Keep in mind that 98% conviction rate is the rate of conviction for cases they don't dismiss. Your local DA off is probably has a similar conviction rate. Because they dismiss any cases they don't think are impossible to loose in order to keep their conviction rates up.

@MsTalia1

10 ай бұрын

So it's about fiddling the numbers. Only take the ones you know your going to win to court, so your convincing rates look good. Anything queer there's any wigglecroom you let it slide cause that's reported differently.

@joatmon3282

10 ай бұрын

This is the answer. If you told your employees their job performance was measured by how fast they completed a job you would see jobs get finished much quicker. Quality, customer satisfaction, and every other metric would get worse but speed would increase because that is what is being measured. For DA's their job performance is measured by their conviction rate. To keep that rate high they will dismiss any case they feel they have a chance to lose, even if it is a very small chance. Sometimes I think they keep it just under 100% as a 100% conviction rate would look suspicious but a 99% conviction rate looks like they are really good at their job.

@rambhaskar6728

10 ай бұрын

Does the DA dismiss the charges or does the court do it?

@terricon4

10 ай бұрын

@@rambhaskar6728 They have to push the charges, criminal cases are started by the government lawyers themselves, so if they decide not to start pushing the charge or going to court on a given matter, then the law won't be able to apply. This is why they are in such a crucial position for corruption, and a great target for brib- sorry, lobbying or gifting stuff to, since if you're a rich or influential person and you commit a crime, if the DAs in your local area you committed this crime in decide they aren't going to go forward with a case against you... then basically the law doesn't apply to you. And generally there's no rules or punishments for them not going forward with charges, so they can freely just let people off as they want. In other words, the legal system is for most people "fair" and involves going into a trial judged by your pears... but for some they just don't even have to get judged by their pears, even if everyone would vote to convict them, since they can just skip the system in it's entirety. Of coarse, extreme publicity can make it hard for a DA to avoid doing their job on bigger cases, but even then they can often just start going through the motions, drag it out for months or a year, and then stop with the charges before an actual trial would begin, and by then news and stuff have long forgotten about the incident, so even for big news, unless super big news, they can still often enough get away with this. Now, not saying every DA or such is corrupt, but it's a position that is strongly targeted by many to make sure that it is, much more than many other government positions are.

@mattd6931

10 ай бұрын

No, as a former police prosecutor, they dismiss any cases without a reasonable likelihood of conviction because it's not worth the time, or the budget to prosecute the cases that are likely to be found not-guilty by a jury. (In an innocent until proven guilty system of justice) Especially when complicated by laws like double jeopardy. Far better to dismiss it and make it a cold case, and hope that later evidence is found that results in a successful prosecution. You prosecute the cases likely to result in conviction because those are the cases with solid evidence, unlikely to stretch on indefinitely or have hung juries. And are the best use of the prosecutions limited time. Because no one (Government, Police or Taxpayer) is going to be happy with spending a days wages (sometimes on overtime) for Prosecution, Police Officers, Layers, Court Staff and Witnesses, if it's almost guaranteed the alleged offender will walk.

Someone keep an eye on James. These are good questions but the answers might just create more questions.

@JamesButlerWellAndSepticLife

11 ай бұрын

My dad told me that if I was ever elected president, I would be assassinated immediately, because I ask to many questions and to the wrong poeple.

@davidbeppler3032

11 ай бұрын

@@JamesButlerWellAndSepticLife Listen to your father. Smart man.

@ryansmith8618

11 ай бұрын

@@JamesButlerWellAndSepticLife I feel like a line from the Dark Knight belongs here. "Anyone whose pockets are about to get lighter will be coming for you"

@hughgordon6435

11 ай бұрын

Going down the Telles route😮😮😮

@rbailey1737

11 ай бұрын

He got go missing or shoot him self twice

In my wasted youth, I got in a lot of trouble one evening. I was arrested on 32 charges. At the first arraignment my court appointed attorney sat there with a law dictionary and as the charges were listed he had at least 8 thrown out. Just by reading the definitions. A lot of the time the arresting officers will stack the charges with anything they think will work, taking a shotgun approach to things.

@johnmillis5159

10 ай бұрын

The problem is you cant hire lawyers to be cops and it doesn’t sound like a good idea either. they might be worst than normal cops might not miss shit or really stick it to you with evidence but it’s the cops job to write what ticket he thinks is good enough and it the da office to work out all the bs charges and go after what they think is possible to get a convictions cops are just a blunt tool for the court system

The Da office has to assess the quality of proof with an eye towards trial. The cops have to assess the unlawfullness with an eye towards arrest.

Just remember: ask too many questions, piss off the wrong people, and suddenly you are the target of investigations.

@omriliad659

11 ай бұрын

And then the case gets thrown out?

@repalmore

11 ай бұрын

I think Trump knows exactly what you are talking about

@fordguy2836

10 ай бұрын

@@repalmoreI’m surprised he didn’t get assassinated with how many people he’d do that with

@TheGemar14

10 ай бұрын

@@repalmore Yeah, like he wasn't one of the "wrong" people

@beastshawnee

10 ай бұрын

That’s why they got the intimidation factor going! They Suspect that James might wanna run for office,that’s what people can do with those numbers -get rid of DAs

Small septic bounty hunter who is also is funny and gives good advice is back

@JamesButlerWellAndSepticLife

11 ай бұрын

Im glad to be back

@MenkoDany

11 ай бұрын

Hey, Small in what world?

