you want to say?" "Do you want to say anything else?" "Are you sure?" "Are those the words in which?" "I just..." "Go ahead." "I just want justice." "A murder conviction usually means life in prison." "But in this case." "Judge Warren has wide discretion and could sentence the killer to as little as two years in prison." "His attorney." "Brendan Conroy." "Is asking for leniency." "This is a very." "Very brief moment in time and I guess." "You know." "Supports the old adage that you know you can have enormous changes in one's life in." "In a matter of seconds." "Decisions made like that affect you for the rest of." "Of your life." "Jim wants Judge Warren to give the defendant the maximum sentence." "What is that but a cold blooded." "Vicious act of murder?" "It's a rare case in which a defendant says. "Yeah." "I intended to kill him."" "But if you can't infer the intent to kill from repeated stomps on the head of an unconscious young man while he's lying on the street." "I don't know when you can." "So I submit to this court." "There's not just evidence of implied malice." "But actual intent to kill because what else do you mean to do but when you stomp again and again and again... not on the legs or the feet or kicking the stomach." "But on the head of a young man." "What you did was ghastly beyond words." "You murdered a man for no reason." "There was no fear." "There was no imperfect self-defense." "There was no provocation." "There was apparently simply a desire to inflict pain." "Suffering." "And ultimately death." "And that's what you did." "That will be a term of 15 years to life in the state prison." "In connection with the sodomy." "The court imposes the midterm of six years." "The court determines because of the independent mental state and criminal conduct that was involved." "That." "That term should be served consecutively." "Counsel." "The matter is concluded." "21 years to life in prison." "Which effectively in this kind of crime it means he might never get out." "But he'll be eligible for parole after 15 to 20 years." "Mandy's very pleased and it's done." "It doesn't make me feel any pleasure he's going to prison." "But I think it was the right thing in this case." "In Court Room 25 former model Kimberly Guilfoyle is coming to the end of a robbery trial." "So don't cut him a break." "This isn't a plea bargain." "This is a trial." "Meanwhile." "Press Officer Fred Gardner is being besieged by local and national media on what will be Kimberly's next case." "The police have to investigate first." "That could take days." "That could take weeks." "Hey listen man." "I've got three other calls lighting up my switchboard." "Thank you." "The exclusive district of Pacific Heights has been rocked by the killing of 33-year-old Diane Whipple." "She was returning home with groceries when her neighbor's dog mauled her to death." "The elevator door opened up." "I was faced with the victim." "She was completely naked." "There was an EM team working on her." "But she appeared to me to be dead." "There was blood soaked in the hallway." "Approximately 20 to 30 feet in the carpet." "It was covering the walls." "As one of the rising stars of the office." "Kimberly has been assigned the dog mauling case by D. A..." "Terence Hallinan." "How did the dogs come to attack the woman?" "There was so far." "As far as I can tell." "There was no provocation." "I mean the dog literally must have just heard her at her door because she was trying to get into her apartment." "The dog ran." "I guess the owner." "The wife had her door open." "Hadn't fully closed the door behind her after taking both dogs for a walk." "The male dog." "Bane." "Ran out and ran down the hallway after the victim." "We're still going." "If it's established that the owner had reason to know that the dog had a propensity to fight or attack." "Did you know it was a dangerous dog?" "That's the issue." "And I kind of think whether it bit any body or not." "That maybe they should have known this was a dangerous dog." "Right" "This is a case that definitely merits our paying attention to." "Absolutely." "The challenge for the homicide team is who." "If any one." "Is to blame and what should they be charged with?" "I mean all's we know right now is that a young woman ith a full life and future ahead of her was viciously attacked and what I also know is it's something that could have been prevented had the dog been wearing a muzzle." "I really want to get to the bottom of this and if the owners bear any responsibility for what happened to that woman." "Criminally." "Again." "Then I want to see to it that justice is." "Is served." "Although the dog mauling case is dominating the headlines." "It's just one of the 50 cases the homicide team is dealing with at the moment." "Statistically." "San Francisco is one of the safest cities in America." "But you're six times more likely to be murdered if you are a young black man." "A major concern for prosecutor Jim Hammer." "All you can do is duck your head down and hide out and just hope it doesn't get you." "You know." "But how many kids?" "Six." "Six young black kids in the last couple months." "15 or 20 in the last two years?" "Probably not one of them solved." "It's." "It's." "It's an absolute tragedy and everywhere else in San Francisco." "Homicide rate's going down except in these couple of communities where it's going up." "It's really." "Really bad." "Hello." "But today there's good news for Jim." "A suspected murderer has just been arrested and is about to appear in court." "The Superior Court is now in session." "The Honorable Phillip Mosconi's presiding." "Please have a seat and come to order." "On or about March 10th of the year 2000 in the city and county of San Francisco." "State of California." "You did willfully." "Unlawfully." "And with malice of forethought murder Devin Gross." "A human being." "23 year old David Gilford has been charged with the murder of 15 year old Devin Gross." "Both victim and defendant are from the Western Edition." "An area with a spiraling murder rate." "The evidence is that Devin Gross was with a big crowd of." "Of friends and." "And other people from the neighborhood." "A fight broke out." "Which he was not even part of." "And it was after everything had really cooled down that the defendant." "Without warning or provocation." "Took out a gun." "Put it right to Devin's chest and pulled the trigger." "Killed him in point blank range." "Directed it right at his heart so that his heart exploded." "Actually." "He was dead immediately." "Devin was shot in broad daylight in front of as many as 40 witnesses." "His mother Norma heard the shot that killed him." "When I heard this gunshot." "It sounded so awful." "Like a cannon and I. I kept calling his name." "I asked the policeman." ""Is he dead?"" "And he said. "Yes."" "At this time do you wish to enter a plea?" "Yes your honor." "The plea be not guilty." "We deny the enhancements." "All right." "Mister Gilford." "Do you plead not guilty?" "Yes." "All right." "David Gilford will be defended by Randy Montisano." "The defense here is that they have the wrong person." "That whatever identifications are made by persons that do not know who the shooter was." "Their identifications will not be consistent with the physical characteristics or the clothing that was worn by my client." "Gilford has been named as the shooter by several eyewitnesses." "But as Jim prepares for the preliminary hearing." "A familiar story begins to unravel." "This is a binder full of names." "Of witnesses who were questioned about the murder." "Most of whom were there." "I mean look at all these people." "And if you read their statements." ""I didn't see anything." "I don't know what happened." "I wasn't there."" "We." "We all know they were all there." "You know." "We could spend four weeks with witnesses." "People would testify saying what happened." "I could understand if one or two people were afraid." "But that many." "If they all stood together." "Jim is short on eyewitness testimony." "The victim's twin sister." "Kristen." "Who was only yards away from the shooter." "Was unable to identify Gilford." "Another eyewitness." "Johnny Lee Walker." "Has refused to testify because of death threats." "He's been sent to jail for a year for contempt of court." "I will do everything to bring this guy to justice." "And if that means witnesses going to prison because they refuse to testify." "I will do that so that the killer of a 15 year old boy doesn't just walk free." "Because think about how dangerous he'll be out on the street if he thinks he beat... if he could kill a buy in front of 40 people and walk free." "What would that say to that neighborhood?" "Jim's only hope is the testimony of Devin's best friend." "Dustin Thomas." "Who also witnessed the shooting." "Jim has issued a subpoena to force Dustin to come to court." "But is still unsure if he'll testify." "He was up there right now telling me how bad he feels that the mother's giving him a bad look." "He said. "I'm the one who loved Devin." "I kicked his butt every day to get him to go to school." "I threw the picnic for him after he died."" "So I think on sort of an emotional level." "He's starting to come around and realize he's got to do the right thing." "So." "I mean this isn't the prettiest parade." "But it's sort of hobbling down the street." "Later that afternoon and behind closed doors." "Dustin Thomas did testify." "He said that although he didn't see a gun." "He did see Gilford standing directly in front of Devin just before the shot was fired." "After he testified." "Jim offered Dustin a place on a witness protection program." "But he turned it down." "Saying he wanted to return home." "As Jim's homicide case continues." "Kimberly's case of a woman being mauled to death