Interesting day on the expert witness side of the house. Learned that the new prosecutor has decided to drop a years-old criminal case against a police officer in a clearly justified furtive movement shooting in which I’ve given both report and deposition for the defense. The case was originally brought by a Soros-funded prosecutor now no longer in office. What you’ve heard about “Soros prosecutors” is real, not some far-right BS.

Conditionally accepted a case in which the defendant is being criminally charged for shooting at a man who was shooting at him. The other guy pulled his gun first, the defendant went for his, and each fired simultaneously. Why is THIS guy being charged? According to the defense lawyer, the first guy fired only one shot, the defendant fired more than one to drive him off, and the prosecutor seems to think whoever launched the most bullets must be culpable. Fortunately no one was hit by the gunfire when a public place suddenly became a two-way range.

Why do I say “conditionally accepted”? Because I can tell you something I can never say in front of a jury: I only take a case after I’ve seen all the evidence and been convinced that the client did the right thing. It’s why I turn down way more cases than I take.

Having spent most of my adult life working in the justice system in one capacity or another, I can understand why it sometimes befuddles the general public.

31 COMMENTS

  1. “I only take a case after I’ve seen all the evidence and been convinced that the client did the right thing.”

    I think that you are wise to want to see all the details before taking a case, Mas. In self-defense, like in a lot of criminal law, the “devil is in the details”.

    Take the case you mentioned above. You report that “According to the defense lawyer, the first guy fired only one shot, the defendant fired more than one to drive him off, and the prosecutor seems to think whoever launched the most bullets must be culpable.”

    The prosecutor may, or may not, have a point here depending upon the details. If the aggressor fired a single shot and the defender fired, say, a double-tap in response, then I would say that the prosecutor has not much ground to stand upon. That level of response seems totally reasonable and proportional .

    On the other hand, if the aggressor fired a single shot and the defender then pulled out a Glock 17, equipped with a “Glock Switch” and an extended magazine, and (holding the pistols sideways “Gangster Style”) proceeded to dump the entire magazine in the general direction of the aggressor, then I would say that the prosecutor has grounds to think that this is not a case of responsible self-defense.

    The details matter in any self-defense case. I totally understand why you would want to know all the circumstances before you leap into a case.

  2. How can we tell if a prosecuter is “Soros funded”? We can check the campaign disclosures but what do we need to look for??

    • I would guess, based on what we see from them, they’ll be the ones drooling on themselves! 😉

    • Speaking of the Soros funding of anti-constitutionalists, if we want to continue to keep and bear arms we would be wise to put money into the GoFundMe account for Presidential Candidate Trump. I am pledging 50% of my ongoing savings. I have a separate bank account with a debit card dedicated exclusively to such contributions. I would encourage everybody to contribute regularly to Mr. Trump and his campaign. He has been going to the limit for us. If everybody who stretched their resume is attacked like Mr. Trump is being jumped on, we will all be in the poorhouse, at best. Our help will keep him going until the electorate college puts him back in. Then the wrath of God can come down on all the plundering pirates.

  4. Those are interesting cases and I think the evidence is clear that those “Soros prosecutors” crack hard on law-abiding gun owners and LEO’s while coddling thugs who violate gun laws. That’s what the far left’s idea of social justice. I closely follow the saga of the Daniel Perry case in NYC though it didn’t involve a firearm. I think he’s being railroaded while the DA continues to coddle criminals based on race. Perry was a Marine and I’m a retired Marine so his case is of special interest to me.

    I always enjoy your articles

  6. So sad to hear about an officer being persecuted for doing the right thing. Wouldn’t it be nice if the legal system required him to be reimbursed for the grief the prosecutor put him through?

    Thanks for sharing more evidence of the decline and decay of the once great USA. I don’t like reality, but I have to deal with it, and be aware.

  7. Just behind open borders, Soros funded prosecutors are Americas biggest problem. Just ask Donald Trump.

  8. Our criminal justice system seems to hae turned on its ear by liberals and the woke culture. The “good guys” are now bad and you can’t defend yourself or your family against an attacker. It is getting as bad as Canada where the law enforcement tells the people to leave your keys in your car and don’t lock the doors or put your keys by the front door so the bad guys won’t attack you in your own home for your car. Time for an out of frame overhaul.

  9. Don’t appreciate the snarky comment about Donald Trump.
    By the way, Don, enjoy all of the “newcomers” in your neighborhood. Hope you’re able to defend your family, especially if you have young daughters.

    • Tom,

      I interpret Don Kerr’s comments to be supportive of Trump, not snarky. Soros prosecutors are illegally using lawfare to hamper Trump’s bid for re-election. I hate how the enemies of America get to do pretty much what they want, while Patriots get persecuted. Notice how Rudolph Giuliani had his law license revoked for believing the 2020 election was stolen, while DA Letitia James doesn’t even get disciplined for bringing false charges against Trump. I’m pretty sure the same Bar Association is involved with both Rudy and Letitia, since they both worked in the Southern District of Manhattan.

