Disclaimer: This article is in response to questions frequently asked of Mr. Cobb and is an unedited dictation transcript. Just like talk to text on your smartphone, there may be misspelled words or sentence fragments.
Absolutely not. We have lots of cases of factual innocence, and one of the things that people don’t understand is the role of politics. For example, Donald Trump has held nine rallies within 25 miles of my head office. One of those rallies was in Pensacola, Florida, and you could hear the chants of “Lock her up” all the way to the courthouse, including where the head state attorney of this particular circuit is located. The impact was immediate, and plea offers got much stiffer, with much more prison and jail time, almost within 24 hours of that particular rally. And so we have people who are falsely accused. This is a real problem, in particular, in the areas of domestic abuse and sexual assault.
You look at what’s happened during this political campaign, and I’ve had to ask myself if a man can get a fair trial for the next three generations if he’s accused of domestic violence, sexual battery, lewd or lascivious, or a number of other crimes. We still have to be on guard for false allegations. We also have to be on guard for mistakes that happen with law enforcement officers. We also have to be on guard for people who, due to whatever is going on in their brain, decide that they’re going to fabricate a charge and have someone arrested, whether as payback or leverage in a divorce or child custody proceeding, respectively, or in any circumstances where people can be falsely accused.
I’m not saying everybody is guilty at all. Instead, what I’m saying is the proper way to defend a case in the 21st century is to imagine that it looks like a capital letter “Y” turned upside down. The case is going to start and go through several processes then come to a point of decision, where it’s either going to be settled in some way, shape, form or fashion. It may be a sentencing; it may be a negotiated dismissal. There are a number of different things on the settlement side of that upside down letter “Y.” Then on the other side, that’s where you have motions to dismiss, motions to suppress evidence because it was unlawfully collected or a jury trial. So not everybody’s guilty, and we should never forget that fact because a false accusation is just absolutely devastating to a person’s life, career and future.
What Clues Do You Look For When You Take On A Criminal Defense Client?
Everybody who calls me, when they or someone that they love has been arrested, whether a family member, boyfriend or girlfriend, has significant stress. Most law firms are taught to use that stress as a method for marketing. A lot of chatty office visits really doesn’t make the client feel a lot better or help them at all, and actually takes time away from defending the case. But that’s part of how cross-selling, reselling and upselling occur. What we’ve done, instead, is we’ve created an entire protocol called Coping With Stress During Criminal Prosecution.
During the intake and initial consultation process, we’ve made it a practice to look for a few things that are red-flag indicators that someone might need a diagnostic evaluation and comprehensive treatment plan. For example, if someone has a prior criminal record, that is a significant red-flag and something we factor in. We also take a look at civil court history. If someone has a history of either conflict-seeking as a plaintiff or routinely being sued as a defendant that may be a factor. I also want to know if the person graduated high school and, if they did not, whether they got a GED or did not. If there are those types of indicators in a case, I want to know if they’ve had any kind of head trauma.
What we’re finding from the NFL players is after just a single season of playing football, they have changes in their brain. This answers a lot of questions, such as why does an NFL player who makes a seven-figure income come up with the brilliant idea to take a gun into a bar and ends up getting a sentence of many years in prison. Or why does another one, who’s a famous running back loved by tens of millions of people, end up with an estranged dead ex-wife and her paramour, as well as later being in prison for his role in a burglary and robbery case.
These types of things are very important. I ask, if it’s a male defendant, if they’ve played football, had a motor vehicle accident or had any kind of impact traumas. I like to know if family members have mental health issues. Of course, I want to know if the individual that I’m talking to or their family member is aware if they have any form of mental health history because what we’re finding is that, increasingly, people do have a mental health history, especially with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, yet the treatments they are getting are not effective enough, and the reason is because they’re getting one-size-fits-all treatment. That is probably the single biggest problem that the legal system has with trying to treat behavior disorders.
Disclaimer: This article is in response to questions frequently asked of Mr. Cobb and is an unedited dictation transcript. Just like talk to text on your smartphone, there may be misspelled words or sentence fragments.
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