Less Trial, More Plea

Our Armed Robbery trial did not get out of the gate. We picked a jury last Monday, then reported in the morning for opening statements. Our client told us that he wanted to take a plea offer from the state. They agreed to let him serve ten years as a guest of department of corrections. He also has to pay the state back for flying the witnesses down from St. Paul, Minnesota.

All in all, I guess it worked out for him. He was convicted the first time this case was tried, so he didn't want to face that risk again. Too bad he didn't think of that the week before. The DA was offering 8 years with no money to pay back. Once we picked a jury though, they change their tune.

Ryley Arrived!!

Ali and Shannon gave birth (mostly Shannon) to Ryley Claire yesterday
at 1:22 PM. She is 7lbs 4oz, 19 inches, and a bundle of hairy
cuteness. She's got thick black hair and I'm guessing that's from
daddy.

We went to visit last night at Piedmont hospital. They had to do a
last minute C-Section, but everything turned out fine and they were
resting very comfortably by the time we got there. Shannon was still
itchy from either the spinal tap or the morphine, but she was able to
relax and enjoy the company of several friends and the inlaws, Mehri
and Mohammed.

She'll be out of the hospital by Thursday or Friday so they can
introduce her to the soon-to-be-jealous family dog, Zoe.

We Have a Jury

We picked a jury today in the Armed Robbery trial. It has been an interesting experience. We even had a Batson challenge to the DA's strikes (sorry non-lawyers). She used 7 of 7 strikes against whites.

Anyway, we have 14 jurors seated now. We will open on Wed. and probably close Friday. I'll be crossing two witnesses and a cop, and I will do closing arguments.

Very exciting!

Going to Trial

Monday starts an Armed Robbery trial. I'm responsible for cross-examination of two of the victims and the responding police officer, and for closing arguments.

Wish me luck.

Inmates keep calling

I just got back from court around 5:00 and I had 26 missed calles..... why only 5 voice-mails?

Ride Hard

You may remember that I am a member of the GAYBC. We're a rather informal bike club without rules or organization, but we do have a slogan: Ride Hard. I was riding with a fellow GAYBC member out at the 1996 Olympic Mountain Bike Course today. Everything was going great until I hit mile 0.99, so barely out of the gate. I wasn't on a crazy down-hill or anything, just peddaling up some granite slab. I heard a snap or a pop of some kind and felt a lurch backwards. I got off the bike thinking that I had broken another seat (that's a funny story in itself, and it was the cause of a HUGE bruise on my butt). I checked out the seat and could not find the problem with it, but while I was inspecting the seat I saw this:

The frame of my bike was not just cracked, it was almost broken in two pieces!! (Check out the silvery line on the purple frame, definitely not suposed to be there.) I could not believe my eyes. I was speechless for a few seconds, standing in the middle of the trail wondering what the hell had just happened. Nick called back down the hill to see what was up and all I could yell back was, "Holy shit dude, my frame just broke!!" So, I walked all the way back to the parking lot and waited for Nick to finish his ride. I stopped and chatted with a few guys along the way back... they were sufficiently impressed.


For anyone who isn't a bike rider, it's really hard to break an aluminum mountain bike frame. This bike is just over a year old, so it's modern technology and everything. The other interesting part is, this bike has several parts made of carbon fiber which you could imagine breaking before the metal.... but no. Though, this did break along a weld point, so it could be crappy work product.

Here's a shot to put it in perspective. You can see the seat post coming up out of the area where the break is. The crack goes around both sides of that vertical tube, almost came clear off.

The move is done, the office is bare

My new office is functional, but rather bare. The walls are institution white in my little office and loony-bin-light blue in the hallways. It's rather odd.

The other interesting part of this building is the distinct lack of a lock on the front door. This has led to a wallet, a purse and a laptop all being stolen out of people's offices. One could blame a the lack of a lock, but instead the victims are blamed as having no common sense. Bravo!

I have not left anything here, so I am not missing anything. I figure it is just a matter of time before the desktop computers disappear too. Of course, it could be all the pesky lawyers trying to sneak out with them (like I did a few weeks ago), because leadership always HATES initiative.

Winter Blast '07

Atlanta has a funny way of freaking out about the weather. Maybe that's why Home Depot decided to be headquartered here. They sell generators and gas heaters like hotcakes every time the news says it might snow or ice. Not that the news ever says, "hey it might snow.' They always say, "OH MY GOD IT'S GOING TO SNOW, DON'T LEAVE THE HOUSE, WRAP YOUR CHILDREN IN WOOL, PREPARE FOR THE WORST!!!!!"

Yesterday the hype was about the freezing rain overnight. It was supposed to be Winter Blast '07, with major problems starting this morning and lasting until .... judgement day. But it was more Winter Whimper '07. There was a little slush on the windshield this morning, and it's raining cats and dogs, but it's just rain. Nothing has frozen, no roads became slick with ice. All those generators are just going to sit in the crawl-space until Winter Blast '07 Part 2: Revenge of the Black Ice!!