Shooting Competition at Fall Conference 2016

Our thanks to Uintah County Attorney Mark Thomas, Uintah County Sheriff Vance Norton and their great staff for sponsoring a shooting competition and dutch oven dinner during Fall Conference.  There were a ton of training officers on hand who coached everyone through the competition.  Those with little to no experience were grateful for the hands-on help.  Even the veteran shooters appreciated the coaches being there.

There were four courses of fire:

1.  The Dueling Tree Station. Shooters were partnered with another shooter. Shooters attempted to turn steel targets to the correct color by impacting each target with accurate rounds on target.

2.  25 Round Course of Fire for Score.

3.  Scenario Based Training Course of Fire. Shooters were seated at a table in a mock courtroom scenario. The shooter was required to engage targets accurately and quickly.

4.  Static 25 Yard Range. Shooters engaged static targets at known and predetermined distances for speed and accuracy from the holster.

Everyone had a great time.  Here are the top 3 scores in each course of fire as well as office and individual scores.

Steel Target Individual Competition
1st: Daryl Bell
2nd: Jann Farris

25 Round Course of Fire
1st: Tim Taylor
2nd: McKay King
3rd: Dale Eyre

 Courtroom Scenario
1st: Jon Stearmer
2nd: Stephen Foote
3rd: Mark Thomas

25-Yard Range
1st: Richard Jorgensen
2nd: Brandon Poll
3rd: Richard Kennerly

Office Scores Based on 3 Events
1st: Duchesne County: 358 points
2nd: Wasatch County: 322.5 points
3rd: Davis County: 314.666 points

 Individual Scores Based on 3 Events
1st: Richard Jorgensen: 362 points
2nd: Scott Sweat: 359 points
3rd: Stephen Foote: 358 points

Sheriff Norton shared the photos he took.  Enjoy.

Our Role as Prosecutors - The Honorable Matthew D. Bates

Our Role As Prosecutors
Matthew D. Bates
September 9, 2016

 Today was the swearing in ceremony of the Honorable Matthew D. Bates in the Utah Supreme Court chambers.  Matt graciously invited me to attend and I was honored to do so.  As we all know, he will make an outstanding trial court judge, and as Judge Voros commented, he’ll someday make a great Utah Supreme Court judge. 

 Judge Bates finished his remarks with this anecdote, which I share with his permission.  (I hope I get the details right.)  Several years ago in the fall a traveling band stopped in Park City and were performing on Main Street.  This band lived out of their van and traveled all over the country performing.  Two of the band members had a run-in with the Park City police, were arrested and appeared in court.  Judge Bates was the prosecutor.  He met with them, resolved their case and the two were ordered released from jail.  (For those that don’t know, the Summit County jail, courthouse and County Attorney’s office are quite a ways east of downtown Park City.)

 That afternoon as Judge Bates was leaving his office a fall thunderstorm was rolling in to town.  As he described it, it was one of those “beautiful, fall thunderstorms, where the raindrops are huge and soak everything they hit.”  As Matt got into his car (actually it was his Dad’s car - that’s important later) and was driving away from the office he saw these two itinerant band members walking away from the jail getting soaked by the rain.  Because their van was still somewhere in downtown Park City, they had quite a ways to walk, in the rain.

 Displaying the class that he possesses, Judge Bates pulled up along side them, rolled down the window and asked if they would like a ride.  When they looked in the window and saw who was offering them a ride they were obviously shocked, and maybe even a little concerned.  But because they were getting soaked they only hesitated a moment before getting in.

 Judge Bates reminded us that these were traveling band members and that they smelled like traveling band members who were living in their van.  That’s when he mentioned that it was a good thing he was driving his dad’s car that day.

 He drove them into town and dropped them off at their van.  On the way they actually had a cordial conversation and he wished them well.

Judge Bates reminded us that as prosecutors our job is to uphold the law and hold people accountable for their actions.  But at the same time that does not give us license to mistreat people.  Instead we should treat them with respect and sometimes even mercy.  I’m not sure how many of us would have done the same thing but I was not at all surprised that it was Matt who pulled over and gave them a ride. 

We will miss Judge Bates as a prosecutor and trainer but wish him the best as he begins this new chapter of his career.  We are all better prosecutors and people for having worked with him.

Bob

UPC Staffers Hard at Work

Tyson, Marilyn and I were at our national conference in Philadelphia last week.  We brought back some good ideas for future training.  But as you can see, no fun was had by anyone!

Aliens, Superheroes and Ghosts v. Lawyers

Illustration by Stephen Webster and Brenan Sharp

For some reason summer blockbusters don’t revolve around lawyers, unless the films shows a greedy, spineless, cowardly lawyer sitting on a toilet being eaten by a T-Rex.  While the world is currently being saved from another alien invasion or from those pesky, ecto-plasmic beings or we’re being wowed by the latest comic book movie, the last 100 years of cinema have delivered a number of outstanding legal films. 

A group of legal scholars and film critics got together and voted on the best legal films of the last 100 or so years, choosing their top three picks per decade.  They based their decision on the following criteria:

1.  The film must say something important, enduring, and arguably true about law and justice.

2.  The film should be a good piece of moviemaking: well-acted, well-directed, well-photographed.

3.  The film should invite repeated viewing and encourage thought and study of the themes presented.

4.  The film should be in English, primarily because of the makeup of our English-speaking audience.

5.  Films considered are silver screen films, not “made for television” movies.

6.  The film, even from the most recent decades, should be of the quality to stand the test of time.

Here’s what they came up with?  What do you think?  Do you even recognize some of the films on this list?

 1915-1924

1. The People vs. John Doe (1916)
2. The Majesty of the Law (1915).
3. The Man Without a Country (1917).

1925-1934

1. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928).
2. The Scarlet Letter (1926).
3.  Blackmail (1929).
   
1935-1944

1. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
2. Young Mr. Lincoln (1939).
3. The Ox-Bow Incident (1943).

1945-1954

1. Adam’s Rib (1949)
2. The Caine Mutiny (1954)
3. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

1955-1964

1. 12 Angry Men (1957)
2. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
3. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) [tie vote]
   
1965-1974 (Tie)

1. A Man for All Seasons (1966) and The Paper Chase (1973) [tie vote]
2. In Cold Blood (1967)
3. Lenny (1974)

1975-1984

1. The Verdict (1982)
2. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
3. Breaker Morant (1980)
   
1985-1994

1. The Accused (1988)
2. A Few Good Men (1992)
3. Presumed Innocent (1990)

1995-2004

1. Dead Man Walking (1995)
2. A Civil Action (1998)
3. The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)

2005-2014

1. The Social Network (2010)
2. North Country (2005)
3. Fracture (2007)

www.abajournal.com, August 1, 2015
Illustration by Stephen Webster and Brenan Sharp