The Dean Is In The House!

The Dean of Dade County Prosecutors wrote into to respond to yesterdays post:

Abe Laeser said...
What self-righteous clap trap! One DNA case in Miami-Dade out of literally millions of felony and misdemeanor cases prosecuted over the years, and the prosecutors did all they could to free that one innocent man. Perhaps you should rail against the outrages in Darfur or Afghanistan.In case you had not noticed, prosecutors have too much 'business' going after the guilty and the evil to target the innocent (check the local section of the paper every day). Like all mortals, when we err we are obligated to correct our errors. If you have a case specific complaint, walk on over from the Justice Building and get a hearing with the person capable of making the final decision. This is a public office and you are entitled to your fair resolution.Yapping about the injustices of the world is unlikely to make the Monroe County case disappear. Nor will it teach people to act ethically - or even with professional courtesy. You may never have been a prosecutor, but we all go home hoping that we never make the terrible error of convicting the innocent - and we do all we can to prevent wrongfully ruining another person's life. I must be cruel to be kind - my job is to seek Justice without regard to the final result, yours may be over at getting your client acquitted -- even if that is a not what objective Justice would truly mean. Turn the mirror at yourself and your peers, just in case there is some evil which needs attention there, as well


A “Fan” responds to Mr. Laeser’s post:

Here comes the part when Rumpole kisses Abe's ass and tells him how great he is and wishes all prosecutors were like him.

Rumpole Responds To Mr. Laeser:
We applaud the use of the term “self –righteous” clap trap.
However, our post has apparently invoked a level of ire in you that caused you to see red and not read what we wrote carefully. Did we accuse prosecutors of targeting the innocent? Outside of those stumble bums in Monroe county who have actually targeted that innocent man and sought to have him incarcerated in Krome, there was no accusation that prosecutors in general go after the innocent.

What we did accuse prosecutors in this county of doing, which you have not addressed, is standing pat and allowing the same old identification techniques which are obviously flawed be used. Try reading the “Seven Sins Of Memory” ( go to Amazon and see the reviews) before you jump on the bandwagon of the validity of eyewitness identifications.

What we also wrote, which you have not addressed is to question what is going to happen to all the other wrongfully convicted people who don’t have DNA to help get them out? Does anybody give a damn about them? Are you really ready to defend the proposition that those six men are the only innocent people ever convicted in our fair state, and it just happened that those six men had DNA to set them free?

Nobody believes that you or most prosecutors celebrate the conviction of an innocent man. But we don’t see your office responding to this potential problem beyond (to borrow a phrase) re-iterating the same old “self –righteous clap trap” “that all cases are carefully investigated.” You’re 100% right when you write that a prosecutor’s obligation is justice. What we claim is missing from the performance of that obligation is the work done by your office in making sure the innocent are not prosecuted.

What exactly is your office doing beyond the normal work of the FSU attorneys? Have you demanded the police change their investigative procedures? Or is the State Attorney’s relationship with the police so damaged that there isn’t any meaningful dialogue going on? Are “confessions” being videotaped these days? What exactly have you guys done to update your procedures? Or is the same old way good enough for now?

Our penultimate point: in re-reading your last line, (seeking justice without regard to the final result) it strikes us that in once sense it come dangerously close to saying that prosecutors are just following orders. And where have we heard that before? Because if you re-read our previous post in the comments section a few days ago, is it justice to drag some convict back from prison and make him lose his slot in a prison faith based program just to get a conviction for a third degree felony where (when the prisoner is serving 6 years) and the offer is probation? Is it justice to prosecute a woman for failure to obey the lawful order of a police officer when she would not move a car she could not drive when he husband left her and her infant son in a car illegally parked? Or is it just an amazing lack of common sense?

What we see, on a disturbingly regular basis in the REGJB, is a complete and total lack of common sense that is explained by the ASA’s with the frightening comment: “we’re just following orders” .

And finally, how do you defend the stupid, insensitive, idiotic, and unjust result of incarcerating an INNOCENT MAN who has just lost the last 20 years of his life to an un-just “justice” system, in Krome? It’s a scenario straight out of Soviet Russia.

Common Sense? Justice? Or insensitive stupidity?

See You In Court (not that we have any cases with Mr. Laeser these days, but you never know. He might just pick up a few disorderly conduct cases for fun.)

PS. To that other reader: well, did we kiss his ass?

PSS to Abe: We avoid mirrors, and if you saw us, you would understand why.