Criminal Lawyer Reacts to Top 5 Most Disrespectful Defendants on Court Cam

[Music] hi this is bruce rivers welcome to another episode of criminal lawyer reacts i'm bruce rivers board certified criminal defense lawyer board certified by the national board of trial advocacy and the minnesota state bar association as a criminal trial specialist uh what does that mean that means i go to court and what is it you know we had one of the comments could you please explain the difference between somebody actually goes to trial and somebody who uh now like 92 percent of the other people just hold their hands or whatever they said and negotiate plea bargains well let's just uh call a spade a spade i mean the uh most of the cases settle okay but i'm in trial a lot and the reason i'm in trial is because uh like i'll tell my the prosecutor i'll say you know my client doesn't go to trial without it i go to prison without a trial period and so that's why i wind up trying a lot of cases but if they know you're going to go to trial and they know you try cases and they know you win cases that means you get better plea bargains from the outset and that and that has proven to be true so today uh just that was just our response to one of our amazing fans who uh you guys have been so loyal to us and so good to us over the last year and into the second year of our channel we just can't tell you how much we appreciate it but today this is like candy for me uh we're doing a court cam reaction to the five most disrespectful defendants i and this happens all the time i've had um you know client walk out of court and call the judge the c word whatever and uh judge looks over at me looks at the prosecutor i've been called worse so let's uh let's just get into it and i haven't seen this so we'll just uh get your my initial reaction this is the arrangement of 20 year old spencer allen boston at a traffic stop two months earlier now arraignment arraignment is where you go you for your first appearance and there's two things that happen at the arraignment they uh they can read you the charges on the record um or you can wave it generally if you can read and write english you waive it but then they set conditions of release if you're being disrespectful at the arraignment guess what that judge is going to up your bail boston received citations for speeding and beating simple possession of marijuana yes sir i think it's very unfair the marijuana law here um i think we the people deserve better because marijuana is a very harmless drug and it's been around for ages since the 80s okay so you when you go to the arraignment it's not your opportunity to uh to give a speech as to what you think the law should or should not be you remember um my cousin vinnie where he's i think we have a misunderstanding no again we have a failure of communication how do your clients plead they thought they were getting arrested for uh shoplifting a can of tuna what are you telling me did they please not guilty no i'm just trying to explain i don't want to hear explanations at this point in time is to have an arraignment are we clear on this there seems to be a great deal of confusion here there are only two ways to answer it guilty or not guilty my clients didn't do anything once again the communication process is broken down your plea is either guilty or not guilty if i hear anything other than guilty or not guilty i will find you in contempt no next words out of your mouth either gonna be guilty or not guilty if i hear anything other than guilty and not guilty you'll be in contempt now how does your plywood you know so let's see what happens here [Music] yes sir okay now you know the judge is in charge and if you don't recognize that the judge is in [ __ ] charge guess what you're gonna get all i know it everything still has it against the law i swore up on the laws and i have to uphold the laws as a judge it probably is unfair but i can't change it you've got to go see the legislature to get that change more for this trial uh yeah we can do that i'll be finding you then you make another statement as the judge works with court employees to schedule a trial boston date to take action as he pulls out what appears to be okay that and this is [ __ ] hilarious so he pulls out a joint in in court now there is a thing called contempt there is criminal contempt and civil contempt civil contempt is where you basically have the keys to the jail that you're ordered to do a condition you don't do it like donald trump he was ordered to produce these records he won't do it so the judge finds him ten thousand dollars a day that's civil contempt this is criminal contempt this is uh and you don't even get a [ __ ] trial with this judge can sanction you right then and there so let's see what happens with this criminal contempt is where uh the the contempt happens right in front of the judge a joint no one seems to notice until shockingly [Music] boston may have finally pleaded his case [Music] so that's you can see he's being taken into custody right then and there but he's immediately taken away by the court officer and judge barry gets the final word slapping boston with a disorderly conduct charge as well as another charge of possession the judge also holds him in contempt of court and boston is forced to spend 10 days in jail so on a list of 1 to 100 this is probably 99th in terms of severity of being disrespectful in court this is 17 year old donta wright writes in court today to receive his sentence for the shooting death of high school student jordan klee he's played when you have a sentencing and a homicide you that a courtroom is never more tense because you don't know what the sentence