@xanadu774

11 ай бұрын

Where's he been?

@daniel.s.stefanov

11 ай бұрын

​@@MenkoDanyThe physical one 😅

@delamarhamilton7225

11 ай бұрын

I missed this guy

This has been happening for a while, it is not uncommon for people that have something to hide to be suspicious of honest questions

The only way to stop this circus is to make DAs make a record in court explaining why charges are dropped. This will never happen.

@shilowheeler

9 ай бұрын

That might shine a light on police who chronically violate civil rights...

Given the timeline, I can tell you what is happening. They charges that you first hear are the Preliminary charges, they are determined by the police who are not lawyers. They are also applying charges on a different basis. The police charge/arrest based on reasonable suspicion, which is a More likely/Less likely (i.e. 50%) metric. The district attorneys have to convict based on a "beyond a reasonable doubt" metric, which is a much higher bar. So the preliminary charges are what the police think he most likely did, the remaining charges after the drop are what the DA thinks they can actually prove (and would make a difference). I say "make a difference" because often times many charges are redundant even if convicted, as the jail time is served concurrently rather than consecutively. Meaning if you get 18 months for Burglary, the 6 months for trespassing wont increase the effective sentence but will increase the cost of litigation.

@benjaminmatheny6683

11 ай бұрын

As for WHY it works that way, The US has some of the lowest requirements for police education in the developed world. They also have an incentive to tack on ANY charge they can, as their bust is recorded by the preliminary charges rather than by the actual conviction. The Courts usually run non-violent sentences concurrently for a couple of reasons, prison overcrowding is one, but another is the issue of double charging. I.e. in the Burglary example above, both charges are from the same overall action so stacking charges like that is like a double punishment which goes against the spirit of the law. The economics of criminal justice also come into it. From the perspective of Society as a whole, the system should seek to reform criminals. Incarceration is an expense, execution is a loss of future potential. However, here in the US we have set up a prison system that directly benefits from the opposite. The prisons look are re-offending criminals as repeat customers (one of the major private prison corps listed re-admittance rate as a strength of the company), even though the people paying for it are taxpayers primarily.

@non1503

11 ай бұрын

And money. Give them lesser charges. Keep them in their jail county or city for a year or less. money. give them drug or alcohol courts. That's a assessment (money) then classes(money) keep the receipts. Cause they'll lose yours try to get you angry. have you arrested then you have to do it all over again. then there's the probation and court fines. and probably community service. Some of these small towns have a nice little racket. getting fed money. Then when the feds come in and do a inspection of the jail. all the cleaning product(bob barker's) for the inmates is used to wash police cars. And they serve expired/green food from the grocery store. When your conviction rate is so high it gets investigated. Husband and wife judges and police leaders. And the big cities send their real problem people. There to get the conviction. Because the place is so bad condition wise. Flooding cells during rain ect. and that's your life now. So people sign papers pretty quick.

@sccautomotivellc8535

11 ай бұрын

Thank you for the very detailed and informative answer. 🙏🏻

@darkstorminc

11 ай бұрын

You should look at the conviction rate for these crimes at the DAs office rather than the number of charges dropped. No defense attorney wants a losing case. Same goes for the DAs office, that is why they also push plea deals for many of the cases. Also helps keep the courts free for the bigger cases where you want to nail the defendant to the wall.

@eformance

11 ай бұрын

Soo, back to that federal level. A guy in CA was arrested by locals for fleecing old people and stealing their money. They executed a search warrant and confiscated a bunch of weapons, many of them (allegedly) illegal. The feds convicted him on having a firearm without a serial number. Yep, you read that, they only charged him with a "ghost gun" violation when he was (allegedly) in possession of more serious weapons. Perhaps they didn't find his cache or perhaps they were lazy and didn't want to charge him with a crime that would require more work to convict on? He got 2 years on the Federal charges and 8 years on the financial crimes.

I used to know a security guard in a building full of law offices. If your DA is anything like the lawyers around here, they just don’t want to lock up their own dealers

@lethagramlich417

10 ай бұрын

That’s a good answer

@deniseowen3987

10 ай бұрын

That was my first thought. Follow ADAs to see if they do drug deals.

The DA'S are throwing back the smaller "fish" for bigger fish & then the FEDs are asserting judiciation over the cases that are built getting credit for the convictions

I talked to a cop sergeant about cat converter thefts. He said they'd catch people but they were back on the streets the next day.

Only prosecute the cases that are a slam dunk. Cases that are hazy or questionable as to the outcome are dismissed. Keeping the success rate high is easy if you can cherry pick the ones with confessions and video proof.

@dashingrapscallion8812

11 ай бұрын

And it helps your re-election chances (or future election aspirations) to say you had a 90% conviction rate.

@Anyone-but-him

11 ай бұрын

Exactly. Plea deals to reduced charges are where most cases go but often a decent attorney can get the whole thing dismissed. So this is why they cherry pick.

@shaywhiteley1645

11 ай бұрын

I agree with this. How ever the correction areas jail’s prisons are over crowded and under staffed. If the DA follow through, with every case, there would be even more overcrowding. If you look at the statistics in other countries, drug offenses, usually get put into work programs or community service to try and get people back to living a normal life and helping out in society.

