To Disgusted

I do not know you, but just by reading what you wrote, my gut feeling is you really care about helping others. That is a great trait to have.
Bless you my friend

Dennis, yes, I do. But its not really advise I give, but opinions which are backed up by case law. I’m not an attorney and have no formal schooling in law, and my area is in constitutional and civil rights law only, not criminal.
I mainly try to steer people in the right direction who otherwise would have no clue how to proceed with a case.
Its all voluntary with no pay because I enjoy it.

You should file a bar complaint anyway. Pretty sure they are obligated to find you if there is a settlement. Reasonably sure there’s also an ethics rule about accepting a settlement without your consent.

Yarbrough also represented Doe 1 and Doe 2.

Do you consult with registrants or inmates who may need advice or guidance?

I decided to turn my anger into resolve to fight unfairness or abuses of authority when it is not entlrely a lost cause. No sense falling of one’s own sword. A couple of weeks ago, I politely reminded a couple of deputies that residence checks were not required by and might even be precluded by my state’s law. A small thing. But those in authority cannot be allowed to stray outside that authority. I consider such resistance to be a duty of citizenship.

In doing such things, it is critical to be standing on firm legal ground. Bruised authoritarian egos can be very vindictive.

Obvious

That is so true but can also happen with lawyer written cases. There are lawyers out there who take Sex offense cases but also do auto injury, dog bites, will prepare your will, and their Uncle Louie will give you a discount on car repair.

I got taken by a lawyer on an injury case. I hadn’t heard from them in two years and they said “Oh you are suppose to contact us we thought you changed your mind so we closed your case”. Well guess what, I hired a new lawyer who found out the business paid the claim and the previous lawyer took the money. I will not say the name of the previous lawyer but he is on tv all the time.

With the new lawyer, I ended up getting a check within 2 weeks. I asked the new lawyer about sanctions on the other lawyer and his exact words were “You need to let it go, you got your money, do not stir up bees”. Wow, A lot of people who deserve to be in prison but get away with screwing people over. The new lawyer also said they probably did that to me because I was a convicted sex offender and “Gave you what they thought you deserved” and that was to be screwed over and get nothing.

On a side note, the original law firm called me two weeks later demanding I pay $120 in paperwork fees and I told them I was filing a complaint with the Florida bar for stealing my money the first time unless you drop the fees. An hour later the head attorney called and said he would “Write it off this time”.

Disgusted

First off, props for the win. Secondly here is my take on this. Lawyers are in it for the money. They get paid regardless if they win or lose. I am not saying all lawyers could care less because if you get a reputation of constant losses, you won’t last long and will end up disbarred.

But, what I am saying is WE have a lot more stake in the win/lose game that the lawyers who get paid either way. They are not the ones doing the prison time and may give a “I’m sorry we will get them next time” reply. We are fighting for our lives and put a passion into the effort like nothing seen since Noah Built the ark.

Also as a note, glad the judge was a decent person and didn’t just deny you or automatically agree with the other courts. My lawyer told me sadly, some judges never even read some of these papers and just automatically deny them as they could care less and just want to get them off their docket.

I would award you the Cherokee Nations Highest honor but I do not have that authority LOL. So a virtual blue ribbon will have to do 🙂

Ed

First off, thank you for the kind words.
Secondly, I only became this unstoppable beast after going to prison. For some, prison ruins them mentally, for me it turned me into a “Can’t say no” type of person. In other words, when someone tells me “No that cannot be done” I prove them wrong.

Although I did do some things that were illegal, the prosecutor “Packed” my charges. I later learned this is done so plea deals can be made before a trial. My Lawyer was/is the nicest man you could ever meet, but nice was NOT what I needed in a lawyer going against a prosecutor who was friends with the judge who sentenced me.

No trial occurred, no deals were made, I was charged with everything and for a first time offender I got a 30 year sentence. It took me years of fighting to finally get a break. Ironically, the same lawyer had matured in experience enough to get me before the right appeals judge to get the remaining part of my sentence tossed.

I was ok with the time I did as it made me into a go getter instead of a nice young yes man. Yes I am still a nice young man but now I do not back down at the first sign of trouble. When I am attacked with a pencil (metaphorically) I hit back with a Bazooka. No tit for tat with me.

I have had a lot of wins since my prison sentence, but have also had my fair share of losses as well. And as time goes by without any issues from me, you would think like on probation, you would get a little trust that just maybe you are a decent person after all. But no, we might as well be back when we were arrested, since we all can relate the registry to probation on many levels.

Having said that, believe it or not, I have become a very private person. I do not like the spotlight shined on me nor my family. I kept up the entire time with the guy on the registry who kept getting arrested and still didn’t go to prison and kept saying to myself, “This guy has the luck of the Irish”. Now he finally got prison again but he was constantly in the news. Not going to say his name but he was a former cop them opened his own security company and also did funeral escorts. He seemed to thrive on the exposure.

I am 1000 degrees opposite of that guy. If I am going to have my 10 minutes of fame I do not want it to be something that is going to shine a bad light on me nor my family. We are a peaceful people, but like a cornered animal, we can bite back when necessary.

If I wore a hat, it would be off to you Cherokee. Perhaps you should change your moniker from CherokeeJack to Jack-the-giant-killer. I am not well liked among the federal prosecutors in this district, in that I made them eat a bit of crow, perhaps the whole bird.

From federal prison, I wrote a pro se 2255 (habeas) motion and had a sex crime conviction vacated due to “actual innocence.” What I’d admitted to doing was not actually a crime; the elements of a crime being what they are. I find it impossible to believe that the prosecutors weren’t aware of that at the time, because it only took about 3 weeks for them to admit I was right. I think experienced defense lawyers can become fixated on cutting a plea deal rather than defending the client. As my buddy Dave once said, “The criminal justice system ain’t broken. It’s fixed.”

Congratulations again on your perserverence and your win.