Last Friday a DUI was dismissed in Circuit Court in Baltimore City. It got there because I asked for a jury trial- that is where the pissed off comes in. A relatively new MDTA officer stops my client because thru the rain and windshield wiper he sees my client with a cell phone in her hand. Well since January 27th (Stone case in our Supreme Court) of this year that no longer gives the officer the right to stop. Every document he writes says “Saw cell phone in her hand.” She pulls over within seconds of him lighting her up. Bad stop so it is a dismissal. Not so fast Sparky!I call the prosecutor the afternoon before and ask if my client and I have to show up. Instead of saying “NO,” she says she is meeting with the supervisor (the eventual pissed offee), to get me an offer. I ask again if we have to show up and she repeats about giving me the offer. I realize she is unfamiliar with the Stone case. I tell her go to the Courts’ website, go to the tab for decided cases, go to January 27th, and she will find the 90+ page decision, but she only has to read the majority opinion. I ask her to call me back after she reads it because I believe I will not have to appear and I will skip my chocolate honey dip and coffee from the 7-11 near the courthouse (what I tell my cardiologist is the Breakfast of Champions). CRICKETS!!A little after 10:00 PM I receive an email from said prosecutor informing me that there was more UNWRITTEN probable cause (can’t tell me what) and the offer is plead guilty, PBJ, supervised probation, alcohol treatment (already completed), MADD VIP (already completed), Interlock, and naming my client’s first born after her if it is a female. Well, as I am want to do, I get TOTALLY PISSED, so much so that I don’t sleep much because I am thinking about the way I am going to castrate and disembowel this officer on the witness stand. I get to court and sit my fat ass down and don’t “check in.” At some point mid docket the supervisor (future pissed offee), walks back and asks me if she can talk to me outside the courtroom. I dutifully accompany her and she REVEALS the future victim of my wrath specifically saw my client on SNAP CHAT and that being a violation of the use of a cell phone was the reason he pulled her over. I inquire as to WHY this verbiage is not noted in ANY report he wrote, but she has no answer. We go back in and I bring my client out and ask her if she has Snap Chat. She says that is for kids and I tell her to turn on her phone so I can see, and it is not there.
I go back into the courtroom, now even more enraged than I was before, and go up to the supervisor and tell her in my usual endearing voice, “I’m going to give you one more chance,” and ask her out to the hall. I ORDER my client to turn her phone over to her, but she “won’t touch” the phone. I take the damn thing and show her NO SNAP CHAT. She then says my client could have deleted it and we have to check the App Store because that will show she had it. I go to the App Store and she never had it. I ask her if she is going to dismiss now and she says “No.” I tell her that it is now going to be a jury trial and SHE IS A WITNESS. I tell her I need her name written down as I have never met her before. We go back in and I pray the Jury Trial and she hands me a stick-em with her name and email address. I put on the record the Snap Chat stuff and that I made the supervisor a witness and then turn to her and ask if she’ll accept the summons by emaill or if she wants the Sheriff to come down and serve her. She is now totally pissed off too and says the Sheriff. Is this great or what!!!I even decide I will serve her with the Summons the next time I am down there. The Circuit Court prosecutor calls me a few weeks later and says he screwed up the email he was sending me to pick a trial date and that the MDTA Officer is out of the country on the trial date. I tell him I have a case in Baltimore County that day so we contact the Administrative Judge and she says- nope that day is the day. We appear in front of the former Administrative Judge where he asks for a postponement. She grills him on how he screwed up the date and denies the postponement. I tell her I did have a phone when he screwed up the email and could have called. I also mention I have 2 Motions to Suppress (she just about aced the SFSTs so no probable cause to arrest). Case gets dismissed. Other MDTA Officers I talk to are not surprised about how this arrest went down so I’ll get another shot at the world traveler.
Tough Times Call For Tough Representation