by a dog has been picked up by the national press." "They are from WD20." "They also want an interview on this subject and Channel 5 wants an interview on this subject." "We're just trying to get an accurate and full assessment of all the facts and circumstances." "It's being reported that San Francisco husband and wife lawyers." "Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller are the owners of the dogs." "TV reporter Lance Evans wants to know what charges." "If any." "Will be brought against them." "Two huge dogs in a." "In an apartment building basically." "Does that alarm you?" "It's an open investigation and it's gonna take some time before we have enough information to make a decision on it." "They have a lot of public pressure on them so they're gonna have to use extreme diligence in not letting the public pressure." "In not letting the public pressure dictate how they handle the case." "The public is." "Is weighing in heavily on." "On what should happen here." "So they're gonna have to walk the fine line and make sure that public pressure stays out of law." "So we're on that Thursday on the 7th for the pretrial as well?" "Yes." "And." "And are you." "Are you coming to talk that day." "Or not?" "On the other side of the Hall of Justice." "D.A. Jim Hammer is in a more buoyant mood." "It's five days since Dustin Thomas testified in the Devin Gross murder case and he's preparing for trial with David Gilford's lawyer." "Randy Montisano." "Okay." "I gave you a lot." "You did." "Okay good." "You did." "But a few things weren't there." "Okay." "But Jim's optimism is short-lived." "He has just received a phone call giving him news of Dustin Thomas." "The only witness left in his case." "Dustin returned home to his girlfriend after refusing Jim's offer of witness protection." "But while working on his car one evening." "Dustin was shot." "Dead." "Do you know what kind of blood bath you started in that community?" "His blood is on your hands." "These kids are killing each other and you're just doing your job." "Well." "I hope you're happy." "The last thing I said to him was you know." ""Right now I'll move you to a hotel." "I'll move you to a new apartment." "I will give you protection"." "And he said he was safe." "He thought he was safe." "It's." "It's really hard to believe they actually." "They actually killed him." "You know." "Jim must now brief D.A. Terence Hallinan and his number two." "Paul Cummins about Dustin's death before working out their next move in a case with no witnesses." "Everyone now knows Dustin Thomas was killed because he testified." "Everybody in the community knows that they killed a witness in our case." "I think that we have to make some kind of dramatic response to this." "We just have a." "A real problem proving it right now because witnesses are being killed." "So sometime this week we have to decide." "Do we file that and at least keep him in custody for two months more and see what happens?" "Otherwise." "He walks out of custody." "Friday." "A week after Dustin's murdered." "Defense attorney." "Randy Montisano feels Dustin's death changes nothing." "Well." "A witness got shot and." "And is." "And is now dead." "But to some degree." "That's not gonna inhibit them because the transcript of his testimony could come in." "So." "That really doesn't change that much." "They still don't have a real solid case." "They." "They don't have any one who can say unequivocally that my client was the one that fired this gun and killed this young man." "They don't have that evidence." "There's not one person that's gonna say that." "To give them more time to find other eye witnesses." "Jim has ordered that David Gilford be held in the county jail for another two months." "Like they want to use me for an escape goat or some cover up." "You know." "That's the way I'm looking at it so." "You know I. I. I feel it's." "It's not fair." "It's unfair." "The District Attorney's delaying because they're not ready and that annoys me." "It annoys his family because he's been in custody for." "Oh." "Almost a year now and you know." "He didn't do it." "So." "He." "He wants to go to trial A-S-A-P." "For the past four months." "Prosecutor Jim Hammer has been working on a murder case against David Gilford." "Since the murder of witness Dustin Thomas just days after testifying in court." "Detectives have been unable to find any other witnesses to the murder of 15 year old Devin Gross." "Jim must now break the bad news to Devin's mother." "Norma." "I have to tell you." "Both in my professionalism." "And because even though I never met your son." "I've met you and I've really." "You know." "Met Dustin and everybody would want to do the right thing." "I think if we walked in there right now and swore a jury..." "Yes." "...they would come back frankly." "Not guilty." "Yes." "Not just hung." "I think so too." "I've never had this happen." "To come this far along." "It's just unbelievable where you know unbelievable." "But if the community's not going to come forward you know we can't make stuff up." "No." "And I certainly don't want anybody else to die." "Well." "I don't want anybody else to be killed." "Can you explain what you're gonna do this morning?" "I'm gonna dismiss the case against him or let the court do it." "Why?" "Because I don't have any witnesses." "I can't prove the case and I'm not happy about it." "The witnesses are there." "They just don't want to come forward." "Yeah." "The People are not prepared to proceed at this point your honor and I want to state for the record why." "During the course of this case a witness." "Dustin Thomas." "Did the right and courageous thing and testified." "Five days later." "He was murdered." "Mister Thomas' testimony is preserved forever." "The murder of Dustin Thomas did nothing whatsoever to damage or undermine his testimony." "It accomplished nothing." "Furthermore." "There is no statute of limitations on murder and Mister Gilford will be subject to prosecution if evidence is available for the murder of Devin Gross forever." "For as long as he lives." "For Randy and David Gilford's mother." "Jim's predicament is a cause for celebration." "You got your son back." "All right?" "Thank you." "I've never had to do what I did today." "Never had a case witnessed by you know. 40 or 50 people." "Had so many witnesses intimidated." "So many witnesses refuse to testify." "Even one to go to jail for a year or go to prison." "Never had a witness murdered." "Never had any of this happen." "Hello." "Despite David Gilford's release." "No one can be sure that the killing cycle is over." "I'm real worried about my safety." "Ultimately." "This is over like this." "You know it's still some people who probably don't want to let it go or just maybe under the influence that maybe "he was the guy" or..." "you know what I'm saying?" "So yeah." "I fear for my life." "I fear." "I fear." "While one mother celebrates." "Another is still grieving." "To see him just go free like that." "It's really hard to the point that where." "When I think about it." "It just tears me apart inside you know." "And there's just nothing I can do about it but try to go on with my life as best I can and remember my child when he was alive." "The focus of the dog mauling case has moved 300 miles north of San Francisco to Pelican Bay State Prison." "Attorneys Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller are visiting a client of theirs." "Paul Schneider." "Noel claims they were looking after the dogs for Schneider who's serving a life's sentence at the prison." "In a further twist." "It's emerged that they are officially adopting their 38-year-old client." "But rather than offer an apology or explanation for the attack." "Noel decides to go on the offensive." "There will be no basis for criminal charges if" "I were the prosecutor reviewing it or if." "If any." "Any reasonable prosecutor were." "Were." "Were reviewing it." "Mister Hallinan has proven that he's not a reasonable prosecutor and he was a disgrace to the office." "So I would." "I would expect that..." "Back in San Francisco the District Attorney and local reporters are watching events unfold." "This is a quote from him. "You're not a reasonable prosecutor and a disgrace to the office."" "Well when you haven't got a good defense." "Try the police." "Try the D. A... try anybody but the facts." "As well as the press conference." "Noel and Knoller have also sent a letter to the D.A.'s office." "Claiming that the victim may have provoked the dog attack by using steroids or striking Marjorie Knoller in the face." "The end portion of the letter suggested." "Perhaps." "That part of this was due to some negligence on" "Miss Whipple's part that she had come out into the hallway to confront the dog." "Which is contrary to all reports we have in the case." "And the dog attacked because Miss Whipple struck Miss Knoller?" "Is that." "Is that your information?" "Bane was definitely showing an interest in going after Miss Whipple." "But at that point hadn't." "Hadn't inflicted any." "Any injuries." "Only when Miss." "Miss Whipple struck Miss Knoller in the face that." "That Bane went into..." "Was Bane in..." "As Noel's public comments make the news." "D.A. Press Officer." "Fred Gardner." "Receives a new wave of phone calls about the case." "This is very important testimony and thank you so much for coming forth and Kimberly is saying we appreciate it." "Thank you." "She was attending to Marjorie in about an hour after the event and after what happened." "Did Whipple do anything to provoke the dogs?" "And the answer was no." "She didn't think it was gonna to be highly relevant." "But then when she read in the paper that they're blaming the victim..." "Exactly." "...she thought..." "Because this is like I said." "Good because I had said this is a flat out lie." "It's now six days since the death of Diane Whipple." "Her life partner." "Sharon Smith has decided to speak to the press and says Whipple was bitten by one of the dogs just weeks before her death." "I asked her. "What did you do when." "When this happened?"" "She said. "I told him you better control your dog."" "And his response was nothing." "He just stood there and did nothing." "Said nothing." "And this was a really gruesome." "Horrible way to die and it could have been avoided." "And I. You know." "They have to be held accountable for this." "With the battle being waged in public between the dog owners and the D. A..." "the media is beginning to take sides outside the Hall of Justice." "Hallinan thinks that Noel is preparing a defense if he faces criminal charges." "It's just been really bizarre for us to hear about the mauling at first and then hearing about the attorneys and the fact that the attorneys adopted the convict." "And then the letters today saying that maybe in some way she was responsible for her death." "I mean that's just bizarre." "But I'm not supposed to have an opinion." "Right?" "I'm a reporter." "It's crazy." "I don't know where it's gonna go next week." "I can hardly wait as." "As." "As who was it." "Bette Davis said in All About Eve." ""Fasten your seatbelts." "We're in for a bumpy ride."" "Press interest is minimal at Jim Hammer's next case." "Jim's just been handed another homicide of a young black man." "Once again." "The first hurdle is getting the case to trial." "This time the defendant has brought his supporters down to the Hall of Justice." "Free my nigger." "My nigger not guilty." "Yeah man." "Not guilty." "Not guilty." "Not guilty." "Damien Ross is charged with murdering victim Ricky Thomas." "Thomas was driving Damien Ross' ex-girlfriend home when he was shot dead in his car." "It's alleged Ross dragged the girl out of the car." "Beat her." "And then fired a gun into the car." "Killing Ricky Thomas and injuring the passenger." "But Ross says it wasn't him." "They're just pointing the wrong finger at the wrong person." "You know." "What I mean it's not me you know that you're looking for." "Go look for the next guy." "Let me go." "One of the few people attending court who believed that Damien is the killer is the victim's mother." "Angela Easley." "I'm here to represent my son that was shot down like a dog by Damien Ross." "Despite her certainty." "She's surrounded by people who believe Damien is innocent." "Corralled together by community leader." "Marguerite Machin." "Our concern is there's an innocent man locked up." "We're not the police." "It's not our job to go find who did do it." "But we know who did it and." "And that's our concern." "So." "How do we know?" "We just know." "Everybody in West Point knows Damien didn't do it." "So why." "Why." "Why can't it be that he didn't do it?" "There are so many murders in the West Point area." "In Hunter's Point." "In Western Edition that are very." "Very difficult cases where I think that witnesses are afraid to come forward." "If some one says that they saw a murder and we think they're credible." "I think it's our obligation to put that case on and see how the evidence presents itself." "Ross is represented by one of San Francisco's most controversial lawyers." "Bill Fazio." "Fazio has run for D.A. Twice and narrowly lost." "Now working as a defense attorney." "He's convinced of his client's innocence in the murder of Ricky Thomas." "Ricky is." "Is pulling doughnuts up and down the street and." "And somebody approaches Ricky and shoots him through the car." "And." "And my evidence is that it was not Damien Ross." "It was somebody else." "But Jim thinks he's got the right man." "The preliminary hearing in which a judge decides if there's enough evidence for a trial could be a bitter personality battle as both sides claim the moral high ground." "The first witness is Detective Kelly Carroll." "He saw a gun in Damien's hand and he saw Damien fire that gun into the vehicle." "If you'd ask yourself who has the motive to do this?" "Damien." "Who had beaten this woman repeatedly?" "Damien." "Who was mad that she was out with some one else?" "Damien." "Toni Autry is the next witness in the murder case preliminary hearing against Damien Ross." "But as she prepares to testify." "The courtroom is filling up with supporters of the defendant." "Ross." "It's very volatile and it's very hard for the victim because she's lives in this community and knows these people." "So." "That's what we're doing." "Toni used to date Damien." "But as she rode home with her new boy frined ricky Thomas" "She was pulled from his car and beaten up." "Moments later." "New boyfriend." "Ricky." "Was shot dead." "I was sliding into the car with one foot out and Damien started hitting me in my face and then he dragged me out of car." "Did he do it with an open hand or a closed fist?" "Closed fist." "And about how many times?" "It was so many times." "That I don't remember." "He dragged me out of the car by my hair." "He pulled me on to the sidewalk and then he began punching me in my face again." "Jim now needs Toni to confirm that she saw" "She saw Damien shoot Ricky this should convince the judge that there's enough evidence to hold Damien on the homicide charge." "When you called 911. did you tell them that someone had been shot?" "Yes." "Was that based on something you saw or something you heard someone yell out?" "Something I assumed." "Okay." "In fact." "Did you see who shot Ricky Thomas?" "No." "Toni's inability to confirm Damien as the shooter is a blow to Jim's case." "It leaves him with only one witness." "Sammy Ibrahim." "Who is currently in jail on other charges." "Sammy was sitting in the passenger seat of Ricky Thomas' car." "But survived the shooting." "He's now the only witness who can identify Damien as the shooter." "But there's a problem." "Sammy's loyalty may be to the neighborhood where his family owns a store in the heart of Hunter's Point." "It's an area where testifying in court can amount to a death sentence." "The walls of the family store are already marked with bullet holes." "Mr. Ibrahim." "I want to ask you some questions about July 27. 2000." "On that evening were you are the intersection of Middlepoint and Westpoint Roads." "On the grounds it may incriminate me." "I refuse to answer that question." "I refuse to answer the question." "On the grounds that it may incriminate me." "On the grounds that it..." "It may incriminate me." "May incrimine me." "Mister." "Mister Rappapart." "Is that your client's position regarding all questions concerning" "July 27th of the year 2000 here in San Francisco?" "It is." "Your honor." "Sammy's decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment right to silence is a huge boost to the defense case." "His lawyer in order to protect his client's rights has directed him not to cooperate with the prosecution in this case." "So he's not going to testify." "Hey that's my mother f..." "baby that got killed." "That's my mother f... son." "All these peoples walking here with these badges on hollering." ""Damien Ross' not guilty." "Not guilty"." "Well." "The date Sammy testified all of them came up off that hill to intimidate him." "To let him know not to testify because he sit there and he told the policeman." "He say. "You don't know what I would go through if I was to testify and say that Damien did shoot him." "I'm afraid for my life"." "With Sammy taking the Fifth." "Jim Hammer is once again left with a murder case and no witnesses." "You know when the case was really charged it was thought that Toni Autry had seen the shooting." "On the 911 tape she said Damien Ross shot him." "So we thought we had that." "And then again Sammy identified the shooter as well." "As Damien Ross." "As it's turned out Toni didn't see that and Sammy won't testify." "So you tell me." "What evidence do we have?" "With the prosecution case over." "Defense Attorney Bill Fazio is now putting on his witnesses." "Robert Martinez lives opposite the scene of the murder and claims to have seen the whole thing." "You heard the word gun?" "Yeah I heard the word like you brought your gun." "You know like." "Like they're sort of like saying like I'm kind of like noticing and all of a sudden after a few more steps." "And that's when I dropped." "I dropped and I could notice him just go ahead and shooting inside the car..." "This person." "Was it Damien Ross?" "No." "Damien." "No it wasn't Damien Ross." "Are you sure?" "No it wasn't Damien Ross." "Damien Ross is like six two." "looks like he's about six two." "Slender build." "This guy was much shorter and he was much stockier." "The kid was real good." "Whoever he was." "He was real good." "That kid knew what he was doing." "Next up is Lisa Arnold." "She's another Hunter's Point resident who claims to have been at the scene of Ricky Thomas' murder." "Maybe one." "I looked over and" "I can see someone standing over there with a gun." "It was kind of dark." "But..." "Could you describe the person doing the shooting?" "Yes." "He's a little taller than me." "How tall are you?" "I'm five one." "Okay." "So and he was stocky." "Was it Damien?" "No it wasn't Damien." "Are you sure about that?" "I'm positive." "When Damien got arrested this time and charged with murder." "Did you pick up the phone and call the police and tell them they have the wrong man?" "No." "Don't you think it would be important after Damien Ross gets wrongly charged with this murder that you call the police?" "No." "Why not?" "Because I don't trust the police." "I would just ask that if we could ask the date of birth and address of the witness please?" "Yes." "Can we have your date of birth and address please?" "Jim wants to find out if Lisa