@dashingrapscallion8812

11 ай бұрын

@@shaywhiteley1645 That makes sense for possession, but this was a case of distribution. Maybe that is a better method - get caught with drugs, do community service. Get caught selling drugs, only then are you looking at jail time.

@chrisflores4788

11 ай бұрын

Aside from wasting taxpayer's money on an case with a negative or dubious outcome, double jeopardy also comes into play. If the prosecution doesn't have a strong enough case, the defendant might be acquitted and may not be tried again for the same offense, even if 100% guilty.

Very suspicious that the ADA didn't like your question and attempted to bully you.

@JamesButlerWellAndSepticLife

11 ай бұрын

Thats what I thought, but like, why

@arh3733

11 ай бұрын

@@JamesButlerWellAndSepticLife Don't go rocking the boat in the middle of Shit Creek.

@CPB111

11 ай бұрын

They're not doing their job as they should, don't want you to know and if you do know they want you in on it or they want you to be intimidated into not making waves over it.@@JamesButlerWellAndSepticLife

@nickwarner8158

11 ай бұрын

Because they view themselves as above the public, not a part of it. @@JamesButlerWellAndSepticLife

@stevenwebb3007

11 ай бұрын

If he had a camera at the time, he would likely be dead. They hate those.

I can tell you exactly what is going on James, our justice system is so very broken it is so disappointing 😞

Another question for you to consider. Are pre trial dismissals considered when calculating conviction rates? I would bet that the reason that the feds rate is so high is that they are only bringing the best cases to trial

@harbingertheheretic3541

6 ай бұрын

Pre-trial dismissed charges are *not* considered in conviction rate calculations. Those who make plea deals have some charges dismissed, but they're technically convictions on the remaining (often called "lesser included") charges. That's why cops stack charges on arrests. It gives the DA leverage to get a plea deal conviction without doing much work. It also makes judges happy because it reduces the length of time that it takes to get through their docket.

The key performance indicators for officers are “how many bad guys did we catch” The key performance indicators of prosecutors are “what percentage of trials did we win?” The disconnect is that prosecutors do not prosecute unless they are totally certain they can win. Nobody has a performance metric of “how many people receive the full justice allotted them by the law”.

@jackr2287

11 ай бұрын

And we all work to many hours to pay enough attention to our neighbors and the local paper to figure if all is going well or bad.

@jacintarichardson2376

11 ай бұрын

Court cases are long and expensive. There just aren't enough courts, court rooms, judges and lawyers for everyone who is arrested to have a fair trial. If you've only got the resources to prosecute 100 cases per month, for example, and the police bring you 500 cases, do you pick the 100 you're most likely to win and dismiss the rest, or do you create an ever growing backlog?

@jackr2287

11 ай бұрын

@@jacintarichardson2376 I suppose for serious violent offenders that backlog builds. But trivial crimes they bluff for plea deals, and surrender if forced to it. I recall some cases from the past few years taht got pushed out a year past the event itself... it always struck me as strange, immoral, and against the promise of a quick and speedy trial. Lot of stress to put guys through, even if guilty.

@Digiidude

11 ай бұрын

​@@jackr2287 Standard for "speedy trial" is the time between arest and first procedings. Often a big gap between those initial steps and the part most of us think of as a trial.

@Klaaism

11 ай бұрын

DAs cherry pick big time to puff up their conviction rates, which is a key metric for later political and career success. Additionally there is also increasing push to reform the justice system, which is fine in theory; however, you then end up with a convicted violent, sexual felon (with an extensive criminal record stretching from the 90s) being set loose on ludicrously low bail to then smash their SUV at 40mph into a Christmas parade crowd, injuring and killing many including children. coughdarrellbrookscough. Let alone the general S-show California has become.

and like that, the master returns

@cruzinsweetsntreats

11 ай бұрын

Wondering where he tried to get cleaned up, from all the shit he gets to deal with. 🤔

@shadowstrikeify

11 ай бұрын

​@@cruzinsweetsntreats😊 0:22 0:22 gh

@cruzinsweetsntreats

11 ай бұрын

@@shadowstrikeify that doesn't answer my inquiry. Other than he had already stated he'd been running an inquiry.

Excellent video James. Thank you very much for asking the question so many of us want to know the answer to. Bravo sir

I have a buddy who is an ex cop. He told me once that, if someone was arrested for anything like theft, possession, or anything of the sort, they were told to stack as many charges as possible onto the arrest record. The reason they were told to do this is because the DA would always downgrade the charges and dismiss a good number of them regardless of what the offended did, so it was the only way to actually see someone go to jail for what they deserved. They'd have charges stacked up to a 15~20 year sentence, then they'd be downgraded or dismissed until the offended was serving a few months to a couple years, which was what their crimes actually called for. On the times when the department didn't do that, violent offenders and dealers who were given just the charges that deserved a long sentence ended up going free because their charges were dismissed, even though they had infallible proof that they were legitimate. Now I don't agree with stacking tons of extra charges just to hope they stick, and he's an ex cop for a reason, but this just shows how broken the whole court system is. Maybe it's just small town problems, but idk Also the 98% conviction rate is for cases that actually make it to court, not all cases. If you check the local DA's conviction rate, it'd be that % of the 20% that make it to court. Apparently it helps secure funding for their bonuses to keep conviction rates high while keeping court appearances low...what a great system

