This is Bullshit!

I hope Our Local DA Discovers that they can't treat people like dog meat and not have any one find out. This was posted at www.amysmusings.com by Amy. She is way to nice a lady to have to put up with this crap:


"I’ve heard the horror stories about how horrible the Kern County District Attorney’s office treats people, but this was my first experience with what I can only describe as extreme verbal abuse and intimidation.

I received a subpoena this morning, jammed into my door. The name was spelled incorrectly and the contact information was incorrect as well. My husband called to inquire about the subpoena, since we didn’t know who it was for in our household and had NO idea whatsoever it would be pertaining to.

My husband managed to get a receptionist or whomever it was who answered the phone to clarify who the subpoena was for. As it turns out, it was meant for me. Talk about a shock!!

I spoke to the girl, she was rude, snippy, sharp and threatening. Telling me that I must have given my information to someone for me to be subpoenaed. I tried to explain (as she interrupted me numerous times and kept telling me I could be arrested for not showing up - and NOT ONCE did I say I would not show up) that I had no idea what this was about and I had not been a victim or witness to a crime, nor had I spoken with any law enforcement officers. She kept insisting that I must have given my information out somewhere because I would have been REQUIRED to show my ID. I finally insisted on speaking to a supervisor because this girl was so rude and nasty.

Another woman came on the phone (after a long hold where I am sure I was described as some sort of combative jerk on the phone) and rapidly introduced herself as a Supervising Deputy District Attorney. I could have sworn she gave the name, “Jan” but again, she was so rapid about giving her name that I couldn’t be sure other than that it definitely started with a “J”. After a long time spent reviewing the District Attorney’s website I was unable to find a list of Deputy District Attorneys to see if I could find the correct name.

The Deputy District Attorney handling the case is Richard Tae Choi. He had apparently left for the day. According to the website you are supposed to be given notice and have the opportunity to speak to the DDA prior to showing up for court (it would be nice to know what you are supposed to testify about.) Yet, here I was receiving a subpoena on FRIDAY to show up MONDAY at 8:30am.

The DDA who came on the line with me was beyond rude. Nearing abusive levels, she yelled at me, threatened me, acted as if she had an audience because she kept yelling into the phone, “You are being COMBATIVE! YOU ARE BEING COMBATIVE” at me. I finally managed to get it out of her what this case was about.

A month or so ago, my husband was up late and I was in bed ASLEEP. From our deck off the master bedroom he saw what looked to be people vandalizing a home construction site for McMillin’s Capella neighborhood. Here is where he made a mistake, he called the police and reported it - certainly as they would prefer citizens to do, right? So there he was doing the right thing and what happens?

They take MY name off the caller ID (even though he gave his name when he called 911) and subpoenaed me. I wasn’t even conscious at the time!

I tried to explain this to the DDA who was yelling and threatening me on the phone. That it wasn’t ME Richard Choi needed for the case and that here we are calling for information (As they tell you on the subpoena to do) and all I was doing was being subjected to harassment and vicious verbal abuse.

The woman proceeded to tell me that, “No one likes to be subpoenaed, we have a lot of people here with a lot of business to take care of. No one likes to have to testify, it’s stressful and it doesn’t matter because you were given a court order.” While I tried to explain again, that the person they wanted was my husband. She replied, “Richard obviously knows you have information that he wants. I’m trying to work with you here.” All of this was said in a rude, unprofessional, threatening manner.

She proceeded to tell me that if I would PROMISE to be there she could put me on call. And, this is after I have been listening to this woman berate and degrade me for several minutes. I finally, asked her why she was speaking to me like that and she replied (yelling), “YOU ARE BEING COMBATIVE, I AM TRYING TO WORK WITH YOU - YOU ARE BEING COMBATIVE… YES YOU ARE! YOU JUST SHOW UP MONDAY MORNING AND TALK TO RICHARD ABOUT IT.” And she slammed the phone down in my ear.

This was AFTER she asked me to provide my contact information and told me she would put me on the “on call” list if I would “PROMISE” to answer my phone. Yet, she didn’t even give me the opportunity to give it to her because she couldn’t stop yelling at me.

In tears, I called back and another gentleman was kind enough to put me on a call list and leave a note for Richard Choi who had left for the day (Friday, early, isn’t THAT typical). I’m sure he has a cell phone, and they did say they would try to get a hold of him… but again, no one would take my contact information because they were too busy screaming at me about what a horrible person I am. He was nice enough to apologize for how i was treated but basically told me there was nothing he could do about it.

The fact is, if they would have stopped being rude and abusive and given us a chance to talk to them (my husband was right there and witnessed this entire thing) they would have found out that we were completely willing to cooperate and help. But, we had NO IDEA that any of this was going on. How would someone assume that by calling 911 to report what looked like a crime - would get you subpoenaed with no notice and no prior knowledge that they might even require your help? Furthermore, as I said, if they had given us the chance to explain they would have realized that:

A.) they subpoenaed (geez, I hope I am spelling that correctly) the wrong person.

B.) my husband would actually be the person they would want to testify because I was asleep at the time and didn’t SEE anything. (gee, just trying to save TIME and you know, TAX PAYER money by getting the RIGHT person for them, but they clearly aren’t interested in that.)

I’m ashamed to live in this county where honest, hard working, TAX PAYING citizens are treated like criminals and harassed and abused for trying to do the right thing. Oh, I’m sorry, they treated us worse than criminals, because at least criminals have rights.

I’m an innocent citizen and I was threatened with arrest NUMEROUS times during the phone call with BOTH women from the DA’s office.

I don’t expect the District Attorney’s office to behave honorably and apologize for the atrocious behavior of their employees. But, it would sure be nice.

It’s nice to know that Bakersfield’s well-known tradition of harassment and abuse of honest citizens continues and that no one ever does anything about it. Some things never change, I guess."

I posted about this at the local newspaper’s website as well.
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Amy
amy@amysmusings.com
www.amysmusings.com