Arnold has a criminal record as a way of challenging her testimony so he needs to find out her date of birth and address." "I want to know her address." "She won't give it." "If she doesn't she's gonna have her testimony stricken if she won't answer that question." "Okay." "Here." "She'll give you an address." "Her address." "86..." "The police find a warrant for driving with a suspended license and decide to play hardball." "Lisa Arnold who arrived as a witness." "Leaves as a defendant." "That's the kind of stuff that bothers me about this." "How do they expect people like that to cooperate with the police?" "That's why people don't want to." "Of course not." "And then she comes down here voluntarily pursuant to a subpoena." "To see that justice is done and they arrest her." "Come to tell the truth about who the fricken killer is and then you get arrested." "If you..." "I knew I had a warrant so I come down here and I come to testify..." "Are you going up?" "Hey right." "With two defense witnesses contradicting his evidence." "Jim's case is crumbling further." "He knows that even if Judge Bensen holds Ross on the murder charge." "He'll struggle to convince a jury that he's guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." "Across town in the exclusive district of Pacific Heights." "Interest in the dog mauling case is continuing unabated." "A lobby of woman's groups is lending support to Sharon Smith." "The partner of Diane Whipple." "Keeping the story in the public eye." "Smith is pushing for the most serious charge possible." "What I would like to see is Murder Two." "I think that." "As I said before." "To me what happened here is just as good as throwing a loaded gun into the hallway and they put all of us in danger." "As the case escalates." "Jim has joined Kimberly on the investigation." "They're returning from meeting Sharon for the first time." "She finds the love of her life and you hear the story of their meeting and stuff and now." "Without warning." "This woman is taken from her forever." "I mean I just." "That's the tragedy you know." "Think of the hopes that she invested in that and the plans and all the rest of it and then just gone." "In a second." "How do you." "You know..." "how do you cope with that?" "How do you get over that?" "You just don't." "You just don't." "It looks like that most of the cases we have are of young kids you know getting murdered and what not." "Or a mother her kid's just 17 or 19 years old and all of sudden." "Just gone." "I don't know which is harder or if they're..." "Over at City Hall." "The dog owners Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller are appearing at a hearing brought by Animal Care and Control to decide if the second dog Hera should be kept alive." "Members of the public have been invited to address the commissioner about their experiences with the dogs." "The dog lunged." "Jumped on my dog." "Knocked it down." "Got it's mouth over the back of my dog and there was a puncture wound easily as big around as my little finger that had gone it way into almost to her liver." "The dog Hera bit me." "It bit me on the butt." "I was just terrified at these two snarling dogs." "Big ugly dogs." "I was fearful of my life." "Okay." "Robert Noel does not want to see the second dog." "Hera." "Destroyed." "Hera and Bane were not the least bit aggressive." "If Hera." "Who is the subject of this hearing." "And Bane were such friendly dogs." "Why did this incident that has brought us here happen?" "I can't explain it." "I wasn't there for the incident." "I came for the aftermath." "Not involved in the civil hearing." "Jim's worried that the testimony could damage the criminal prosecution." "Animal Control putting all of the key witnesses on." "Which is a terrible mistake." "Well." "They're gonna put on witnesses to a potential homicide in an Animal Control hearing and maybe compromise their testimony and everything else." "It." "It's a horrible thing." "Hera was pulling at the bottom of my sweats and Miss Whipple's pant's leg and she was barking." "I believe that." "I believe that Hera was trying to protect me from Bane." "By whatever action she did." "She was never involved in the attack on Miss Whipple." "She was barking hysterically in the hallway." "A final decision on Hera has been postponed because of the pending criminal investigation." "It's the final day of the case against Damien Ross." "The supporters arrive early to hear closing arguments." "But after reflection." "Jim's decided not to move forward with the murder charge against Ross." "It looks right now like we're gonna have to dismiss the case." "We filed it based upon the fact that Sammy said he saw this thing." "He refuses to testify now." "So we don't have that evidence." "Toni originally said in the 911 tape that she saw the shooting." "I believe she didn't you know that people put things together and especially in light of the fact there are other two witnesses now saying somebody else did it." "Even if I don't believe them and attack them at cross-examination." "They're sort of the only live witnesses now saying they saw the shooting." "So." "Based on that we simply don't ave the evidence to go forward." "We'll have to dismiss the case." "Mr. Hammer." "I understand that you have a motion for the court." "The People don't have enough evidence we believe at this point." "To prove beyond a reasonable doubt at trial that the defendant is guilty of those charges and." "Therefore." "Will not seek a holding on those counts." "Although Ross no longer faces a life sentence for murder." "He's given six months and a felony conviction for the assault on Toni Autry." "My observation is that he will serve six months in the county jail with 90 days of credit for time served on that six months." "It's an outcome neither side is happy with." "I don't intend why here." "This man is innocent." "Why are they pushing a felony?" "Some people fight all the way and other people give it up." "He knew that if we argued the points this afternoon that this judge was not going to hold to answer on the murder." "The attempted murder and the gun charge." "So he took the way out." "Which is appropriate because we." "We prevailed." "The murder charges were dismissed against Damien." "The attempted murder charges were dismissed against him." "All that's left is." "Is an incident where he slapped his girlfriend." "Which obviously is serious enough." "But can be dealt with a lot more appropriately than what he was facing." "Anything." "You punch a woman in the face and drag her by the hair out of the car by her hair while she's with her new boyfriend." "I don't know what's more serious than that." "And so what?" "She only had a little redness on her face." "And that happened after the course of six months of." "Of similar behavior and then again." "Her new boyfriend gets murdered ten minutes later." "And you want me to reduce that?" "I'll." "I'll go down screaming on that one." "I don't remember the last time that I can think of." "Where a D.A. Stood up after all that time and voluntarily dismissed the charges." "As he did in this case." "So." "I think he's still reeling and licking his wounds and being a bit of a crybaby." "Unfortunately." "And that." "That." "That bothers me on a professional level." "But the victim's mother." "Angela Easley." "Is still hoping that justice will be done." "All I'm asking is just don't stop." "Don't stop right now." "Whatever it take." "If it drives me to go to the." "The looney tune house." "I'll go there because I'm not gonna stop until justice is served." "Three weeks after the charges were dropped." "Damien Ross has been released." "But community leader." "Marguerite Machin is still unhappy with the D.A.'s office." "They basically messed up this case." "There's no way they can fix it." "If they found somebody." "Do you think anybody's gonna ever come forward again?" "They compromised their investigation and they." "They." "You know." "By arresting him." "By charging him than having this whole... they ruined it." "I think the Damien Ross case I hope I was straight." "Anyone ever thinks the D.A.'s whole job is just to throw people in prison or something like that." "That's a lie." "Right?" "Our job is to really filter out who is guilty and who's not." "And that which we thought he was not guilty of." "We ourselves dismiss the charges on." "And that which we thought he did." "We proceeded with." "And I think that's a great illustration of what we're all about." "Before making a decision about charges." "The D.A.'s office has called the dog owners." "Noel and Knoller." "To testify in front of a grand jury." "Kimberly and Jim will present evidence away from media scrutiny and a grand jury will decide what criminal charges the couple should face." "If there were enough evidence for murder." "I'd like to charge murder because of what happened and how outrageous they are and for Sharon's sake." "But I. I don't see that evidence right now." "I wish I did." "I. I. I would like to charge that." "Marjorie Knoller has brought a blood soaked sweatshirt she was wearing on the day of the attack to try to persuade the grand jury that she was helping the victim." "The Grand Jury will hear testimony from Noel and Knoller in private before making their decision." "How do you feel about today?" "Hopeful." "Anything to elaborate on with that?" "No." "After the day's testimony." "Noel and Knoller seem in an optimistic frame of mind." "I don't think I'd ever go to jail." "...be arrested?" "I don't think I'll ever be arrested." "If things were done properly." "None of this would have..." "I wouldn't be talking to you if things were done properly." "As the couple leave." "Kimberly and Jim emerge with the grand jury indictment they wanted." "Robert Noel will be charged with