What I was told by the local police and town prosecutor is that, if they have 9 charges and can only concrete proof 3 of them, they only pursue those 3 charges. That’s the 90% drop there on the bond. Then, the prosecutors also want a more solid record, so little misdemeanors like minimum possession charges will get dropped because it isn’t a big headline. “Any prosecution can get misdemeanors 100%” so they let those go. They are mostly after the bigger crimes, preferably felonies, and will continuously release repeat offenders hoping they will commit worse crimes that then make the prosecutors looks better for “taking a dangerous person off the street” instead of just a guy that jaywalked. That’s why their success rate is so high but their tossed cases are ALSO so high. They let 8 people go for small infractions hoping that later they will become the remaining 2 people with large infractions or felonies so they can justify their salaries

Sometimes a DA will pad an arrest with "extra" charges to be used in the plea-bargaining process. "Throw-away" charges, if you will.

@vincentmagius

11 ай бұрын

I think they also can't change or add charges after it goes to trial. One arrest, one trial. Probably a part of double jeopardy and the disparity of power. You don't to want to fight a separate trial for each charge and come back to fight lesser versions of the charges.

@papasmurf9146

11 ай бұрын

This. One of my nephews deserved to have the book thrown at him. At one point I think they were up to 98 different charges against him. His lawyer waltzed into the court room, goes over and chats with his good friends at the DA table, cracks a few jokes with the judge, and gets 97 of the charges dismissed out of hand, has the last charge reduced, pleads guilty to it on the contingency that it will be reduced further, and everyone walks out smiling (except of course the victims). Before he changed lawyers, the nephew was looking at 10 years behind bars as an adult. Ended up doing 1 in juvenile detention, 2 or 3 probation, and his record expunged.

@AnObSm

11 ай бұрын

Sometime you piss off the "wrong" cop and get 22 tickets out of a traffic stop because you got "mouthy" with the officer. Then you hire a lawyer, or sometimes are able to 'negotiate' with the DA to get some of the charges reduced, etc.

@ReLockCo

11 ай бұрын

Of course they do, I mean, why wouldn't they....

@unknowngamer37415

11 ай бұрын

Sound like the judge took one look and realized that most of the chargers where bogus.

I’m not in criminal justice but I think it’s probably just a question of limited resources. Sure, they could hire enough attorneys to prosecute every case but they’d have to triple everyone’s taxes to do so. They might as well focus on serious crimes where they know they can get the conviction.

@TeeganLee

10 ай бұрын

It’s not just more attorneys to prosecute they’d need to hire, they would also need more public defenders and there’s probably a fairly limited number of people who go to law school with the dream of defending the same low level drug offenders over and over. I think in some places they require barred attorneys or law firms to do a certain amount of public defence work but I imagine those attorneys and law firms don’t love that and would push back hard against that being increased. Add to that the fact that incarceration more often than not actually increases the chances that someone will reoffend because they’ve either picked up new “skills” while inside or find themselves economically worse off with a record than before they went away, and I can see why the whole thing would look pointless and it would be easy to justify using the system to further your career rather than to solve the problems it’s supposed to address. The incentives just really aren’t at all aligned with helping people make better choices or improving societal outcomes.

@pawpawgator

8 ай бұрын

I am more inclined to think that there is a huge degree of corruption involved ... jusay'n ... if it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, odds are it is a duck ...

@TeeganLee

8 ай бұрын

There’s no reason why there can’t be both a lack of resources/will to improve things, and corruption. Those things are in no way mutually exclusive.

that question makes the judge think "this guy is planning to start distributing and is doing a risk vs reward analysis and trying to find out if he will be arrested for distribution."

Its actually more obvious than you think. The reason they have such a high conviction rate, regardless of federal/state/etc is because they all throw out any cases or charges they don’t think are a slam dunk. The only ones they DO gamble on are ones with high visibility and/or are really egregious crimes that will likely end up in the news at some point. Its all about making themselves look good and thats WHY they intentionally don’t track the stuff they throw out.

@extendoduck

11 ай бұрын

This. I was looking for this comment.

@jenniferdickinson-hanley4874

11 ай бұрын

This makes sense.

@SevenStarTactical

11 ай бұрын

Came here to say this. The conviction rate for your local DA office is probably very high for the same reason the USDA is high - they throw out all cases where they don't feel they are guaranteed a win unless there is supreme political pressure to bring something to trial.

@GrimmundusRex

11 ай бұрын

_So close,_ but fumbled it on the last step. It's not about making themselves look good... it's about efficient use of resources, burden of proof, and innocent until proven guilty. The vast majority of prosecutors aren't glory hounds, they're people who legitimately want to improve the world by bashing bad guys. Problem is, there's only so many prosecutors, so many judges, so many courthouses, and a backlog a _mile_ wide. So any fat that _can_ be cut, _does_ get cut. Dropping any 'fuzzy' cases is half the battle. Most criminal charges result in a plea deal that never sees the inside of a courtroom except to be signed off on by a judge. And that's fine. If the prosecution has enough evidence to say to the person "We've got you dead to rights on x y and z. Look at what we got. We'll give you a break if you make this easy for us" is actually justice system working as intended. The only time a case actually goes to court is when prosecutor says "We've got you on x y z", defense counsel says "nuh-uh" and defendant says "A'ite bet." Which is generally speaking the worst case scenario for a DA because suddenly now there's a lot of work involved nailing this guy.

