justice
...hearing. The second defendant waved his preliminary hearing and the Judge set a pre-trial date. The next few defendants were nowhere to be found. This is where the prosecutor finally comes in, because after the Judge read their names and they were not there the Judge would ask the prosecutor the defendants’ prior records. Then the Judge would issue a warrant for failure to appear in Court. The Judge based the bail on the warrant according to the defendant’s prior record. The sixth defendant asked to be appointed an attorney and the Judge sent him to the Court clerk and to the paralegal from the public defender’s office. After that the next twenty or so defendants were a mixture of no shows and ones requesting appointment of legal counsel. Two of the other defendants stuck out above the rest due to the break of the cycle which their cases created. The first was an eighteen year old man who was arrested for possession of cannabis and drug paraphernalia. This particular defendant wished to represent himself which the Judge thought was a bad idea she then preceded to tell him what he could potentially face sentence wise if convicted. The defendant then decided to have an attorney appointed to him. The other defendant that stuck out over the rest was arrested on two counts of theft one felony and one misdemeanor. This particular defendant already had a lawyer with whom he left with for a few minutes with one of the prosecuting attorneys. After they returned he had wanted to enter a plea of guilty to the misdemeanor count of theft. The prosecuting attorney read the police report to the judge and also said that the State wanted to drop the felony charge of theft in return ...