manslaughter." "Marjorie Knoller with second degree murder." "This is the actual indictment." "Here we go." "Manslaughter." "Murder." "Malice." "After leaving the grand jury." "Noel and Knoller head north with the police tracking their progress." "They just stopped Noel and Knoller for doing 90." "CHP just stopped them." "Where's Paul?" "Finally." "The indictment is served." "And Marjorie Knoller's words come back to haunt her." "I don't think I'd ever go to jail." "I don't think I'll ever be arrested." "With the couple in custody." "D.A. Hallinan can now announce to the press what's happened." "This afternoon the San Francisco Grand Jury returned an indictment charging Marjorie Knoller with murder in the second degree." "They also returned an indictment against" "Robert Noel charging him with involuntary manslaughter." "You did a good job!" "Oh yeah." "Inside." "Jim and the detectives can breathe a sigh of relief." "Sanchez I don't care what Polantis says about you." "Well I do." "But..." "Yeah you do." "But Jim." "This is only the beginning though." "When the drought comes." "It's gonna be another one." "Oh." "I. We." "Ah we got a handful." "We..." "It's PC baby." "Since their arrest." "Noel and Knoller have remained in custody." "Unable to raise the seven figured bail bond." "They've been appointed attorneys and are awaiting trial." "While Jim Hammer waits for their trial." "Three new murder cases have arrived on his desk." "To date." "No new arrests have been in connection with the murders of Devin Gross." "Dustin Thomas." "Or Ricky Thomas." "So far this year. 29 people have been murdered in one" "San Francisco's Hall Of Justice deals with as many as 20.000 criminal cases every year." "Many are not random acts committed by strangers." "But involve crime such as rape or domestic disputes." "Carried out by a person the victim knows." "She's ruined my life." "She has." "These cases range from long running disputes within the marital home to attacks by mere acquaintances." "I woke up." "He was raping me." "And I thought" "I was having a nightmare for a couple of seconds and." "But he." "It." "It was real." "A woman can just pretty much point out anybody and accuse them of anything and they're right and the other person's wrong." "The criminal justice system is crammed with prosecutors and defense attorneys trying to sort out human relationships that have gone wrong." "Why are we here?" "You know." "Couldn't you two get." "Couldn't you two talk about this divorce or did it have to come to this?" "This is a pretty classic case of a "he said." "She said"." "This guy's not the victim." "This guy's the problem." "The cliche that truth is stranger than fiction frequently applies to what you see in the criminal court." "Katie is the victim of a rape on August 21 st." "Eric Sue is not guilty." "Katie and Eric have spent time together." "They have had coffee together." "They have eaten together." "The defendant is a sexual opportunist..." "Harry Dorfman is a district attorney." "Prosecuting a rape case." "...who." "While she was asleep." "Took the opportunity to get into her bed and put his penis in her vagina." "The alleged victim is a 26-year-old woman called Katie." "When I woke up and when I was being raped." "That was the most vivid memory of my entire life." "On August 20th." "Katie and Eric spent the day together." "Public defender." "Craig Peters is defending the accused Eric Sue." "Also known as G'ha." "If found guilty." "G'ha faces up to eight years in state prison." "This woman." "She has lied to the court." "She's lied to police." "Eric is not guilty." "Guilty by rape." "This is it." "This is where it happened." "Gotcha." "Yeah." "Before trial." "Harry prepares by visiting the scene of the alleged crime." "The defendant was supposed to sleep on this couch." "Katie was in this bed and he gets in her bed." "And you know." "One of the things that I'm asking myself is." "He says this was consensual." "Katie puts on to go to sleep." "A top." "A pair of underwear." "And a flannel pajama pants." "How did her underwear and her pajama pants get down to her ankles while she's fast asleep?" "There's no consent there." "So." "I'm comfortable presenting to the jury." "This man is a rapist." "If G'ha pleads guilty now." "He will serve six years in state prison." "But G'ha has turned down the offer." "So." "Harry must prepare Katie for trial." "How do you feel right now?" "Just generally." "Not these moment." "But generally these days how do you feel?" "I'm pissed." "Feel angry?" "Yeah." "Because of what he did to you?" "Uh-huh." "Well that's." "I'm not surprised to hear that at all." "My whole personality has pretty much changed." "Would you describe your relationship with him?" "It was my boyfriend's friend." "I wouldn't call him my friend." "First witness?" "Yes." "We call Bridget..." "In the trial." "Harry is preparing to interview his first witness Bridget." "Katie's sister." "Minutes after Katie says she was raped." "She called Bridget in Boston." "Please describe for us what you said." "And what she said at this point." "She said." ""I can't believe I was just raped"." "And did she give you the name of the man who had done this to her?" "Yes." "What name did she give you?" "G'ha." "According to the prosecution's case." "Katie's attacker was an acquaintance from her neighborhood." "Katie spent the evening before the alleged attack drinking with friends and then agreed that the defendant could walk her home." "Knowing that he was homeless." "She offered him a bed for the night." "Got into her own bed." "And woke an hour and half later with the defendant having sex with her." "It was Katie's sister Bridget." "Who made the 911 call to the police." "Bridget asked Katie if she want her to call the cops for her." "And what I'm saying is that Katie was unable and couldn't lie to the cops." "It was easier for her to lie to her sister." "Could very well be the fact." "Katie is at the very least not sure what to tell the police cause she's not exactly sure what happened after the fact." "Which is why her versions are all different about what happened." "Katie doesn't want to take any responsibility for anything." "She's totally innocent." "She doesn't have anything to do with anything." "Katie had indicted to you that she herself didn't think she should." "She could call the police." "Is that right?" "Correct." "Do you recall Katie asking you when the police arrived." ""What should I do?"" "Just one floor below the rape trial is another case involving two accounts of the same event." "June Jordan and Rand Nathan were married for 20 years." "But two years ago." "Their marriage broke down and June accused her husband of physically attacking her." "I. I sort of was resisting him so I wound up on my back and he wound up being on top of me holding my wrists down very hard and having his face in mine and telling me that he was gonna hurt me if I didn't shut up." "Okay." "And..." "It's okay." "You can take your time." "That case was later dismissed by the district attorney's office and a prosecution was not pursued because of insufficient evidence." "However." "In a civil court." "June took out a restraining order against her husband preventing him from contacting her." "I thought I had no choice but to go back and get a restraining order because there was no way I could have that man living here." "On the other side of town." "Her estranged husband." "Rand." "Sees things differently." "When she took herself out or took me out of her life." "That was the worse thing that ever happened to me." "Rand is now charged with breaking the restraining order against him. 21 times." "He could face as much as a year in county jail if found guilty." "Rand Nathan was kicked out of his house." "He couldn't contact her." "Couldn't phone her." "Couldn't ask her what this was all about." "Defending Rand is Eileen Burke." "So far." "She's had 17 trials and never lost one." "If my husband falsely accused me of domestic violence." "And I mean I knew that." "And the case was then dismissed but he still wouldn't even talk to me." "I. I don't care what any court told me." "I would want to contact him to make sure he was okay." "Today." "What we're about is 21 counts of violating the restraining order. 21 phone calls over nine different dates." "The prosecutor is Alison Gray." "In this case." "You know." "The." "The wife Miss Jordan has gone out and gotten this restraining order." "In order to protect himself because she fears him and if we don't prosecute his violations of the restraining order." "There's always a potential that this could escalate into something more violent." "Rand is charged with making 21 phone calls to his wife June." "On nine separate days." "Mostly." "They frightened me." "Most of the violations were." ""I love you." "I. I'll forgive you." "I want you back"." "It brought up a lot." "You know." "Of what I dealt with when I lived with him." "That constant barrage of words to control me." "Although Rand made..." "...a series of telephone calls to" "June that breached the restraining order." "It was only when he finally went to their garage that she took action." "He needed to get tools out of the garage." "As he was getting the tools and had his car loaded up with them." "He saw a box that said "Rand's Junk" on it." "His wife had obviously just dumped a lot of his very personal things into this box." "And I think at that point he kind of lost it." "And from the garage." "Made a phone call to her leaving a message on the machine." "That he was downstairs." "He knew she was upstairs and kind of taunted her to call the police." "That he was looking forward to an encounter with the police." "And I remember being surprised." "You know." "Actually v... v... very dis... dis... disturbed that he was in the