Nino & Mastro on Yelp.com

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Police Chief Allegedly Wants to Cut Budget Deficit by Paying Defense Attorneys in Moving Bullets

Among other less-than-becoming behavior, Durham, NC, Police Chief Jose Lopez is alleged to have responded to a local criminal defense attorney being shot on a city street by remarking that the man deserved the bullet "because he is a public defender." (http://www.wral.com/complaint-durham-police-chief-said-public-defender-should-be-shot/12851548/)

While the good chief is claiming memory loss, he hasn't foreclosed the possibility that he indeed made the comment, and he's mostly concerned that the allegation was publicly disclosed.  An investigation into the complaint against the chief continues.  (http://www.wral.com/durham-police-chief-apologizes-for-shooting-comment/12858054/)

Another local criminal defense lawyer reacted by penning a letter to city officials taking Chief Lopez to task because the comment "'displays a significant lack of appreciation of the importance of the work that criminal defense attorneys and public defenders do.'"

Coming to the chief's defense was a former Durham police officer, who claimed that people outside the department just don't understand Chief Lopez.  "'He really cares about the people that work under him, and I think he cares about the community.'"

For this post, let's put aside the deliciously disturbing idea that a retired, 27-year-veteran of Chief Lopez's department isn't sure if the chief actually cares about the community he is entrusted to serve and protect - in fact, it could be argued that, in a philosophical sense, the only thing Chief Lopez should care about is the community.  And, for now, ignore that, in the context of the chief's position, the alleged comment could be understood as threatening (which the great state of North Carolina has criminalized (http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_14/GS_14-277.1.html), as has California in Penal Code section 422).

What our ex-cop and our congenial southern lawyer fail to grasp is that Chief Lopez - POLICE CHIEF Lopez - allegedly views it as a positive thing that a citizen of his city WAS SHOT ON THE STREET.  When you control what amounts to the army of a fairly large city - the fourth-largest in the state (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durham,_North_Carolina) - it is tremendously important what your sentiments are toward people being shot in public, whether they are defense lawyers, plumbers, IT specialists, college students, transgender prostitutes, police officers, mediocre coffee-shop-open-mic comedians, or even meth dealers.

If he made the comment, Chief Lopez has laid bare his belief that it's okay for people to be shot on his streets, which makes it readily apparent that he cares very little indeed about the community.

And, he should be repeatedly thanked for his candor, and fired immediately.


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I Think of Oakland...

...When I read Seamus Heaney's "Whatever You Say, Say Nothing."

Heaney - one of the finest poets of all time - died today in Dublin, Ireland (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13930435).  The Republic was his nominal home, although he was from Northern Ireland's second-largest city, Londonderry (be warned: drop the "London" if you're ever hanging around republicans).

He wrote "Whatever You Say" about his country's mid-to-later-20th-century Troubles, but each new case that comes across my desk that involves a shooting in Oakland because one young man from 83rd Avenue was walking on another young man's block on 85th Avenue, and all of the gleefully sensationalistic Oakland Tribune and San Francisco Chronicle articles or editorials I read about new policing "strategies" being implemented to curb hard violence in "problem" areas of my hometown, and every fresh, much-too-common complaint of law enforcement brutality that petrifies an entire community's distrust and disdain for the officers and administration that ostensibly exist to protect it from crime bring me back to Heaney's searing words about the insidious quietness that is born of extreme violence and deprivation among people who, at base, are the same and in the same miserable situation.

The title of the poem could also be a stand-in for my most repeated refrain to those very clients accused of perpetrating criminal acts against their brethren from down the street: Whatever you say, say nothing...about your case, to anyone.

Heaney's physical presence on this planet will be missed by many, but his legacy of words should be embraced by all of us who seek to understand and say something - anything - of worth to each other.


www.ninoandmastro.com

Money for Nothing...

California Governor Jerry Brown is asking the legislature for $315 million to keep prisons from having to release and/or shift inmates.  He wants to use the money to fund private prisons and send California prisoners to out-of-state facilities.

Notwithstanding the equal protection and unfair ex post facto issues raised by his plan, what is profoundly troubling about this idea is the arrant and willful ignorance of one fact: nearly all of the inmates who would be affected under Gov. Brown's proposal will get out of prison one day, having undergone little to no rehabilitation.

In 2004, what was then known as the California Department of Corrections (CDC) altered its title to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).  The irony of the name change is that there has been far less emphasis on rehabilitation in California prisons in the last nine years than in the preceding decades.  Prisoners are very often released awash in a flood of problems - deep poverty; untreated mental health issues; unchecked drug addictions; severely lacking job skills; limited education experience - which were never addressed inside.

As Darrell Steinberg, the California Senate president pro tem, points out, the state would be much better served spending hundreds of millions of dollars on combating the mental health and drug addiction problems inmates face. (See http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/08/jerry-brown-unveils-plan-to-house-california-prisoners-make-longer-term-changes.html.)

