Sex Crimes, Sex Offenders Conflict of Interest or not?
- Thread Starter nancyarso
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Possibly. Who are you in this case?
PayrollHRGuy
Well-Known Member
Probably not. If it were the case half the judges in my state couldn't practice in their own judicial district.
zddoodah
Well-Known Member
Potentially. It's certainly something that both the judge and the prosecutor should disclose to the defense attorney, and the defense attorney could seek to have the judge recused (or maybe even the prosecutor replaced).
The problem in a state like North Dakota (population under 800,000 and the 4th least dense state in the country -- roughly 10 people per square mile) is that recusing the judge might require moving the case to another county, which could result in significant delay and other logistical problems. It also greatly increases the likelihood that judges and prosecutors (and defense attorneys) know each other very well.
I am the defendants gf. But does that mstter?
Zigner
Well-Known Member
It's probably wise to let your BF and his attorney handle this.
Yes it matters. Your BF should ask his attorney. You should not be posting about your alleged sex offender boyfriends case. I would bet if his attorney knew about your posting the attorney would be pissed.
Hopefully you at least had the common sense to not use your real name, Nancy Arso.
army judge
Super Moderator
Generally speaking, NO.
However, it is in YOUR "friend's" best interests to speak to HIS attorney about anything that concerns all pending legal matters in which HE is involved.
You should NEVER discuss any aspect of anyone's legal case.
The person may want to blab about it to you.
You should tell the person GENTLY, "Sorry, old friend, don't discuss your legal matters with anyone BUT your attorney."
If he and you were married, talking to your spouse about CERTAIN legal matters might not be armful.
Last point: NEVER talk to an inmate of a jail or prison about THEIR legal matters, or anything about their charges. All telephone conversations between inmates and people NOT incarcerated are RECORDED.
BIG BROTHER is always looking, listening, and recording!
I like the level of paranoia on here
It's not paranoia. I'm a member at another site and a new member posted all kinds of incriminating and identifying information... her real name and admitting to setting up her ex's new wife for felony arson. One of the attorney volunteers notified the DA's office (handling the arson case) in the county in question and directed him to the 3 or 4 threads.
It's a small world ...even on the www.
Posting one's own criminal issues on the net is truly dumb...posting about someone elses shows audacity and a willingness to undermine the ability of an attorney to defend his client.
PayrollHRGuy
Well-Known Member
That may be the case where you live but not everywhere. The last 4 prosecuting attorney's where I live went straight for the judicial district PA office to their elected judgeships. There have also been some deputy PAs that have done the same.
justblue, You bring up an interesting privileged communications point that I think about sometimes while on here.
In order for an attorney/client privilege to apply the primary purpose of the communication must be to seek or provide legal advice. A communication is not privileged if it does not request legal advice or convey information reasonably related to a request for legal assistance. Generally, having a discussion in a public forum/website with an attorney, where others are present/or included in the discussion, is not privileged. However, this public forum interpretation could vary by different judges especially if one of these "volunteer Attorneys" from other sites are holding themselves out to be an attorney during the discussion to the person requesting the legal advice. Likewise,would it violate an ethical duty if the volunteer attorney participated in the discussion giving legal advice and then reported that discussion to the prosecutor's office.
Justblue, you are correct though, it is stupid to give your name, and id say equally stupid to say you are an attorney, unless you are really careful about what you say
The advice/comments made on advice sites can not be considered privileged. The TOS of the advice site makes that clear. Anyone who posts their criminal antics on the internet and expects it to be private is an idiot.
What I find amazing how many do post about their crime : What they did, where they did it, who they were with and their REAL NAME.
In any case the situation I was referring to, the Attorney volunteer was not a part of the thread. The point I was making is: Advising someone to NOT post about their BF/GF/Child/Mom/Dad/Aunt/Uncle/Cousin...etc...etc..because it undermines their loved ones defense, is not paranoia.
zddoodah
Well-Known Member
That's not an accurate statement of the law. Under North Dakota law (since that's where the OP is, although ND law is substantially identical to the law in every other state), "[a] client has a privilege to refuse to disclose and to prevent any other person from disclosing a confidential communication made for the purpose of facilitating the rendition of professional legal services to the client" where that communication is made between the client and lawyer and/or representatives of either. "Confidential communication" is defined to me one that is "not intended to be disclosed to third persons other than those to whom disclosure is made in furtherance of the rendition of professional legal services to the client or those reasonably necessary for the transmission of the communication."
Generally? A communication on a public message board cannot, by definition, be a communication that is "not intended to be disclosed to third persons." I won't even bother asking you to cite a case that supports the assertion that a public message board post is protected by the attorney-client privilege, because I know that no such case exists in any state.
I don't know what you're saying here "public forum interpretation could vary by different judges"? That makes no sense.
Then you are not familiar with how different judges rules different ways.
hitting google does not count for having original thought or basing it on experience
What type of experience do you have? Are you an attorney?
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