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Mr. Smith Goes To Court What Passes As Justice In Court Room 6 Are Coerced Plea Bargains Replacing Fair Trials? Will You Too Laugh As Mr Smith Attempts To Gain A Fair Trial? (Watch Below Video) |
November 23, 2015 |
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Courtroom #6 - Daytona Beach, Florida For sometime now - VolusiaExposed.Com has been making regular appearances within Circuit Court Judge Frank Marriott's courtroom # 6 - located within the S. James Foxman Justice Center - 251 N Ridgewood Ave, Daytona Beach, FL. The rationale for making our regular court appearances is to video record the on-going criminal prosecution of Mr. Michael Morrison. |
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Our interest in Morrison's criminal prosecution is connected to his October 2012 arrest - under the charge of aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer. Police reports alleged that in the early morning hours of October 22, 2012 - while two police officers were allowing a female acquaintance of Morrison's to break in to his Holly Hill residence - that Morrison threatened both the police officers and the female acquaintance with a firearm. The police report goes on to state that in response to Morrison's alleged aggravated battery on the law enforcement officers - one of the officers fired his weapon once - striking Morrison in the back. (Yes - you read it correctly - shot in the back) Interestingly the police never charged Morrison with the alleged aggravated battery on the female acquaintance. (Police report alleges that Morrison threatened the acquaintance with the firearm as well as the officers) A few months ago - and after nearly three years of criminal prosecution - the State Attorney started to offer Morrison a series of eye opening plea bargains. In short - that the State is willing to reduce the criminal charge down from felony aggravated assault of two police officers - to what equates to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct. The State is even willing to waive any fines, probation, jail time - AND the withholding of adjudication (guilt). WOW - what a sweet plea deal - the only problem is that Morrison will NOT accept the plea deal - for you see - Morrison insists that he is an innocent man. Morrison continues to demand - to no apparent avail - that the State's 47 Class A witnesses be disposed by his attorney (Reference Scroll Box - Bottom Of Page). Shouldn't The Police Be Offended By These Plea Offers? IF Morrison indeed threatened two police officers with a firearm - why offer him such a sweet plea bargain? VolusiaExposed has repeatedly been informed by local officials - that we (VolusiaExposed) are seen as "anti-police". This writer can verify that such allegations against VolusiaExposed are not accurate - we (VolusiaExposed) consider ourselves very PRO-LAW ENFORCEMENT - and would be greatly offended IF our State Attorney was offering such sweet plea bargains - to a person - who had actually threatened two of our law enforcement officers. Since a local media report indicates that State Attorney, R.J. Larizza secured his office in 2008 by garnering the support of the law enforcement community - why would Larizza risk such future support - by offering Morrison such a sweet plea deal? Doesn't logic dictate that these plea deals are somehow beneficial to law enforcement officials? We (VolusiaExposed.Com) suspect law enforcement desires that the Morrison prosecution be settled via a plea bargain - rather than a trial. Why? Because some hard questions would have to be answered by officers involved in the shooting of Morrison. Want to know those hard questions - well, thats our hook to get you to read our earlier articles on the Morrison situation. These articles are available for your review within the below web links. A Daytona Beach News Journal Article Of Similar Interest The Javier Perez Shooting (DeLand PD) |
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When The Criminal Defendant Prefers A Trial Over A Plea Bargain |
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While attending Morrison's November 9, 2015 court hearing - and with our camera rolling - we (VolusiaExposed) recorded the court hearing of criminal defendant Jeffrey S. Smith.
Prior to our attendance at the hearing - we had no idea who Mr. Smith was. After watching the hearing video AND reading the document Smith filed with the Court (refer to below scroll box) - see if you too are as disturbed as we (VolusiaExposed) were with Mr. Smith's treatment by the Court, by those in the gallery, and his own attorney. Did you also find yourself laughing at Mr. Smith's apparent request for a new attorney - or that the witnesses against him be deposed? Did you find it humorous that Mr. Smith had a concern that his attorney is also allegedly respresenting a co-defendent in his case - thus causing a possible conflict of interest in his criminal defense? Listen and watch the laughter and smiles in the courtroom - and determine for yourself if Mr. Smith was being treated fairly by the Court. |
November 9, 2015 - Courtroom #6 Daytona Beach, Florida Jeffrey Scott Smith & Circuit Judge Frank Marriott 
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Oh - and let's not forget that real gut buster and knee slapper (Inserted Sarcasm) - when Judge Marriott advised Mr. Smith to prepare and file his own motion to the Court - requesting a new attorney. Were you laughing? - because we were not - we were crying - both for Mr. Smith and for this assault on our justice system. While Judge Marriott made the case that he is an excellent court jester - in our opinion - he failed to maintain the professional demeanor of a circuit court judge.
In our opinion - Judge Marriott's demeanor was nearly as unprofessional as Brevard's Circuit Court Judge John C. Murphy - when earlier this year (2015) - he physically threatened a public defender for not waiving his clients' Constitution right to a speedy trial (6th Amendment - U.S. Constitution). Judge Murphy's actions are currently the subject of a Judicial Qualifications Commission review. |
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With all of the above known to Judge Marriott - his advice and instructions to Mr. Smith was for him to file his own motion to the court to have his attorney replaced? Really ?! Shouldn't the attorney have been required to file his own motion to withdrawal as Mr. Smith's attorney? After all - Mr. Smith clearly articulated to Judge Marriott that he (Smith) was a carpenter (and not a lawyer) - therefore he didn't have the knowledge to file such a document. Sadly - Judge Marriott did not seem to sympathize with Smith's lack of legal education. Based on our video and Mr. Smith's filed court document - it is clear that he is NOT interested in the State's plea offer. Rather - Smith clearly wishes his attorney to depose the witnesses against him - and to prepare him for trial. Interestingly - Michael Morrison has also expressed the same to his numerous attorneys. |
SCROLL DOWN TO REVIEW WHAT MR. SMITH FILED WITH THE COURT     |
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While VolusiaExposed does not have any additional videos of Smith's interactions with the Court - we do have videos of Judge Marriott encouraging Morrison to accept the State's plea offer. (reference our earlier articles)
Sadly - VolusiaExposed has come to the opinion that criminal defendants in courtroom # 6 are being coerced to accept plea bargains - thus denying them their U.S. Constitutional right to a public trial. Here is what we suspect in the particular (OUR OPINION). We suspect that there is an on-going wink-of-the-eye conspiracy between Judge Marriott and several attorneys to deny (restrict) criminal defendants their due process rights (not conducting depositions - not filing motions, etc) in an on-going scheme to frustrate, and thereby coerce defendants, to accept a plea offer, in order to resolve their criminal prosecutions. We suspect that Judge Marriott was attempting such coercion - when he instructed Smith to file his own motion to discharge his attorney - a feat that Judge Marriott knew was way beyond Smith's educational abilities to do so, AND APPARENTLY his legal ability to do so ! (Refer Below Scroll Box - Judge Marriott's November 19, 2015 Order Striking Any Motions Filed (Pro-Se) By Smith) Watch the video - and then ask yourself - why would Judge Marriott instruct Smith to file a motion - and then issue an order striking all motions filed by Smith - under the rationale that Smith had no legal standing to file such motions, due to him having an assigned attorney? VolusiaExposed submits our opinion - that it was to frustrate and coerce Smith into accepting the State's plea offer. Mr. Smith has a pending court hearing on November 24, 2015. Hopefully the Court will offer Smith something that he can believe in..... more to come.... |
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