August update

Here's what's new for me in August:

First of all, I decided to update my blog name to something more reflective of my job rather than an inside family joke of sorts that no doubt leaves most folks scratching their heads. "For the record" is a phrase that I use in court regularly, almost as much as "for the people," a phrase that follows my name when the judge says "counsel, state your appearances."

School's started in California, and the stacks of police reports in my office have gone down a little. Even so, there's never a shortage of crazy cases, and lately I had a few go to trial. I suffered my first not guilty verdict recently when two key witnesses went sideways on me on the stand. A loss is always tough, but when your witnesses give one story to the police (and you), and then testify to something completely different at trial, there's not much you can do. (If you've seen the movie Fracture, it was kind of like that. Good movie, by the way.) The next day I wrapped up an armed robbery trial that had been going on for over a month, and thankfully, this time the result was good. But one of the things I love most about my job is that ultimately it's about something more than simply winning or losing. In a 1935 decision the U.S. Supreme Court summarized the prosecutorial role with seminal language which is oft repeated more than 70 years later:

The [prosecutor] is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done. As such, he is in a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law, the twofold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer. He may prosecute with earnestness and vigor -- indeed, he should do so. But, while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones. It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one. Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78, 88 (U.S. 1935)

That right there is a great little bit of legal writing.

I got to take a helicopter ride the other day! The California Highway Patrol flew their bird down from Fresno to do a demonstration for our rescue team, but that's not the chopper I flew in. One of our veteran team members happens to be a pilot, and he flew his company helicopter to the meeting. When we were done and CHP had taken off, he took us up for a brief spin around the Sequoia Air Field and surrounding area. The best part of it was that this was no commercial tour. We zoomed just over the crops and dipped and banked so steeply that I could see land through the sunroof. We even did a simulated engine failure. This started when in the middle of our flight, we heard the voice of our pilot Bo through the headsets asking, "So, who can tell me what happens when the engine dies?" Ed ventured an educated guess from the back bench (I was riding shotgun) - "you go down?" "Well yes," Bo answered, "but not in the way that you think." He then proceeded to perform a live demonstration. As if our ride wasn't already exciting enough. He throttled the engine back to idle, and my stomach shot up to my throat as we immediately starting dropping from our altitude of several hundred feet. We remained at idle as we dropped, and Bo explained how the chopper actually develops energy as it falls- energy which you can use to control the descent even without power. At the last possible moment he flared the nose up and we slowed dramatically (engine still at idle mind you). He powered back up just in time to avoid what would have been a rough but survivable landing. As technical rescue team members, our job often involves trusting each other when lives are, literally, on the line, but this was just very cool in its own way =).

I found a good deal on another kayak. I'm not sure what it says about my priorities that at age 29 I own two boats but still rent a one bedroom apartment. This one is what they call a creek boat, so I should be able to run more steep and challenging whitewater with it- its larger size gives it more volume and stability. Also, with a second boat I can take you out if you want to try the sport! Only problem is- I have to wait until spring to get much use out of it =)

stupid slogans

I get a kick out of catching really dumb things being said in ads on radio and TV. Sometimes I wonder how some ad campaigns ever made it out of the boardroom. For example, this is what I just heard on an ad for a local news station:

"We know you want answers to the tough questions- so do we. Local News 17."

And it's said in that deep authoritative tone that all media announcers have. What in the world? Is it just me, or does that make no sense at all? I'll overlook for the moment the fact that it's probably somewhat grandiose for a local news station to be referring to themselves along with life's tough questions. Regardless, what they're basically saying with a slogan like that is, "we have the same questions you do." Call me crazy, but I don't think that's the message most news viewers and listeners are tuning in to hear.

I guess they want you to assume that because they want answers to tough questions, that they also go out, obtain them, and pass them along to the viewing or listening audience. But that's a big logical leap. Most people never achieve what they want. Maybe it's designed to garner loyalty by expressing a sort of "hey, we're on the same page you are" sentiment. But that's not what it did for me. My first thought was, "hmm, that sounds clever." Second thought: "but what does it mean?" Followed quickly by the conclusion that it's another slogan stupid enough to blog about.

Unless.... maybe their true objective was simply to get people thinking about their ad. If that's the case, then I'm the sucker.

Speaking of words, I did see a great quote the other day: "Repetition is the sincerest form of repetition." =)

Okay, enough time wasted. I have two boxes of files to prep for court tomorrow, and it's after 11. I just had to see a few more Olympic medals won for Team USA, and a couple more world records broken. (Seriously- who set these previous world records? They're snapping like toothpicks in the Beijing swimming events.)

Olympic gold

The 2008 Olympics are in full swing in Beijing, and I've been glued to the coverage all weekend. I saved a medal standings results page as a favorite on my laptop. And believe it or not, I actually have a CD in my car right now with Olympic theme music from John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra.

In what some are heralding as the best swimming relay of all time, the Americans just took down the French (and everybody else) in the men's 4 X 100 relay, the one swimming event in which the French were heavily favored. In fact, the French were talking some smack, publicly stating pre-race, "The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's why we came here."

It was pretty incredible, and if you haven't yet seen it, make sure you do: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=0811_HD_SWB_HL_L0194. The Americans trailed for most of the latter half of the relay, but anchor Jason Lezak rode the wave of the Frenchman, Bernard, and created an incredible finish. My reaction was about the same as Michael Phelps' above =).

To give you an idea of how fast these swimmers were, consider this: The Swedes, whose 5th place finish didn't even get them close to the podium, still came in with a time under the previous world record. The Americans crushed it by like four seconds!! And to add insult to injury, the world record for fastest split time had been held by the vocal Frenchman, until that too was crushed by Jason Lezak. Who's talkin' now?! =)