John Choi for County Attorney? My Story!

To start with (0.00 / 0)

his name is John Choi with an I. It would help if you at least spelled his name right.  

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by: Populista @ Mon Apr 20, 2009 at 00:06:40 AM CDT

Thanks (0.00 / 0)

I did not doublecheck the spelling of the name, thanks for catching that.

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by: Grace Kelly @ Mon Apr 20, 2009 at 00:28:00 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Direct Refutation (1.00 / 1)

I'd like to respond to this post to correct some key concerns that I have with this post and try to clear some things up that I think are unfair to all people involved in this process.*

1) Referee's do not handle criminal matters with the City Attorney's Office. You either dealt with a real judge, or you were dealing with a Ramsey County Attorney, not a City Attorney, which means your entire criticism here is moot.

2) You dealt with 1, maybe 2, attorneys from the City Attorney's Office, in the criminal division. John Choi oversees both Criminal and Civil Division, and clearly cannot personally oversee each and every single case that each attorney handles. If you have criticism please direct them to Therese Skarda (who's e-mail you can find on their website) not John Choi. Therese is in charge of the Criminal Division and is responsible for the direct oversight of those attorneys

3) Your understanding of the law is wrong. Stopping on the shoulder, especially depending on which part of the road it was on does violate state and city ordinances.

4) You also clearly did not understand the process. By initial pre-trial hearing I assume you mean arraignment and arraignment hearings are for pleadings, not for debating the facts. Especially with the increase of arraignments because of the RNC. The City Attorney's Office handles approximately 15,000 cases a year (remember, I worked there so I know) and there are 15 attorneys. That means 1,0000 cases a year for each attorney. When you are trying to get through 60+ arraignments in a normal afternoon, plus the extra arraignments because of the RNC, there is not time. Your comments and concerns should have waited until the actual pre-trial hearing, not the arraignment, and going against John Choi on that account is silly. No county, city, or state's attorney deals with that stuff during arraignment. There isn't time, judges would get mad, and no other cases would ever get solved. It's the system you're mad at, not John Choi.

5) Finally, you dealt with a stubborn attorney. Yes. I'll admit, not all of us (well future me included in that) is perfect. Some attorneys are stubborn and don't feel like negotiating. That is their prerogative unless told by a superior. However, with the case load attorneys have, the head attorneys aren't there to watch every deal or dismissal that attorneys make. They all passed the bar, and they are licensed to work on their own. Does it suck sometimes? Yes. Is it unfair sometimes? Yes. But can you hold John Choi personally responsible for that? No.

Ultimatley, you have problems with the system. With the way things are run by the Courts and the pace at which the system proceeds. Assuming you are 100% correct in your interpretation of the law (and you did not provide me a cite and I don't have time in the midst of finals to find it), you had a stubborn attorney, and it was unfortunate. But its not the end of the world and to blame John Choi for your personal issue with that attorney, is a slippery slope that I think does not make sense.*

*Author was a law clerk at St. Paul Attorney's Office Criminal Division Summer 2008 but is not currently employed or has any connection to the City Attorney's Office and is not endorsing any candidate at this time (partially because I'd like a job at the Ramsey County Attorney's Office when I graduate law school ;) )  

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by: NorthernDebater @ Mon Apr 20, 2009 at 11:50:50 AM CDT

Response (0.00 / 0)

I agree that the diarist's interpretation of what happened is somewhat unclear and that some additional facts (i.e., the statute under which he was charged) would help.  But I don't think you can blame this on a stubborn attorney because this is consistent from the messages being sent from the top from John Choi.

From the NPR website:

"The St. Paul city attorney's office will not prosecute more than 300 people who were arrested on on the final night of the Republican National Convention.

The individuals were detained in a controversial mass arrest that took place on two downtown bridges.

St. Paul City Attorney John Choi says he thinks police acted appropriately in arresting the crowds."

http://minnesota.publicradio.o...

Really?  Mass arrests of protesters were justified even if there wasn't enough evidence to charge them?  Chris Coleman and some other high-level people have said what happened was wrong, but Choi stands behind the arrests.  

And the fact, as you point out, that Ramsey county attorneys are overworked makes me wonder even more why these cases are being charged.  As the diarist points out, the conviction rate by the St. Paul city attorney's office is terrible.  One $50 fine to show for all this?  The decision to waste those kind of city resources in tough financial times falls squarely on Choi's shoulders.

As to the specific case, again, maybe if the attorney would at least look at the facts at the initial hearing, we wouldn't have to waste the time and money going through additional hearings.  If the prosecutors do not have the discretion to make those kind of decisions, again, that falls on Choi.

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by: Dan @ Mon Apr 20, 2009 at 12:48:53 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Northern Debater distorts the facts (4.00 / 1)

Who is Northern Debater? Why doesn't he / she sign their name like I did? I have been an attorney longer than Northern Debater has been alive. Northern Debater is a law student writing a defense of John Choi in the hope that Choi will give him or her a job if Choi is elected County Attorney.

Northern Debater wrote, "1) Referee's do not handle criminal matters with the City Attorney's Office. You either dealt with a real judge, or you were dealing with a Ramsey County Attorney, not a City Attorney, which means your entire criticism here is moot."

