I had a good result at a jury trial the week before last. I'm not going to make a habit of posting these, but this was a really nice win. The client was a really nasty, uncooperative and uncommunicative redneck. I really, really did not like him, and that made everything a lot more difficult.
The basic story that the Commonwealth was alleging was that he and his wife were arguing, the wife called 911, and the cops responded. By that time, my client was driving away. Now, in more reasonable, civilized areas of this country, people tend to pull over when the cops flash their emergency lights. Not here - here, they think they're in a Dukes of Hazzard rerun, and start looking for a ramp to use to jump over the ol' crick while beeping their horn tricked out to play "Dixie". I'm telling you - I have had about ten of these redneck police car chase cases since I've been here.
So, he was charged with Attempted Assault 1 on a Police Officer for running one cop off the road, Wanton Endangerment 1 for running another cop off the road, another Attempted Assault 1 on a Police Officer for nearly hitting an officer trying to help the second officer, who had wrapped his car around a tree and had to be airlifted to a hospital in civilization, Fleeing/Evading, Resisting Arrest, and DUI.
The best pretrial offer was fifteen years.
The jury was out for an hour before coming back with guilty verdicts on two counts of Wanton Endangerment II (both misdemeanors) instead of the two counts of Attempted Assault I, not guilty to Wanton Endangerment I, guilty on Fleeing/Evading I, guilty on DUI I, and not guilty on Resisting Arrest. The client was sentenced to six months on both counts of WE II, two years on the Fleeing/Evading I, and 48 hours and a $200.00 fine on the DUI I for a total sentence of two years. The client has been in custody for twenty months, so he’s immediately eligible for parole, and serve out.
The interesting thing here is that, to reasonably arrive at that verdict, the jury would have had to completely disbelieve the cops when they testified that he ran them off the road and that he nearly hit one of the cops who was standing in the road. I mean, they didn't even find him guilty of Resisting Arrest, and they ALWAYS find people guilty of that. My client testified (which I advised against) and admitted that he fled, because he was afraid of being beaten, so they couldn't quite find him completely not guilty of Fleeing/Evading, but they gave him a sentence on the low end of the range for that.
I'm still just weirdly astonished by this.
Oh yeah - the client and his family are not happy. They thought he should be found completely not guilty of everything, so they're complaining to anyone who'll listen, but no one does because anyone who hears the story is amazed that he got as little time as he did for what they were claiming had happened.
I like reading them. My second cousin is a "serious crimes" solicitor in London and I have a family friend who does criminal cases in my own city, the difference in how juries respond or are handled is, the different perspectives of juries is interesting.
In your area is there much anti-police sentiment, (historically or recently)? Could it be due to recent changes on the perspective towards police?
I like reading them. My second cousin is a "serious crimes" solicitor in London and I have a family friend who does criminal cases in my own city, the difference in how juries respond or are handled is, the different perspectives of juries is interesting.
In your area is there much anti-police sentiment, (historically or recently)? Could it be due to recent changes on the perspective towards police?
Actually, the police in my area do have a bad reputation, and have been sued for beating people before. I used that as part of my argument that they shouldn't be believed and that my client had a good reason not to stop for them, and apparently they bought it.
As far as real anti-police sentiment goes though, in this state people normally believe anything anyone with a pressed uniform and a shiny badge tells them to believe. That's why I was pretty surprised that this particular jury went the way they did.
Speaking of surprises though, I was EXTREMELY surprised when one of the detectives in that murder trial I had last month volunteered that he was trained in the Reid technique of interrogation and that this training included the use of "deceptive practices". I was simply amazed. Most of the time, you can't drag that out of them for love or money, but this guy just volunteered it, almost like he was trying to sabotage things. I made a big deal about that later in argument.
That's one thing kinda unique to this area - EVERY defendant immediately talks to the cops. You should never, never talk to them. You might think you can explain things, minimize your involvement, and come out great. It's a natural inclination, but the cops use this and other techniques like telling you they're your friends, they'll make sure you get favorable treatment, your buddy has already confessed, it'll go harder for you if you don't 'fess up, and so forth to make you confess. The final nail is that, a lot of defendants confess and don't even know they're confessing because they don't know the elements of the crimes for which they're charged. Bottom line - never, ever talk to the cops.
