July update

Is the summer almost over? Time has sure flown by lately.

I have been doing some pretty fun stuff at the office lately. For instance, a few weeks ago I wrote a memo on and argued against a suppression motion. The guy is fighting a DUI by saying the cops illegally seized him, and thus that evidence obtained during his arrest has to be suppressed. I was given the task of opposing the motion. I am fairly certain the judge will rule in my favor.

I also had my first jury trial last week. The guy wanted to fight his reckless driving charge. He had sped through a school zone (with children present), unlawfully passed a semi, ran a red light, and sped through a busy shopping center at 40 mph, all with a cop right behind him. We started voir dire (picking the jury) at 10:00 a.m., but we didn’t get a verdict until 10:30 p.m. I am not sure why, but the jury came back saying the guy was guilty of the lesser included charge of inattentive driving. I am meeting with two of the jurors in a few days, so I will be able to find out why they went with the lesser included.

I also have another jury trial set for this coming Friday. The guy is charged with DUI second and DWP (driving without privileges). He is representing himself, so this should be an interesting trial. The judge told him he was stupid for not getting a lawyer, but he said he knows all the rules and wants to do it himself. From my end, I am fine that he doesn’t want an attorney. When I received the file a few days ago I realized we had not subpoenaed someone from the department of transportation (who would testify that his license was suspended). Normally we have to disclose to the other side that we intend to call another witness. In addition, there is normally a cut off date after which you can’t disclose anything. Typically this is 10-14 days before trial. In this case, I didn’t get the file until 8 days before trial, so in a normal case I would not have been able to use the witness. However, since this guy never asked us for discovery of our witnesses, I don’t have to disclose anything to him. I have a pretty good feeling that this guy will make similar mistakes at trial.

In family news, everyone is doing fine. Zadik can’t wait until he can begin crawling. When we put him down he spins and moves all over the place. Last week at church Jenny put him on the floor in the center of a blanket, but within 3 minutes he was completely off the blanket. We also can’t leave him in his carseat unless he is buckled in. A few days ago we set him there while we finished getting Alise ready, and came back to find him on the floor a few feet away from the carseat.

Alise is almost potty trained. She only has a few accidents a day now. She is also getting really good at holding it until we get to a restroom. In addition, she knows how to go as soon as she gets on the potty (without having to sit there for an hour or more reading books). Her vocabulary is continually expanding. Her new favorite phrase (taught by her mother) is “boys is trouble.”

We were watching “Enchanted” yesterday. At one point in the movie they break into a song (I think it’s called “That’s how you know”) and start dancing all around. Right before the song Alise put her hands in the air and said “That how know!” A few weeks ago she was in the car watching the same movie and I caught her dancing in her carseat during this song.

Jenny and I have been spending a lot of time house hunting lately. Most weekends, and several times during the week we drive to a new area and look at homes. We are leaning towards building a home because it is cheaper than buying an existing one. The homes are cookie cutter homes, but we have decided we can deal with that for a few years. Our favorite builder is Hubble Homes, and out three favorite homes are the 2269, the 3145, and the 3555. The cost of these homes depends on where you have them built. Right now we are leaning towards the communities in Caldwell (about 30 minutes from downtown Boise).