Amy Detisch got a "Not Guilty" verdict from a jury in Judge Kissinger's room late Thursday afternoon.
According to Amy, this was actually a somewhat interesting/unusual case. Her client, Cydnei Hawkins, was charged with patient endangering (C18 CRB 26881). The state had to prove that Ms. Hawkins was a developmental disabilities caretaker who recklessly caused a substantial risk to the health and safety of a person with a developmental disability.
It was an unusual trial because, other than for a few details, there really wasn't much dispute about what happened. It was almost like a very drawn out no contest plea.
Ms. Hawkins worked for a day program for people with developmental disabilities. They would sometimes go on outings. One day, when they were short staffed, Ms. Hawkins accidentally left an autistic woman in the park after a hike. She realized what happened a few minutes after she left and went back to look for her patient.
However, a bystander had already found the patient in question and taken her inside the gift shop to wait for police. When Ms. Hawkins went back to the park and searched the parking lot, she didn't see her. Ms. Hawkins continued to look for the woman for 40 minutes to an hour (although the state initially argued 1 hour 30 minutes) before being informed by her supervisor that the patient had been found and was with police. Ms. Hawkins didn't call a supervisor or the police, although she did inform another co-worker.
The state put on 6 witnesses and played a two hour interview Ms. Hawkins had given to the investigator and the park ranger in the case. At trial, she didn't testify. Amy chose not to put on any witnesses. Her argument was basically that Ms. Hawkins made a mistake, but it didn't rise to the level of a crime. She talked a lot about recklessness v. negligence during voir dire. At the end of the trial, the jury returned a not guilty verdict after about 2 hours of deliberation. They didn't think that Ms. Hawkin's conduct rose to the level of recklessness. Ms. Hawkins had been suspended from her job at the Talbert House and from her classes at nursing school while this case was pending. Thankfully, she can now move forward with a clean record and go back to school.
Josh Thompson sat second chair with Amy. My understanding is that he did a great job crossing one of the witnesses and also had some useful suggestions for jury instructions.
Congratulations to both of them for a job well done!
Raymond T. Faller
Hamilton County Public Defender
Craig represented Sur Dukes on a domestic violence charge (19 CRB 495) this week. On Wednesday afternoon the jury returned a "Not Guilty" verdict on it and a lesser included disorderly conduct charge.
Mr. Dukes called 911 to report that Kaezia Stone was banging on his door and refusing to leave his porch. Things heated up when she called 911 and accused him of pulling a gun on her and throwing her down the stairs. She never mentioned the gun again on the scene or in her written statement.
At trial, Stone embellished her story by claiming that Mr. Dukes picked her up by her shirt and threw her off the porch. She claimed she landed on the grass and mud and rolled to the street where her car finally stopped her. Despite these allegations, she only had a minor scratch on her knee and a small smear of mud on her pants in the same spot. She had no other injuries, marks on her shirt or mud on her clothes. She testified she never knocked on Mr. Dukes' door, despite the 911 call and her telling the police she did on the body cam. The officer testified he didn't believe her about the gun. He believed she only mentioned it in the 911 call to get the police there faster.
The trial judge refused Craig's initial request to use the new law on self defense. Craig concluded that Ms. Stone told such an unbelievable story on the stand, that he didn't need a self defense instruction. He relied on the physical evidence not matching Stone's story and the lies he caught her in on the stand. Essentially, Craig argued there's no way you can believe her.
The jury agreed with Craig and deliberated for less than an hour before returning "Not Guilty" verdicts on both charges.
I believe this is Craig's third jury trial win since he's been with the office.
Raymond T. Faller
Hamilton County Public Defender
Jessica Moss is one of our hard-working Guardian ad Litem (GAL) attorneys. She represented two minors (A.J.O. and M.N.O.) who were taken into custody by the Hamilton County Department of Jobs and Family Services. JFS alleged that the children had been subjected to domestic violence between their mother and her boyfriend. There was also concern about mother's failure to address their developmental delays. The minors were less than 11 years old. Their fathers were deemed to have abandoned them and never participated in their case.
Mother appealed (In Re: A.J.O. and M.N.O., Appeal No. C-180680, First District Court of Appeals) the trial court's decision granting permanent custody to JFS, claiming that she was making progress on her case plans and receiving services and that the children could be safely reunited with her within a reasonable time.
Jessica's position was that the best interest of these children was to have custody given to JFS and mother's rights terminated. She pointed out that there is a two-pronged test which must be satisfied before permanent custody can be given.
The first prong was satisfied in that the children had been in the custody of a children's services agency for at least 12 months of a consecutive 22-month period. This is referred to the "12 of 22" provision. These children were removed from their home on May 16, 2016. Time is counted 60 days later, which was July 15, 2016. The permanent custody motion was filed July 31, 2017.
The second prong requires the court to find that it's in the best interest of the child to grant permanent custody to the agency. The court has to consider all relevant factors, including a number set out in R.C. 2151.414(D)(1). After hearing the testimony about mother's repeated abusive relationship with her boyfriend and her inability to manager her children's developmental delays and behavior issues, the court found ample evidence to support Jessica's position.