@frotoe9289

11 ай бұрын

And many lawyers and citizens find the process disgusting. The players in the justice system are not supposed to be keeping score cards. If a prosecutor has a 98% conviction rate, he's just playing for the stats. And when these bozos start parading their numbers around, it stops being about justice and starts being more about "I have the highest conviction rate in the county--I deserve a raise" (or maybe they'll run for elected office with their stupid stats). And it also tempts stats-centric prosecutors to perhaps put their thumb on the scales of justice. You know, maybe just don't turn over all the exculpatory evidence. Maybe don't bother following up on leads that suggest the defendant is not guilty...'cause if you are 49-1 and batting 98%, a single loss added to that will drop you to 96%. Oh the humanity!

I worked at the US DOJ in A US. Attorney's office for about 8 years. The US attorney's office heavily curates what they charge. They just get a lot to choose from and make sure that they charge homeruns.

Love ya!! You always ask the right questions to make the uppers jump and dodge. Love it. Thank You❤

Nice. As always sir blunt and too the point.

Your question to the ADA hit the nail on the head, they're graded on 'win' rate and so they'll only take cases to trial that they're pretty damn sure they can get a conviction on, any little flaw in the case and it gets pled or tossed. The US attorneys office basically gets to pick and choose their cases and so they likewise only grab cases that are sure bets. Stop considering conviction rates for prosecutors and you might see a lot of different outcomes in the criminal justice system.

When I did jury service in the UK I realised that these cases didn't need a jury they needed judge dredd to deal with it at source 🙄

@TanyaLairdCivil

11 ай бұрын

I agree, summary execution for all crimes, including for denying people due process.

@JV-pu8kx

11 ай бұрын

​@@TanyaLairdCivil Just make sure they _really_ are guilty.

He probably is your best employee. God Bless him.

Hi James I don't even live in the US but if its anything like here, the Police/DA office are known to throw as many charges as possible at a crim to help convince them to take a deal instead of potentially go to trial vs 18 charges (where as e.g. maybe 2 or 3 charges are prob actually warranted). Its a bargaining technique plain n simple.

@matthewsteiner7955

4 ай бұрын

THIS !!! EXACTLY !!!! It's all pressure to take the deal. Which counts as a conviction.

The feeling I get is they drop the charges they don't feel confident of in order to maintain that high conviction rate.

When i got arrested on 7 charges it was very clear i was going to have the 2 big ones on my record when i went to court. They used the little ones to plea-bargain. At least that's what I've seen.

When they dismiss a case, it does not get recorded as a loss and cases that are plea deals are considered wins. There needs to be more specific odds instead of wins and losses. Remember they are gaged on their wins.

Thank you for inspiring me to be a septic feild technician

I live near Baltimore, MD. They just failed to re-elect a city state's DA who flat out said she would not prosecute crimes like dealing. But even so, the police feel handicapped and unsupported. Criminals with records a food long are out on the streets. Teens with ankle monitors participate in mass shootings. It seems to be a pervasive attitude that the police are evil, the victims voiceless, and the perpetrators just victims of circumstance.... I don't have a solution. I wish I did. But I just don't go to the city any more. Ever.

@krislarsen6546

11 ай бұрын

Dealing marijuana I hope.....

@beardowns

11 ай бұрын

I live near Baltimore md too

So, I've been a civilian and federal police officer in several states for 33 years, 25ish were spent as a k9 handler/narcotics officer. This is the way it goes in the Federal system I have worked in for the last 10 years. Since I work for a federal LE agency, any arrest we have has to go through the Assistant US Attorney first. They then decide if it's something they want to take on. The whole addage "If it bleeds, it leads" in media, also applies to the federal system in a way. From experience, if it's not something that's going to generate positive media(or anything that doesn't further a popular opinion), the AUSA will mostly turn it down. So any "petty" offense, or non-major felony, ultimately, gets kicked to state court. So it's not uncommon for our charge sheet to include multiple federal charges(because we have to include every possible charge that could in the slightest way apply), but also multiple state charges for the same reason. We have to do this because defense attorneys don't like non-conspiracy level charges, that come from administrative investigation, that often take months(bank/phone records)being added after arrest. Many of these charges ultimately get dropped, but since we use the local county jail, everything needs to be added because of initial arraignment. The AUSA in my experience, won't take a case that they won't win with as little effort/expenditure of assets as possible. That's why you see the high conviction rate. Everything else the state has to put their money and investigative time into. The opposite also applies. If there's a state crime that attracts lots of media, that the AUSA can take on(steal), usually after the state has spent lots of money on it, and it makes them look all omnipotent, they certainly will do so. So charges getting dropped isn't at all uncommon and doesn't prove incompetence. It's because we, as police officers, have to be somewhat clairvoyant in what the DA/AUSA is going to do. For instance, if I bust someone with a pound of weed, I can charge them with possession w/intent, but also have to include every lesser charge down to what I would charge them with if I busted them with a joint. Once the DA/AUSA reads it, there will ultimately be only 1 charge. So counting the 5 or 6 other charges would skew the stats. We're not "padding" the charges, we just don't know(and really don't care) what the narrative of the day is going to be. Clear as mud? Be safe out there brother.