My case was heard by REFEREE Rebecca Janisch. I have a letter from the St. Paul City Attorneys Office to Referee Janisch arguing I should be convicted for "illegally stopping", while trying to function as a legal observer.

Northern then writes, "3) Your understanding of the law is wrong. Stopping on the shoulder, especially depending on which part of the road it was on does violate state and city ordinances."

Well that is EXACTLY what the St. Paul City attorney argued and wrote Referee Janisch. However, when I presented Referee Janish, the law 169.011 subd. 68 DEFINITIONS
which says, "Subd. 68. Roadway.

"Roadway" means that portion of a highway improved, designed, or ordinarily used for vehicular travel, exclusive of the sidewalk or shoulder."

Referee Janish she threw out the city's case and found me not guilty.

I will be happy to provide the City Attorney's letter and Referee Janisch's decision to anyone who wants to see it.

But what is more disturbing than Northern Debaters misstatements about who I tried my case in front of and the law is his / her mistaken defense of John Choi. He / she writes,

"If you have criticism please direct them to Therese Skarda (who's e-mail you can find on their website) not John Choi. Therese is in charge of the Criminal Division and is responsible for the direct oversight of those attorneys".

John Choi is the head of the St. Paul City Attorneys office, so HE is ultimately responsible for what happens in his office NOT Ms. Skarda.

But all this is puffery by Northern Exposer who admits that he / she is a law clerk and is writing this piece in hopes of getting a job in the County Attorney's Office!

He / she wrote,

"Author was a law clerk at St. Paul Attorney's Office Criminal Division Summer 2008 but is not currently employed or has any connection to the City Attorney's Office and is not endorsing any candidate at this time (partially because I'd like a job at the Ramsey County Attorney's Office when I graduate law school".

So Northern Debater was in the City Attorneys office when hundreds of people were wrongfully arrested during the RNC.

But all this obscures these basic facts:

1. Over 650 people were arrested during the RNC, the vast majority for simply for expressing their First Amendment Rights or being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

2. The City Attorney's Office, lead by John Choi, charged hundreds of people with nebulous crimes like "illegal gathering" and "illegal assembly".

3. The City Attorney's cases were so weak that a Ramsey County Court Judge said there was no probable cause in the first batch of show cases and threw them all out of court.

4. That of the first 36 cases brought to trial there has only been one guilty verdict resulting in a $50 fine.

http://twincities.indymedia.or...

5. John Choi dismissed these hundreds of cases or declined to prosecute, ONLY AFTER it became it became clear his office could not win these cases.

6. John Choi kept hundreds of people on the hook for close to six months before dismissing these cases.

7. John Choi still defends these mass indiscriminate arrests and has failed to apologize for his office's role in this abuse of civil rights and liberties.

http://minnesota.publicradio.o...

St. Paul City Attorney John Choi says he thinks police acted appropriately in arresting the crowds.

"There was a lot of confusion for a lot of people that night. Ultimately, our decision reflects our prosecution standard, which is, 'Can we prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt at trial?'" Choi explained. "We've come to the conclusion that for the cases involving the Marion Street Bridge and the Cedar Street Bridge, that would not be the case."

This is why John Choi is not qualified to be Ramsey County Attorney. We need an individual in that office who understands the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and The Amendment and their role in our society, which John Choi clearly does not.

Dann Dobson
Summit Hill

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by: Dann Dobson @ Tue Apr 21, 2009 at 06:15:08 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Facebook (0.00 / 0)

I saw your comments on the "Run Choi Run" facebook site.  Don't be surprised if they disappear by the end of the day.  

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by: Dan @ Tue Apr 21, 2009 at 08:30:18 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

The deletion of my comments on Run Choi Run (4.00 / 1)

Dan -

You were correct. My comments on Run Choi Run about John's  role in the 650+ RNC arrests and his initial refusal to dismiss the charges were deleted within hours, along with the link to MPR.

Apparently the people who run John's FaceBook page would rather talk about his karoke skills, or lack there of, rather than his role as City Attorney in the violation of hundreds of citizens rights and civil liberties.

- Dann Dobson

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by: Dann Dobson @ Tue Apr 21, 2009 at 14:22:34 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Run Choi Run (0.00 / 0)

Here was the response to your Facebook post "What are John's Supporters afraid of?"

"1) This isn't a discussion group it is a fan group.
2) I think you are confussing the security planning work that was done by law enforcement with the job of the City Attorney. As City Attorney, John Choi negotiated a finacial agreement with the RNC that protected our property tax payers. You were arrested by police officers, not a city attorney. In fact the City Attorney's office has been busy dropping charges againt anyone they can find where there is no evidence of wrong doing."

http://www.facebook.com/home.p...

Obviously, number 2 is completely bogus as was made very clear in your posts here and your now-deleted posts on Facebook.

Number 1 is pretty funny though.  There was a diary posted recently on this site discussing the growing support for Choi's candidacy, which cited the Facebook page as evidence for that support.

http://www.mncampaignreport.co...

I think Choi's supporters need to decide whether the Facebook page is a political tool or if its just a fan page where questions about Choi's right-wing approach to civil liberties can be supressed.  

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by: Dan @ Tue Apr 21, 2009 at 14:36:31 PM CDT

[ Parent ]