Dear Thief. I thought you just did a quick snatch and grab since my door got left unlocked. Turned out you went into my trunk and stole not just my golf clubs and range finder but my 10 year olds golf clubs. You also stole some golf balls belonging to my brother who is a priest. Not going to say that I hope you mishit a shot and it bounces back and breaks your nose. That would be unkind. Not going to say that I hope you hit a root while swinging my club and break your wrist. That would be unkind. But I do hope you never break 100 on your scorecard and you develop a full blown golf addiction that takes over your life. And what the heck, if you break your wrist or nose along the way… I wont cry. Although you made my daughter cry when she found out you stole her clubs, Im sure she forgives you.
Thief
So I got my car broken into last night. I say it that way because its partly my fault. Car door was left unlocked. I know the military says dont tempt a thief! My favorite leather trenchcoat got stolen. (along with nice sunglasses, GPS and CD’s) I brought it back from Italy 20 years ago. I know there is a lesson in there somewhere about not being attached to material goods, but I’m so mad/sad about that coat. I want to go to District Court and prosecute somebody, andybody for larceny! But Im not assigned to District Court today! Hoping that dumb criminal sells my GPS to a pawn shop and we can catch them. Well, life lesson learned to lock car and if not, let it go and get over it. I’ll be in a better mood tomorrow. But for now, defense attorneys-dont ask me to help your client out with any plea bargains on larceny cases!
Cameo Arthouse
Dear Friends:
We have a wonderful independant theatre in Fayetteville called the Cameo Arthouse. It shows great independant films that I used to drive to Raleigh or Chapel Hill to see. (or fly to Park City Utah to see at Sundance). Here’s the thing though. They have to convert to digital which is very expensive. So I urge you to go to thier website and do what you can to help save this treasure in our community. They have a fund set up and if the goals are not met, your donations can be returned. Look at thier website for details.(I make no specific representations and am not liable for any refunds !!)
Scrapping
For those of you not in the criminal justice field, you may not know there is an activity called “scrapping”. Individuals go around town looking for and collecting scrap metal that they then sell to junkyards. The problem comes sometimes as to where they “find” the “scrap” metal. In one case I had, the defendants “found” the aluminum siding still attached to the house. That is when one goes from being a scrapper to being a defendant. This usually happens in an unoccupied house. What the former scrapper now defendant fails to relaize is just because a property is unoccupied and run down does not mean it is not owned. An attorney friend of mine said he woke up one saturday morning to an awful noise of banging and scraping. When he looked out the window a man was attempting to pull his copper pipe atached to his hose spigot out of his brick wall with a hammer. This house was obviously not unoccupied. Nor was it run down. It comes down to a total lack of respect for other people’s property. Whatever happened to the lesson we learned as kids that if its not yours dont pick it up? So my advice is if you dont want a new name (defendant) or a new address (jailhouse) dont take what does not belong to you! As an aside, the woman I see on Cool Spring Street putting gravel into aluminum cans and then crusing them for the extra weight, I wonder how long before the people buying them from you figure it out and have you charged for obtaining property by false pretense!
Bachmann Spins
Rep. Michelle Bachmann is showing her true colors early. When confronted with the facts in an LA Times news article while on Fox News, Mrs. Bachmann was bobbing and weaving still claiming she has not taken Federal Funds for her family business. Even though the businesses clearly received the money, she claimed she had no personal benefit from the money so she is not saying one thing while doing another. She claimed the money her husbands counseling business got was training money for mental health workers and she did not personally get the money. Well guess what Rep. Bachmann, if your husband’s business got the money for training, that was $30,000.00 he did not have to spend from his bottom line that went into your bank account so yes you did benefit personally from the federal funds. The $260,000.00 in federal farm subsidies for your family farm allowed you to reap between $32,503 and $105,000 in income between 2006 and 2009 as listed in your own financial disclosures. So you did benefit from the federal funds. So voting public take notice now, when confronted by the fact, Rep. Bachmann will just spin the story her way. Are you going to believe your lying eyes or what Rep. Bachmann tells you to believe.
Justice served
Thank you to the Cumberland County jury that sat through a week long trial and 27 counts of sexual abuse of a minor. It was a tough week for all concerned. In the end the defendant was sentenced to four consecutive sentences of 230 months minimum and 288 months maximum. Thanks to the lead prosecutor, I learned a lot in prosecuting this case with her.
integrity vs. inane
I LOVE golf and love that it is a game of integrity. I love that it has rules that are enforced by the players themselves. BUT this rule that if your ball moves by an outside agency after you have addressed it causes a one stroke penalty is inane and stupid. Since golf tournaments are about determining who is the best golfer that day, this rule is contrary. Webb Simpson recently lost the Zurich Open in New Orleans as a result of this silly rule. He has now been penalized in the US Open by this rule. The rules are to make sure no player gains an unfair advantage over his opponent by improving his lie or by moving his ball closer to the hole etc. In this situation the ball usually moves no more that a half an inch and a lot of times away from the hole! How has the player gained an advantage? It is high time the PGA and R & A get together and amend this rule. Where is the integrity when someone loses a million dollar purse because the ball oscillates a half an inch away from the hole.
New Job
Hello world:
After 20 years I have shut down my private law practice and taken a job with the District Attorney’s Office. We have a great new DA, Billy West. I told him in in 2006 that when he was elected, I wanted to work for him. And now that has come to be!
I started Feb 23, 2011. I have really enjoyed it. Everybody in the office is great. Criminal Administrative week is next week so I will be busier than I have been. I have 7 cases right now and three are set for trial soon so I have to hit the ground running! With some hard work and dedication, I think I can do a good job. See you in the courts!!
Random Golf Thoughts
First, I have nothing against Davis Love III and I hope he will be a great Ryder Cup Captain. But the United States treats the Ryder Cup Captaincy like little league. Why does everybody get a chance to be the Captain? We finally won with Paul Azinger as Captain. I say ride that horse until he bucks. I understood at first he declined to act as Captain when it was offered to him right after his victory. By the time he wanted to do it, Corey Pavin was about to be selected. But since we have seen Azinger is a proven winner at this format, why offer it to Love instead of him. Because all the kids in little league need a turn at bat????
Second, I just have a Tiger- gripe. Does he not have enough millions yet that he passes up on tournaments in the US to accept large appearance fees to play in the Middle East? I know his management company certainly benefits from booking him there and he may have prior relationships and corporate responsibilities, but I’m just saying! He has never played the GGO or other tournaments that could benefit from his star power. Why not rehab his image by helping out the smaller tournaments and the fall series when many big stars are home or on vacation. Those tournaments donate to charity the same as the rest of the PGA events and those charities would strongly benefit from his presence. But I guess that is his right to go around the world building his personal wealth.
funny things heard at court
Each day the DA calls the Docket of names and cases for a particular courtroom. They will call it first thing in the morning and than mid-morning in case somebody was in a second courtroom, lost or just late. You can often hear somebody in the hall ask, “have they called the second document yet?”
attorneygurnee 