My daughter had been arrested on a mayhem charge. I was a police officer for 29 yrs and I knew the charge was overkill. At arraignment she was held on a considerably high bail. The lawyer she was assigned stated to us that the charge was proper and that we should not bail her because when she would b...e indicted they would just raise the bail higher and she would be locked back up. He also told us to be prepared she was going to be doing some serious state time. When we went to court the first time with him he argued so disresptfully to the judge she put our daughter back down in lock up for the entire day.
It was an easy decision to fire him but who should I put my daughters welfare in the hands off.
Through a mutual friend of my wife’s we were given the name of George Papachristos. We were told that he was a defense attorney but he had been a prosecutor prior and that he knew the law inside and out and he was excellent.
My wife and I met with him and were extremely comfortable and confidant in him just after one meeting. He was also willing to take the case without even talking to my daughter. He pointed out several issues with the previous attorneys actions, that we weren’t even aware of.
The first thing he told us was that we needed to bail her out because it looks so much better if the defendant is not in prison garb or shackles. The bail was so high we couldn’t do it. He asked for a bail review and was able to get it down to a much reasonable figure. Also when she was indicted he was able to keep the bail as is and she didn’t have to go back, and she was able to keep working which was another strong suggestion because it would show that she was making a contribution to society.
She had been put on house arrest and a bracelet that we had nothing but trouble with because of the construction of our house with tin ceilings. She was even arrested once because that lost her track. Even though they knew she hadn’t left the house. After the arrest Ceorge was able to talk with probation and they agreed that they would not act on a loss of signal as long as it didn’t show her leaving the house. We never had the problem again.
Like I said she was on house arrest and a bracelet. After a while George went in and sought leniency so she could go out and seek employment which he was successful at. Then when she got employment he was able to have it modified again so she could work the hours that the job required.
While this was going on he was still dealing with the case and he successfully argued that the charge of Mayhem was not proper and it was dropped to an A&B DW.
There were a lot of doubts and flaws with this case for which my belief was to fight it, it was a winning case. He would tell us we have a good case and he felt he could win it. But he didn’t wanna take a chance on our daughters future. He wanted to make a deal that would make everyone happy. He was honest and told us there would probably be jail time. However months in a county jail would be better than years in a state facility if he lost.
So a deal was agreed to that involved six months committed. However on the sentencing date he argued one last time for consideration of leniency. We were shocked when the judge came back with a suspended sentence, probation and numerous probation restrictions on her probation...no jail time! My entire family was in shock. We had gone from being told she was going to do serious time to probation unbelievable.
It is obvious with the story I have related George has excellent Court and legal skills. He was however a great comfort for us and our family. It was not an easy situation for parents to go through or my daughter, tensions were raised in the family unit for almost two years. However he always had calming words and support for us. We are glad this ordeal is over, but it is bittersweet because we no longer need his services so we honestly feel like we’re losing a family member.