On last Friday I shadowed a different public defense lawyer who works in mental health. Judge Villanueva, who does mental health cases, conducts a special session every Friday for his mental health patients. He invites the parole officers, social workers, and the defense lawyers into a conference room and discusses each upcoming mental health case for the day. This way he is better educated about each case before going into court with the mentally handicapped person. It gives him a chance to figure out more solutions with the parole officers / social workers being present to offer advice on what certain punishments/ treatment options could be. It gives him more latitude in his sentencing. This special meeting before actually going to court for mental health cases is something unique Judge Villanueva does. No other Judge in the Justice Center does this special before hand meetings. I went to the meetings and the subsequent cases and could clearly see how it was beneficial for the Judge to spend the extra time talking to the social workers / defense lawyers before hand. He was able to give alternate options besides straight prison for the mentally ill criminals, and it kept the courtroom more calm because the mentally ill defendants were less confused by a Judge who had already heard and understood their individual cases. I have met most of the Cuyahoga Judges by now, and I was incredibly impressed by Judge Villanueva’s extra work and dedication. There are certain Judges who by now I know would never consider going out of their way to that extent to ensure the best possible situation for the defendants.
On this Thursday, I spent the morning inside the Justice Center like normal meeting with my lawyer and her clients, doing plea deals, sentencings etc. In particular there was a young man who was caught with Heroin /addict that needed to plea, so I was there for that as well as meeting with him to discuss what was going to happen in court / what was going to happen after court (how to get a parole officer etc.). I also talked with Judge McGinty for a while in his office with my lawyer. Mainly chatting about his love for running marathons, and past cases that involved PCP use by the defendant. I agree they were rather separate topics of conversation. I can’t really remember how PCP came up in conjunction with marathon running. The lesson learned there was, never do PCP, not a good drug. It makes people do really stupid things that endanger / kill family members / loved ones.
Then in the afternoon I went to the jail connected to the Justice Center. We (my lawyer and I) were there to meet with a client for the first time. This is the chance for him to explain what happened, and a little about himself prior to his case. Supposedly according to the police/victim report, he hit another homeless man in the back of the head with a brick. However, he had a conflicting story, most likely lying to avoid getting into trouble. It’s my lawyers job to sort of figure out what was really going on and to then defend him. He clearly had mental issues, and she is getting a social worker and mental evaluation for him. He admitted to hearing voices. Depending on the results of that evaluation, she will decide what to do. If he is found unable to assist in his own defense due to mental health issues, there will be special different procedures on how that is tried (mental health cases mentioned in the first paragraph). So, as of now, we’re just waiting on the result of that mental health evaluation. If this ends up going to regular court, (he doesn’t accept plea deal and is found mentally stable), it would be a difficult trial. He is already had a long criminal history including theft, robbery, and sexual battery dating back to 1985. Plus, he did admit to injuring this other homeless man, but instead of a brick a cane. He is also charged with drug possession because at the time of his arrest (he had a gram of cocaine in his pocket).
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