And here's the thing about that argument: whether you're approaching California's prison-overcrowding problem from a humanistic or liberal point of view, or a utilitarian or conservative perspective, we should focus on treating and training our prisoners so that when they're released - and they will be released - they are as well-equipped as possible to avoid recidivism.  Whether you believe that these are human beings who deserve another shot at contributing to society, or you think that each and every inmate is getting what he earned - but you don't want him breaking into your house when he's released - it's only right that we actually rehabilitate the people in our prisons.

Gov. Brown, backed by the California Correctional Peace Officers Association - a megalithic monster of a union that wields tremendous power over California politics and politicians - is begging the legislature to address the short-term.  It is a wrongheaded and irresponsible tack to take.  Money for more private prisons and more miles between inmates and their family and friend support systems is money for nothing.

Putting millions of dollars into creating better people equipped to reenter society and positively contribute is the long-term solution to California's prison-overcrowding problem.  Better people, healed people, working people means less people going back to prison.


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Nino & Mastro Attorney Profile: Joe Mastro

Joe Mastro

Managing Partner

Location:

Oakland, California

Phone:

800-794-7027

Fax:

510-922-1067

Email:

Email Me

Mr. Mastro grew up around the Bay Area. He graduated from the Santa Clara University School of Law. He sat for and passed the California State Bar Examination on his first attempt.

Thereafter, Mr. Mastro became a Deputy Public Defender in San Joaquin County (Stockton, Tracy), representing indigent clients in all manner of criminal cases.

After opening his own criminal-defense law practice, Mr. Mastro partnered and teamed with Mr. Nino to bring clients as comprehensive and vigorous a representation as possible.

Mr. Mastro is a member of the Alameda County Bar Association Criminal Court Appointed Attorneys Program, through which he represents indigent clients in all of the criminal courts of Alameda County. He has represented thousands of clients, with exceedingly positive results.

He is licensed and insured to practice throughout California, as well as in the federal courts of the Northern District of California.

Mr. Mastro enjoys life enough to understand that it is his job to get his clients back to their lives as quickly as possible.

Areas of Practice

• 95% Criminal Defense
• 5% Family Law

Litigation Percentage

• 100% of Practice Devoted to Litigation

Bar Admissions

• California
• U.S. District Court Northern District of California

Education

• Santa Clara University School of Law, Santa Clara, California
  • J.D.
• Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park
  • B.A.
  • Honors: Magna Cum Laude
  • Major: Liberal Studies

Honors and Awards

• Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center Pro Bono Award

Professional Associations and Memberships

• Alameda County Bar Association's Criminal Court Appointed Attorneys Program, Member
• Alameda County Bar Association (ACBA), Member

Past Employment Positions

• The Law Office of Joseph Odysseus Mastro, Solo Practitioner/Managing Attorney
• San Joaquin County Office of the Public Defender, Deputy Public Defender

Pro Bono Activities

• Pro bono legal representation through the ACBA's Volunteer Legal Services Corporation
• HIV/AIDS & STI prevention volunteer work with the Stop AIDS Project in San Francisco, CA

www.ninoandmastro.com

Nino & Mastro Attorney Profile: Ed Nino

Ed Nino

Managing Partner

Location:

Santa Cruz, California

Phone:

800-794-7027

Fax:

510-922-1067

Email:

Email Me

Mr. Nino spent over 25 years as a deputy public defender with the Santa Clara County Public Defender's Office.  Much of that time was spent as a senior trial attorney.  He represented thousands of clients in cases ranging from low-level misdemeanors to capital murder.

Mr. Nino has tried over 100 jury trials, with an exceedingly high level of success.  Due to this success, he was tasked with acting as a supervising trial attorney, a capacity in which he taught other lawyers trial practice techniques.

Ed also created and taught continuing legal education courses for the public defender's office.

In order to more fully represent clients on a personal level, Ed partnered with Joe Mastro to form Nino & Mastro.  He focuses on all aspects of criminal defense, from DUIs to theft-related offenses to violent crime to complex white collar litigation.

Areas of Practice

• 100% Criminal Law

Litigation Percentage

• 100% of Practice Devoted to Litigation

Bar Admissions

• California

Education

• Santa Clara University School of Law, Santa Clara, California
  • J.D.
• Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California
  • B.S.
  • Major: Psychology

Classes/Seminars

• Developed and taught continuing legal education courses for the Santa Clara County Public Defender's Office

Past Employment Positions

• Santa Clara County Public Defender's Office, Senior Trial Lawyer
• Apple Computer, Specialist

Ancillary Businesses

• Options Trader
• San Francisco Restaurant Owner
• Santa Cruz Bed and Breakfast owner
• 
  
• www.ninoandmastro.com