Did I tell the story of a local prosecutor and the Fifth Amendment? Local prosecutor called a bunch of represented people before the grand jury investigating the entity they worked for. When they took the Fifth, he told them, one at a time, they weren’t allowed to do that and had to answer. /1
Holy Moses
/2 Of course, when you’re in front of the grand jury, your lawyer isn’t there — just the prosecutors and grand jurors. Not many people — particularly unsophisticated people — can hold up to the prosecutor telling them they aren’t allowed to take the Fifth and ordering them to answer.
A judge here, at one of those quasi-social get-togethers where defense attorneys get face time with judges, told a bunch of defense attorneys that once a defendant has been indicted, the burden shifts to the defense attorney to prove them innocent. This is a sitting judge on the criminal bench.
...that seems like the professional equivalent of knowingly performing the wrong medical procedure on a patient *after* they have explicitly told you not to. Should be a career-ender and a straight shot to prosecution for professional misconduct.
When I was on a grand jury we had a couple people taking the 5th when it clearly wasn't appropriate and the prosecutors just said I'm not your lawyer. I suspect they would have gone to a judge to make them answer if they felt they needed to, but they made sure to never answer a witness question
Sometimes when I feel in need of some righteous anger relief I pretend I’m the judge in the “lawyer dawg” and fucking rip into the prosecutors and cops who stood up with a straight face and expected me to swallow that