is going to be number one and you know it unless unless it's life without in which case you know there's nothing to gain or lose by being respectful or disrespectful but you know if you have a homicide and you have all these victims relatives or you know victim impact statements come into play the courtroom is really really tense to armed robbery conspiracy to commit armed robbery a felony firearm violation and second-degree murder as part of the sentencing a family member makes a victim impact statement on behalf of the victim's mother who's too overcome with a motion to speak so the victims get the chance to to and they're supposed to address the court sometimes they address the defendant and look at look at this picture how close they are to them um and oddly enough they're all wearing orange i don't know how that happened but but you know the victims uh say how this has impacted them and uh and it's it's a tough thing to do and it's a tough thing to sit through as a defense lawyer that whatever it was you wanted so badly that you felt the need to murder my son was worth the next at least 52 years in your continued existence you won't get the luxury of raising your child because you took mine away wright's demeanor during this statement so your demeanor in court is is an important thing because it's viewed by the judge whatever and and the jury everybody sees your demeanor okay i know a prosecutor that who turned judge who later got admonished because she would roll her eyes and everything you know somebody did in court um i got admonished because uh one time because i thought for sure the judge was going to give us a judgment of acquittal it was so clear to me and the judge was kind of a prosecutorial minded judge and he didn't and i'm like just my just my facial mr rivers haven't we talked about this before blah blah blah what you might expect your actions have led you to a prison cell see if you look at he's smiling he's moving his hands like this and that is a nightmare for a defense lawyer and it's a nightmare because your your work is wrapped up in this and if he's making it harder for you um it's it's unsettling i live in every day while you can still hope to be released one day i'll never create my help you are still alive but jordan has no future thank you your honor we're done i just want to tell y'all i'll be home soon i'll be kion i'll love my family it's all you got to say you know i have that's called allocution where the defendant has an opportunity to to speak and generally you're supposed to say uh you know i have learned a lot from this experience i'm so sorry there's nothing i can do to to bring back so and so and if i headed to dover and blah blah blah um you're better off saying nothing because you're not obligated to say anything and in this guy's case he should have said nothing never in 23 years approximately ever not accepted a sentence agreement between the parties because it's a bargain-four sentence by the parties but watching you sit there smile and laugh and shake your head like this was no big deal i'm very tempted to just say i'm not going to accept this sentence agreement we'll go to trial now look at the the defense lawyer he's like [ __ ] you i had this [ __ ] thing all wrapped up and you had to [ __ ] it up god damn it i guarantee you that's what he's thinking and if you're convicted of felony murder you'll go to prison for the rest of your life that means you'll die there that's what i'm tempted to do the judge does have the authority to reject the plea deal mr bella do you want me to and all of a sudden and all of a sudden his balls drop when he talks to his lawyer he looks at his lawyer and his lawyer shakes his head you know i mean accept the sentence agreement your honor before i answer the court's question i would like an opportunity to discuss it with the victim's family i have had a very lengthy discussion with the victim's mother as well as his grandparents and some family members they understand that obviously this this is the defendant who brutally murdered their son by shooting him in the back of the head he's shown absolutely no remorse however the glee family does want to move on with this and they are asking as well as the people that you proceed with the sentence okay the judge accepts the sentencing agreement which puts him behind bars for 25 to 52 years and and that's all my my sense is that uh the judge has seen more of his behavior than just that one day um because otherwise why would you would you blow it up a plea agreement up for the for just that but in in they do a pre-sentence investigation and my guess is that even in the pre-sentence investigation he didn't take responsibility or show remorse and showing remorse is a big part of a plea communications war hurst yeah i want to report a crime that's about to happen maybe a crime that's about to happen yeah there's about to be a crime that's going to happen if my kids don't come back to me you stupid [ __ ] because your stupid judges don't want to bring people i got a gun pointed at your building sir what is going on you calling sir you stupid [ __ ] where's your judge warren as you gonna bring that [ __ ] out in handcuffs you know so now i think this is outrageous now this is uh this is disrespectful and now i i think this goes up there yes you got son of a [ __ ] right in the street i'm good you know i'ma shoot this [ __ ] you good give me my kids where are you at sir i just told you i'm outside of her building waiting for her to get there in the morning i'm gonna pop a cap in that [ __ ] be stupid detectives identify the anonymous caller and track him down alan mccarty is arrested and charged with making