In a closely watched (not by us), hard fought, opinion generating case, Jorge Pino was acquitted after a two hour deliberation on Monday of the boating manslaughter he was charged with.
Not every accident is a crime, even when tragic, as this one was, where a beautiful, bright, and promising young woman lost her life.
But the tragic episode was an accident, not a crime, and that is what a jury found.
One word of caution- we will NOT post nasty, character attacks on anyone. So if you want to waste your time writing such missives, have at it. No one will read it.
Thoughtful comments will be posted.
HR
Congratulations to the lawyers that put their heart and soul into the case
ReplyDeleteThe Captain Retorts:
ReplyDeleteA whole lot of comments over the past few days on this blog. And not a one of you got it right.
4:22 pm on Tuesday. Guilty they wrote. No doubt.
9:11 pm on Tuesday. Boy did you get it wrong when you typed “Worst defense money could buy”.
4:53 am on Thursday chimed in with “I would have went with the PD”.
4:16 pm on Wednesday. You owe someone $50 for offering that bet on the result of a hung jury. Please donate that money to charity.
6:14 pm on Wednesday wanted to know how Pino could toss aside the misdemeanor plea offer. Guess the defense got that right.
12:42 am on Thursday. That dog did hunt.
2:21 pm on Thursday had it at two hours and guilty. Three years FSP. Boy did you miss big time. Except on the deliberations. Nailed that. Two hours.
5:20 pm on Thursday also predicted a verdict of guilty.
6:33 pm on Thursday would have pled him to the misdemeanor.
7:22 pm on Thursday called Srebnick out for not requesting lessers.
7:29 pm on Thursday made the same criticism of Srebnick.
8:44 am on Friday also agreed that Srebnick should have asked for lessers.
10:02 am on Friday. Did not seem to agree with the Srebnick team foregoing lessers. Guess they got that right.
9:41 am on Saturday Guess he won’t need his connections to get his pardon and to get out of that 30 year prison sentence you had him serving.
6:20 pm on Saturday. Same for you and Pino needing to contact his dear friends to arrange for a pardon. You must have predicted the Thunder to win the NBA this year. Also you had him getting taken into custody as soon as he was found guilty.
7:29 pm on Saturday also had Pino getting a pardon.
4:09 pm on Sunday predicted a hung jury.
8:22 am on Sunday predicted a three hour guilty verdict. And prison.
You would never know that criminal defense lawyers read and comment on this blog.
One. Just one commenter got it right. Every other comment was dead wrong.
Friday. 1:16 pm. Who else but the Trialmaster said “I see a NOT GUILTY”.
The rest of you should be ashamed. You all try cases all day long and none of you had anything positive to say about Pino’s defense team. And you all had a guilty verdict in Pino’s future. Prison time. And a pardon.
A tragedy in every sense of the word. One young woman dead. Another brain damaged for life. A very sad case.
Captain Out …..
Captain4Justice@gmail.com
It was still the worst defense money could buy. I thought they did a poor job overall but was saved by fwc.
DeleteSegway the pipeline my bro
DeleteWealth has its privileges. Or does it? If his name were Joe Average from Sweetwater, working as a mechanic at Firestone, would he have been charged? I doubt it.
ReplyDeleteSrebnick’s closing was a masterpiece. It should be mandatory for every lawyer to watch. There are too many lessons to draw from it—including substance, precision, credibility, deliberate, focus, even temperament, poise, empathy, common sense, emotional appeal (for both sides), and the occasional boundary pushing argument (sometimes without objection)—which ultimately contributed to disarming the prosecution and resonating with the jury. Speaking of the jury, evidently this is where the defense won the case by empaneling a mostly male panel.
ReplyDeleteBut this case was about much more, including a shoddy BUI investigation which denied justice to the victims and doomed the case from the start and pressure to overcharge. While the state did the best with the evidence they had and seemed to at times score valid and persuasive points, the delivery of that evidence—namely, the style of the lead prosecutor (e.g., tone, temperament, voice inflection, facial expressions, personal attacks on the defendant, defense lawyers, and defense witnesses alike)—tanked its effectiveness.
In the end, the victims and their families are all that matter. Two different yet equally profound losses that should’ve and could’ve been prevented. Which, if nothing else, should serve a small measure of justice as Pino will undoubtedly be haunted by his actions (and inactions) for the rest of his life.
Wishing Katy a speedy recovery and may Lucy’s memory be a blessing.
Laura's demeanor hurt this case. She was mad and it showed. Not mad at the defendant per se. Mad because this wasn't a slam dunk case like she's used to prosecuting. This one had room for doubt. And like any prosecutor who gets used guilt, guilt, guilt and judges ruling their way, she got used to having it her way. That jury picked up on her demeanor and some might have realized that if she was that mad during the trial, something was off about her case. They didn't buy what she tried to sell.
