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This is pretty local to me but a different city. He got off easy. Why because he has money and power. I'm sorry but our justice system is screwed up and I am so scared for my husband because we don't have money or power. We have a public defender who is failing to defend. He has about 3k he can cash out of his 401k but I don't know how he would be able to from jail. I did get a full time job and should start soon. http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/06/09/s-c-johnson-billionaire-gets-4-months-jail-6k-fine-in-child-sex-assault-case/
If you can take more than $3000,00 out as a hardship withdrawal, do so. I would not state here how much you can take out. However, if you could take $5000.00 or more, you can mount a decent legal defense versus using a public defender.
The legal system is not fair. It is true that if you have money, things work differently.
The difference between a paid attorney and a PD might be the difference between a 5 year sentence using the paid attorney and a 20 year sentence using a PD.
This is no time to worry about money. Get the best representation you can afford.
We do not have a "justice" system, whatever justice means. Justice means different things to different people. As humans we like to have concise definitions for abstract ideas such as justice, but I have never seen a real good definition. Justice is like the concept of love. Love is hard to define precisely, but we know when we are in love. Justice is difficult to explain, but we know when we have suffered an injustice.
What we have is a legal system that pits two foes against each other-----the prosecution or the state versus the defendant. Whichever side makes the best presentation of their story will win. It does not matter if the defendant is guilty or innocence, as guilt or innocence does not really play a part in it. It should, but it doesn't.
We have heard the term criminal "justice" system so much that we think that justice has to be included in there somewhere. It doesn't. Whichever attorney can use the best persuasive technique to win the battle between the state and the defendant will win. Simple as that.
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You asked, "How is this fair?"
Just as justice is not part of the system, neither is fairness. The concept of fairness does not figure into the equation as far as the system is concerned.
That is a sad reality, but it is true.
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You are correct in that she won't get anything for $3,000. I only mentioned that these situations are no time to think about saving money, but yes, the $3,000 would probably be a waste of money and she could better use it elsewhere.
Her husband's case will wind up a plea deal and I don't know any lawyers that would even work a deal for $3,000, but if she can scrape up $2,000 dollars to put with the $3,000 dollars she would have $5,000 dollars. She then might find an attorney that would read the case documents and try to work a plea bargain that might be better than one worked out by a PD.
I don't think she has to worry about spending the $3,000 as I don't think any attorney would take the case for such a small amount of money. One person I have been helping did find a decent attorney on his case for $5,000 and the attorney is working out a plea for him.
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If you can get decent representation, try to do so. PD's are so overworked that fair representation is rare.
I am optimistic, but I am also pragmatic and realistic.
Your husband has four charges if I remember correctly with two different victims. His chances of getting completely off the hook even if he is innocent of all the charges are slim----very slim. To make it worse, he has a PD.
If either of those victims can tell their story in any reasonable fashion with any credibility at all, he will be convicted. The only possible way in which he could get out of this with no damage is if both the victims had a complete meltdown and recanted their stories completely. Then the DA would have to consider dropping the charges.
In a trial it is very difficult to convince a jury that one victim is lying, let alone two victims. Going to trial would be a form of legal suicide for your husband.
Defendants charged with one single incident by one single victim with very little evidence except the word of their accuser have been known to be convicted at trial, so what do you think your husband's chances at trial would be? Personally I was convicted without any physical evidence and there could be no physical evidence because there was no crime to begin with.
If he goes to trial---and he will most likely lose----they will stack the sentences, probably run them consecutively, and he will have something in the range of a 60 year sentence to contend with. At 85% that is a lot of time to have to serve in prison. This is what has happened when you hear of a sex offender sentenced to a very long time in prison.
With a plea, hopefully he can minimize the damage and receive a sentence that he can live with.
So it is not the plea that should scare you, but the idea of going to trial. If the DA really wanted to play hardball, he could just refuse to offer your husband a plea deal at all, which would force him to go to trial. Some DAs now are not even offering plea deals to defendants with sex crimes or the plea they offer with multiple charges start at 25 years, which is not a really good deal at all----but better than losing at trial.
These are some things to consider.
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