April S Gilbert

When I first met April, I was hopeless and lost in the system with 3 cases and had zero help from the previous 6 public defenders that were assigned to my cases. I was totally being backed into a corner by the DA and told I had to plea to everything or I wouldn't get a deal. I was being forced to ta...ke all charges even ones I didn't commit in order to get a reduced sentence and none of my attorneys would listen to my situation. I care for my 91 year old grandmother since my mom passed away a couple years ago, she in the early stages of Alzheimer's and heart failure, she's deaf and in a wheelchair. There is no one else in my family to look after her and care for her, she depends on me and jail was not an option for me. But fighting it, going to trial and the thought of possibly loosing was terrifying. When I met April she exuded confidence, empathy, and communicated every step of the process. She told me not to stress out that we needed to sit down and go over everything so she could get my side of what happened. No other attorney cared what my story was! She told me she thought that there were a lot of issues within the cases that we should try and to do motions on and that she was going to submit them for review and see what happend. So she pushed the next court date back for months, wait what??.. I always had to show up at least once a month to push the court date back for another month. We went in to the court room and she was like a pitbull in there, she totally took charge and told them what she wanted she got it. Everyone really respected her in the courtroom and she acted like a private attorney making thing happen. We did motion to supress evidence, motion this, motion that, won some, lost some, kept fighting it and I told her to get me past the election so I could vote and get me house arrest and I'd make a deal and that's what she did. She never promised me anything she didn't get but I ended up getting an amazing deal I never thought possible. I had 9-10 felony charges and 31 misdemeanors with enhancements. In the end I agreed to a year of Secured Electronic Confinement (house arrest), so I could be home with my grandmother and still be able to leave to take her to doctors and do her grocery shopping, or anything for her care, and 3 years formal probation, and she got the judge to order Probation to allow me to take my prescription medications. She currently trying to get all my property back for me because they took so much of my stuff, iPads, iPhones, hardrives, cameras, memory cards, giftcards, laptops, etc. The case is over and she didn't need to do any of this but she is still and is so caring about her clients. She was always very easy for me to get a hold of and very informative and hopeful. I know if she ever went into private practice she would be my first choice!!