Quoted from blueberryjohnson:jamesmc thanks for sharing your story and perspective. Cynical but legit question when comparing your and Robert's situations: did you have very expensive lawyers representing you?
I didn't have a "super attorney". My brother was a known attorney in my district. But not a federal criminal attorney. The first attorney he hired was a really good known attorney. He warned me day one that his partner had a state cocaine case of 2,000 lbs. As soon as his client flipped, he had to recuse himself as my co defendent was being charged with the whole 12,000 lb load that came in. This particular buddy was head of shipping and receiving. He eventually plead to 23 years.
My attorney in the second case was Ted Simon. Look up Ted Simon NACDL. We thought he was a pretty good attorney, as he was only needed for the Arraignment. I would have got more time with less pot in this case. Because I would have been the leader, organizer or manager in this case. Keep reading until you get to, "successful resolution for the lead defendant in a multi million dollar international federal drug smuggling case involving in excess of a thousand kilos of marijuana". That's me.
We agreed to a rule 20 and transferred case back to original indictment which was the successful resolution. Funny thing is, Ted Simon had nothing to do with it. He was only hired to give impression that I was continuing to fight.
I sought Michael Stepanion's advice from NORML. I was introduced by a friend who won a supreme court case with Michael. He advised me that the attorney I had was during a great job. He honestly thought like others that bringing in an out of town big name attorney doesn't help when my attorney had been working with the guy for close to 10 years or so. Ted Simon was big name, but local.
Super attorney equals Gerry Spence. Never lost a case.
Super cool attorney- Michael Stepanion was Hunter S Thompson's attorney. He was depicted in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as the crazy Somaon attorney. He's Armenian I believe. I had a great time meeting him. He had some great stories, and thought our stories were pretty damn funny too.
South Burlington, VT
Chilliwack, BC
London
