CWC's GameStop Assault and Arrest MegaThread & Speculation (27-Dec-2014)

[timtommy]

Well that certainly means a continuation.

No judge is gonna let that guy stand trial w/o a lawyer. This usually happens a lot. The judge asks if they have a lawyer, the judge reiterates the obvious that these are serious charges asks if they want a continuation to get a lawyer or PD, they say yes, cuz better than getting hammered today, judge shakes his head and sets a future date. Chris's negligence actually bought him some more time to play with his legos. Since Chris lives his life ambling about day to day he'll see this as a good thing, rather than getting this out of his life as soon as possible so he can move on.

Is it Chris' negligence that he hasn't got a lawyer, given that he is using a PD? PD's have to be assigned, and maybe tomorrow is the day he will be assigned one. Would it have been possible to get one earlier? And given that tomorrow's hearing is preliminary, I don't see what it would gain him.

Some of my lawyer friends have told me that holding the trial long after the crime is often a defendant's friend. Witnesses memories become foggy. Victim statements become weaker as they get time to heal from the crime. The defendant's claims of apology and regret become stronger as they have had more time to consider their actions and rehabilitate themselves. The defendant can point to more time living a law-abiding life post-crime to demonstrate he is not a threat.

I guess not all of those apply to Chris' situation. But overall, I don't see why it would be in Chris' best interests to rush towards trial.

 

[Lipitor]

Couldn't repeated failure to get a lawyer be classed as contempt of court?

I think it could be, but in all likelihood they'll just make sure he gets a PD and give him a continuation. He'll have to meet with the PD, figure out his shit. If he doesn't then they'll both go in there unprepared and the PD will do the bare minimum to defend him. He'll have fucked himself.

Is it Chris' negligence that he hasn't got a lawyer, given that he is using a PD? PD's have to be assigned, and maybe tomorrow is the day he will be assigned one. Would it have been possible to get one earlier? And given that tomorrow's hearing is preliminary, I don't see what it would gain him.

Some of my lawyer friends have told me that holding the trial long after the crime is often a defendant's friend. Witnesses memories become foggy. Victim statements become weaker as they get time to heal from the crime. The defendant's claims of apology and regret become stronger as they have had more time to consider their actions and rehabilitate themselves. The defendant can point to more time living a law-abiding life post-crime to demonstrate he is not a threat.

I guess not all of those apply to Chris' situation. But overall, I don't see why it would be in Chris' best interests to rush towards trial.

Chris should have gotten a lawyer Day One. Really anyone should do this, even if you're only using a PD. Maybe you have the legal fu to manipulate the trial dates into dragging on for your benefit, but this clearly isn't whats going on with Chris. He sure doesn't know what he's in for and needs legal advice pronto. Witness memories may become foggy overtime, but I doubt that GS employee didn't see the video online of him being maced. Who knows what footage the security cameras have too. His guilt is pretty incontrovertible, and he really needs to be working on his plea. Even with the 'tism he should know better.

 

[Gensdupays]

Wow, Chris hasn't even met his PD? This cannot be normal.

 

[Cuck Norris]

Wow, Chris hasn't even met his PD? This cannot be normal.

Well to answer this, and to (optimistically) try to prevent much sperging tomorrow I'd like to point out that Albermarle County General District Court only does preliminary hearings on Thursdays. His video call with the judge when he was in jail was his arraignment. This one will just be "Here are the charges against you. Do you understand the charges against you as presented here? How do you plead? Ok, next court date is X." It makes sense if he hasn't met his PD to this point because A.) the PD doesn't give a shit about Chris beyond professional obligation and B.) nothing of import happens tomorrow.

 

[Stud2Stud]

No attorney yet, huh?

Explains a lot... and I am wondering if we'll eventually get angry rants about the PD being a wuss.

This one will just be "Here are the charges against you. Do you understand the charges against you as presented here? How do you plead? Ok, next court date is X." It makes sense if he hasn't met his PD to this point because A.) the PD doesn't give a shit about Chris beyond professional obligation and B.) nothing of import happens tomorrow.