@marnaehrech1223

10 ай бұрын

Good explanation

@mattd6931

10 ай бұрын

In my jurisdiction we couldnt' pad the charges. We would have to choose just the highest one we could prove beyond reasonable doubt. But that didn't prevent the prosecutor or the court from downgrading the charge to a lesser offence (ie. GBH to assault) despite the arresting officers doing nothing wrong. It was all based on what was likely to be proven beyond reasonable doubt without a lengthy court battle, and the best use of taxpayer money and limited prosecution resources.

@joebeach7759

7 ай бұрын

@user-sp1fn2le5e happy to help. Be safe and have a great Christmas and new year

@universalmother

29 күн бұрын

Those who stand idle while doing nothing to right the wrongs are the greatest evil of all.

Great story teller

real straight forward, DAs are heavily loaded with cases, courts are fairly clogged, like a triage, less serious issues/charges are often dropped/ignored in interest of keeping process moving. Its not great but the solution is more capacity

Yes, like you said, the Fed only takes cases they will win. Most states bet that you will take a plea deal instead of going to trial. From what I have gathered, if you take it to trial and it's a 50/50 shot, meaning you want a jury. The state DA will most likely throw the case out. Unless it's blatantly obvious and they have more than enough evidence (even then they can choose to throw it out) that you committed said crime. It's so they can say on the campaign trail that they have a high conviction rate, and aren't just blowing tax dollars. It's totally fucked how the system works now. It all goes back the the War on drugs. More crime....... more "budget" then again I'm a 27 year old who could be completely wrong but it's what I have surmised. Have a Marvelous Monday 🇺🇲

@JamesButlerWellAndSepticLife

11 ай бұрын

That's a great explanation.

@rfichokeofdestiny

11 ай бұрын

The war on drugs really is a complete scam. In addition to not actually having any impact on drug abuse rates, it created black markets and gang violence that wasn’t there before. The cartels didn’t exist until the 1970s. A lot of the illegal immigration is due to people fleeing terrible conditions in their own countries directly linked to American policies (including CIA destabilization, which is a separate issue). And even the DEA is full of collaborators and moles. And all of this came as a result of politicians and bureaucrats needing something to scare people with so they can justify their phoney baloney jobs.

@Talon18136

11 ай бұрын

Being used on the campaign trial is a good reason to pad their resumes but it can be used for other things depending on who you ask

From a small towner,.they dont do everything right. They are lying to you. Even if they may catch some guys dead to rights, but when the camera has them joking about inappropriate material or have them planting something, or the camera goes dark for 30 minutes with no explanation, it gets thrown out .

@davidbeppler3032

11 ай бұрын

Not true. Punch a cop with the camera off. It will not get thrown out. Even if the officer has no recall of the incident and all they have is a second hand retelling of the event from a drunk blind man in the ally.

@vincedibona4687

11 ай бұрын

David, that’s the one-sided part of this. If it was the other way around, who knows…?

@robertmooberry725

11 ай бұрын

@@davidbeppler3032 Sound like personal experience.

@slamdancer1720

11 ай бұрын

They do it right,far more than not. Lets be real.

@robertmooberry725

11 ай бұрын

@@slamdancer1720 It probably depends upon the department. Some departments are likely very tightly run and professional boundaries are very tightly enforced. Others, not so much. I remember a video of a group of cops arresting a woman who was angry that they were running her plate without probable cause. They were VERY unprofessional. The woman was in the wrong, but she didn't deserve the treatment that she received and that came out in the end. The bad stuff is going to surface more than the good stuff because it gets view on KZread and in other social media. So the only thing that we can gather from that incident is that department has a problem. If your department has 6 bad apples all caught together on video then there is a problem.

This is a big reason why I’m no longer a cop. Same folks over and over, no real justice

It may have already been said but, "Just because you did it, does not mean you're guilty". The reason the conviction rate is so high is, they do not bring cases they think they will not win. Same with the ADAs office. If there is a better than 20% chance they will not win, case is dropped. Plus, lawyers do the lawyer things. Its a wonderful system where you have a better chance of being convicted if you are innocent than if you are guilty.

All I can say is when I was a paralegal years ago in CA the stat was 95% of cases were pled out. LEOs arrest for everything little thing they can find and the DA dropped most of the charges to get a plea on whatever they could.

I live in the UK we have similar things happening. Basically they only prosecute if they are sure they can get a vonviction. It a systematic issue that I think comes from their obsession with a high conviction rate as the be all and end all of sucess, not you know the amounts of people locked up and the amounto of crimes solved.

Love this video

WHOEE there buddy. Hold your horses, you were almost an auditor there for a moment. Welcome to the club. Now you know what corruption looks like.

Hope everything was good for you and I’m happy to see you return for more stories.

From Canada here; I was told in certain cases, a witness is assigned a number to protect their identity. Gang cases, mostly. High on the defense's priorities is to learn the identity of the witness, to intimidate them, whack them, etc. Cases can be suddenly dropped by the prosecution if the defense gets too close to learning the identity of the witness. Not sure this is applicable to your question, but it's one reason I ran across. I almost believe a high conviction rate would be bad for someone's business, like the homeless industrial complex. Your simple question aroused an interesting level of attention.

