Attorney Michael S. Wade, You Got a Problem, Dude

Lousiville, Ky attorney Michael S. Wade is in a world of hurt for some pretty low brow shiat.  He's under arrest for something like the second time in a couple of days for walking into various local jails loaded down with H, and other stolen stuff.  Here's reporter Charlie White's story for the Courier-Journal:

A Louisville attorney arrested Wednesday while visiting his client at the Bullitt County Detention Center is facing additional charges of trafficking in heroin and prescription drugs and receiving stolen property.

Michael S. Wade, 31, of Middletown, remains in the jail on a $50,000 cash bond, which was increased from $5,000 when he was arraigned in Bullitt Circuit Court on the new charges Friday.

County Jailer Martha Weaver-Knox said jail officers found a syringe in the jail during a routine random search early Wednesday morning and began investigating how the needle got into the jail.
Information led them to Wade, who returned to the jail to visit a client just before noon Wednesday. Officers patted him down and found heroin, tobacco and rolling papers, Weaver-Knox said.
Kentucky State Police initially charged Wade with promoting contraband within the jail and possession of a controlled substance.

On Thursday, state police got a search warrant and began searching his vehicle in the jail parking lot, where they found heroin, syringes and prescription pills, state police said.

State police notified the Bullitt County Sheriff’s Office, which got a second search warrant to recover jewelry, pocket watches, a Sentry safe, ammunition and other items from Wade’s vehicle. County police believe the items were stolen in Bullitt County or Okolona.
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What is it with local news channel graphics?  Why can't they just run the mug?  Why do they surround it in this surreal graphic backgroung? 

So Michael Wade sounds like in addition to his small law practice, he was working the drug dealer, petty grifter biz in order to feed his habit.  You have no idea how much of this sort of thing goes on.  Seriously sad. 

Prison Food: Federal Prison Employee Gets 6 Years in Federal Prison

A kitchen supervisor at FCI, Butner approached an inmate to arrange for importation of heroin.  Bad idea.  According to a story at the Charlotte Observer the employee will now do 6 years in federal custody.  He must of liked the food.  Here's an excerpt fro the Associated Press story:

"[Nathan Prady], an employee of the federal prison in Butner [was] sentenced to more than six years in prison on a charge of asking an inmate to help him get heroin.  [The NC] U.S. Attorney George Holding says [. . .] Nathan Prady was sentenced in Raleigh Wednesday. [ . . .]  Prosecutors say Prady was caught in a sting that is part of a wider probe at the prison and intended to smuggle the heroin inside.  Federal agents say Prady was working as a cook supervisor when he approached an inmate and asked to use the prisoner's Texas contacts to have heroin mailed to Prady's home. An undercover county officer posed as the friend and authorities taped their conversations [.]"
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Prison food is vile.  Mr. Prady is now getting an opportunity to live on a steady diet of it for 6 years.  Wow, incredibly stupid.

Wisconsin's "Baby Mama" Ruling, Reversed.

The Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal-Sentinel is reporting that the Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously reversed a Court of Appeals decision tossing out a drug sentencing because of the sentencing Judge's use of the expression "Baby Mama" in a colloquy with the drug dealer.  Here's reporter Bruce Vielmetti's account:

"Wisconsin's infamous 'baby mama' case got a new spin Wednesday when the state Supreme Court backed a judge's use of the phrase at a sentencing and reversed an appeals court decision that had said the defendant deserved a new sentencing because of the judge's comments. In a rare 7-0 ruling, the court rejected the appeals court notion that if a reasonable observer might think racial or gender stereotypes influenced the trial judge, Landray Harris deserved a new hearing. Rather, the high court found, Harris needed to show by clear and convincing evidence that then-Circuit Judge Joe Wall did base his sentence on such inappropriate factors, and the justices found he did not.

'Race was never a factor in this case, and Harris' sentencing attorney told your newspaper as much,' [former-Judge Wall] said, referring to the original coverage of the appeals court ruling in January 2009. 'The Supreme Court using simple common sense and following established law found that two judges from the court of appeals lifted out of context four of my words from two separate sections of a 32-page transcript and twisted the plain meaning of those words into something offensive,' Wall said.

Harris, 24, pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to deliver. He had no prior record. At sentencing in August 2007, Harris told Wall he was not working but cared for his then-2-year-old daughter. Wall asked about the child's mother - whom he referred to as the 'baby mama - and noted that she both worked and attended college.

'Where do you guys find these women, really, seriously,' Wall said, according to a transcript. 'I'd say about every fourth man who comes in here unemployed, no education, is with a woman who is working full-time, going to school. Where do you find these women? Is there a club?'

Wall sentenced Harris to two years in prison to be followed by three years of supervision.

In January 2009, Court of Appeals Judges Joan Kessler and Patricia Curley ruled that Harris, who is black, could reasonably infer that Wall's comments revealed a bias, so he deserved a new sentencing. The opinion, with its lengthy chunks of the transcript from Harris' sentencing, went nearly viral on the Internet. 'What concerns us is the reasonable perception of an African-American defendant, or an observer, that the sentence was imposed at least in part because of race,'  Kessler wrote for the majority in a 2-1 decision. Judge Kitty Brennan dissented.

The Supreme Court soundly rejected that standard."
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Hhmmmmmm, racist Judges?  That never happens in America.  Certainly it sounds like former-Judge Wall was talking about his perceptions and bias and that those views underlay his thinking and approach to the world; but, here's the key, the Judge appears to have set aside those attitudes when it came down to actually applying the sentencing law to the facts.  In the law, if the Judge erred with his remarks, it was "harmless error."  Nonetheless, how harmless are the remarks when they become "notorious" and generate two appellate decisions?

I've heard this sort of colloquy in court many, many times over the years.  Often times the judge speaking was African-American . . . you ever see Judge Joe Brown?  They pay Judge Judy 45 million dollars a year for this sort of quip with the parties in her make-believe courtroom.

I think this sort of dialogue also is a Court dialogue is a common expression of judicial frustration with a dysfunctional society, but also perhaps an inappropriate deviation from what is supposed to be blind justice.  Oh: the pic, is the rapper NeYo with his Baby Mama's Baby.  One other note:  the Wisconsin Supreme Court has been in a state of near-anarchy over the Justice Gabelman election/disciplinary charges previously looked at on Bad Lawyer, it's notable that the badly-fractured bench was able to find some unanimity in this case.