Dave Staudt – District court judge
- District 1 out of 8 judicial districts
- Blackhawk, Grundy, Clayton, Howard, Fayette, etc.
- Can handle any kind of case there is.. Ex: anything from a speeding ticket to a murder
Supreme Court of Iowa
Court of Appeals
District Court Judge
- Handles mostly felonies. Such as kidnapping, dealing drugs, murders
- Civil matters (divorce)
- They can go down but the ass. And magistrate can’t go up
Associate district court judge
- Handles things such as OWI, assault, drug possession
Magistrate:
- can only handle misdemeanor cases
- If this case gets appealed, this goes to the district court judge.
Simple Misdemeanors: traffic tickets, simple assaults, trespassing
- Most of these are taken care of by spending up to 30 days in jail along with court costs (excluding tickets)
Serious Misdemeanor:
OWI
- Lowest fee for these is 2500
- License get suspended
- SR22 insurance = high risk insurance
Felony A B C D
- A = Life
- EX) first degree murder, first degree kidnapping or sexual assault
- B = 25 years
- Attempted murder
- C = 10
- EX) Sexual Assault(basic), or a more serious drug charge… possession with intent to deliver meth
- Have to do at least ⅓ of the sentence before released
- D = 5
- EX) Forgery, extortion
Second degree murder is 50 years
Deferred Judgement:
Let’s say friday night you get caught smoking weed and police catch you and charge you w possession of marijuana.
- The judge will enter a judgement of a sentence
- Deferred judgement is where the judge says okay I’m deferring judgement to a later time which is basically an opportunity not to be charged. Such as being placed on probation, community service, substance abuse evaluation.
- If all this goes well your record goes sealed. It’s like this case never happened.
- Cannot have more than 2 deferred judgement
You can’t ever say ALWAYS
- Also, never say never
Cannot consent to sex until you’re 15
Forcible felonies
- If you commit and are convicted of this crime you HAVE TO go to prison
- 1st degree robbery, attempted murder, some drug cases
Sexual Assault
The touching of sexual parts or the touching of a mouth on sexual parts
There is no such thing as a technicality
Two kinds of trial
- Jury
- Judge
You can have these for any charge
Allocution
- Allowed to say anything you want to to a judge
- Someone is most likely going to have a better change if they speak
In the US you’re innocent until proven guilty.
- State must prove evidence you commited the crime within reasonable doubt
Accusatorial
Inquisitorial
You cannot argue with a police officer… if you start arguing with them you’re going to jail.
- You can later sue them if you feel they wrongfully arrested you
Jury:
- Randomly select due to kind of case
- 24 people.. 12 get striked out due to bias and other reasons
- Must be 18 to be a juror
When you go into court you cannot have your phone on.
- Exception for media that are under the case
- You can take photos if you’re a reporter UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES
- There’s a balance between allowing cameras and photos in the courtroom.
- “I don’t read about my cases because I don’t know what this other person saw. I don’t want to know about that.”
- As a judge it’s a different perspective. “I want to make sure things are fair”
- Problem about recording in a courtroom:
- Distraction
- Intimidating sometimes. YOU CANNOT TAKE PHOTOS OF THE JURY
Sequestration
- Not allowed to sit by other witnesses of the trial and you can’t hear what other people said so what you really know is heard.
Ways to protect jurors:
- They give them a number, so the people in the back don’t know your actual name for safety reasons.
- “We protect jurors from being on TV or having their picture taken.”
You can almost go to any court hearing
- Really no limitation on who can come into the courtroom
Rights we have when we go to the court house:
- Cannot wear hats
- Don’t have your phone out
- Don’t take photos, bring camera
- Can ask judge to take a photo
- Sit in a pew somewhere
- You can come anytime and leave anytime
- Can bring notebooks
- No food or drink
- Bag is ran through x-ray machine
How do you defend despicable individuals as a defense lawyer?
- Everyone deserves a defense and to be treated fairly
- Police officers have an opinion of what they think should happen to people.
- We need to treat every person fair, people would ask me this. Think about it this way. If you had a cousin. Your cousin is a guy that is 22 years old in college, not on scholarship, works 30 hours a week, has what he says is consensual sex but gets charged with rape. He deserves to have someone represent him.
- I never felt bad if someone was found not guilty because the state couldn’t prove their case. That’s how the law works. If you can’t prove your case you can’t do anything.
- “Is the system perfect? No, there’s glaring problems that we try to work on and make better. Part of the problem with our system right now is the over representation of blacks in prison.”
- Unless you commit a forcible felony, you’re probably going to get probation
“I think over the years I try really hard to try to let people to have the opportunity to tell me what it is they want to tell me.”
“I try to be as respectful of everybody as I can”