Kool stuff bro

Just gonna say love the videos, watching up in Canada. To speak on this issue we have the same thing happening to our major cities, one of the main examples i can think of is Vancouver island. I follow a group that reports on activities throughout Nanaimo, and I came across and post describing how a woman got her haouse broken into, had the guy arrested, and then saw the same guy walking about with no repercussions the same day he was arrested. I had my place broken into whwn I lived down there, the police didnt care one bit and told me i needed to email them the photos of the guy breaking in.... i spent 4 hours afterwards looking for my stuff, finally found some of it, when the cops arrived cause apparently they needed to be there for me getting my stuff back, the one cop looked at me and said "oh your really lucky, nobody usually gets anything back." I had to hold back so many words in that moment. Also when the cops showed up to my broken in house they toldme there was nothing they could do... I genuinely looked at the cop and said "then what are you even here for, why did I call you? When the system prioritizes annual drug sales rather than arrests, there is a serious problem!!!

I can honestly say i thought having a lawyer would get charges dropped and or dismissed

From what I've been told by 2 cops I grew up with and a DA that I dated, most see no need to rack up multiple charges that are going to be grouped into a single charge. I.e. 10 charges of Intent to sell might be changed to a single charge. Or they drop some of the minor charges that are hard to prove. Another reason could be that they are using him as CS and need him back out on the streets.

There's no disparity there. It's working just as they intend it to.

Our local cop quit the force recently. HE says there were several reasons, like witnessing cases of child abuse, but also a major reason is that he would build a case against drug dealers, he'd submit the evidence to the city attorneys, and the city would not do anything.

Yes they dismiss the easy casses that can be pleaded down so that when they DO take a case to court, they're pretty much guaranteed a conviction, it makes their 99% rate look better. If they did what we are told they do , they have a 40% conviction rate.

@deepsleep7822

11 ай бұрын

@bfree: agreed. It’s a numbers game.

7:50 I actually watched a video about this earlier. The same topic came up in a discussion about whether the Trump indictment involving the documents would stick. Basically, the US attorneys can take whatever cases they want, so they take the ones that appear to be sure wins. They like to take high profile or cut and dry cases. The local attorney doesn't get a choice in the case. The arguably have to take much messier and more petty cases, resulting in more losses.

@m2hmghb

11 ай бұрын

The local district attorney's get to choose who they charge and proceed with charges on. You're thinking about the public defenders officer - they get no choice on cases.

@noiosobear6284

11 ай бұрын

@@m2hmghb Oh, got ya. I thought that they only had control of what charges were pressed and not the actual choice of them being pressed in the first place. I don't know how they fail at the job so much then...

@m2hmghb

11 ай бұрын

I will say they are over worked. I've watched court from time to time (I blame the Rittenhouse trial where I learned how screwed up the courts can be) and I've seen prosecutors and public defenders with stacks of cases that are multiple feet high - and that's just the cases for that day. In Oregon it is so bad that a federal judge has ruled that if a defendant hasn't seen an attorney in 10 days they are to be released until an attorney is ready. @@noiosobear6284

Nailed it in the last 5 seconds

This makes it FAR safer than I thought. Maybe it's time I get outta debt. 🤔🤷‍♂️😂

Love the videos James. Definitely a intelligent man.

Epic video. I would like to know whats going on also. I have had 2 people close to me die from drugs this year. One of the dealers that sold it to him went to jail but got out in less than 3 days. I think they need to do some time because I bet many of them have bodycounts higer than prolific serial killers.

Maybe just maybe we need to FOLLOW the MONEY!

The truth is that it's job security for the courts. Courts are notorious for dragging out cases. All that time spent. Judge, Lawyers, and bailiffs have to be paid.

The Feds probably release or dismiss about the same number of cases as your locale court. The stats you mentioned talked about the Feds CONVICTION rate. Of the cases they DO pursue, they win 99+% of the time. Find out what percentage the Feds dismiss to get a more accurate comparison. Love your videos. Thanks for sharing.

Any statistic kept by a Federal Agency is bogus. The ADA (insert any Government agency) has reviewed their job performance and Have concluded they are doing a phenomenal job...

In the us most chargeser are plea or dismissed. ( for a lot if offenders if you don't plead guilty you can spend longer than possible conviction awaiting trial.)

Biggest issue I see with the entire legal system is how if you are in custody, you have a timeline that is different than if you were out in the streets. Like you're in custody, they have 3 days to arraign you. If you're not in custody, the state has something like 90 days to get you arraigned. This temporal disparity causes some cases to fall by the wayside, and ends up pushing other cases to the forefront of the ADA's mind. Also, how is it that if the entire prosecutorial staff (ADA, their paralegal, and the Arresting officer) doesnt show up for a hearing, the Judge dismisses the case, only to have the ADA refile the charges 1 week, month, or even a year later in some cases? I was in an accident. State Trooper told me at the accident scene, neither I nor the other driver were getting ticketed. Almost a year later, I got a summons to appear for 3 tickets from that accident. The Statey waited almost a week before writing the tickets, and then chose the furthest court date for me to appear. All tickets were dismissed after I pointed out what the Trooper had done.

@arthurr8670

10 ай бұрын

I'm not sure the ada forgets about long term cases. They will target specific cases though, ones that might not make sense.

@davidjacobs5266

10 ай бұрын

This is great you found the trick of the numbers. NICE JOB this is why there is so much crime these days….

@PepperLewisAndCo

10 ай бұрын

@arthurr8670 yeah, they target those that they deem winnable...

