See what a little gossip will do?
After the story is told over and over to dozens of people, the facts always change. Veteran ASA Ellen Roberts claims that Judge Kastrenakes is biased against FHP based a ticket he received. Ellen heard about it through rumor/gossip from troopers. Here’s the motion, affidavit, tickets and FHP reports. Note the date of the reports – way after the alleged incident. Plenty of time for the story and statements to evolve. I seriously doubt the alleged quotes in the Palm Beach Post article are 100% correct.
Guess what? Cops lie all the time. In criminal court, it’s the dirty little secret that’s not so secret. The prosecutors, judges and defense lawyers all know that some cops will lie to get a conviction. Many judges look the other way because the “bad guys” are going to jail where they belong – the pesky constitution be damned.
I can’t tell you how many motions to suppress should have been granted if the truth were actually told. Amazing how some cops tend to lie when it suits their purpose. Why lie? The defendant will be back. If you don’t get him on this charge, there will be another one. Just be patient. All you have is your word. Integrity is everything.
It seems Sandra Thompson did not have any of the alleged statements Kastrenakes made in her report. It was her supervisor.
The trooper may have (correction) lied about what he saw Kastrenakes do – and he just called em out on it. People get pissed off when they are falsely accused. Any reasonable person would have been irate. Kastrenakes probably told her he would recuse himself if she was on any case before him. Why? Because he knows she’s a liar. That makes sense.
But a blanket statement that “he would always have doubts when a trooper appears in his courtroom”? Don’t buy that one for even a second. There are good cops and bad cops. You don’t lump all the troopers in with one bad apple.
Same goes for judges. You don’t lump Kastrenakes in with all the other judges. He is the best judge we’ve got.
Grey Tesh is a board certified criminal trial lawyer in West Palm Beach, Florida and is President of the Palm Beach association of criminal defense lawyers. www.aaacriminaldefense.com
Why do you maintain a blog when you don't allow posts unless you agree with them? You seem to preach an "anti establishment" message on your site, and yet you maintain censorship.
Why waste your time?
9:12,
I moderate the posts – meaning I look at the posts first before they are posted. I do that mainly because of spammers. If you had your own blog, you would know that.
I allow different points of view all the time. I do not, however, let racially motivated posts go up.
Look – I even allowed your pathetic post – that doesn't agree with me.
Kastrenakes may be facing public corruption charges for what he did. He tried to use his position as a judge to influence and intimidate FHP officers.
How ironic. The guy who put the corrupt politicians away may now be facing his own corruption charges.
Wouldn't put it past Mccauliffe to file charges. He's a politician looking to build a name.
Grey,
You should be very careful about calling someone a liar when you don't know all of the facts.
5:22,
You are correct. I don't have all the facts. I changed the line to say "may have" lied.
The only people who really know all the facts are the parties involved.