  11. Mas, how much of your policy to insist on reviewing ALL the evidence prior to agreeting to take up a case is wanting to be sure there is enough evidence to make case, and ho much is from NOT wanting to be the one who gets a bad guy off the hook? If the client i more likely than ot someone who is guilty s charged, I”m certain yuo don’t went to be in the pickle of doing your best to get him off, and helping a dirtbag walk when he should be behind bars, for the good of society.

    Curious.. I’d imagine both motives are in play with you.

  13. “a *years-old* criminal case against a police officer”
    The officer still lost, even though he prevailed.

    I think I’ve discovered a new self-defense standard for myself: “If I do this, will Mas take my case.”

    • If you are using the Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network, you are essentially doing that already. It is a good standard.

  14. I read a great quote following the verdict in a self defense shooting that happened in Philadelphia some years back. The attack was caught on a Fox News street cam, but the “victim” (aggressor) was politically connected. He’ll be disabled for life.

    When the defense attorney was asked how it felt to have won, his response was that in a case like this, there really are no winners. Defendant had been in his last (?) semester of law school. I often wonder if he finished.

    All Virginians suffered retaliation: the defendant was carrying on his Virginia concealed carry permit under a reciprocity agreement. PA no longer recognizes/has reciprocity with Virginia.

  15. Thank you Massad for the information. I hope that the police officer was able to pay his bills while waiting a YEAR for his case to be decided.
    Who was the Soros-funded prosecutor representing?

  16. “Furtive movement”? What does that mean? How is that defined?

    If multiple officers are all barking contradictory “Simon says”-type commands at an innocent and unarmed citizen, and he doesn’t comply quite as well or as fast as they want?

    Or maybe he’s deaf and can’t sort out the obscene death threats they are screaming?

    Or maybe he’s just not impressed by having guns unjustly pointed at him, and instead of getting on the ground and groveling or crawling this way or that, or hopping on one foot or whatever, he just looks them in the eyes and says “No,” and goes to light a cigarette.

    And they gun him down in a hail of bullets.

    Is that a “justified furtive movement shooting”?

    How about this one?

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/police-officer-who-fatally-shot-sobbing-man-temporarily-rehired-apply-n1028981

    • Welcome to the blog, David. If you watch the death of Daniel Shaver on the bodycam footage you can find on YouTube, you can understand why Officer Brailsford was acquitted by the jury. It was a classic case of a phrase my friend Andrew Branca is credited with popularizing: “awful, but lawful.”

  17. Well, it looks like he tried to pull his pants up. *I* would not riddle a prone, weeping, unarmed man with 5.56 bullets for that. But then, I have no sort of qualified immunity.

    Suppose Shaver had not been daunted by the weapons wantonly aimed at him, and, as a presumably free American citizen with all the rights appertaining to one, just refused to even try to comply with any of the confusing and contradictory (and super-degrading) orders, and just stood and looked at them with his hands in his pockets, or even bade them a good night and turned his back on them to go back to bed, closing the door behind him.

    That of course would be interpreted as “going to retrieve a weapon.” I believe he did have a pellet rifle in his room, and that was how the whole thing got started — “someone made a call” and reported a “man with a gun.”

    When I was still relatively able-bodied I used to love to go for long walks. Following a foot injury and some worsening balance and lower back issues I started walking with a stick. Not a crook-top cane or a hiking staff, just a straight, heavy stick I’d ordered from Cold Steel.

    But I had to stop doing that because nearly every time I set out “someone made a call” reporting a “man with a gun,” with the results you might imagine, though I somehow always managed to maintain my dignity.

    I just leaned on my stick and spoke to them calmly, explaining that, no, that was not the correct spelling or pronunciation of my name they’d radio’d in to dispatch, and, no, I was not the escaped convict they were looking for.

    The last day of November, 1997 was particularly memorable. That time I was surrounded by three of them, two city patrolmen and one sheriff’s deputy. Someone had gotten on their little cell phone and called to report “a man with a crowbar peering suspiciously into a furniture store display window.”

    That might have been suspicious at 3:00 A.M., but it was about 3:00 P.M. on a sunny and unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon. I believed I *had passed* by one or more furniture stores, and may have glanced at my reflection as I passed. And of course I didn’t have a crowbar, just a straight walking stick.

    The sheriff’s deputy could see clearly what this was: a gray-haired, half-lame white guy taking a walk on a nice day. He seemed embarrassed about the whole thing.

    But one of the two city cops, a sergeant or lieutenant or something, wanted to take a hard line.

    When he demanded my I.D. I unhesitatingly handed my driver’s license to him, though in my state I wasn’t legally required to even have that on me unless I was driving, and so I might have just handed him a calling card or my library card.

