Syracuse, NY - Defense lawyer Tylyn Bozeman was putting as positive a spin as possible on client Charisse McGee's case during a recent bail argument before state Supreme Court Justice John Brunetti. Bozeman noted her client had been recertified as a nurse’s aide and home attendant. She also is the mother of five and grandmother of three, the lawyer said....
Syracuse, NY - Defense lawyer Tylyn Bozeman was putting as positive a spin as possible on client Charisse McGee's case during a recent bail argument before state Supreme Court Justice John Brunetti.
Bozeman noted her client had been recertified as a nurse’s aide and home attendant. She also is the mother of five and grandmother of three, the lawyer said.
And, McGee did not have any arrests – before the one that landed her before Brunetti for a bail discussion – since 2002, Bozeman said.
The lawyer argued the pending forgery case was more of a misunderstanding.
Yes, the lawyer said, McGee had written her name on a blank money order that had come to her in the mail . But no, that didn’t amount to forgery, Bozeman said.
She claimed McGee thought the money order was a gift from “one of her paramours.”
Assistant District Attorney Mary Gorman then noted McGee had a history of moving from county to county and had been involved in similar conduct all over the state. Additionally, McGee has three prior felony conviction and four misdemeanor convictions for similar kinds of crimes, the prosecutor said.
Bozeman asked to have McGee released from jail to the Pretrial Release program. Gorman asked for $7,500 bail. Brunetti set bail at $2,500.
Lawyer: Parents want son released on bail, but not free
Defense lawyer Edward Klein found himself making an unusual argument in a recent bail pitch for his client.
Malcolm Young was being held on $25,000 bail on a first-degree assault charge. But Klein said the evidence indicated the victim may not have been as seriously injured as first thought and the case might actually be more of a lesser second-degree assault case.
Assistant DA Rob Moran noted Young was accused of whacking the victim over the head with a candle stick. He asked to have the bail set at $15,000 cash or $30,000 bond.
That’s when the unusual part of the argument arose.
Klein noted Young’s mother was a former high-ranking official at the Syracuse Community Health Center and his father had been a history professor at SUNY Oswego before the couple moved to Savannah. They were more than able to have bailed their son out of jail on the original bail, the lawyer noted.
But the couple wanted something different, Klein said. He clearly was not getting his message through as Aloi kept saying he thought the $25,000 bail was reasonable.
Finally, Klein made his point clear. The defendant’s parents didn’t want their son just released on bail to go back out on the streets. They wanted him freed on bail only if it was conditioned on being released to an inpatient substance-abuse treatment program.
That’s what Aloi finally agreed to.
Motorcycle T-shirt gets judge's attention
Steven James might have considered some different apparel for his appearance before County Judge Bill Walsh one recent morning.
But he indicated he was heading to work right after court where he was sentenced to five years’ probation, four weekends in the county correctional facility and a $1,000 fine for a DWI conviction.
James was wearing a T-shirt advertising Harley-Davidson motorcycles. But it was the slogan on the front of the shirt that caught Walsh’s attention as the defendant stood before him.
It read “Home of the blockheads.” Walsh couldn’t let that pass without comment.