2010.04.27 Hope allegedly said "Everyone was supposed to plea the same way"

[Kimster]

When I created this thread I was thinking that Hope would rather listen to what her COUSIN advised her rather than what her attorney advised! She did mention something about how her attorney said she was "caught on tape". But she insists the drug transaction tape didn't show her with drugs in her hand. (I think only one tape was released, right? There appears to be two total). So, did it sound to you all like her attorney really did advise her to plead "no contest"?

It's confusing to me and I'm trying not to assume she was tricked.

 

[Pensfan]

Prepare for her to appeal on the basis that she is disabled. She has dysfunctional ESCRT-III, lacking essential components (such as mSnf7-2, one of the mouse homologs of Shrub) or containing ectopically expressed FTD3-associated mutant CHMP2B, causes dendritic retraction, autophagosome accumulation and neurodegeneration. She is afflicted with DUH Disease. It is genetic disorder that runs in their family and also in the Croslins.

 

[impatientredhead]

I can't see an appeal being granted just because Hope is stupid.
Inadequate legal counsel...maybe. If RC's atty told her to plead in the hopes of getting Ron a better deal.... I don't think that's an option.

She doesn't have grounds to reverse her plea.
She can try, and she probably should try, but she had counsel, she had access to counsel, and the judge interviewed her at the time, asked if she had any questions, if she knew what she was doing, if she was doing it under her own free will, and if she knew he could sentence her to thirty years. She said yes and then entered her plea.

She may have believed that he was going to give her a youthful offenders status which has a six year maximum, and could have had her released to treatment/probation/and or bootcamp, but there was no agreement in place for that to happen and her own tapes guaranteed he wasn't going to consider that idea. In the tapes with her mother they were very much aware of a possible fifteen year sentence. They also say that her attorney told her if she went to trial the tapes show her with the pills, they show the transaction, and she could get thirty years.

She had counsel, she had access to counsel, she had time to consider what she was doing, and she had an opportunity to ask the judge questions or say she didn't get it or that she wanted a trial. This is not her first no contest plea.

If english was her second language and she had no translator, if she entered this plea without an attorney, or if she was an very very low IQ she might be able to reverse her plea. I just don't see her having a remote shot at it now. moo

 

[Dr.Fessel]

When I created this thread I was thinking that Hope would rather listen to what her COUSIN advised her rather than what her attorney advised! She did mention something about how her attorney said she was "caught on tape". But she insists the drug transaction tape didn't show her with drugs in her hand. (I think only one tape was released, right? There appears to be two total). So, did it sound to you all like her attorney really did advise her to plead "no contest"?

It's confusing to me and I'm trying not to assume she was tricked.

It sounds like the attorney told her to do it that way and was hoping for a lighter sentence, but the judge says he has to go with the minimum 15 years because of the previous charge. Now why wouldn't her attorney have known that? It sounds like the attorney told her mom some big story about the easy time she was going to do. The mom even says Hopes lawyer is going to talk to Ron's lawyer about him being a character witness. How Goofy is that??

 

[Donjeta]

I'm a complete legal idiot so I don't really understand. So what if the others plead the same way or not? Could she have got less time? I thought she got the mandatory minimum sentence as it stands.

 

[impatientredhead]

When I created this thread I was thinking that Hope would rather listen to what her COUSIN advised her rather than what her attorney advised! She did mention something about how her attorney said she was "caught on tape". But she insists the drug transaction tape didn't show her with drugs in her hand. (I think only one tape was released, right? There appears to be two total). So, did it sound to you all like her attorney really did advise her to plead "no contest"?

It's confusing to me and I'm trying not to assume she was tricked.

I do think that was what she was advised.
She told her there was a camera in the front and back of the car.
That she is on tape with the pills in her hand.
That the evidence is solid and she could do thirty years at trial.

The attorney may have hoped for a youthful offenders program but Hope sunk that ship, if it was ever an option considering her priors and the Haleigh situation. Hope didn't want to do bootcamp, nor treatment, and clearly isn't going to testify against Ron.... so I am not sure what her attorney was suppose to suggest she do? Her client won't help herself and she is on video and audio committing the crime.

Telling her to go to trial and having the book thrown at her (instead of the minimum mandatory) would be pretty inexcusable, no?

 

[Kimster]

It sounds like the attorney told her to do it that way and was hoping for a lighter sentence, but the judge says he has to go with the minimum 15 years because of the previous charge. Now why wouldn't her attorney have known that? It sounds like the attorney told her mom some big story about the easy time she was going to do. The mom even says Hopes lawyer is going to talk to Ron's lawyer about him being a character witness. How Goofy is that??

The character witness would have been a ha ha had Ron not been there in court today as though poised to actually testify in her behalf! Don't ask me what the BEEP! that was all about!

They were talking about Boot Camp and Youth Authority and Salvation Army? (She was so defiant about not doing both at once! NO SIREEE!)

ACK. I am so thankful my kids that are her age aren't like this. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. It grieves me and at the same time I'm glad to see justice served.

 

[impatientredhead]

It sounds like the attorney told her to do it that way and was hoping for a lighter sentence, but the judge says he has to go with the minimum 15 years because of the previous charge. Now why wouldn't her attorney have known that? It sounds like the attorney told her mom some big story about the easy time she was going to do. The mom even says Hopes lawyer is going to talk to Ron's lawyer about him being a character witness. How Goofy is that??

The judge did have other options if he had granted her youthful offenders status. Under that program it was a six year maximum. How much the tapes effected that we don't know, but they didn't help that is for sure. Of course this clan has cost this county so much time and money I can't imagine the judge wants to be seen as going light on any of them.

 

[Kimster]

I'm a complete legal idiot so I don't really understand. So what if the others plead the same way or not? Could she have got less time? I thought she got the mandatory minimum sentence as it stands.

