After publishing my last post, I spoke with a friend in Salt Lake who recently went though some shenanigans regarding trial by jury.  This woman was charged with obstruction of justice.  She allegedly told a man that the police were looking for him.  She denied having committed a crime.  She hired a criminal defense attorney to represent her.

Her defense was that someone came by looking for her friend.  She thought he was official but didn’t know he was an officer.  She didn’t know her friend had committed a crime and didn’t know that the police were looking for him.  She told the officer who came by that her friend wasn’t there.  When her friend showed up later, she told her friend that someone had come by looking for him.

She was charged with a Class C Misdemeanor, Obstruction of Justice.

Not happy with the charge, she plead not guilty and asked for a trial by jury.  The trial was scheduled in justice court and a jury was summoned.

Obviously, the prosecutor had good reason to be worried about getting a conviction in this case.  If the jury believed my friend, she would be aquitted.  Obstruction of Justice requires that she knowingly helped her friend hide from the police.  If she didn’t know that the police were looking for the man, she did not commit a crime by telling her friend that someone was looking for him.

Before the jurors showed up to court, the prosecutor amended the charges.  He changed them from a Class C misdeameanor to an infraction.   That was good for my friend.  If convicted of a Class C misedemanor, she could go to jail.  If convicted of an infraction, she would not go to jail.  Essentially, the charge was changed to a traffic ticket.

So why would the prosectuor reduce the charges?  The most likely reason is that criminal defendants are not entitled to jury trials in infraction cases.  The prosecutor likely believed he was more likely to get a conviction from a Justice Court Judge than a jury in this scenario. 

I’m curious to see if my friend actually gets convicted.

I know this isn’t an isolated incident.  Several years ago, I represented a man who was golfing at Thanksgiving Point.  He hit the ball and nearly hit a member of the party in front of him.  He claimed it was an accident.  He had hit the “shot of his life.  Normally, he never hit the ball that far.”

One of the members of the party in front of him on the golf course got mad and ran back and attacked my client.  My client defended himself.  He was legally entitled to do so.  Luckily no one was seriously injured.

My client ended up getting charged with disorderly conduct, a Class C misdeameanor.  Strangely, the man who attacked my client was not charged with any crime.  The case was filed in Justice Court.  We asked for a jury trial.  We intended to argue self defense.

Just before trial, the prosecutor amended the case to reduce it to disorderly conduct, an infraction.  I believe the prosecutor did it to avoid a jury trial.  He was worried that a jury would recognize the right of my client to defend himself from a physical assault and acquit him of disorderly conduct.

Rather than pleading guilty, we fought the case.  We went to trial in Justice Court.  The Justice Court Judge was not impressed with our defense.  My client was convicted.

We appealed the case to District Court.  Again, my client was not entitled to a trial by jury.  Even so, I believed my client had a better chance in District Court.  At the time, Justice Court Judges could be fired at any time for any reason.  They served at the discretion of the mayor.  Since the main function of Justice Court is to earn fees for the City, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to surmise that Justice Court Judges are chosen because they convict most everyone.

District Court Judges, however, are hired for life.  They can’t be fired if their conviction rate is too low or if the fines they collect are too small.  So we filed our appeal and asked for a new trial with the District Court Judge. 

On the morning of trial, my client and myself showed up.  The prosecutor showed up with his witnesses.  The prosecutor tried to convince my client to plead guilty.  My client refused.  As trial was supposed to start, the prosecutor stood up and told the judge that all charges were dropped.  Apparently, he believed that the District Court Judge would recognize my client’s right to defend himself.

I’m convinced that some prosecutors play games with jury trials.  They know that some judges are more likely to convict than a jury.  A few prosecutors play games with the system to deny some people their right to trial by jury.

That is unfortunate.  Prosecutors should not be going for convictions at any price.  They should honor our constitution.