Judgment Calls Read Online Free PDF Page B

passage in America’s suburbs. That said, I still couldn’t help myself when I heard one of them speculate what the girl could do on his stick.
    Introducing myself as a deputy district attorney for Multnomah County, I flashed my badge to make sure they appreciated the enormity of my clout. “You all better get back to school or I’m going to have to page a police officer from the truancy unit to have you picked up.” The kids hightailed it up the escalator faster than you can say there’s-no-such-thing-as-a-truancy-officer-anymore.
    Feeling good about my lunch and my good deed, I headed back to the courthouse to draft the complaint about Derringer.
    A criminal complaint is the initial document used to charge a defendant with a felony in Oregon. It’s simply a piece of paper, signed by the prosecuting district attorney,
    notifying the defendant of the charges that have been filed. Once the defendant is arraigned on the complaint, the State has a week to present evidence to a grand jury and return an indictment. Without an indictment, the complaint will be dismissed and the defendant will be released from the court’s jurisdiction.
    I drafted a complaint charging Derringer with Attempted Aggravated Murder, Kidnapping in the First Degree, and Unlawful Sexual Penetration in the First Degree. I also included charges of Rape in the First Degree and Sodomy in the First Degree, since Derringer could be held responsible as an accomplice for the sex acts of the other suspect, even if the second suspect was never caught. Finally, just so O’Donnell wouldn’t think I had completely disregarded his opinion, I added the Class C felony of Assault in the Third Degree.
    I walked the complaint over to the Justice Center so I could get a look at Derringer and argue bail myself. The Justice Center is a newer building two blocks down from the county courthouse. It houses PPB’s central precinct, a booking facility, holding cells for prisoners with upcoming court appearances, and four non-trial courtrooms, used for routine preliminary matters like arraignments, pleas, and release hearings.
    I took the stairs to JC-2, the courtroom where Derringer’s case would be called on the two o’clock arraignment docket, and handed the court clerk a copy of the complaint, a motion for continued detention of the defendant, and a supporting affidavit summarizing the facts. The JC-2 DA looked relieved when I told her I’d handle the Derringer matter myself. She was a new lawyer I’d met a few weeks ago at a happy hour. I suspected she was just getting used to the monotony of calling the misdemeanors and petty felonies that comprise most of the JC-2 docket. God help her if she had picked up the Derringer file to find an Attempted Agg Murder complaint.
    Judge Arnie Weidemann was presiding over the docket today. It could have been worse. Weidemann was a judge who truly stood for nothing. He was neither a state’s judge nor a liberal. He didn’t write law review articles expounding on either judicial activism or conservative restraint. He was interested in neither outcome nor analytical process.
    If he felt strongly about anything, it was keeping his courtroom moving. Quick from-the-hip decisions during the juggling of a crowded docket were his forte. Weidemann, therefore, was a terrible judge to draw if you had a complex legal issue that required sophisticated analysis. He wasn’t bad, though, for what I needed today. A superficial take on Derringer’s case would weigh in my favor on pretrial issues like release and bail.
    When it was time for Derringer’s matter, I took a moment to look over at him while the MCSO deputy accompanied him to the defense table. His hair was shaved down to a shadow not much darker than the one left on his face from the night in jail. A tattoo of a vine of thorns hugged the base of his skull. Everything about him looked chiseled except for the acne scars cratering his cheekbones. His strong jaw was clenched, his lips