No. I'm just wondering - and merely wondering - if anyone besides her attorney asked her to plea "no contest" so she wouldn't try to make a deal for a lesser sentence. It sounds sneaky. I don't put it past this group.

 

[Dr.Fessel]

The judge did have other options if he had granted her youthful offenders status. Under that program it was a six year maximum. How much the tapes effected that we don't know, but they didn't help that is for sure. Of course this clan has cost this county so much time and money I can't imagine the judge wants to be seen as going light on any of them.

I think the judge implied he did not have that option because of the previous drug charge.

I think it is a requirement that you have a clean record up to that point.

 

[Dr.Fessel]

No. I'm just wondering - and merely wondering - if anyone besides her attorney asked her to plea "no contest" so she wouldn't try to make a deal for a lesser sentence. It sounds sneaky. I don't put it past this group.

I have a gut feeling the way it went down notes were being passed about how to plead and no hard sentence.

I would not doubt Hopes lawyer gave her the options and she chose C.

 

[impatientredhead]

I think the judge implied he did not have that option because of the previous drug charge.

I think it is a requirement that you have a clean record up to that point.

The statute is posted here in one of the threads, you can have priors, you cannot have a capital felony, life felony or be a habitual violent felon, which she is not to my knowledge. But he still would not be under any obligation to allow her into the program. And if she failed in the program she would be right back to the mandatory minimum anyway. Her own comments show she was not likely to succeed in the program.

 

[Kimster]

The statute is posted here in one of the threads, you can have priors, you cannot have a capital felony, life felony or be a habitual violent felon, which she is not to my knowledge. But he still would not be under any obligation to allow her into the program. And if she failed in the program she would be right back to the mandatory minimum anyway. Her own comments show she was not likely to succeed in the program.

BBM

That is a very good summary and likely what the judge was thinking.

 

[azwriter]

"Everyone was supposed to plea the same way."
That's a scary comment to me. If it's true and Hope said it, does it mean something was up among Ron, Misty, Tommy and Hope? And how did they arrange this? As they were dealing and making plans if they got caught? I doubt that. I've always assumed a criminal does the crime because they expect they will not get caught.
Or did it get passed along while they were all being held?
I have a feeling we are going to learn more about this comment from her. It all stinks. jmo

 

[Kimster]

"Everyone was supposed to plea the same way."
That's a scary comment to me. If it's true and Hope said it, does it mean something was up among Ron, Misty, Tommy and Hope? And how did they arrange this? As they were dealing and making plans if they got caught? I doubt that. I've always assumed a criminal does the crime because they expect they will not get caught.
Or did it get passed along while they were all being held?
I have a feeling we are going to learn more about this comment from her. It all stinks. jmo

She said it, AZ. It's on the tape with her mom.

 

[Zoe Bogart]

Hope was telling her mother the tape didn't show pills in her hands. Her mother tried to tell her there was a tape in the backseat focused right on her. Hope swore, no, she didn't see pills in her hands on the tape, so there weren't any pills. You know that story, if there's a dog......

I don't know how Hope viewed the tapes. Was it on TV? I think the tapes released were portions, not entire tapes, because the backseat tape was very short. They're all fairly short. I think there are lots more being held.

The judge asked her the day she changed her plea from "not guilty" to "no contest" if she understood what she was doing. She must have said "yes" because her plea was approved and changed. When she got to court today, the judge must have asked her again if she understood her plea. Standard procedure. Obviously she said "yes". If she didn't understand, as she claimed during the telephone call, she should have told her attorney, and asked to change her plea again when she went back to court. The judge would have had the opportunity to allow it or disallow it.

This gal is no different from many teens who think they are invincible and can get away with anything. It's the old "it can't happen to me" optimism coupled with defiance, and their smarter-than-thou attitude. Hope hanged herself several times: when she became involved in trafficking just days out of jail for possession (lesser to more serious crime), when she copped her attitude and told her mother on the "secretly recorded" telephone call she would prefer to do 15 years than to do 6, boot camp, or any other program, and her non-remorseful attitude. She is extremely lucky she got the minimum when she could have received 30 years.

"Everyone was supposed to plea the same way." I believe that came from Ron during that miraculous ride to and from court in Feb or March. That's when she said he'd serve her sentence for her. Who knows what he promised her? Maybe she believed all the stories that he was The Undercover Man and had been with LE for years. She seems so infatuated, she'll believe anything he tells her.

 

[ilovemew]

I can't see an appeal being granted just because Hope is stupid.
Inadequate legal counsel...maybe. If RC's atty told her to plead in the hopes of getting Ron a better deal.... I don't think that's an option.

LMAO!

 

[joeskidbeck]

Families could pass along strategies by phone; the way Chelsea was telling MC how to plead her case in the beginning.

ITA Tinsel. Today while listening to Hope's phone call to her mother, I thought about Misty using the same phrases when she was talking to her father. So many "I ain't gonna's". Someone that both of these girls believe highly in has told them not to worry, just plead nolo. Who else but Ron? All of these folks seem to believe that he is "da man"!:loser: This is more like it!

 

[joeskidbeck]

here is what I think Ronald meant when he told Hope that he would
"take" her charges. Since she was in the back seat and didn't take the money or handle the pills, Ron and Misty would be the actual dealers and he would explain this in court. What she did not realize is that she had already pleaded and no one would be allowed to speak on her behalf.

 

[yosande]

Katrina was trying to explain things to her, but Hope said she was wrong. I honestly don't think she understood what her lawyer was doing pleading no contest. If she didn't understand, is that going to give her a reason to appeal? But since she got the minimum, I don't know what good it would do.

I don't think an appeal is an option if ones pleads no contest.
but I could be wrong.