Yesterday was another example of the Gregg Bernstein try every piece of s… policy. If this is the first thing you are reading of mine, Gregg Bernstein is the elected State’s Attorney. WE ARE NOT RELATED. He got his ass kicked in his first attempt at re-election as the City recognized they made a mistake electing him for one term. He will be escorted out of the building in January when the new State’s Attorney takes over. That being said for the umpteenth time, yesterday was ridiculous. So much so, that after the judge threw the case out at the end of the State’s case (even though he had to view it in the light most favorable to the State), the prosecutor’s supervisor asked me to let him know when I have a piece of trash like this because he will get rid of it.
My client has an accident and the Maryland Transit Police arrive. Officer A says he and Officer B walked to the scene from 6 blocks away. Officer B says she drove Officer A there. Officer B says my client’s vehicle was a car. Officer B says my client’s vehicle was a truck. Officer B says my client’s cloths are disheveled. Officer B says his cloths are orderly. Office A says his balance is unstable. Office B says he walked just fine. Officer A says my client asked to use a restroom so Officer A walked him the restroom at a nearby restaurant. Office B says my client left the scene on his own and they followed him to the restroom. Now we get to the good stuff. My client was given blank paperwork- the Advice of Rights Form and the Temporary Driver’s License. The State had filled in copies. In fact we saw at the MVA Hearing that Officer B submitted multiple Temporary Driver’s License forms because MVA sent them back because they were insufficient. The one the State had was great because the officer wrote that she suspected my client was under the influence of “an unknown substance.” My client was only charged with driving while impaired by alcohol, not an unknown substance. In her police report she wrote that she did not know if my client was “under the influence of any substance,” so she arrested him to get him to take a breath test. The driver of the other vehicle was not in court. The State put in their documents and on cross I showed her the blanks. She hemmed and hawed as to how this could happen since my client’s copies were carbon copies. I had a nice crowd of new prosecutors watching this blood bath. After it was over the prosecutor explained he was stuck trying the case. While we were at the counter filing the Expungement, the prosecutor came up to us and said if he ever got a DUI he would hire me. Nice ending to the case.