Jesse Alphonso James

If you are reading this review and you don't heed my warning, then you deserve anything that happens to you..... Mr. James represented me around 2011 in the county of Riverside. I don't know where to even begin to describe how inept of an attorney he is. His big sales pitch is that he became a ...defense attorney because he was inspired by the work of Johnny Cochran and his work defending people who were economically disadvantaged and that as a former policeman, he saw rather egregious prosecutions of people who have little resources and massive missteps and overreaches by the District Attorney offices. Sounds great, right?! Sounds good to me, anyway. So he was big on trash talking the D.A.'s office and in particular, the Deputy D.A. conducting the case. Reading through the initial documents, he begins to tear the case apart characterizing the charges flimsy and comical. Whenever the Deputy D.A. would up the ante, he would respond with, "what does she think I am, some kind of b!tch...." Well, that was all just pre-trial bravado because once we got into the court room, he was an empty suit and I felt all alone.....because, in essence, I was alone. Prior to the trial, we set up a game plan. I sat with him for hours (and I mean hours) feeding him information. Mr. James diligently taking down notes all the while validating my assertions and saying "we can use that information to our advantage." I kept telling him we needed a medical expert to prove my side of the case and Mr. James said that he agreed and he would be looking into lining a doctor up. But even beyond the doctor, we had plenty of ammunition to shoot the D.A.'s case down. We had at least a dozen items that he could present during trial that would, at the very least, prove a reasonable doubt. But the closer we get to the trial, I keep asking about obtaining the medical expert for the trial. He tells me that he's getting one together and we'll be ready when the trial begins. Not true. So we get into the pre-trial and then jury selection and the day prior to the actual court date, I ask Mr. James again about the medical expert (about the 15th time I've asked him), but this time he says that we're not going to get a medical expert to prove my innocence. I, of course, am alarmed by this late change in our strategy to defend me. Mr. James, showing supreme confidence, claims that this case isn't that tough and he should easily be able to get my charge reduced to "disturbing the peace." He claims that the Deputy D.A. is bluffing and he will be able to plea this case down to the lesser charge. He couldn't have been more wrong. So we get into trial, he makes the request that my charge be pled down to a "disturbing the peace" charge, the Deputy D.A. rejects it outright and Mr. James from that point further and for the next four days in court was a deer in the headlights. The Deputy D.A. has an extremely professional PowerPoint presentation and everything that Mr. James and I discussed in the hours of conversations that we had developing my defense was never ever mentioned. I was passing Mr. James notes during the trial as the Deputy D.A. brought up potentially damaging information against me telling him that this was the time to counter her accusations with the things we had previously discussed and Mr. James sat silently, not raising a finger. I, to this day, believe that perhaps Mr. James and the Deputy D.A. made a deal sacrificing me in order to get a favorable plea in another case. I don't know that as a fact, but it sure felt that way. Continued on next review.