By now everyone that does criminal law is familiar with the Chewbacca defense. Today Robert Jenkins and Ray Nagin present the Magoo Defense:
Nagin both folksy and testy during first day on the stand ~ Gordon Russell and John Simerman
Williams also testified that he and his partners were guests at the mayor’s Mardi Gras ball at Gallier Hall that same night, and that Nagin had embraced him and told him he had gotten him into the coveted “pool” of qualified engineers.
When Coman brought up the ball, Nagin sought to downplay its significance, saying Williams and his partners were there along with “about a thousand of my closest friends.” When the prosecutor flashed pictures of the event on a screen and asked Nagin to identify himself and Williams in a couple of frames, Nagin insisted several times he couldn’t recognize the engineer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klVhHK5Ucvw
http://bayoustjohndavid.blogspot.com/2008/04/regret.html
“Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Regret
With Special thanks to Lolis Eric Elie for leading by example.
One compound word has haunted me for the past twenty-four hours: “dumbass.”
I used that word to describe the mayor’s son Jeremy in last night’s post.. That’s a strong word and expressed genuine amusement at the manner in which the mayor’s son responded to entirely legitimate questions about the mayor’s role in the family business.
But using such a strong word so glibly was presumptuous on my part. I owe the mayor’s son an apology and intend to use this post for that purpose.
To be sure, Jeremy Nagin did write a “dumbass” letter to the editor that contained one paragraph of almost breathtaking stupidity:
Our company is family-owned, and I am very blessed to have parents who believe in me and have invested a significant amount of our family net worth and taken on major debt to put this company in position for growth.
Remember, the letter was written to convince readers that the mayor would not have been tempted to exert influence on the company’s behalf.
However, one dumbass letter does not a dumbass make. It was wrong for me to leap to that conclusion and I deeply regret the error. As a matter of fact, the little that we know of Jeremy Nagin indicates that he is, actually, anything but a dumbass. To have overcome his troubled past and established such a successful business at such a young age is truly remarkable. To have done so with only the benefit of occasional late night advice and working capital from his bespeaks a gifted young man who is certainly no dumbass. I regret having called him one.
// posted by bayoustjohndavid @ 6:25 PM “
http://www.nola.com/rose/index.ssf/2009/03/post.html
Chris Rose emails the Mayor……
” I was moved to e-mail the mayor. At 2:22 that afternoon, I sent this missive to [email protected]:
“Can we talk? A candid, unedited question and answer? I’ll ask you questions no one else has asked you and give you a forum to answer those of us who keep scratching our heads and wondering: What the hell is with this guy?
“Interested?”
Although my relationship with Nagin was tenuous at best at the time, early in his candidacy and first term in office we had an easy rapport. I had interviewed him on several occasions and we shared many off-the-record laughs and conversations. We even once had lunch together at the Clover Grill.
So I thought maybe I could persuade him to relax, get comfortable and answer a few questions.
But he said no. Well, he said more than that, actually. Thirty-five minutes after my e-mail — at 2:57 that afternoon — I got this salty response (warning, strong language ahead):
“You’re kidding, right? You have spent the past two and a half years since Katrina trashing me, writing lies, embellishing rumors, and looking for any little thing to turn negative and trying to convince the public that I should not have been re-elected.
“Try writing the truth about the recovery and this city’s economy that gets stronger every day. Maybe you can write a real objective analysis on what the real population numbers are. Why don’t you go back and look at the many tough decisions I made over time that are now paying off and will continue to serve this city well now and into the future. Try just telling the g – – – – – – – truth, period!
“I wouldn’t trust you or your organization to write your own birth date accurately. To hell with you. One thing I can say is you do not have a vagina but some real big balls 🙂
“Have a great day!”
Thank you everyone. i’ll be here all night!
It looks like NaGOON simply CANNOT get a “NOT GUILTY” answer to EACH of the 20 or 21 questions on the Jury Interrogatories, which probably means NaGOON will be doing some serious “hard time” sometime soon. But Prosecutor Coman does not appear to be all that experienced as a “Trial Lawyer”. If I am not mistaken, the “lead” in closing argument was a colleague (“Pickens”?). How’s THAT for selling the main Prosecutor’s credibility to the Jury? Coman didn’t respect the Jury enough to put himself “on the line”, even if he did personally argue for 5 minutes in rebuttal. But Jenkins is so incompetent that he never made the point. And the “You sold your Office, didn’t you?” last question by Coman to NaGOON has to go down in the annals of cross-examination as the “MOST ASININE” ever asked by a Federal Prosecutor in a BIG case. It’s what I call a “KAMIKAZIE” question, and gained his case NOTHING, not to mention how it made him look (STOOPID!). So we shall all soon “see”. Ashton O’Dwyer.
Just read the “nola.com” Comments on Closing Arguments, as well as Mr. Berry’s Comments on the Closing Arguments on AZ. Looks like Coman spoke for 20 minutes (not 5) in Rebuttal until Berrigan shut him down. But the most surprising thing (except to ME) was Jenkins’ “performance” or the lack thereof. NaGOON needed “Clarence Darrow”, but got “Step-N-Fetch-It”. PITIFUL. Jenkins should be disbarred. But we shall see, won’t we? Ashton O’Dwyer. P.S. If Solomon should have also been indicted, then shouldn’t NaGOON’s sons, and his wife, also have been indicted? AROD.
When the verdict is read there will be true Chocolate City diarrhea in Ray Ray’s panties courtesy of Jenkins unless that one juror comes through.