In theory. It's gonna fall apart the moment the Judge asks Chris for his name.
When the judge asks him if Chris understands the charges against him, Chris is going to start one of his rambling monologues which the judge will shoot down within seconds, but still.
The judge certainly won't like that kind of nonsense in his court.

 

[TrippinKahlua]

According to the latest information I've received, Chris has yet to be assigned an attorney. According to Chris, the assignment will take place tomorrow.

That's all I know right now.

Great, we're gonna get another individual who's professional life will be tarnished through the association of Christian Weston Chandler, and the many weens who will undoubtedly attempt to contact him with CWCki articles.

 

[Zarkon]

Great, we're gonna get another individual who's professional life will be tarnished through the association of Christian Weston Chandler, and the many weens who will undoubtedly attempt to contact him with CWCki articles.

I'm guessing the main issue here will be Chris whining about how his lawyer sucks compared to the one he had before, and doing his best to state this through social media while fearing for his future.

 

[MrsFrizzle]

Couldn't repeated failure to get a lawyer be classed as contempt of court?

No. The public defender's office assigns attorneys to defendants who qualify financially; the defendants don't get to choose. It's unlikely that Chris is responsible for the delay, although Chris's habit of not answering phone calls might possibly have contributed to it.

So, continuance is pretty much certain tomorrow, as has already been said.

 

[lisaface]

A bit off topic, but Cracked just released a POV article about a public defender.

I don't know how much crazy Virginia has on average, but if #7 is anything to go by, Chris's PD probably has seen plenty of delusional people like him.

For the record, that article has nothing to do with public defenders, it's about free lawyers for civil cases. Chris's public defender probably deals with a different set of crazy people.

Well to answer this, and to (optimistically) try to prevent much sperging tomorrow I'd like to point out that Albermarle County General District Court only does preliminary hearings on Thursdays. His video call with the judge when he was in jail was his arraignment. This one will just be "Here are the charges against you. Do you understand the charges against you as presented here? How do you plead? Ok, next court date is X." It makes sense if he hasn't met his PD to this point because A.) the PD doesn't give a shit about Chris beyond professional obligation and B.) nothing of import happens tomorrow.

Wouldn't a decision about how to plead need to be based on meeting with the PD and discussing the case?

Ok, I did some searching. The point of the preliminary hearing is to make sure it makes sense to continue the case. The judge will try to figure out if it's probable that Chris unlawfully released his gas, which he admits to, so that should be easy. In Virginia it looks like all felony cases next go to a Grand Jury, which makes a similar determination, and then after the Grand Jury they set the trial. According to at least one Virginia-based law firm site, entering a plea isn't done until after the Grand Jury, so it's not weird that he wouldn't have a PD yet. We're still very early in the process.

If he's done something to violate the conditions of his bond, it can be revoked at the preliminary hearing. We know they told him not to contact the people involved, since he ranted on Facebook about getting a call from a Gamestop. Who knows if they told him not to continue to trespass, and whether the police being called for his trespassing is enough to cause issues tomorrow. Probably unlikely.

It sounds like it may even not be mandatory for a defendant to be at the preliminary hearing in some places. The judge will decide if there's enough evidence to move the trial forward, and Chris doesn't play a role in that. I guess there's a chance he could get himself into trouble if he mutters or bitches while the prosecutor is explaining the evidence against him, but he's really not an important part of tomorrow's hearing.

 

[Zim]

Really I suspect this will all go a lot like his hit and run. Lot's of drama on the kiwi farms and then community service that he doesn't actually do. He's clearly a special needs adult in the eyes of people who don't follow him so he'll most likely get the kids gloves in most cases.

I could be wrong but I think he'll get a light sentence.

 

[Henry Bemis]

The judge will try to figure out if it's probable that Chris unlawfully released his gas...

Well, that oughta be unlawful.

 

[waffle]

I doubt it gets continued, you can easily meet someone on the day of court and do an arraignment. It's rely mostly about setting up a court date and stuff like that. Only in unusual circumstances do you do much of anything.

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

I was wobdering about that. How does assignment of a public defender work? Do people normally meet with one before a hearing/or did Chris think this was no big deal and chose to hold off meeting one until the last minute?

Ideally, the PD will have at least one meeting with their client a significant time before the hearing/trial. This is not always possible however, given how overworked the PD office might be.

Is it Chris' negligence that he hasn't got a lawyer, given that he is using a PD? PD's have to be assigned, and maybe tomorrow is the day he will be assigned one. Would it have been possible to get one earlier? And given that tomorrow's hearing is preliminary, I don't see what it would gain him.

Now this, I'm not so sure about. Thanks to how underfunded PD offices often are, sometimes the poverty requirements to qualify for one are ludicrously high. As in, sometimes they won't give you a defender if you still technically have the option to sell your car and your home in order to use the pittance you get from it to put a down payment on your own private lawyer. So I really don't know what's going on with Chris's situation.

 

[Stud2Stud]

This is not always possible however, given how overworked the PD office might be.

If these damn males keep on taking away all the PDs from Chris, he might develop a severe case of clientophobia.

 

[DeadMansHand]

Now this, I'm not so sure about. Thanks to how underfunded PD offices often are, sometimes the poverty requirements to qualify for one are ludicrously high. As in, sometimes they won't give you a defender if you still technically have the option to sell your car and your home in order to use the pittance you get from it to put a down payment on your own private lawyer. So I really don't know what's going on with Chris's situation.

He may not have a PD yet because hasn't technically been charged with a felony, it still needs to go to the grand jury. All they really do tomorrow is see if there's enough evidence to continue, and maybe do some scheduling. He might meet with hi PD and the prosecutor after the hearing about a plea, but I don't see him accepting it. It really doesn't make sense for them to do anything until after the prelim, because the judge or the prosecutor might end up dismissing (unlikely, but it might happen)

After the grand jury, then he has an arraignment where he makes an official plea. Then they do the trial. Virginia is pretty process heavy when it comes to felonies.

 

[Lipitor]

So I recently took a look at this entry. He says "And my mother and I will have our "Felon" labels hanging above our heads removed middle of next year." My understanding was the charges were knocked down to misdemenors. Was this only on the condition he stayed out of trouble until mid 2015? If so he could be in a lot more trouble than we all thought.

 

[Atlas 95]

Really I suspect this will all go a lot like his hit and run. Lot's of drama on the kiwi farms and then community service that he doesn't actually do. He's clearly a special needs adult in the eyes of people who don't follow him so he'll most likely get the kids gloves in most cases.

I could be wrong but I think he'll get a light sentence.

Community service doesn't look like a sentencing option in the law Chris is being prosecuted under, but I'm nowhere near an expert so I could be wrong
And special needs he might be, but he's special needs with a prior that matches this crime exactly. He went to a place knowing full well he was banned, threw a shit fit when he was asked to leave, then committed assault on the way out. Except this time he found a way to do it without any kind of mitigating factor, he just sprayed the guy because he was angry and wanted them to know about it. Judges don't look kindly at recidivists as a rule, especially ones that lied like Chris did when he said he'd learned his lesson from the 28th of October

 

[Marvin]

He may not have a PD yet because hasn't technically been charged with a felony, it still needs to go to the grand jury.

You're entitled to consult a lawyer during all the proceedings, whether you've been charged or not.

 

[HarryHowler]

Now this, I'm not so sure about. Thanks to how underfunded PD offices often are, sometimes the poverty requirements to qualify for one are ludicrously high. As in, sometimes they won't give you a defender if you still technically have the option to sell your car and your home in order to use the pittance you get from it to put a down payment on your own private lawyer. So I really don't know what's going on with Chris's situation.

The relevant Virginia law can be viewed here. If I understand it correctly, the required threshold for being eligible for a public defender is an income plus assets of less than 125% the federal poverty level. And while the state cannot force people to sell their homes to pay for a lawyer (not that it would matter in this case, since 14BC is in Barb's name, not Chris's), everything else is fair game.

Also, the state cannot force Chris to represent himself, if he can't afford to pay for a lawyer; either he has to sign a waiver agreeing to defend himself, or the court has to give him a public defender.

 

[DeadMansHand]

You're entitled to consult a lawyer during all the proceedings, whether you've been charged or not.

OK let me rephrase--he may not have a PD yet because he hasn't gotten to a point where Virginia needs to assign him one, i.e. a hearing where one is required, or Chris actively asserting his right to counsel.