garage." "I. I. I called the police." "I was scared." "How were you feeling at that time?" "I was." "I was kind of like I am now." "I was very upset." "She was shaking." "She was crying." "It was obviously." "She was obviously very uncomfortable being in a room with him." "I thought she did very well." "She came across." "You know." "Sympathetic." "She wasn't bitter." "She wasn't trying to railroad him." "I think she faked some of that emotional stuff." "Personally." "I do." "It's important that witnesses don't oversell and are credible and I think she's overselling." "And it." "It ruined some of her credibility." "June is halfway done giving her evidence." "Tomorrow." "She faces a hard day of being cross-examined by Eileen." "They're gonna do a cross-examination." "And you know that's gonna be the tough stuff." "Upstairs in the rape case." "Kati." "The alleged victim." "Faces her day in court tomorrow." "For Harry." "It's crucial that Katie is seen as a credible witness." "Before August." "How would you describe your relationship with G'ha?" "I knew he was attracted to me." "Did you." "Did you take advantage of that?" "Did you..." "No." "I'm used to that." "Most men I know are attracted to me." "I'm not gonna apologize for that." "Yeah." "Would you ever do anything that would lead him on?" "No." "I found him quite unattractive." "I don't know how the people on the jury will react." "Katie." "And so some of them may say." ""Why would she invited him in at 2:00 o'clock in the morning?"" "Cause he." "He had no place to stay." "He was..." "Well." "I'm gonna ask you and that's the answer." "Katie?" "Tomorrow Katie will give her version of the events." "Your Honor and ladies and gentlemen." "This is Katie." "In the rape trial." "Katie M. Will take the stand." "After midnight." "You've been drinking a number of beers." "How are you feeling?" "I had a good buzz on." "Were you able to stand up on your own?" "Oh." "Yeah." "Able to walk on your own?" "Yes." "Do you remember precisely as you can." "What words did you say to the defendant when you were offering him a place to sleep that night?" "Yeah." "I said." ""You can stay on the couch but you have to leave by 8:00 because that's when I go to work"." "When you got into the bed." "Katie." "What position did you take to go to sleep?" "I was laying on my stomach." "Where were you when you woke up later on that morning?" "Same exact position I fell asleep in on my bed." "As you were waking up." "What are you feeling and hearing?" "I woke up." "He was raping me and I thought" "I was having a nightmare for a couple seconds." "But he." "It was real." "What kind of motion." "If any." "Was the defendant making when you woke up and became aware of what was happening?" "He was going at it." "He was pumping away." "What was your reaction?" "I said. "What are you doing"?" "He jumped off." "I pulled my pants off and sat on the corner of the bed and I said." ""You have to leave"." "After G'ha has been arrested." "He called Katie." "This is essentially a case of mixed signals." "If you will." "Eric was under the mistaken but reasonable belief that Katie was interested in having sex with him that night and he was under the belief that she was actually awake." "You met him through your ex-boyfriend whose name is John Brazil." "Correct?" "That's right." "Um-hmm." "And you spent a considerable amount of time with Eric." "Is that right?" "What do you mean." "A considerable amount of time?" "How much time have you spent with Eric?" "I'd say we hung out together at least 20 times." "He was always with John." "You've eaten together." "Is that right?" "I guess... yes." "She." "She's trying to distance herself from Eric constantly." "That." "You know." "That they really didn't do much that night." ""Oh." "Okay well maybe." "You know maybe we hung out a few times." "Okay and maybe we talked most of those times." "You know." "I don't know what you mean by most." "You know?"" "So." "Your testimony is that when you felt Eric on top of you." "You actually felt him thrust inside of you." "Five times?" "At least." "While I was awake." "Okay." "And your response was." ""What are you doing?"" "That's what you said to Eric?" "I think so." "And as soon as you said that." "Eric stopped." "And he got up." "Is that right?" "Yeah." "He jumped back." "He." "He was surprised." "I don't think he expected me to wake up." "That's just hogwash." "The reasonable assumption from all that is that he was surprised because now suddenly she's not consenting to something he just thought she was consenting to." "I have no further questions." "The defense story is that you were giving consent silently." "You say. "I was asleep"." "They're gonna say." ""She was awake the whole time"." "So we have a very different sum of facts." "I. I frankly think that that's okay." "But." "You know." "There are jurors who will say." ""Oh but that poor boy." "He was so scared." "Gee." "Maybe he really wasn't sure what to do"." "Around 70 domestic violence cases are prosecuted in the Hall Of Justice every month." "Rand Nathan's case is just one of them." "Today." "It's the turn of his wife June to go back on the witness stand and face cross-examination by Eileen." "The defense attorney." "Eileen needs to tackle an additional charge that the phone calls Rand made not only broke the restraining order." "But were also intended to harass and annoy." "Good afternoon Miss Nathan." "Is it accurate to say that those calls don't include any threats to you." "Correct?" "He's talking about." "You know." ""I'm." "I'm in the garage." "I. I should do it the now." "And then he calls me a and he's screaming about how all the things in there belong to him." "Okay my question though is." "Are you..." "I feel threatened by that." "Okay." "My question is can you point to the specific words." "I'm not talking about the tone of the call." "Yes." "His use of language there." "The word?" "Yes and." "And you better do it the now and..." "Okay." "...etcetera." "The profanity." "Yes." "Is it accurate that you were calling and threatening your husband?" "I was not threatening my husband." "No." "Eileen has an ace up her sleeve and is hoping to take the prosecution by surprise." "She wants the jury to hear recordings of phone calls made by June to Rand." "But first." "The jury and June have to leave while Judge Tsenin decides whether they'll be allowed into evidence." "Saying I hate you is not a threat." "They're exactly along the lines of what she called threatening conduct." "I mean." "They're." "They're clearly threatening." "I think it's not relevant because under the terms of the restraining order it really doesn't matter that she calls him." "The burden is upon him to." "To." "To..." "Of course it is." "...obey the restraining order." "Well." "At this point it's not coming in." "I'm finished." "Okay." "Judge Tsenin rules the tapes cannot come in." "But in the rape case." "Other evidence is deemed admissible." "I went to get a drink and he." "I guess." "Followed me behind me." "And next thing I know." "He's got his hand on my butt." "Sexual assault cases are unique within the criminal justice system." "Harry as a prosecutor can present evidence of prior bad acts to a jury as a way of reinforcing his case." "Miz Gost." "Do you know the defendant in this case?" "I've just known him casually." "Acquaintance." "Saying hello to him" "Did the defendant ever touch you on." "On your body without your consent?" "Yes." "On two separate occasions." "He put his hand directly on my behind." "Sort of grabbed it." "Just kind of you know." "Slapped it on there." "I felt a hand come across my thigh and grab me." "Emma Barker says she was on a streetcar with G'ha." "Okay." "I was standing here and I felt a hand come across like this." "Maria Ruiz said she was once on a subway train with G'ha." "What part of your body was being touched?" "My rear end." "My." "My butt." "All right." "The last of the so-called prior bad act witnesses is Marla Riley." "An old friend of G'ha's." "Did the defendant touch you in some way that you found offensive?" "Yeah." "He did." "He began rubbing my shoulders which I was." "You know." "I. I. I wanted him to." "It felt great and I was just." "Okay." "Then I started kind of falling asleep and then" "I remember feeling a hand on my butt." "Then I said." ""What are you doing?" "Stop it." "Get out of here." "Dude"." "That was basically it." "But then again." "I never really felt threatened by him because I always thought I could kick." "Kick his butt." "I'm not gonna play their game of talking about." "You know." "Prior indiscretions that amount to nothing more than touching somebody's butt." "No matter how much somebody might be offended by that." "It's just completely irrelevant to what happened here." "I mean." "It's a really fine line if you think about it." "If you put your hand on a woman's ass or on her thigh or touch her in any way." "Intimately." "It's sort of the first salvo in a pass at them." "And maybe it goes... well." "Maybe they want it." "Maybe they like it and they're interested as well." "Then it's okay." "But if they don't." "Suddenly it's an offensive touching." "And then." "And then what are you stuck with?" "Marla Riley is back on the witness stand." "While G'ha is being held custody on rape charge." "He wrote a letter explaining what happened to him." ""I wrote a rap about what happened and it's how I choose to explain it." "If you don't mind." "Don't with no Boston like this one named Katie." "I knew her for a year or two." "She tried to say he raped me."" "That letter shocked me." "I didn't know why he would feel comfortable enough to write another woman especially something that was so rude." "You know." "One of the ways" "Eric expresses himself is through rap music." "I'm just a BMX kid." "I'm like the next