I suppose it is fitting that we discuss the night for tricking and treating right after Election Day.
So how was your Halloween weekend? Still have your liberty, if not your dental health?
Some people had little trouble with the law over the weekend. Interestingly, though, these folks were not out on the street looking for trouble. Sometimes, though, trouble find you.
Happy Halloween everybody!
Have your plans for tonite all ready? I will be hiding under my bed at my abode in Salem.
Whatever your plans, be careful not to take them too far. Law enforcement has a way of being overly-on-hand on nights like this. With good reason, actually.
Well, it’s a Monday morning and so I am sure that you, like me, witnessed plenty of folks moaning and groaning on their way to work, school, etc. this morning. Rest assured, though, there are those who had more reason to groan about their destination than most.
Take 26-year-old Cassandra McInnis of North Adams (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) for example. She was on her way to North Adams District Court this morning.
She had a bit of a traffic incident this weekend. No, not the typical kind.
Robert E. Murphy of Ashland, a 59-year-old (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) gentleman is, or was, a Hopkinton school bus driver. He has now been arrested and charged with operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol and operating a motor vehicle to endanger. According to WBZ, this is his third OUI case, the last having taken place 25 years ago.
The Defendant’s arrest, together with his history, has touched off renewed interest into how many drunk driving cases a person can have before a license is suspended or lost.
According to the report, it is very difficult to have one’s driving priviledge suspended or terminated in Massachusetts. The article explains that “In general, just being charged with an OUI offense-no matter how many times-is not enough to have a license suspended or revoked.”
Ok, I admit that it is not still yesterday; I did not get this entry up yesterday. It doesn’t mean that I did not try…I was just out doing battle for my client longer than expected. Doing the job right has to take precedence. Believe me, when you are my client, you will appreciate those priorities.
Sometimes, you just can’t do everything.
Which brings us back to our discussion. The “Yes Means Yes” approach to combatting campus sexual assault cases.
We have been discussing California’s new “Yes Means Yes” bill and its accompanying app.
As I have mentioned, the “Yes Means Yes” approach is not really brand new. At least here in the Commonwealth, various colleges and universities have been using the approach.
I know…I have handled the cases.
It really is quite a comfort, isn’t it?
As the article says, “Want to be sure you’re not raping someone? There’s an app for that.”
As discussed in my last blog, the app to which I refer is the upbeat-named “Good2Go”.
Hey, remember when “No” meant “No”? Well, unfortunately, people are still committing sex crimes. So, California is going a step further with its enforcement of such crimes. The state’s new rule will be that “Yes means yes”. By statute, in fact.
Such an approach is not really new. I have handled a number of cases where such allegations have arisen on college campuses. Generally, the burden is shifted to the accused to prove that a given complainant gave an unequivocal “Yes” and, virtually, kept repeating that word in order for the sexual contact not to be a sexual assault.
Now, California has defined just when “yes means yes” and it is aimed at college campuses. The state Senate, which unanimously approved the legislation, believes that the new law will change how campus officials investigate sexual assault allegations. Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill shortly after receiving it.
In the practice of law, there are such things as “legal fiction’s”. These are generally items that lawyers make up in order to prove a point. .
Whether the charge is murder, drug trafficking or rape, you have been brought up to believe that the United States Constitution protects you in that prosecution in various ways. One of the most fundamental ways is that you are said to be “presumed innocent”. You are also told that the presumption remains with you unless and until you are proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by the government.
We use that “presumption of innocence” to explain away and even excuse various inequities and wrongs inherent in criminal prosecutions. For example, a police report is written when charges brought against you. There are cases in which there is no resemblance between the facts described in the police report and what actually happened. “That’s okay”, we basically say. “That police report won’t be going into evidence and, anyway, you are still presumed to be innocent .”
This past Sunday, you may have woken up early. 7:00 AM-type early. At the time, perhaps you were listening to Emerson College’s radio station, WERS, located at 88.9 FM on your radio dial. If so, you may have heard me talking about, what else, the criminal justice system.
The topic of the overall program was to discuss progress in various areas of our sociological life. I was there to discuss what progress has been made in criminal sentences involving incarceration. Specifically, whether the unfairness’s and inequities we have seen in the past persist.
Unfortunately, I was not exactly a beacon of hope.
Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog