Mike CernovichVerified account

1/ I’m a public defender in rural-ish Missouri, and some of the stuff I see is baffling. I am convinced that some prosecutors let their non-attorney support staff make charging decisions and file charges. Recently had a guy charged with violating an order of protection....

2/ An officer had submitted a probable cause statement, which claimed my client violated an order of protection by doing X, which the order forbade. The prosecutor relied on the PC statement to file charges alleging the same, and asked that an arrest warrant be issued...

3/ Luckily, I caught the charges just as they were being filed. I spent a grand total of about 2 minutes pulling the original order, which — SURPRISE — did NOT prohibit my client from doing X.

4/ I immediately pointed this out to the prosecutor, and to his credit, he dismissed the charges before the warrant was served. ...but I can’t help but wonder why it ever got filed in the first place. The allegations couldn’t even withstand the SLIGHTEST scrutiny.

5/ One would think that someone who swore to uphold the constitution and seek JUSTICE could at least be bothered to spend 2 minutes to investigate a case before filing charges, ESPECIALLY if they’re asking to take away the Defendant’s liberty by seeking a warrant!

6/ A lot of stupid charging decisions can be chalked up to bad police work / lazy prosecutors. Fortunately, in my example, the charges weren’t all that serious, and disaster was quickly averted. The story you posted is an situation that could ruin that guy’s life.

Who is your county attorney / head prosecutor?

No jury would convict him anyway.