death threats against a judge whom he mistakenly believes took his children away in a child custody case so if your kids get taken away it it's probably because you're this guy um because you if you if you it takes a lot for somebody to get their kids taken away and all of a sudden you're gonna blow up your entire rest of your life and their lives and everybody else's life just because you feel like you were [ __ ] over now a year later in front of a different judge his trial begins right here [Music] this is being done unconstitutionally it's all took my kids unrightfully you want to allow my witnesses here we haven't started the trauma it doesn't matter you still deny it you wanna take my kids from me and act like that you win that [ __ ] so again we have some more contempt of course from somebody who's on the uh different socioeconomic scale from the judge that took my kids do you want to be in the room or not do you want to suck my dick well yeah let me think about that hmm uh hold on a second here let's see let's see here do i want to suck yes i think i would like to suck your dick i don't think so i prefer not to i prefer not to see that i love that you know where you got some hostility uh uh up against some measured uh composure you got a mouthpiece do you want to be here with the jury do you think i don't know mccartney's eventually found guilty here's the thing when you're that obstreperous in court two things can happen the judge can exclude you from the courtroom and they can try you without you being there called abstentia or or they can duct tape your [ __ ] mouth shut and i've seen that happen before following month for sentencing you're before the court mr mccarty to uh show cause why i should not hold you in contempt for behavior that you demonstrated during the jury trial you threaten the unborn child of the prosecutor um you threatened my life in the uh back room you know i i just it has to be just you know a sheer personality disorder that that you you would you know you you think like there are there are moments where somebody can be so pissed off that um you know that you that you [ __ ] off right and then you think about it and you say god i really shouldn't have done it this guy doesn't appear to have any of that internals going on mccarty's removed again this time he's placed in a back room with a one-way mirror i don't want him to adjudicate him guilty sentence them to 15 years in florida state prison as to count too many adjudicate them guilty sends them to five years to run consecutive to count one mccarty's currently serving his sentence in a florida state prison for 20 years for 20 years cocking off like that for 20 years you know i've had clients like that where no matter what you say to them or what you do with them they are completely unreasonable i've had clients all right we need to argue jurisdiction we need to argue this and this and this it's like well and you know everything that they're saying is [ __ ] everything that they're saying nothing makes sense and it's kind of a tie rope when you have a client like that i just had one not that long ago and he just uh was so unbelievably off the chain that i i just i wound up having to withdraw it because it just made it impossible to represent somebody like that next up is michael ray who's facing four charges including criminal trespassing and second-degree assault now i would love to have that guy come to my house and say um is your daughter available because i'm here to take her out i don't think so bail hearing is usually a quick proceeding if the defendant is cooperative the prosecutor suggests a bail amount for rey based on the crime in the defendant's history [Music] ray might feel 25 000 is too high but sarcasm won't get him a reduction i i was in court once and um a guy was like that with the judge and the judge issued 1200 bail and he says oh that's [ __ ] well how about another 1200 sure 2400 you want to go for another one yeah and he just did they kept doing until he got up to like whatever the maximum was at the time and the judge lets him know all right so bond is 50 000. no bail credit dangerous kennedy thinks these are funny charges i was lucky i didn't hold him in contempt ray just had his bond doubled but as he re-enters the hallway he has something else to say hope i see you hope i see you on the street [ __ ] how is that going to help you i mean when you put your hand on a hot stove you go like this right i mean you try not to hurt yourself these guys who do this stuff and it happens every day and it's probably one of the reasons that they're in the predicament that they're in to begin with but there's no sense of self-preservation oh you have the power judge i should shut the [ __ ] up ray's language isn't the only thing to upset the judge according to court officials the defendant also gave her the middle finger [Music] 30 days to serve on contempt for flipping me off twice judge calls him back but it looks like he's gone if we bring him back in he's just gonna get another 30 days we're doing something else sure enough ray comes back for more okay sir i'm holding you in contempt for what you did what you're holding again and so [Music] that's right the judge just gave him 100 days in jail he's done where he could just walk away without making matters even worse but but he goes a different route i think we need to yeah can we bring him back why do people do this [ __ ] i mean it's just so dumb it's like i want to [ __ ] myself over as much as i possibly can yes what started out as four serious charges has grown into a grand total of ten on the span of approximately three minutes and for once justice in detroit michigan