@arthurr8670

10 ай бұрын

@@PepperLewisAndCo Not necessarily winnable, but I'm sure sometimes it's that. I suspect either times it just personnel feelings

We now live in a world where a crime is forgiven without trial but you will be prosecuted for following the law!

@themanhimself3

11 ай бұрын

wtf are you talking about? The DA doesn't forgive a damn thing unless their isn't enough proof.

If they convicted every single distributer in the area, they would soon realize that there isnt much more they are needed for. And eventually they would start losing money and then officers. They cant let that happen. Therefore they let non violent offenders back out to do harm to others so their jobs are still necessary.

@JamesButlerWellAndSepticLife

11 ай бұрын

Its like regulated crime.

@MsAubrey

11 ай бұрын

@@JamesButlerWellAndSepticLife Not far off… I mean some departments are compared to the mob. 🤔

@MonkeyJedi99

11 ай бұрын

You don't want to overfish your favorite pond!

There is not a disparity. They both keep high wins a priority. Not arrest to conviction rate.

They only take cases they think are open and shut, for one thing. The system also requires a lot of defendants to plead guilty; otherwise the court system would be totally overwhelmed. Those are elements.

Ask Emily D Baker. (She has mentioned you before and believe you know who she is). She used to be a prosecutor and can probably give you better insight.

@JamesButlerWellAndSepticLife

11 ай бұрын

I have no idea who she is. But I would love to see the video that she mentioned me in. Can you s4end me a link.

Unfortunately it’s worse than you think. Criminals have more rights than their innocent victims.

It’s one of those, be careful what you ask for.

If we didn't keep dealers out on the streets then how else would those poor bankers get to launder their money

to answer your question, my guess is lack of manpower to go around, lack of other recourses, evidence against the defendant, or maybe a mix of 2 or 3 of them. I'm not a lawyer (yet), so don't take my guess with anything more than a grain of salt

Seems like they are just making sure they can payoff their student loans and not stress themselves at work!

bring this to your local voters

It's a great $$ maker. If they release the person then arrest them again there are more fines to pay.

Politics.

@JamesButlerWellAndSepticLife

11 ай бұрын

Is it really politics though, Like how does that work.

@Admiral_Grufus

11 ай бұрын

unless the DA doesn't like prosecuting those small crimes (looking at you NYC), I don't really see that happening. I could be wrong though

Can we get a part 2?

@JamesButlerWellAndSepticLife

11 ай бұрын

I seriously don't know the answer here, no way for me to do a part 2

@gregsullivan8956

11 ай бұрын

@@JamesButlerWellAndSepticLife lol I enjoy story time. Keep creating good content I'll watch

When justice leaks ... What a great t-shirt... Jus' sayin''...

James just can't stop moving😂 Seriously would vote for this guy instantly if he was a politician but he is way too good for that line of work.

You hit the nail on the head... District attorneys are generally id10ts

@thewhiteriver777

9 ай бұрын

Think you meant to say ID-10Ts, got to fancy it up to really make sure those ID-10Ts don't understand

Court time is expensive, you don't waste it on low level stuff There's nothing to gain from treating some unlucky bumpkin to this kind of scrutiny Chances are it'll just backfire and harden their criminality Also, by only procecuting cases you know will get a conviction, you get a nice 99,6% conviction rate, which looks good to your boss

@lynnebucher6537

11 ай бұрын

Which is probably why a local guy continues to be out free to run his theft ring. He specializes in stealing tools and trailers from hardworking guys who do landscaping and tractor work. Runs the trailer of stuff out of state to sell, robs someone up there, comes back here to sell that. I look forward to seeing the news story where someone has shot him dead.

James it's not just drugs . Our ADA drops charges on other charges too. 😮😮

It goes way deeper than that my friend i know of a county in NC that the head jailer know how many people coming in jail before court on Monday. The da and a few judges have a meeting t and f for next week court who's getting what.

Too many "prosecutors" think the criminals are the real victims and need to be protected.

spaghetti against the wall, see what sticks

David Lester straight does seminars on what goes on behind the scenes in the courtroom.

That's how they have a good record they only prosecute a small percentage so they can put more time into those to ensure a conviction.

I don't have a full answer but from your statement and my experience in the last 46 years of surviving this world, they keep their conviction rate up by dropping the charges on anything they don't think they can convicted. Seems like a really twisted system to me I believe in honor and integrity and I wish people would actually hold the criminals accountable and prosecute them. I was once assaulted by someone with a tire iron, I showed up in court, it was their eighth assault charge and I was the only person who would ever shown up against them in court

"I feel more surrounded than a rare Pokemon"I'm dead bro😅

First question you should have asked the DA is who is their biggest donor. That will usually answer every question you have!

I'm a bail bondsman. Also:"Woah, trigonometry is cool" I need more school. Explains so so much.

As a non-cop/non-lawyer/non-criminal, my best theory is that the DA gets the best plea bargains with a very high conviction rate. A lot of criminals in prison plead guilty as part of a plea bargain, and a guilty plea is way cheaper than a guilty verdict. If the da takes any cases that aren't a sure thing, they drop their conviction rate and therefore drop the guilty plea rate with it because 80% conviction rate is less intimidating than 96%

Murder takes one life. Dealing takes hundreds.

"I know people who go to jail for murder and their bail isn't that high" - lol

They have to dismiss most cases because the conviction rate is so high the prisons can’t handle that many convictions.