Sunday 28 February 2010
Last December a jury convicted Derrick Wren of murdering his friend Adam Calderon in cold-bold. I worked on that case for several years and was one of the trial prosecutors. During the month long trial I got to know Adam’s family - the Matos family - as they sat through it. Edwin Matos was Adam’s brother. Edwin had a young son. Yesterday Edwin was murdered at a local mall. So sad. Such a sad serious of tragic events.
I feel really awful for the Matos family, for Edwin’s girlfriend, and for his kid.
Tuesday 23 February 2010
Finished my trial a couple weeks ago. Jury convicted the defendant on all seven counts. It’s so nice to be in trial again and not have to worry about all the supervisor duties for a few days. Having great co-workers who can step-in and take over the supervisor role for a short period of time is a Godsend.
Now I’m working on my next trial - a lengthy series of armed robberies and thefts perpetrated by two defendants. Got some really good defense attorneys on the opposing side and I’ve been allowed to have a second chair sit with me. She’s a younger prosecutor stuck toiling in the misdemeanor unit because we don’t have the same amount of office movement right now that facilitates promotions to one of the felony units. This will be great to have her working with me because, frankly, she’ll have more time to prepare the witnesses and (more importantly) will be a great resource to bounce ideas off of for opening, closing and protective orders. Two minds are always better than one in my book.
As for the snow; we’ve been stuck in 40 degree temps for the past week and a half. The slopes are nasty and icy so I’ve not been downhill skiing for a month now. Took up skate skiing instead. Finally dusted off last year’s purchase of Madshus skis and had a lesson on Saturday. Went out yesterday too after work by myself (not go well by the way) and have another lesson tomorrow. Super psyched about it.
Tuesday 26 January 2010
Last year it took me until the end of October before I had my first trial. I then spend 6 weeks in trial on two cases. It’s now the end of January and I should start a vehicle theft, eluding and felony assault on a police officer trial next week. I think it will be in front of a judge that I’ve done many trials in front of before against a defense counsel that knows his stuff. Hopefully trial will last only 5 days (including jury selection) but the judge likes to take lots of breaks during the trial day so I won’t hold my breath on how long it will last.
Friday 22 January 2010
my iMac hit the crapper this week. Multiple reformats and attempted reinstalls of the OS yielded zero positive results. So now the computer is at Alaska Mac Store to get fixed. Got my fingers crossed.
Getting over the whole thing by drinking White Russians and watching The Big Lebowski with good friends tonight.
“Mark it 8 dude.”
Saturday 19 December 2009
Arrived in Ilinois yesterday. As is now customary with any trip here we went to a hospital to see a family member. This is the fourth trip out of the past five to Illinois where we’ve had to spend time in the hospital with family. I’ve decided that’s it. This will be our final trip here for the foreseeable future. Family will have to come visit us from now on.
Friday 23 October 2009
The better half has now been gone for more than one week. She’s down in D.C. attending the annual American Academy of Pediatrics conference. Since I was unable (thanks judge!) to fly down there after the conference ended two days ago I am still here at home with the dog, KD. While KD is fantastic company she’s not even a remotely close or suitable replacement for actual real-life adult companionship.
I’ve been working very long hours this week preparing for a trial next week (not the one originally scheduled to start this week which required me to miss a trip to D.C.) along with a rather difficult change of plea proceeding which occurred today. Some aspects of the job are so emotionally draining to deal with and walking the dog or commiserating with colleagues brings some solace I do wish I could just drink two or three drinks and fall asleep early. That’s not an option tonight because I just started two weeks of being on-duty after hours. Since someone in the recent past got drunk and was unable to do the job we’ve now been fully advised that drinking too excess or close to excess will not be tolerated.
That’s just too bad in my book. Friends, good food and drinking to slight excess is quite fun for a Friday or Saturday evening.
Saturday 10 October 2009
Not much going on lately.