for the sentencing of 25 year old amanda casale there's a lot of things that you can do and your life doesn't have to be over because of a poor choice you just have to accept responsibility for it and find a way to make something positive out of a very negative situation casal has been found guilty of driving under the influence causing a head-on collision that killed 31 year old jerome zerker and normally these are prison cases when you have a criminal homicide and usually depending upon the jurisdiction it could be anywhere from like 41 months to uh you know 10 years so somewhere in there is generally where you know it's a little four to ten years is generally what you're looking at unless you can get probation by doing some kind of treatment severely injured his fiancee 31-year-old brittany johnson the couple have five children together prior to sentencing the court will hear a powerful impact statement from the victim's children read by his sister doreen zerker and like i said these victim impact statements they're just they're heart-wrenching to listen to and there's nothing you can do you can't object you can't you just have to sit there and and accept it duh look what you did to my life you ruined everything i had like my dad's life amanda seems devastated by doreen's words but judge kiana lillard apparently hears some snickering from casaus family sitting in the gallery you can go to whoever can sit here at a tragic moment like this and laugh and smile when somebody has lost a family member this is the court of law you cannot come down to the frank murphy hall of justice and act anywhere you want to act that's the defendant's mother danica south because if you don't know how to act you can go to jail again you can get if you're not acting in accordance with the courtroom decorum now there's certain um judge has doesn't have unlimited authority but has pretty much carp launch authority and if they tell you to do something you violate a court order while you're in court you can be held in contempt ma'am you are being taken into custody for criminal contempt your disruptive and disrespectful behavior disrupted today's proceedings and you ma'am are going to the wayne county jail for 93 days for direct criminal contempt it will be the sentence of this court that you will serve three to 15 years in the michigan department of corrections if there's nothing further that concludes this matter casale only serves three years and is then paroled in february 2020. as for amanda's mother donna she spends the night in jail and appears before judge lillard the next morning donna seems to have learned a serious lesson from just one night behind we call that clanging door therapy and it generally has a chilling effect on somebody's attitude ours is know i deeply apologize for what i did i'm really sorry that i laughed at somebody's death because i don't want to go to jail that's what she's crying about a lot of stress did i deeply apologize for what i did in your court i just needed to get out and it's been very hard for me sharon i know for the other family and i'm so sorry but what i did and i know it was wrong and i apologize you know it i i will have to say it has to be hard for a parent to watch your child in jail i've taken um one of my kids out of jail on a number of occasions and it's it's not easy when you get a phone call and it's uh you know you have a call from a correctional facility and it's your child on the other end i know people watch a lot of shows on tv where you see different things happening in make-believe courtrooms that give people a skewed sense of reality but this is real life here and we just can't have people behaving like that it can't be tolerated so i will give you modify your sentence for direct criminal contempt from 93 days to one day with credit for time served and you should do you see the chilling effect that uh having accepted a responsibility does that that's a really good example of showing you somebody who doesn't give a flying [ __ ] and they're about to blow up their deal and spend the rest of their life in jail as opposed to somebody who acts out in court gets the clang indoor therapy comes back and has some remorse and she gets her 93 day sentence reduced down to a one day god bless you thank you and i apologize i know she's thankful oh thank you for giving me that day in jail i mean just it was just but it was out of stupidity for the other family donna serves one day thank you and is released so that's uh five most disrespectful defendants i don't think they're actually the most i'm sure we could find some that are far more disrespectful and we'll probably do that sometime soon some of these courtroom scenes where uh the victim's parents like or the dad usually jumps over the the bar and goes after these guys is actually um it's shocking to watch but i mean we act out on emotions sometimes so much that um that and then the court system is is what winds up you know raking those in don't act out of emotion if you're a young guy and you've got some beef with somebody sit down have a [ __ ] beer measure yourself out and then relax you know don't act on things right away because guess what you wind up on the five most disrespectful uh defendants in a court camp so this is bruce rivers uh thanks for watching next time uh make sure that you subscribe you follow us on instagram follow us on twitter sign up for patreon help us do some good work there and spread the word see you next time here on criminal lawyer reacts

Channel: CLR Bruce Rivers

Views: 947,195

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Id: 2U4YLeeWlJQ

Length: 27min 47sec (1667 seconds)

Published: Wed May 04 2022