By Bill Hart
July 18, 2008 12:40 am The prosecutor finished the terms of the plea with the defense attorney. It was a straightforward case from the state's point of view: the stop was good, the officer made strong personal observations of impaired driving; when he spoke to the driver to get his license and registration, he made observations that led him to believe the driver had been drinking and that he had enough so that it would impair his driving ability. Field sobriety tests followed, properly given by the police officer; then an arrest and a chemical test, again properly administered. While the two lawyers jawboned the terms of the plea, (the defendant had a heavy motor vehicle record and what looked like a DWI 17 years ago in Iowa), young Mr. Hagan looked on with interest. All this talk of what is custody and when does it begin was intriguing, he thought. He'd really never given it much consideration. He had always thought the cops had to give a guy his rights, no matter what. Never really thought custody had anything to do with it, except for arrest of course. Now he understood that if a person was in custody, but not questioned, it did not matter if the police read him his rights or not; the same with the questions. If the cops questioned a person, but he was not clearly in custody, the cops didn't have to give him his rights. The way she explained it, sometimes it wasn't clear that someone was in custody, or for that matter being interrogated, but, if both custody and interrogation were going on at the same time, the police must read you your rights. Now, here, these lawyers were discussing how much weight should be given at sentencing to an old DWI. As Hagan looked on, watching the negotiations with interest, it was clear that both lawyers understood the other's position well; and, it seemed to him, that if their roles were reversed, they each could do the other's job well. The two lawyers agreed on the term of the DWI plea. Now the prosecutor turned her attention again to the Hagan file: it was an operating after suspension case; nothing prior on Hagan's record. She dug deeper into the paperwork to find out why his license was under suspension. Looked like an unpaid traffic ticket. Then all fees were paid the day of the stop. He was fully restored that day. She turned to look at him and noticed the book he was just finishing, To Kill a Mockingbird. "What do you think?" she asked. "In its way very enjoyable," he replied. Hmm, she thought; it was her favorite book, the reason she went to law school. "What do you mean?" She asked. "Well," he began. "It's story driven, but not a page-turner. You know: the narrative takes the story all the way; only at the end do you realize that it is about big things: heroism, friendship, family, truth and justice. You sense it all the way, but the big issues never overwhelm the good story." "And you know it's a lot like Miranda issues: everything is deeper and more complex than we initially thought." He stopped. "I guess I understand what the cop was trying to do," Hagan said. "Can we work this out?" he asked politely. "Of course," she replied. "Maybe community service is the best way to go here? What do you think? Maybe in a court?" "Really?" he asked.
—
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.