At the beginning of 2009 a prosecution lawyer was found in her car - she had drunk alcohol. The keys were on the floor on the passenger side. She was found not guilty of DUI as her lawyer argued that she did not intend to drive but was merely sitting in the car.
Roll on to mid-summer and the said prosecutor crashed her car, resigned her job and yesterday was banned - full sentence at a later date.
She is now attending alcohol classes and the crash awoke her to her problems....................she is now unemployed and on benefits.
www.thecourier.co.uk/output/2009/12/17/newsstory14...p
Did the 1st lawyer do her overall cause any good or would she have been better off pleading guilty on the 1st occasion (she was found not guilty remember)
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better off pleading guilty on the 1st occasion (she was found not guilty remember)
And perjured herself? :-)
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And perjured herself? :-)
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Happens every day of the working week...if the prosecution evidence is vastly different to that of the defence, then someone is telling 'pork pies'.....never heard of anyone done for it though....and have never worked out why....it would seem that if you wish to tell a complete pack of lies as part of your defence, then you're perfectly entitled to
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it would seem that if you wish to tell a complete pack of lies as part of your defence then you're perfectly entitled to
I take your point, but regarding the 1st case no one has proved that she was lying; she was found not guilty. FB - are you alleging she was lying?
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Doubt whether she would get much in the way of benefits either.
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I take your point but regarding the 1st case no one has proved that she was lying; she was found not guilty. FB - are you alleging she was lying?
I would not allege she was lying on the 1st case BUT if she had pled guilty to an offence would she have been better off today - "better off" in its widest meanings................. health, job, family, money............prospects.
It maybe that the Law Society of Scotland will have an interest in matters where a lawyer is found guilty in a court of law - she gave up her job as a prosecutor but if she was fined or suspended by the Law Society it would be even worse than being fined and banned in the court.
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I would not allege she was lying on the 1st case BUT if she had pled guilty to an offence would she have been better off today
Sorry FB - I've got a cold and I'm being contrary. I think you're right.
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>>BUT if she hadpled guilty to an offence would she have been better off today - "better off" in its widest meanings................. health job family money............prospects.
I would debate that... her defence counsel bought her time to sort herself out, if her family, friends and even work colleagues had managed to persuade her to sort herself out she would still have a job... it seems either they didn't try or she didn't want to, so the inevitable happenned...
The sollution was in her hands all along, she was given a chance and failed to take it, sorry but I have little sympathy.
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The law is different in Scotland. However did she ever hear of moral compass.
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At the beginning of 2009 a prosecution lawyer was found in her car - she had drunk alcohol. The keys were on the floor on the passenger side. She was found not guilty of DUI as her lawyer argued that she did not intend to drive but was merely sitting in the car.
That is very, very interesting. Have you any pointers to further information on this matter?
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Nothing new - there is a defence law for the offence of Drunk in Charge where if the defendant can prove they didn't intend to drive the case can be dismissed. DUI is an Americanizm and may confuse here as she wasn't driving - which was the whole point. Example would be I got drunk missed my last bus and went to sleep in the car until sober.
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> there is a defence law for the offence of Drunk in Charge where if the defendant
> can prove they didn't intend to drive the case can be dismissed.
I am aware of this, although proving one did not intend to drive might be difficult.
> Example would be I got drunk missed my last bus and went to sleep in the car
> until sober.
Can you point to any cases where people have successfully used this defence, in England/Wales (it strikes me that circumstances may be different in Scotland, but perhaps not)?
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Go to the Courier website - they covered the trial and acquittal in April 2009 ish
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I can't find it, having searched on the name.
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Westpig actually raised a valid point re perjury.
If someone has pled not guilty under oath, and subsequently found guilty, have they not therefore committed perjury?
What is the point of the oath?
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Look, sorry chaps, but can we send this word 'pled' back where it came from? The correct English form is 'pleaded'.
I don't usually bother to mention spelling mistakes, typos and so on. But creeping transatlanticism gets my goat.
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Westpig actually raised a valid point re perjury.
If someone has pleaded not guilty under oath, and subsequently found guilty, have they not therefore committed perjury?
What is the point of the oath?
:)
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the nub would appear to be that she had phoned her brother to come & pick her up, before the Polis arrived, & as I understood it, her brother then turned up while she & the Polis were still at the scene. So whilst as I understand it she could stiil technically be "done" for having the keys in her posessison, it would have been preverse to have so done.
Ps
is the Scottish law different to the English/ N Irish?
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Sedtion 5 Road Traffic Act 1988
Driving or being in charge of a motor vehicle with alcohol concentration above prescribed limit
(1) If a person
....................
(b) is in charge of a motor vehicle on a road or other public place,
after consuming so much alcohol that the proportion of it in his breath, blood or urine exceeds the prescribed limit he is guilty of an offence.
(2) It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under subsection (1)(b) above to prove that at the time he is alleged to have committed the offence the circumstances were such that there was no likelihood of his driving the vehicle whilst the proportion of alcohol in his breath, blood or urine remained likely to exceed the prescribed limit.
.......................
If her brother turns up at the scene having been contacted for a lift then I think she would have a dam good defence of proving that there was no likelyhood etc....
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On the other hand you could argue that in the case of people who have served prison sentences, sometimes long ones and have subsequently been proved innocent, the Police and others who came up with compelling evidence, must also have perjured themselves to get a conviction.
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On the other hand you could argue that in the case of people who have served prison sentences sometimes long ones and have subsequently been proved innocent the Police and others who came up with compelling evidence must also have perjured themselves to get a conviction.
I take the point... and historically there must have been some prosecution witnesses who have committed perjury (inc police witnesses), as well as the vast numbers of defence ones
however, don't mix up a Not Guilty finding with being innocent...it means the court has decided there was insufficient evidence to safely convict. You might well be totally innocent and in any case the law says you have no stain on your character...however it doesn't mean some didn't do it ...and presumably why the law of double jeopardy was changed.
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Surely there are two events? The first where the accused was able to provide a defence which sufficed. The second event has no bearing on the first event, and she was caught, and not before time. I'm just surprised the police didn't mark her cards before she ran out of road, but then they aren't into prevention, being under the Home Office indolence culture:)
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I quoth "?She ran out of cigarettes and made the decision to go and replenish supplies and chose to go in the Audi motor car,? he said."
Easier to say "popped out in the car to get some fags". And I'd much prefer any lawyer working for me to keep his words to a minimum, at the rates they charge!! :-)
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;-) Apparently she crashed in to a "stationery car". I wonder if it was delivering to a branch of WH Smith, tobacconist and stationers?
p.s. On her first arrest, apparently it was important and relevant for us, the public, to be informed that she was in a BMW!
("She had parked her BMW in Ferry Road and drunk a quarter-bottle of vodka, before calling her brother on her mobile to ask him to come and pick her up.
She told the court she deliberately placed the keys in the car’s footwell to make it clear she had no plans to move the vehicle.").
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