    As he started to call it in to the dispatcher, I jokingly said I was pretty sure I wasn’t wanted anywhere for anything, and he snarled, “The only people who know if they’ve got warrants or not are people on probation or parole!”

    I was a little startled by this and wondered how that could even be true, though I did not speak again until it became clear they’d gotten the spelling of my name wrong and I corrected them.

    Then he started yelling “These stores are CLOSED!!”

    I agreed that they were closed on a Sunday in a small town, but that was okay with me because I was not shopping for any furniture.

    They detained for what seemed like long time, long enough to check with Interpol I guess, and finally told me to get lost or get out of their sight or something to that effect.

    I managed to keep my cool during the encounter but was pretty shaken when I got home. I was rattled to the extent that I started to get in my car and drive somewhere, then changed my mind and decided to go inside, and locked my car keys *and* my house key in my car.

    My next door neighbors, who were good guys, real Samaritans, helped me break into my own car with a coat hanger. It took about two hours, until it was beginning to get dark.

    • I am sad that you had an unpleasant experience. You do realize either Shaver or his earlier companion had been pointing what appeared to be a scoped rifle out the window at people, which is why the police responded as they did? While we now realize he was probably trying to pull his pants up, he had been warned that if he made that movement again he would be shot. You should have heard that on the bodycam video.

      Had he truculently refused to obey, he would have probably been TASEd or at least forcibly put to the floor.

      • “Truculently.” Not the word I would have chosen.

        Things never quite escalated to that point point in any of my several “suspicious walking stick” encounters.

        If they had drawn on me and started yelling “Get on the Ground!” etc., I’m not sure how I would have reacted.

        I like to think I would have at least tried to stand on my human dignity and if need be die on my feet rather than on my knees.

        Of course no one ever really knows what he will do until it comes to that. I can affirm that I am what people call “germaphobic” to an extreme degree, and might really rather be shot dead than get dirty.

        I think I first encountered a Taser about September 2005. A sheriff’s deputy was standing in the bank teller line next to me and had one holstered. Cross draw on his left side. The department had only just started issuing them.

        I unwisely expressed curiosity about it and in response he whipped it out and “muzzle swept” me and several other people. It had a built-in flashlight. He was really proud of it.

        Trying not to seem alarmed, I asked him what departmental policy was about using it. He said he was authorized to use it on anyone who resisted.

        “Ah, but what amounts to resisting? ” I asked.

        And he said, “If I put my hand on you and you flinch or pull away, that’s resisting and I can Tase you.”

        “But surely it is a natural reflex to flinch when suddenly grabbed,” I said. “Just as it is natural to blink your eyes when the wind blows dust or sand in them.”

        “That ‘natural reflex’ will get you hurt,” he said, grinning broadly.

        I have yet to have anyone deliberately threaten me with Taser. If, or rather when, someone does, I intend to announce loud and clear for all to hear that I have a serious heart condition and that I am being threatened with lethal force.

        I don’t expect that to deter anyone though. I imagine it will cut zero ice, in light of the countless cases I know of where elderly, disabled, and sick (or even dying) people were Tased at the drop of a hat, on the merest whim.

        Deaf people, elderly dementia patients, autistic people, Down’s Syndrome people, and people in diabetic shock or stunned from head injuries in car crashes seem the most frequently chosen to “ride the lightning.”

        I’ve lost count of all the YouTube videos showing it. I could link to a few, but it would clutter up the space.

      • David, you wrote “Deaf people, elderly dementia patients, autistic people, Down’s Syndrome people, and people in diabetic shock or stunned from head injuries in car crashes seem the most frequently chosen to ‘ride the lightning.'” With 43 years in law enforcement including past certification as a TASER instructor, I can tell you that while those may be the majority of incidents YOU see on YouTube, the actual vast majority of TASER usages are on law-breakers forcibly resisting arrest or trying to harm people. Otherwise, in today’s liability-charged environment, the TASERs would have been transferred from the police armory to the police museum a long time ago.

  18. I don’t want you to take me the wrong way. I respect you, a lot. I have read at least two of your books and many of your journal articles, since at least as far back as 1977.

    But, clearly, we are looking at this thing through different ends of the spyglass or binoculars. (I won’t say “telescope” as that could be misconstrued.)

    One of us must have some sort of blind spot about this.

    • And I respect your opinion as well, David. I wrote about 3,000 words on this case six years ago, here: https://americanhandgunner.com/our-experts/youre-f-ed-a-shooting-in-mesa/ . As I wrote there: “Sides were taken. We humans are tribal creatures. A great many ‘gun culture’ people were furious: ‘That could have been me on the muzzle end of that AR-15!’ Frankly, a lot of cops were likewise angered by what they heard or saw on the news and the ’net, but many also thought: ‘That could have been me on the trigger end of that AR-15!'”

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