Just did a mock interview with google and my interviewer was impressed with my performance! Now I just need to iron out the small stuff and perfect the non-programming parts of the interview and I'll be ready to take on the real deal!
Just did a mock interview with google and my interviewer was impressed with my performance! Now I just need to iron out the small stuff and perfect the non-programming parts of the interview and I'll be ready to take on the real deal!
Speaking of, I just got a great report back from one of my blind playtesters and it sounds like their game went great, and I got a bunch of actionable stuff to make changes on. I'm so excite omg.
Just did a mock interview with google and my interviewer was impressed with my performance! Now I just need to iron out the small stuff and perfect the non-programming parts of the interview and I'll be ready to take on the real deal!
You get mock interviews? I got a video stating what would happen, which was nothing like what happened.
Just did a mock interview with google and my interviewer was impressed with my performance! Now I just need to iron out the small stuff and perfect the non-programming parts of the interview and I'll be ready to take on the real deal!
You get mock interviews? I got a video stating what would happen, which was nothing like what happened.
Reps come to UConn once a semester to give talks and they do mock interviews afterwards to gauge the people in the university, questions and to get people interested. Apparently, as the rep told me, the questions they ask in the actual interview are straight out of cracking the coding interview.
Just got notified that I'm getting a special contribution award of $800 for all my hard work with MST claims and all the additional training and duties I've taken on.
This is less of a "boo yah" and more of a "OMG wut" moment, I was in the checkout line at the super market and this girl ahead of me kept stealing looks at me. She eventually asked if she knew me because I looked familiar. I asked if she went to my former college, she said no but that she had friends who did. So I said that maybe we have friends who know each other and she's seen me on Facebook or something. I extended my hand and introduced myself and her eyes bugged the fuck out.
She's a big fan of Steven Universe Universe. She asked to take a picture with me.
So i met this guy!!! For those of you who dont know who he is, this guy is Victor Frost and i watch his stuff ALL THE TIME on youtube! Hes pretty popular too. He was kinda surprised to get recognized.. Hes pretty chill and hes super nice and i Hahaha bumped into him at super king... IN NORTHRIDGE... aperently cool and famous people live here lol
Whoa. That's awesome Victor! Keep getting famous, then use your fame for sinister causes!
My boo-yah is that I showed the latest version of my Magical Girl game 5 Across the Heart to the host of One Shot podcast, and he appears to have dug it. My confidence in this product is finally rising again.
My paper is now submitted to AAAI; now I just need to buy a PAX South pass, get the paper accepted, and see if I can get my plane tickets covered; in that order.
My paper is now submitted to AAAI; now I just need to buy a PAX South pass, get the paper accepted, and see if I can get my plane tickets covered; in that order.
The title was "A Stochastic Process Model of Classical Search", although it remains subject to change if I can come up with a better one.
I get the "stochastic process model" but the "classical search" makes me think of search algorithms.
I guess you were teaching a machine to learn how to predict a provided pattern or statistically analyse the said pattern. What machine learning method did you concentrate on (back propagation neural networks, SVMs another discriminative classifer or something novel?).
What machines / hardware did you use, when I tried using some of these methods the run times were estimated in days for my home PC. I was trying to teach the machine to play Connect 4 from a few hundred game's move data and results.
Comments
The basic story that the Commonwealth was alleging was that he and his wife were arguing, the wife called 911, and the cops responded. By that time, my client was driving away. Now, in more reasonable, civilized areas of this country, people tend to pull over when the cops flash their emergency lights. Not here - here, they think they're in a Dukes of Hazzard rerun, and start looking for a ramp to use to jump over the ol' crick while beeping their horn tricked out to play "Dixie". I'm telling you - I have had about ten of these redneck police car chase cases since I've been here.
