Despite being just convicted of 21 counts of not harming a so much as a fly, the judge did not order me back into custody. Instead he set sentencing out nearly three months and ordered a pre-sentence investigation (PSI), along with psychological exam, which was to include “an analysis of what is likely to reduce future criminal behavior and why.”
I was looking at a possible sentence of 55 years. Literally, since there were mandatory minimums on each of these “gun crimes” of 5 years per count, but with an exemption that the courts could exercise their own judgement if it’s someone’s first offense.
Keep in mind I have never even so much as a speeding ticket, let alone anything criminal.
Some people have suggested that the reason the judge set sentencing out so far in advance is that he was hoping I’d lose my mind and go off on some kind of rampage to justify his verdict and all of the bizarre assertions various others have made about me throughout this whole thing.
So during this three month period I continued to follow all of the things I had been ordered to do and not do. I showed up for an appointment with Multnomah County PO Debbie Mitchell, who conducted the PSI report on me. If I recall, the entire thing lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes and did not go into much detail about the various things she was asking about.
Along with this I was ordered to go see psychiatrist. This ended up being similar to the appointment with Deborah Mitchell except this one lasted about three hours and went into much more detail.
The basic gist is I was just a normal guy out there trying to do my job when I was confronted by this hostile group, and I did what I thought was in line with the law.
We were supposed to get copies of this report 10 days before the sentencing day. The initial report, sans the in-depth psych eval, arrived to us 8 days before sentencing.
Despite several erroneous things listed in Debbie Mitchell’s initial report, she concluded that I should serve 40 days in jail along with 3 years probation and that I should continue to be banned from working.
However, when we finally got the full report that included the more thorough exam, Mitchell had reduced the suggested jail time to just 20 days.
This is because there are various mentions throughout these reports that I have “no pro-criminal attitude,” low risk factor, lowest group for recidivism (repeat offenses), no issues that would “contribute to aggressiveness or violence,” and so on.
This full report was due to us 10 days before the sentencing. Instead it arrived 2 days beforehand. This is important because had Jason Short pushed to get this report on time, we could have been better prepared for the sentencing day.
But Jason Short is perfectly okay with the state officials not delivering documents in a timely manner.
You see, as if all these botches and screw-ups by Jason Glenn Short haven’t been enough to this point, he’s saved the best for last.
In the psych exam is a bit of a blurb suggesting that I might be autistic. In the hallway before walking into the courtroom, Short and Trotter ask me if I’m okay with them mentioning this in court and using it as a way to motion for retrial based on this being new evidence and they can bring in an expert psychologist to testify as to how this affects my mindset in the heat of the moment as the incident played out.
So me being naive and still too trusting of these morons, I tell them sure, fine, whatever we need to do.
So Jason Short and Christopher Trotter put me up in front of the court, with a packed court room, with several members of the media there, to make the argument that I’m autistic and I should get a new trial. The judge said he’ll accept a motion for retrial within 5 days.
Meanwhile, the regular sentencing continued. I was sentenced to 40 days in jail, 3 years probation, several restrictions on my ability to work, and 240 hours of community service.
So then the next day I’m asking Trotter how this retrial thing is going to work. He tells me he needs $5000 to do it, and he’s not even sure if he can motion for this because it was a bench trial and not a jury trial, and he’s not sure how it would affect the appeal process.
Short and Trotter ultimately decided to NOT submit this motion for a new trial.
That’s right, Jason Glenn Short and Christopher Trotter prop me up in court, embarrasses me by proclaiming to the courts and the entire world that I’m autistic, which all ended up being for naught because it turns out he couldn’t motion for a new trial, which all could have been avoided had he pressed the state to provide us with the psych exam during the time window they were legally compelled to provide it so they could have more thoroughly approached this sentencing hearing.
I’m still getting harassed and mocked to this day over his grand finale stunt.
To top this all off, as the whole trial plodded along, they kept making references to an appeal if we lose. They specifically made references to the word “WE” will appeal. Turns out they don’t actually do appeals cases. They referred me to a friend of theirs Jason Thompson, who tells me I’d have to pay him $50,000 to try to correct the mistakes Short and Trotter made.
At one point during sentencing the judge said “Simply put, you cannot respond in the way that the Defendant did in this situation. Brandishing the weapon was not the Defendant’s only option.” Had Jason Short cited the Sandoval case at some point during the trial, then the judge would have been better informed on the fact that a person does not need to exercise other options before acting in self defense.
Apparently Jason Short doesn’t think that’s of any relevance.
As the judge was reading his verdict, he said “The issue here is not whether those who approached Mr. Strickland took the most appropriate action that they could have taken. They did not all do so. The issue is the actions taken by Mr. Strickland in response and whether they were justified self-defense.” Which tells me that the judge did not take into consideration the acts of the mob. Had Jason Short done a half way acceptable job of arguing that self defense is entirely predicated on the actions of others and how the person citing self defense is perceiving the situation while pointing out all of the various crimes I believed the gang was committing against me, then perhaps the judge would have concluded differently.
As if all of this weren’t enough, Jason Short never challenged the DA’s sentencing memorandum, which, like Debbie Mitchell’s gross mischaracterization of the incident, included several erroneous statements and left out several other important factors.
Additionally, as part of the sentencing, I was to remain banned from engaging in several different 1st Amendment activities, effectively keeping me from employment, for the duration of the probation. Again, Jason Short never once argued that this was an example of Prior Restraint, which is basically governments limiting what someone can publish or say. Except for the most extreme examples of this censorship, almost all instances of Prior Restraint are forbidden and most cases where the censored person is challenging such restraint, the higher courts usually rule in favor of the person being censored and lift the restraint. Even when the New York Times was publishing military secrets during wartime, the Supreme Court ruled they had the right to do that.
Jason Short and Chris Trotter are scumbags of the highest degree and should be avoided at all costs. I cannot imagine any attorney being more careless, less thorough, and more passive than either of these two buffoons. If there is a worse attorney out there, I feel sorry for their clients.