Mother Fires Lawyer in Handcuffing Case; Has Deal With "A Current Affair"

[REP]

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/04/25/Northpinellas/Mother_fires_lawyer_i.shtml

Mother fires lawyer in handcuffing case
By THOMAS C. TOBIN, Times Staff Writer
Published April 25, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - The mother of the 5-year-old girl who was handcuffed
by police last month at her school has fired the lawyer representing
her in the matter.

Largo attorney John Travena said Monday that the mother, Inga Akins of
St. Petersburg, notified him of the firing by a faxed letter shortly
before 9 a.m. today. The fax contained a heading from the tabloid
television show, A Current Affair. Trevena had just completed
interviews on five network morning shows when he received the message.

<...>

Trevena said a producer from A Current Affair "raged" at him last
Friday after the St. Petersburg Times published a story and photos of
the video. The Times also placed an edited version of the video on its
Web site. Trevena then released the video to numerous other media
outlets locally and nationally.

Trevena said the producer told him A Current Affair had exclusive
rights to the woman's story. The woman granted the show an interview
several weeks ago, shortly after the handcuffing. She appeared on the
show with her daughter.

(more)

[Scairp]

1. Huh?

Is she really being this opportunistic? If so, then the kid needs to be removed from her care until she gets a grip. She should be worrying about what kind of negative effect this entire incident is having on her little daughter, not raking the dough in with a bulldozer. Nope, she has her priorities seriously screwed up.

[democracyindanger]

2. Well, she can kiss her civil suit goodbye

Hard for a jury to work up much sympathy for a woman who takes the first tabloid TV offer she gets, without even informing her lawyer. Actually, firing him because of it.

[WillowTree]

3. Why am I not surprised?

[expatriate]

4. On another thread I tried

to make some sense of this entire thing, and this new wrinkle is very interesting - as is something I heard on the unedited video, which I finally managed to locate online. Previously, I had only seen an edited video, where the girl was pulling things down off a bulletin board, a big cut and then the police were cuffing her.

In the unedited video, the police officer says, "Jaisha, do you remember me? I'm the one your mother told to put the handcuffs on you."

Articles have stated that the mother has called the police out herself, when this child was as young as three. She's apparently one of those parents who thinks that having the police come will teach a child a lesson. This is not uncommon, unfortunately, though I've never understood why the police go along with it.

I would tend to say that this mother's lawsuit is in the toilet at this point. I wish she'd seek some kind of help for her daughter and for herself as a parent. I tend to agree with another poster that the child should probably be removed from her care, but considering the state of the foster care and child welfare system in Florida, that would probably be worse.

[marew]

5. I retired from this school system several years ago....

after 30 years in education, mostly working on school teams evaluating students with problems. I would be willing to bet that the school talked with this mom numerous times to request permission to evaluate and provide support for this student. This mother has probably repeatedly refused. In the meantime, the other students' educations are put at risk and children and staff are put in danger by an out of control child. Of course, and rightly so, the school must honor the child's right to confidentiality and cannot state what has really been going on. The real victim here is the unfortunate child who probably has never been socialized and most likely has a history of problems in every previous setting. I have seen this over and over again. No one spends time with these kids, many don't even know how to hold a book or have any grasp of any prelanguage skills. They've never been expected to follow directions or complete tasks. This is why I respect all teachers, but especially kindergarten teachers. They never know who will walk through the door on the first day of school. It can be the child who has been exposed to numerous educational experiences in a loving home or the neglected, abused child that no one gives a darn about. Truly, truly sad.

[Dogmudgeon]

6. The legal expertise

It's not very high around here. Not that it should be; this isn't a legal forum, it's a political one.

You can't assume that her case is undermined by taking her story to A Current Affair. Most people haven't even taken notice of the case, let alone the details of it.

And, cases are supposed to be -- required to be -- judged on their merits, not on public outrage. DUers and Freepers alike will be excluded during voir dire; they want people who have been too busy working or tending to personal matters to be good news junkies.

If the case doesn't go to a jury, but to a judge, s/he will also be required to adhere to case law, which doesn't forbid selling one's story.

I can understand why people would not have a lot of faith in the legal system, but I'd think they'd be outraged by abuses of power, not by low-income scammers, hysterics, and bench-jumpers. And I'm not even sure the mother is tainted in this case. It's a prima facia cause for concern when a child is handcuffed by an armed police officer; the details make the difference. And newspapers are usually light on the details in any kind of case.

--p!

[expatriate]

7. Yes, the newspapers are indeed light on details

And the media loves scandal. We're really not being told a lot about this situation, particularly the background on this child.

The thing that most bothered me was what the police officer said when he came into the room where the girl was. "Jaisha, do you remember me? I'm the one your mother told to put the handcuffs on you."

The mother has, in the past, requested that police put handcuffs on the girl.

Would this affect her case as an outraged parent protesting abuse of power? I understand that a judge would have to deal with only the facts in the case, but since a precedent of police officers handcuffing this child has been set at the parent's request ...

[wakeme2008]

8. Right and a jury would see the whole video

not just the 10 seconds on Fox one. the mother dreams of $$$ are over.

[Dogmudgeon]

9. We really don't know what the mother's dreams are about

No matter how much outrage one has on "either side" of the issue, it's all just spin and posture right now. The kind of thing Nancy Grace will sink her fangs into Any Day Now; the kind of thing that sets Rush off on a series of rants about how Libbruls are undermining Personal Responsibility™, how People of Faith are being "bashed" because we need more corporal punishment, and how judges are out of control because ... because ... well, just because.

This isn't really the kind of case that should go to a jury, anyway -- it's still an action seeking redress for a tort. If it becomes a civil rights case (the "nuclear option" for this case), it will almost certainly go to a jury. But if it's tried in a court of media, forget any insight or enlightenment coming from it.

There's no shortage of bad parents, and no shortage of incompetent school personnel. My suspicion is this case will become the latest Outrage du Jour.

--p!

[0007]

10. ...for a bag of peanuts & 15 minutes of fame.

When mommy wakes up she'll be so pissed!