I was successfully arraigned yesterday.
I went to court, and was assigned an attorney. He entered a plea of not guilty without having spoken to me, which was a little unnerving - I was worried that he was going to plead guilty to something and then explain why that was a good choice, but he didn't. He spoke to me after the proceedings to talk to me about my options, which are essentially:
1. Plead guilty and pay a $100 fine, suspended sentence of a year (last time I heard 30 days, I don't know which is correct or if they're getting meaner)
or
2. Go to trial.
Going to trial is going to mean missing more than $100 worth of work, as he predicts it will be a three week trial, and will probably be a lot more stressful than just paying the fine. The problems with this are that it would remain on my record, and that it would make a successful police brutality suit a lot more difficult. My criminal attorney and the attorneys handling the police brutality suit want me to go to trial, as I have a good chance of beating the charges, which would help the civil suit a lot. Also, going to to trial will cost the city a lot of money since they have to pay for my attorney's time as well as calling in all the police officers as witnesses. He told me that filing for dismissal is not an option; they tried that with other people and the court didn't go for it.
I don't know what I want to do yet; my next court date is August 23, so I've got a while to think about it.
For an account of what happened in the first place, please see my daylog for
May 3, 2001.
The runaround I went through to get a continuance on my arraignment is written up 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 some of the conflict I've had with my coarrestees, please see my daylog for May 30, 2001.
If you want to read me whining about how much this has upset me, read my daylog for June 2, 2001.