Deleteagreed on all points with 6.22.59. He was very effective. And i must say the female defense lawyer did great too.
DeleteI agree that the mostly male jury was key to the acquittal. I have Mom's brain (which is apparently stronger than my lawyer brain), because I was with Laura.
DeleteOnce the judge read the instruction that said that mere negligence is not manslaughter, the cake was baked.
ReplyDeleteI still think Laura crossed the line when she yelled at the defendant. I once had a court appointment client who gave the middle finger to a prosecutor in front of the jury and that ASA kept his cool and just ignored it. Jury came back strong arm and not armed so, he got out soon. Somehow the jury thought that a broken beer bottle was not a weapon. Must have been my good lawyering. Laura takes this stuff way to personally.
She does take this stuff too personally. She's not well-regulated. She's vengeful and petty, without a sense of proportion. She weeps when she loses, even a case that should never have gotten to trial. A bit messianic. A close colleague suffered a fatal heart attack while defending his client against her unreasoning unquenchable personal fury. She knows what she did.
DeleteSounds like most height handicapped male ASA’s
DeleteLaura lost the case. She’s too sassy. Thank god he’s free as he deserves
ReplyDeleteFirst and foremost, Srebnick should be congratulated on an excellent job. Everyone asks "who is to blame?" No easy answer but it starts with the FWC and their incompetent handling of the crime scene and their inexcusable failure to take Pino's blood. It continues with the assigned ASA who was way too aggressive whose demeanor hurt an otherwise very good government presentation in court. Think about it. What relevance does a photograph of Pino 3 months after the accident smiling at his daughters graduation have to do with Pino's guilt or innocence?? Absolutely nothing. Just a cheap shot which smacks of governmental desperation.
ReplyDeleteThat Tink let in, the photo was irrelevant, immaterial and a total abuse of discretion, evidence of another time, after the event, that did not even constitute inextricably intertwined or Williams rule evidence. Things that always seems to happen at least a few times on every case she presides over.
DeleteI agree with you Captain Justice on everything you said, and will add that if none of the posts are from prosecutors, the posts sadly paint a picture that some of the defense attorneys at the REG are real weasels and a major reason the SAO gets away with as much as it does. You all know who you are, probably the same ones that feed info to the Abuhoffs, Mitchells and Khalil's about your fellow colleagues and their clients.
Its pretty pathetic that you all criticize a lawyer and defense team who did a very good job painting the right picture of their client as a human who did not set out to cause this death and who is remorseful. Opposite Laura Adams who is as objective as a Hatfield or McCoy. She was very unprofessional going after the defendant she was prosecuting and the jury saw it. Worse, going after the man's wife. She sealed the fate of her non-existent case there!
Even more pathetic is that some of you wanted this man to go to prison not for what he did but because he is rich and successful and claim--without proof, only suspicion that he was given a free pass because of his wealth.
Laura too wanted him to pay for his success, perhaps she and all of you I am talking to should have worked harder, or been smarter. Its never too late!
Finally, constitutional law is built on cops screwing up investigations even on cases that involve indigent defendants.
I was wondering about the relevance of those photos too. It really seemed like a reach.
DeleteIt’s easy to only take the easy cases to trial. Laura isnt afraid to try tough cases. People may not like her style but overall I am glad she is at the SAO.
ReplyDeleteShe's the State, if they're going to trial it should be an easy case. I wonder what Tinkler Mendez would have done at sentencing. It is crazy that she let in pictures of the defendant doing family things months after the crash.
DeleteRump,
ReplyDeleteSrebnick did a great job. Having said that, was going through this trial the best decision for Pino? He has probably aged 5 years within a few months with this stress. How many clients have we all represented at trial who were able to keep their composure. I do not believe that the "crying" was planned and Srebnick would have never allowed that. But clearly, he is an emotional wreck. Pino's wife and daughters have been visibly impacted stressing over Pino's future. The Fernandez's and boat occupants have had to relive this horrific tragedy after 4 years now. The trial was all over the news. This publicity cannot be good for Pino's business or in the social circles he travels in. I used to work with Andy Fernandez when we were both at the Pd's and my heart goes out to him.
The alternative surely would have been a withhold to a (M2) boating infraction and sealing the arrest record in 6 months. I realize this was a was a good case for the defense, and without proof of impairment by alcohol, a reasonable juror would conclude this was an accident. However, was the stress and risk of this trial worth it in Pino's situation? Pino will always now be publicly associated with this tragedy in a way that he would have never been if closed out with the M2. Thoughts?