When the Defense Wins a Tough Case, It's Sweet
The public defenders at the Norwalk courthouse begin the day with pancakes and strawberries.
Attorney Michelle Paffile won a not guilty verdict in a trial, and by tradition she must bring treats for the 14 other public defenders and the staff assigned to this suburban courthouse in southeast Los Angeles County. This was an especially sweet victory for the young attorney, and she's gone all out on this recent Wednesday with mounds of cakes and berries and whipped cream.
Paffile, 31, a five-year veteran of the public defender's staff, shares an office with attorney Ramiro Cisneros, who has been serving as the newspaper's courthouse guide through a week of ground-level justice -- the kind that almost never makes the headlines.
She is eager to tell the story, and Cisneros encourages a visitor to listen because it is one of those unsettling cases that arises in an instant and drags on for years.
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Her account: Four years ago, a young Alta Loma man in a silver Ford Expedition drove up the Washington Boulevard onramp to the 605 Freeway, straight into a colossal traffic jam. A big rig was disabled in the No. 4 lane, and cars were slowed to a creep.
Perhaps the prudent reaction would have been for the man to dial up some soothing music on the stereo, relax, chat with his friend who was a passenger and wait it out. But he was not prudent. He drove onto the shoulder to gain ground and then swung out to merge into traffic, where tempers were rising. He reached the No. 3 lane and then impatiently tried to find space to squeeze into the No. 2. He clipped the mirror of a delivery truck. A California Highway Patrol officer, on foot, witnessed the event. He attempted to stop traffic and signaled for the SUV driver to pull over. The man did not.
At the next offramp, the attorney continued, her client exited to square things with the driver of the delivery truck. Before that could happen, the officer pursued him, reporting that the SUV driver had tried to run him down. Marijuana was found in the SUV. The driver was arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer, a felony, as well as drug possession and evading arrest.
While in the back seat of the patrol car, a hidden microphone recorded the driver's hysteria. Over and over again he tells his friend, also in custody, that he never saw the officer and didn't try to run him down. And the marijuana? The passenger confesses, oops, it was his.