So, he was charged with Attempted Assault 1 on a Police Officer for running one cop off the road, Wanton Endangerment 1 for running another cop off the road, another Attempted Assault 1 on a Police Officer for nearly hitting an officer trying to help the second officer, who had wrapped his car around a tree and had to be airlifted to a hospital in civilization, Fleeing/Evading, Resisting Arrest, and DUI.
The best pretrial offer was fifteen years.
The jury was out for an hour before coming back with guilty verdicts on two counts of Wanton Endangerment II (both misdemeanors) instead of the two counts of Attempted Assault I, not guilty to Wanton Endangerment I, guilty on Fleeing/Evading I, guilty on DUI I, and not guilty on Resisting Arrest. The client was sentenced to six months on both counts of WE II, two years on the Fleeing/Evading I, and 48 hours and a $200.00 fine on the DUI I for a total sentence of two years. The client has been in custody for twenty months, so he’s immediately eligible for parole, and serve out.
The interesting thing here is that, to reasonably arrive at that verdict, the jury would have had to completely disbelieve the cops when they testified that he ran them off the road and that he nearly hit one of the cops who was standing in the road. I mean, they didn't even find him guilty of Resisting Arrest, and they ALWAYS find people guilty of that. My client testified (which I advised against) and admitted that he fled, because he was afraid of being beaten, so they couldn't quite find him completely not guilty of Fleeing/Evading, but they gave him a sentence on the low end of the range for that.
I'm still just weirdly astonished by this.
Oh yeah - the client and his family are not happy. They thought he should be found completely not guilty of everything, so they're complaining to anyone who'll listen, but no one does because anyone who hears the story is amazed that he got as little time as he did for what they were claiming had happened.
In your area is there much anti-police sentiment, (historically or recently)? Could it be due to recent changes on the perspective towards police?
As far as real anti-police sentiment goes though, in this state people normally believe anything anyone with a pressed uniform and a shiny badge tells them to believe. That's why I was pretty surprised that this particular jury went the way they did.
Speaking of surprises though, I was EXTREMELY surprised when one of the detectives in that murder trial I had last month volunteered that he was trained in the Reid technique of interrogation and that this training included the use of "deceptive practices". I was simply amazed. Most of the time, you can't drag that out of them for love or money, but this guy just volunteered it, almost like he was trying to sabotage things. I made a big deal about that later in argument.
That's one thing kinda unique to this area - EVERY defendant immediately talks to the cops. You should never, never talk to them. You might think you can explain things, minimize your involvement, and come out great. It's a natural inclination, but the cops use this and other techniques like telling you they're your friends, they'll make sure you get favorable treatment, your buddy has already confessed, it'll go harder for you if you don't 'fess up, and so forth to make you confess. The final nail is that, a lot of defendants confess and don't even know they're confessing because they don't know the elements of the crimes for which they're charged. Bottom line - never, ever talk to the cops.
Now I just need to iron out the small stuff and perfect the non-programming parts of the interview and I'll be ready to take on the real deal!
Speaking of, I just got a great report back from one of my blind playtesters and it sounds like their game went great, and I got a bunch of actionable stuff to make changes on. I'm so excite omg.
I got a video stating what would happen, which was nothing like what happened.
Apparently, as the rep told me, the questions they ask in the actual interview are straight out of cracking the coding interview.
Yay! ^_^
She's a big fan of Steven Universe Universe.
She asked to take a picture with me.
My boo-yah is that I showed the latest version of my Magical Girl game 5 Across the Heart to the host of One Shot podcast, and he appears to have dug it. My confidence in this product is finally rising again.
I apparently won with the best ideas and won a Samsung Galaxy Tablet.
But all my devices are iOS. Tiny fail, but I can figure something out on what to do with this new device.
I guess you were teaching a machine to learn how to predict a provided pattern or statistically analyse the said pattern.
What machine learning method did you concentrate on (back propagation neural networks, SVMs another discriminative classifer or something novel?).
What machines / hardware did you use, when I tried using some of these methods the run times were estimated in days for my home PC. I was trying to teach the machine to play Connect 4 from a few hundred game's move data and results.