I am going to trial sometime next month.
A little history:
When I left LA at the end of July, I had decided that going through with the court case was going to be too much work, stress, and money. I was planning to plead out, because I could pay 100 dollars, take the little black mark on my record, the three years summary probation, and have it all be over. This plan was really great, until I ran it by my attorneys.
My attorneys said not to plead. They said the evidence in my favor was good enough that I could win without showing up. They said it would kill the civil suit. They kept talking until I gave in.
Then New York blew up. In the upsurge of nationalism, I became terrified of going to trial. I figured that this was perhaps the worst time ever to be tried for, essentially, unamerican activities.
I vacillated on whether I was going or not for a while. What finally convinced me was the prosecutor's behavior. I was given until October 23 to take the 100 dollar plea bargain deal, but before that day, the prosecutor cut it short. My attorney had to complain to the judge that he was being malicious to get the bargain reinstated. While this was going on, she was trying to get the prosecutor to go over the evidence with her to see if they could dismiss my case. He refused to even look at it.
October 23rd came and went, and I did not plead out. I decided that the prosecutor's behavior meant he probably knew he couldn't win in court, and was trying to force me to plead. I got angry. I decided I was not going to be pushed around, herded into pleading the way that I was herded into being shot and arrested.
I am going to trial sometime next month. If I lose, I may spend a few weeks in prison. If I win, I will sue the Long Beach Police Department into bankruptcy. Either way, it will be over soon.
To see how this started, please see my daylog for May 3, 2001.
For difficulties in dealing with court dates, please see my daylog for May 7, 2001.
The charges against me are listed on May 10, 2001.
For an account of my first arraignment hearing, please see my daylog for May 24, 2001.
For an account of my bad dealings with my codefendants, please see my daylog for May 30, 2001.
For an account of my second arraignment hearing, please see my daylog for June 22, 2001.