Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ryujin" data-source="post: 9681593" data-attributes="member: 27897">Apologies for the length...I don't know why outbursts like that don't immediately result in a finding of direct contempt, but judges seem to give more than a few warnings before finally slapping someone down.Re: Shenanigans - 30ish years back I was a witness in a theft/fencing case. The company I was working for had an employee purchase agreement with Microsoft Canada and a MS employee came in to have a computer repaired. When I checked the serial number it turned out to be one of maybe a dozen computers that had been stolen from one of our clients. They got the first batch and then, when those had been replaced, they stole the replacements as well a few weeks later. I took it in, didn't say anything about that to the MS employee, then immediately called police.Police investigated and, based on what they found, arrested the owner of a small computer shop where they found several of the stolen computers. That's when the fun began.Over the nest several years I received 4 or 5 subpoenas to appear, as a witness, to attest to the ownership of the computers. The accused went through 8 lawyers, over the course of 7 hearings, the last of which turned into his pleading guilty. He then "threw himself on the mercy of the court" asking for an absolute discharge, "...as having a criminal record would curtail his ability to travel to the United States, on business, causing hardship for his employees and family." In his ruling the judge said words to the effect that the accused didn't seem to care what sort of hardship was inflicted upon the witnesses, through his multiple hearings. He then sentenced him to (I think it was) 18 months.Aside #1 - When his final lawyer asked to have a word with me, in private, The Crown said that I was under no obligation to do so. I said that I had no issue with it. After our brief discussion he didn't look very happy.EDIT - By "he" I meant the defence attorney. The Crown was female (and smoking hot).Aside #2 - When I was on the stand, the defence lawyer tried to get me to say that it was possible that the serial number stickers had been swapped and they weren't actually the stolen computers. The way that he went about it resulted in the judge shutting him down, asking the question directly himself, and my answer was, "Yes, they could be removed, but they would be destroyed in the process. The Crown later commended me for how I presented myself to the court.Aside #3 - The investigators later told me this guy had been on their radar for about 5 years, but they had never been able to tie enough to him for an arrest, until now.</blockquote>

Verification