Previously on Common Law, public defender Lacy Gilmour showed how jail overcrowding in Wichita can inhibit talking to clients about their cases. This time, moving inmates to smaller counties prevented a mentally ill client from staying on his medications. He returned Wichita, unmedicated, and violated his probation. He had to go back to jail, even though he faced a judge who understood his plight and the shortage of community resources to help him. (Watch video after the jump)
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We’ve received several questions about what happens to people getting probation. As we’ve explained before, it’s not a free walk. While people don’t stay locked up, their life is restricted. Most of the people we’ve seen receive probation get standard terms they must follow. Judge David Kaufman went through those limitations in the recent sentencing of a bar bouncer. It took Kaufman 18 minutes to fully explain the terms of probation. We’ve condensed it to 2 minutes. (Watch video after the jump)
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A bar bouncer with no history of breaking the law got involved in a fracas, faced with two threatening patrons. The bouncer pulled a gun and fired a warning shot into the air. He now has a criminal record that could follow him for the next 10 years.
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Jeremy Thompson and his wife got in an argument. She was driving. He grabbed the steering wheel. A police officer saw the car swerve off the road and stopped it, finding the couple’s child in the back seat. Thompson was charged and convicted of felony endangering a child. The 28-year-old came to his sentencing with no other criminal history. Prosecutor Marc Bennett wondered if Thompson needed anger management.
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It used to be only sex offenders had to register their addresses. Since 2006, people in Kansas convicted of some drug and weapons offenses also have to keep their whereabouts current with the sheriff’s department. Judge David Kaufman explains how this causes people with otherwise minor sentences to face prison.
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Public defender Lacy Gilmour expects one of her cases to go to trial next week. Her client is accused of stealing money from an elderly woman. He said she loaned him the money for school. Gilmour explains what it takes to get ready for a criminal jury trial.
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He had sex with her on Mother’s Day and after her best friend’s birthday. She was 14 years old. He was her father. Did he deserve a harsher sentence because of that relationship? No judge can decide that. Only a jury can. Prosecutor Marc Bennett asked a jurors to do that because a father had betrayed his child’s trust.
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If mental illness seems like a recurring theme here, that’s because it often surfaces in our courts. A majority of Kansas prison inmates suffer from a mental disorder. Mark McGee was one of them. He spent 10 years in prison for a drug crime. He got out and five years later was convicted of breaking into a business. On probation, he began using drugs again. Judge David Kaufman had to decide if prison was the right place for McGee and his illnesses..
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Public defender Lacy Gilmour compares her case to that of the prosecution in a recent theft trial before Judge Kaufman, and how it won an acquittal for her client.
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Beverly Mitchell went to trial this week accused of stealing an expensive piece of equipment from his former employer. But when the prosecutor asked the company’s human resources director why Mitchell no longer worked there, public defender Lacy Gilmour objected. Judge David Kaufman excused the jury, as happens frequently during trials for legal arguments. The judge had to decide if the jury needed to hear the answer.
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