Jessica developed the necessary testimony at the trial level to prevail. When mother appealed, Jessica successfully defended her position before the First District. The Court released its opinion on March 22, 2019.
Jessica treated her clients with dignity, fought for justice for them in two entirely different court systems and, in so doing, gave them hope for a better life! That's an "Outstanding Result."
Raymond T. Faller
Hamilton County Public Defender
John Kennedy is an outstanding lawyer in our Felony Division. On Monday, he won the title of "King of the Jungle" for getting a complete acquittal of all charges on behalf of his client by way of a jury. John will keep the title for however long it takes another attorney to win it away. In addition to the title, a statue of a lion moves to the desk of the title holder. Who knows? Maybe the title will move today!
John defended Timothy Cottingham (B1802886) on charges of aggravated robbery (with gun specs), robbery and weapon under disability. The trial started last week. Testimony lasted a couple days. The jury was out for around three hours, two of which were spent waiting for a computer to play three of the exhibits, before reaching it's verdict Monday.
The basic allegations were that Mr. Cottingham got into the back of a Lyft driver's car and robbed him of his wallet. The case came down to the reliability/credibility of the Lyft driver --- who also happened to be a licensed attorney. The jury did not find his identification of Mr. Cottingham and his description of the incident credible.
Several legal issues arose during the trial. With the help of our Appellate Division, John was thoroughly prepared for them, dug in and stood his ground. Nothing unusual at all about that when John tries a case. John is at the top of the list when we talk about preparation for trial.
Raymond T. Faller
Hamilton County Public Defender
CB was bound over from Juvenile Court on four counts of theft, each a fourth degree felony, three counts of receiving stolen property, each a fourth degree felony and one count of failure to comply with an officer's signal, a third degree felony. The charges arose from a string of car thefts from different YMCAs while he was 16/17 years old.
This case involved what is known as a discretionary bindover. CB waived his amenability hearing --- which could have kept the case in Juvenile Court. Once he was indicted, the case was assigned to Judge Metz.
The State was asking for a minimum of 5 years in prison because of CB's juvenile history and the number of thefts. CB did not want to take the 5 year sentence the State proposed so he entered a plea with no agreed upon sentence to recommend to Judge Metz..
Ryan asked for a Pre-Sentence Investigation and a River City Evaluation. She spoke with Rodney Harris, the Director of the Felony Division and Ali Hatheway and Angela Chang from our Juvenile Division about using the new juvenile mitigation specialist to help with sentencing. Unfortunately, this kind of case did not fit the role of the Juvenile Grant that we recently received. Angela referred Ryan to Dr. Nancy Schmidtgoessling. Ryan had her appointed as an expert to provide a supplementary psychological evaluation of CB.
Ryan knew there had been some mental health history as CB had been hospitalized for suicide attempts previously. On the day he was arrested on the current charges, the body camera showed him in tears asking the officers to just shoot him because he couldn't take living anymore.
Dr. Schmidtgoessling's evaluation revealed a lot of trauma in his life (dad killed when he was 3, grandma had custody because mom was in an abusive relationship and couldn't manage CB, best friend killed at 14/15, other close family friends killed and/or incarcerated). CB also has a severe ADHD diagnosis, with high levels of impulsivity and inability to appreciate consequences or long term effects of decision making, and depression. She noted that having a positive male role model would be extremely helpful to CB. Through the help of some community supporters and Cheryl Horne, our office Mitigation Specialist, Ryan was able to get CB enrolled in the Woodward Career and Technical School's Credit Recovery Program so that he can graduate with his high school diploma and get him a mentor through the MEN Involved Program.
Ryan submitted Dr. Schmidtgoessling's supplemental report to the court and had all of the community supporters present in court for sentencing. They actually filled up the first two rows in the gallery. The prosecutor, judge, and Ryan had a 20 minute in-chambers conversation about sentencing. Ryan consistently argued that CB needed structure, access to his medication and community support, She argued that prison would be counterproductive because it would only continue to expose him to the same kinds of behaviors that have negatively influenced him up until this point. After an hour long sentencing hearing on the record, Judge Metz decided that prison was not appropriate and sentenced CB to probation with River City as a requirement!
CB, his family, and Ryan were extremely happy with this result. Mr. Pullins of MEN Involved and Andrea Spenny at Woodward will work with CB while he is at River City. He will come out of the program with his diploma and he'll have community resources in place so he can become a productive member of society.
Dr. Schmidtgoessling's report humanized CB. Having a cohesive plan of action to present to Judge Metz, with all of the key players present in court really persuaded him not to send CB to prison.
Ryan is grateful to Rodney Harris for trusting her vision with this case and allowing her the resources --- hiring Dr. Schmidtgoessling as an expert --- to help her successfully defend CB.
We're grateful to Ryan for treating CB with such dignity, fighting for justice for him and, thereby, giving him hope for the future. Very well done, Ryan!
Raymond T. Faller
Hamilton County Public Defender
