Sophia J Moore

I had been representing myself in a case involving Sandy City's property ordinances, and I had demanded a jury trial. At the latest pre-trial hearing, the judge offered to assign a court appointed attorney because, he said, he did not want me representing myself in a jury trial. At our first (and onl...y) meeting, this attorney summoned me into the conference room at the courthouse, avoiding eye contact and failing to even introduce herself. The first words out of her mouth were an indirect admission that she had not even read the case file (even though she had had weeks to do so). Skimming the file as I sat there, she proceeded to tell me what the City was "offering." I tried to explain to her that we were beyond all that and she had been assigned to this case specifically to represent me in a jury trial, but she cut me off by putting her palm in my face as if I were a little child. She looked me in the eye for the first time to tell me -- in an extremely angry tone -- that this was a conservative community and a jury would convict me just because I was sitting in the defendant's chair. The meeting only went downhill from there. When I told her she would not be representing me, she arose and screamed at me -- yes -- screamed -- with her finger in my face -- "Get out of here!" I was already getting up to leave at that point, which made such an embarrassing scene completely unnecessary. I then went into the courtroom and told the judge what had happened and that I could not have such a person represent me. He then assigned a different court-appointed attorney to my case.