Patty Poe
What's it like to have your own lawyer lie to you? Carol and I have a lot of experience with this question, and "infuriating" is one answer that comes to mind -- especially when you consider that your freedom or your money probably are on the line whenever you communicate with a lawyer. But here is perhaps the more important question: How can you tell your own lawyer is lying to you? According to the punch line of a classic lawyer joke, "His lips are moving" is the usual answer. While that answer can provide a satisfying belly laugh, it is short on specifics.Being able to detect your lawyer's lies can only help you -- and your case -- if you are able to determine the specific nature of his lies and the honest version of what he is saying. In other words, it's not all that helpful just to know your lawyer is lying; you need to know how he's lying (why he's lying is another key factor) and what is the accurate information that helps you move forward.
Having just come from an experience where Missouri public defender Patty Poe lied to us repeatedly about Carol's "assault of a law enforcement officer" case, this seems like a good time to help others learn from our experiences. With that in mind, this is the first of a multi-part series about a sad truth in the American justice system: Yes, the other guy's lawyer is likely to lie -- most of us kind of expect that -- but your own lawyer is the one who really can inflict pain by lying to you.
If this sounds like an exercise in cynicism, that's because -- after 18 years of fighting injustice and being cheated by lawyers of almost every color, variety, and political stripe -- we are cynical. That's not to say we have totally given up on the notion of finding an honest lawyer. Many of the people I've stood up for here at Legal Schnauzer -- Don Siegelman, Paul Minor, Jill Simpson, Paul Benton Weeks, and others -- are people I consider honorable lawyers, attacked by the reptiles in their own profession.
While we have not been represented by an honest lawyer -- actually, I take that back; Springfield, MO, lawyer Dan Menzie did a solid job of representing us in the case where my brothers sought to have Carol and me declared wards of the state -- we hold out hope that one will enter our orbit someday. Until that happens, let's take a look at our interactions with Patty Poe in the weeks and months before she sought to withdraw from Carol's case.
We will examine a series of five emails Carol sent to Poe, along with Poe's responses to them. (Carol's five emails, and Poe's responses are embedded at the end of this post.)
(To be continued)