For eight years in the 1990s, Attorney Charles Ware hosted the extremely popular legal advice radio program "The Lawyer's Mailbox"; the Number One (#1)legal advice radio program in the Mid-Atlantic Region,on WEAA - 88.9 FM, Morgan State University Radio in Baltimore, Maryland.
www.CharlesJeromeWare.com

Friday, November 3, 2017

DEAR LOUISIANA COURTS : A " LAWYER, DOG" IS NOT A CANINE ATTORNEY

www.charlesjeromeware.com     "Here to make a Difference."

There goes the Louisiana Supreme Court, again.

When many Americans say, in the vernacular, " I'll hit you up later, Dog", they are typically saying that they will contact the other person sometime later. They are not calling the person a "later dog."
The Louisiana courts, by now, should know that. Apparently, they do not.

When a 22-year old suspect in New Orleans, while being interrogated, told police detectives "just give me a lawyer, Dog", the police cleverly, but maliciously, miscommunicated his statement to say " just give me a lawyer dog." This miscommunication was, of course, ridiculous; but the highest court in Louisiana --- the Louisiana Supreme Court ---  shockingly agreed with the police. The court ruled that the suspect was, in fact, asking for a "lawyer dog" and was not invoking his constitutional right to human legal counsel. 

The suspect, Warren Demesme, was being interrogated by New Orleans detectives in October 2015 after two young girls claimed he had sexually assaulted them. It was the second time he had been brought in to the police station, and he was apparently getting frustrated. Demesme had repeatedly denied the crime; and finally he allegedly told the police [ as written and interpreted by the police] :

          " This is how I feel, if y'all think I did it, I know that I didn't do it so why don't you just
            give  me a lawyer dog 'cause this is not what's up."

The particular punctuation by the police, arguably critical to Demesme's use of the sobriquet "dog", was gratuitous in this contextual vernacular --- and was suspiciously provided by the Orleans Parish District Attorney's office in a legal brief.  It was then inappropriately adopted by Louisiana Associate Supreme Court Justice Scott J. Crichton.

It is unclear as to how many "lawyer dogs" there are in Louisiana. 

[www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2017/11/02]

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