John Joseph Briggs

John Briggs was asign to my case by the county, to be my pubic defender. I heard, he was the best & after almost a year of working with him; I can see he was. But of course public defenders work for free, as far as I know. I wanted to give the guy some money, to show my appreciation & for he's hard ...work but being 19 & a shy invert kid. I didnt have good communication skills, & never gave him my little 600.00 bucks I earned that summer. After a brief talk one evening with Mr.Briggs, of all he's work that year, it felt like he was asking for money. Being a nervous wreck & looking @ 16-32 years to life, I didn't think straight to gave him the money then. Well he took it personal; I believe..... & a day before trail, John Briggs coerced me to taking a plea deal. Mr. Briggs said "it's better to take one Felony, instead of 2 Felonies." I was in total shock, because it was an easy case & he even said we were going to beat it,we had ALL the EVIDENCE looking GOOD on my behave. I told him, what about what he had said before, about beating the case. But John gave me the dirtiest look & after seven minutes of thinking about it, I thought John Briggs was gonna screw me in the middle of trail, so I took the plea deal; which was engaging in a riot w/ a deadly weapon. Everyone in the courtroom was shocked, in the out come. Judge Joe Maus , said 2 years seems to low for you; I'm giving You 3 years Community corrections(The Villa). Then he slams He's mallet & it was over. Before anyone left the court room, Judge Joe Maus looks over & said ,"You should of just taken it to court; You'll would of beat it with SELF DEFENSE. " 3 weeks later or so , I was in the half way house, seeking @ least help for my alcoholism; but seeing that all the halfway house wanted was money & stressed very hard on it. I revoked myself & headed to prison, after just 3 months. Why did I do that? Because it was cheaper, & I would only do 18 months & the rest parole @ home. I played the system to save me money, & to get home faster. My heart does go out to the innocent people that go to prison, on wack charges because sometimes they end up getting more years in there, just because of the politics in prison. John Briggs is one of the best, but with a dark heart like that, I could of just used the SUCKIEST public defender there;& still beat my case. Your better off trying to represent YOURSELF, then GIVE YOUR LIFE OVER to THIS GUY.