21 September 2005

Mea Culpa, I'm Back

I owe y'all an apology. No sooner had I made my intro post but that I got called to trial. Federal Court here in Philadelphia. Client was indicted, along with several others, on 42 counts of bank fraud, RICO violations and other stuff. We slog along for a while. Then, through an odd series of circumstances, the AUSA offers a deal. A sweetheart deal. Like, no time, which, given that our guy was looking at mucho years, was good. Now, here's the point of the post. This has never happened to me before. Part of the deal is, the client has to allocute. He stands up in court on plea day,and, when the judge asks him to allocute, he turns to me and says, no kidding, "Do I have to cop to the stuff that wasn't in the indictment?" Just as I was thinking about how long it would take to pluck the guys eyes out with my pen, the AUSA, to her credit, suggested that perhaps we ought to take a short break. The judge was not amused. Nor was my cardiologist. Long story short, case over. My posts ought to become somewhat regular, as they say, and I apologize for disappearing without an explanation.

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