So this brings us to January of 2017. I was finally able to get Chris Trotter and Jason Short to respond to some of the things I had mentioned and brought up. They finally addressed the previously mentioned Harry Bray case, where the higher courts ruled that the defense has a right to text messages, online messages, and search history of the accusers. Only now Trotter tells me that it’s too late to do anything about that and would probably cost too much.
Excuse me? That’s why I brought it up 3 months prior to this. But because Jason Short ignored important factors that could help me and my case, I was now unable to use this.
At some point we had also discussed presenting an expert witness who could testify as to the proper use of firearms, what a person with a Concealed Handgun License is trained on, general use of force, and related things. I had suggested we contact some of the people who had actually trained me. They are DPSST (Department of Public Safety Standards and Training) instructors, the same people who train and certify law enforcement, armed and unarmed security, and private detectives. Some of them do civilian based courses in their off time. Since these are the people who actually trained me, I figured they would make for the best expert witnesses.
Jason Short and Christopher Trotter, however, insisted that we use their private detective as the expert witness. This guy, Jason Servo, was a former police officer and former department instructor on firearms and use of force. Short and Trotter ensured me this was the best expert witness for us, because he could rebut any expert testimony that any state witness might provide.
Remember this, it’s important and I’ll address this further as I explain the goings-on during the week of the trial.
On Monday, January 30th, a week before the trial was due to start, a hearing was held on the various motions that both sides had submitted. In his typical lazy and dismissive approach Jason Short decided to skip this hearing and instead had Chris Trotter handle all of it in his absence.
As had become the norm, Trotter proceeded to stumble and his mumble his way through these motions arguments, barely even able to form complete sentences in the court room. We ended up losing pretty much all of the motions, which included motions for change of venue, compelling the state to clarify which parts of each law they allege I violated, and one that would prevent Todd and Kate from referring to the attackers as “victims.”
Afterward Trotter told me that the defense usually loses all of those.
Later that week I had a brief phone call with Jason Short and Chris Trotter. I had expressed my concerns with Trotter’s lack of confidence when addressing the judge. I was told that Short would be the one doing all of the arguing, questioning, and most of the talking during trial, and that Trotter would primarily serve as an extra set of ears and eyes.
Remember this. We’ll revisit this in a follow-up post.