kid." "Unlike all the rest." "Kid." "Which oftentimes can be sort of edgy and vulgar..." "You only get a hundred chances in a day to hate me." "So you better take advantage of the opportunity." "Sometimes." "Quite frankly." "A little offensive." ""I went to comfort her and thought I'd give her what she need." "There was no sign of displeasure so I kept going." "She woke and said 'what are you doing'?"" "He's writing this a month after the incident." "He's already been told now." "Both by the inspectors as well as by the preliminary hearing." "What it is Katie saying." "So he knows her version." "So he's sort of just putting the two together to make this story." "Which is a rap." "Two days in and Harry examines the strengths of his case." "The jury knows that he says "I admit I was wrong"." "The jury knows that he wrote a letter that was really nasty about Katie in which he described the sequence of events that backs up her version." "The jury's hearing from all these other women." "Yeah." "I think it's a reasonable case." "But you know what?" "I know the weaknesses." "In the Hall Of Justice there are over 20.000 criminal cases a year." "But only around 350 lawyers." "Each lawyer can work up to 50 cases at any one time." "My special filing system." "Okay." "I have to go." "I'm always running late." "I was born two weeks late." "So it's just." "It." "It began at birth." "What about Tuesday." "The 20th?" "I have so many cases it's the." "In state court." "It's a high volume business." "I understand the self-defense concept." "I have no problem with that." "I have a problem with the weapon." "Your Honor." "Miss Davis wants to enter a plea of guilty." "On a gang rape?" "How can you guys risk going to trial and taking a fall with this DA unless the evidence backs up the victim's story?" "I don't get it." "We need to give the district attorney the video." "It's busy." "But it's also exciting though." "It means you're both scrambling around all the time." "But you're never bored." "When the attorneys are in trial." "The case demands their complete attention." "In Rand Nathan's trial." "Defense attorney Eileen Burke now faces the one big question all criminal defense attorneys have to address." "Should their client testify?" "For Eileen." "The decision is straightforward because she's planning to use a defense known as necessity." "You can break a law if your life or someone else's life is in imminent peril of bodily injury or death." "And our defense is that Rand's life was in imminent peril." "That he was about to kill himself." "I didn't think I had any other option." "I needed to talk to my best friend." "He won't be the greatest witness." "But he'll do the best he can." "You said that you had lost a 100 pounds in four months." "You didn't want to get out of bed or eat." "How were you feeling emotionally?" "That's a hard one." "Please try to answer it." "A. A feeling that I was conscious of." "Was being flabbergasted." "Completely surprised." "Rand." "I'm asking you specifically how you were feeling emotionally." "Not." "Not what you were thinking about but how you were feeling." "For example were you in pain at all?" "Physical pain?" "No." "Emotional." "I'm talking about." "Stop all that crap." "Elaborate on the answer..." "A short recess gives Eileen the chance to tackle some problems with her client." "All of your motive." "All of your motivation is prevention of harm." "Start talking about that and start talking about the harm." "Okay?" "Naturally." "By instinct I focus on fluency." "Don't do that." "I don't want you to do that." "I'd rather the jury saw you stutter." "I don't care about that." "I rather you act yourself." "Don't." "Don't..." "I. I'd rather die." "Okay fine." "Then say that." "Then..." "Ask me." "...say it." "All right." "But what I'm telling you you're damned right..." "Okay." "But that." "That's exactly my point though." "Is get to the heart of how you feel." "I recognize that my mental state was on the absolute edge." "Okay." "Please describe to the jury." "One." "What you mean by that and how you knew that?" "Well." "I knew because I was like my brother was just before..." "Objection." "...he blew his brains out." "...move to strike." "And ask you to admonish the defendant." "Sustained." "I want to hear from..." "The jury leaves but the judge has some problems with Eileen and Rand's defense of necessity." "And I'm about ready to cut you off in any further discussions about suicide." "I'm seriously doubting if I'm gonna let anymore testimony come in at all unless we can have something." "Somewhere." "About an imminent danger." "In a special hearing tomorrow." "The judge will give Eileen and Rand one last chance to convince her of their defense." "While Eileen is having problems with her defendant's testimony..." "No I mean." "What guy would wanna in the DA's office." "Harry and Katie are trying to second guess whether rape defendant G'ha will take the stand." "We don't know if he's gonna testify yet?" "We do not know." "Typically." "If identity is the issue." "It's a total stranger and you were on the street and you got knocked on the head and." "And." "And you're not sure who did it." "Then the accused might not testify." "In a case like this." "Where there's a prior relationship." "He acknowledges being there." "I think he." "I think he's gonna testify." "I think it's hard for him not to." "Meanwhile." "Craig is taking a different view." "My plan at this point is to not put you on the stand." "And the danger we have from putting you on the stand." "Obviously." "Is Harry gets free pot shots at you." "And there's a saying." ""Quit when you're ahead"." "I can't tell you we're actually ahead." "But I don't think we're losing." "With Craig deciding not to put G'ha on the stand." "The defense rests." "And tomorrow will be the all-important closing statements." "But in the domestic violence trial." "Rand will have one last chance to convince the judge of his defense." "In the rape trial." "Harry and Craig prepared for the closings" "It's the last chance for both attorneys to speak to the jury." "It's unusual for victims to be present." "I felt I needed to be here." "I wanted to be here." "Harry told me that maybe I shouldn't come here but if I do." "Sit in the back." "Don't react." "That's easy." "I can do that." "I mean." "It's not easy." "But I can do it." "Eric Sue is not guilty." "The bottom line is the prosecution has not been able to present to you sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt." "The charge that they've alleged against him." "The letter." "Three days before this letter was written." "Eric and myself." "And the prosecutor were all sitting in the courtroom together listening to Katie tell her story." "And that's what he wrote a rap song about." "The story she told." "I'm hoping and I'm praying that I do not need to bring an expert in here to talk to you about sex." "You know that you just can't get a man's penis into a woman's vagina with her." "With her stomach flat on the bed." "It can't happen unless there is some incredible penis on the man which actually makes a right hand turn." "Physiologically." "Think about it." "How does it happen?" "It can't." "Finally." "Craig spells out the defense case." "Either there was no sexual intercourse or." "There was sexual intercourse." "And the only way that reasonably." "Possibly could have happened is if there was some assistance by Katie." "You have Katie's version of what happened to her." "What is her motive to lie to say "He raped me"?" "And I argue to you that there is no motive for her to lie." "We're not talking about something that happens in a second." "Rip off the blankets." "Pull down the pants violently." "Jump onto the bed." "Get between her legs and within a minute." "It's happening." "No." "No." "No." "No." "No." "He likes to get his sexual thrill when women are unaware." "So he has 90 minutes as a sneak." "Opportunist rapist to set it up and make it happen." "I ask you to see this as a completed rape by an opportunist rapist." "Thank you." "Mister Dorfman." "All right ladies and gentlemen." "That concludes the proceedings in the trial." "I don't think any of them should think he wasn't guilty." "I hope he's scared right now." "I know he is." "So." "It doesn't." "It doesn't really seem like they have any real evidence..." "I mean..." "I mean they got Katie and they got Bridget." "Who talked to Katie that morning." "That's pretty much it." "I mean yesterday you said you felt very confident and so now you don't?" "No." "I... you saw how I argued the case." "Right?" "I believe in the case." "I know you do." "But I've been doing this job for 15 years and juries do unexpected things." "If this goes down in writing." "Like not guilty on record forever I'll freaking lose it." "The jury's out and both sides must now wait for the verdict." "For G'ha it's a tense time as he waits to find out whether he'll be going home or to state prison." "In the domestic violence case in a special hearing without the jury." "Judge Tsenin gives Rand and Eileen one last chance to convince her of their defense that Rand had to call his wife June." "Otherwise." "He would have killed himself." "I want to know Mister Nathan..." "Yes." "Ma'am." "...at any time any of those calls were made." "Was there an emergency situation that you thought you were gonna commit suicide?" "Yes." "Okay." "Which times?" "You've got ten minutes." "You don't have ten minutes to go..." "Every time." "Now go on ahead and him questions." "Okay." "Rand when you left the messages did you feel there was an emergency?" "I did..." "What." "What was the emergency?" "That I would commit suicide at that moment." "Okay." "Okay." "Did you call suicide prevention?" "My family doesn't do that." "Did you call any friends." "Immediately prior to call..." "disobeying the court order?" "Well." "My Dad." "My Mom." "After calling those people." "Did that make you feel better?" "Yes." "They did." "I'm looking for something that says at the moment he was making those phone calls." "There was no other reasonable legal alternative for him to do but make that phone call because of his psychiatric state." "Here's..." "Who's gonna testify to that?" "Here's the other thing." "Your Honor." "No." "Who's gonna testify to that?" "There is no other legal one." "Then what?" "Suicide prevention." "For one." "There's not gonna be any more testimony about suicide and all this other stuff." "We've heard enough about it already." "With the judge ruling any evidence about suicide inadmissible." "All Alison." "The DA needs to prove to the jury." "Is that Rand broke the restraining order." "You were aware that there was a restraining order in effect for the time periods that these calls were alleged in." "Is that correct?" "Asked." "And answered." "Okay." "And you were aware that you were not allowed to contact or telephone your ex-wife." "Is that correct?" "Or... your soon-to-be ex-wife." "Same answer..." "Okay." "...asked and answered." "Repetitious." "And you are aware and were aware that contacts with her are in violation of the restraining order?" "Isn't that correct?" "And remain aware." "You left that out." "Excellent." "Thank you." "I have no further questions." "Thank you." "Miss Burke." "Any further questions?" "Boy that was easy." "You know." "I think he was trying to outsmart me and I." "I think in the end he ended up hurting himself quite a bit because when I asked him the three elements of the offense he was charged with." "He admitted to all of them." "Usually you don't get that kind of cooperation from a defense witness." "So that was very helpful." "While the jury deliberates." "Upstairs." "There's a verdict." "So." "It's quick." "Four and a half hours is quick." "How could it be not guilty?" "How could it be not guilty?" "With his telephone call." "His letter." "All the other women." "Remain seated." "Superior Court of the State of California in the case of the People Of The State of California." "Plaintiff." "Versus Eric Chi Hong Sue." "Verdict." "Guilty of the crime of rape of an unconscious victim." "It's good news." "It's the right verdict." "Now I need to call Katie." "Let her know." "Katie." "This is Harry." "How are you?" "He was like. "Hi it's Harry"." "I'm like." ""Yeah." "Yeah." "Yeah." "Yeah"." ""They reached a verdict"." ""Yeah?"" "Then I got scared because he didn't say it right away." "I thought he would blurt it out right away." "And he was like." ""Guilty of rape"." "This jury unanimously said this man was guilty of raping you." "Harry can not talk to the jurors about the evidence." "Okay." "What was." "What was difficult to discuss?" "The one element we had trouble with." "Tell me." "Which one?" "The intercourse..." "Uh-huh." "So it's a question of rape or attempted rape?" "Um-hmm." "Yeah." "Definitely one of those two." "How was it possible." "How could we on the evidence presented..." "Yes?" "...convince ourselves." "And convince all 12 jurors that the only reasonable doubt there was penetration." "However... however small." "I have nothing to say to those people." "They're a bunch of ing cowards." "There's just." "If they came back with an attempted rape" "I would have been upset." "But at least I would have." "I could see." "I could understand their wanting to feel sympathy for Katie." "But this is just blatantly feeling sympathy for Katie." "Giving complete credence to a set of facts that just don't make sense." "It's total bull." "After the probation service has filed a report." "G'ha will be sentenced." "He could remain free and be given probation." "Or he could spend up to eight years in state prison." "And tomorrow." "The jury will reach a verdict on Rand." "After five hours of deliberating in the domestic violence trial." "The jury is back." "If found guilty." "Rand faces up to a year in county jail." "People in the State Of California versus Rand Nathan." "Count one." "We the jury in the above-entitled cause find the defendant guilty of the offense charged." "Verdict as to count two." "Guilty." "Count three." "Guilty." "Count four..." "Eileen has her first ever trial loss." "Rand is found guilty of making 19 phone calls which break the restraining order." "...14. 15. guilty." "But the jury has been unable to reach a unanimous verdict on whether Rand's phone calls were made with the intent to harass and annoy." "For June." "The verdict is an intense relief." "Thank God somebody has finally gotten control of him." "Finally." "Someone believes me." "Someone is going to have control over this man." "He is not allowed to." "To violate the restraining order." "He's not allowed to call me whenever he wants." "He's not allowed to be in my life anymore." "I actually hope in some ways this trial gives him some closure on the breakup with his wife." "He felt that he really got screwed by the system with the restraining order itself and this just may kind of end all that." "I hope." "Rand Nathan is sentenced to 30 days' community service." "The decision we face today is the length of Eric Sue's sentence." "Today." "G'ha will be sentenced." "It's up to Judge Warren to decide on the time he will spend in prison." "If any." "A probation report has recommended G'ha be given no jail time." "Harry the DA." "Wants eight years." "We're far apart on what the proper sentence should be for this man." "I. I'm hoping for eight years." "Maximum." "'Cause whatever he gets." "I know he's not going to serve it all." "If he gets three." "I'll be pissed." "Before Judge Warren decides." "He will hear a statement from Katie." "Since the rape." "I have changed a great deal." "Unlike Eric Sue." "I used to be the kind of person who look for only the good in people." "This guileless attitude has drastically changed since" "I have been raped by a so-called friend who I was trying to help out." "I wish I were still in shock because now I'm just in pain." "People used to try and comfort me by saying" "I was lucky he didn't kill me." "But for months I wished he'd had." "I have no choice but to accept what has happened to me and can only hope that my happy life has been sacrificed in order to save others." "Please keep this animal behind bars as long as possible so he cannot destroy another life." "Keep in mind that whatever sentence he receives." "It will come to an end." "Mine may never." "Thank you Katie." "Thank you." "The sentencing hearing is held over two days." "On the second day." "It's the attorney's chance to speak." "Harry still feels that G'ha should acknowledge that what he did is a crime." "You have a woman who's in the courtroom." "Who was raped." "And frankly." "I would say that this man." "When he says he's remorseful now." "Speaking as the prosecutor." "I think he's lying to you." "Isn't it interesting Judge." "That you have not ever seen him say." "Anywhere that I can tell." ""I raped Katie"." "I bet." "Your Honor." "That he will not stand up at this sentencing hearing and say those words to you in earnest." "Mister Sue?" "Good morning." "Your Honor." "I'm really sorry for what has happened." "I never meant to hurt or harm Katie in any way." "I'm very remorseful and I ask for the mercy of the court." "And I hope that you recognize my sincerity and may the Lord bless you." "Thank you sir." "Incidentally." "Did you note that Katie M. Is in the courtroom?" "Yes." "Katie I'm sorry." "I really mean that." "Mister Sue." "I have a question." "Have you come to a conclusion about what happened the night in question?" "I realized that I did play." "Play a part in what had happened." "And I know that I need to address that." "Have you ever seen a sexual act between a man and a woman where the man did not play a part?" "No." "Was there anything other than playing a part that happened that night?" "Well." "I'm sorry." "What do you." "I don't understand what you mean?" "Okay." "Okay." "Anything else Mister Sue?" "No." "Okay." "I listened to you very carefully today." "I remain unpersuaded that you appreciate the seriousness of the incident." "But mostly." "I'm looking at you and trying to figure out where you're coming from." "May I address the court?" "Not at this point sir." "The proceedings are over." "That." "That." "That time has passed." "Please Mister Sue." "Acknowledge what you did." "The court determines that while probation is available in this case." "Under the circumstances." "It will be denied." "The court in the totality." "Determines that there are neither mitigating nor aggravating circumstances sufficient to warrant departure from the midterm of six years in state prison." "Did you have any." "Any questions about the sentence that" "I've just imposed on you sir?" "No." "G'ha's apology is not enough for Judge Warren." "His conduct today was bizarre to me because he should have understood the need to acknowledge what the jury told him he did." "And what he wanted is." "He wanted Eric to say is. "I did it"." "It's just a load of crap." "You're not that old." "This is a terrible turn of events in your life." "But you still have a long part of your life ahead of you." "I'm very happy right now." "I have cottonmouth." "I'm like... nervous and stuff." "There is a danger to you and to other people if you don't take care of it." "They're my Ralph Lauren leopard sheets." "It's my favorite..." "Finally." "Katie can get her possessions back." "...I was like." ""You're taking my sheets"?" "Surprised that didn't scare them off." "But every once in a while." "You lose cases that you just shouldn't lose." "And this was one of them." "Should not have lost this case." "So." "Which isn't much consolation to Eric." "Court's in recess."