An Ugly Truth About the Law

A client recently told me about his father, who had retained me to help the client a while back. Said his dad was in rehab in a distant state, where he resides. Dad was caught with a large amount of cocaine. The client reported that he dad got a gentle wagging of the judge's finger and was sent to rehab as punishment. I remarked that he must have had a very good attorney. He responded that the attorney, who charges ridiculously high retainers, is one who plays golf with the DA and judges, attending mutual social gatherings, and effectively using these contacts to short cut the system vis a vis blatant corruption. This reminded me of a case I undertook many years ago. My client was in deep shit as the result of an FBI interdiction, which exposed his narcotics conspiracy. He was indicted in federal court. During the pendency of that case, the client, who was on Tennessee state probation at the time of his federal arrest for an earlier narcotics conviction, was served with a probation violation warrant relating to a felony drug offense in East Tennessee which was based upon the recent federal indictment. He was on probation for a drug conviction when he was busted for another felony drug case by the DEA. He asked me to represent him in front of the criminal court judge on the probation violation. I had not appeared before this judge before. When the hearing was concluded, which left me with absolute certainty that my client would be remanded to custody, the Judge dismissed the warrant. I was stunned. Some time afterward I learned that $10,000.00 was delivered to a bondsman, who was the judge's bag man in order to bribe this judge to dismiss the probation violation warrant. The same judge who had given him probation in a state narcotics conviction that should have sent him back to prison, (he has spent half his life in prison), then gave him yet another improbable break of the probation violation. It was highly unusual, to say the least. Perhaps two years later, and With my client's permission I met with a very senior FBI agent and spilled the beans. Nothing was done. This judge continued to preside for about twenty more years until he retired from the bench. Fact.