Convicting Myself on the Stand (She never asked what happened & overlooked jury instructions that convicted me)
Ms. Manning put me on the stand to testify w/o once ever asking me what happened in its entirety.
She did not object when the other lawyer stated blatant fiction as fact specifically, this incident occurred on a mountain road of asphalt (no traffic or painted lines). In court the other attorney... stated that I intentionally drove against oncoming traffic disregarding painted traffic lines on the road. Ms. Manning said nothing which later assisted the jury applying a jury instruction that stated that by me disregarding a traffic law would render a guilty verdict for "assault with a deadly weapon".
Furthermore she told me I legally had no obligation to inform my employer which cost me my job of 18 years.
She told me I could go to work during my trial which was in blatant disregard of instructions I had been given by the court. Luckily I didn't take that chance but her lack of knowledge about employee relations in regards to criminal matters couldn't be more wrong. I take issue with the fact that she had the option to simply say, "I don't know."
The one "solid" witness for the other attorney was a police officer. When the police officer changed his testimony on the stand to their benefit, she raised no objection or even acknowledged the discrepancy to the court as pertinent. When I asked her why not she said, "He's our friend." (He is the officer who arrested me and just lied on the stand.) Originally he had stated the alleged victims were drunk and exaggerating. He changed it that they "seemed nervous".
I provided a list of more than 10 witnesses, 3 of which worked for the security office as security guards. She used 1 witness against their 3 and my one witness she chose was of a non-authoritive position.
After the guilty verdict came in, she was perturbed that I insisted on going straight to sentencing because she wanted to talk to the jury outside. When we left the courtroom there were jury members who waited to talk with her/us. The jury members apologized to me. They also stated that if I had not testified they would have found me not guilty.
I don't know why she insisted on putting me on the stand. On one afternoon amidst the trial she said she was going to prep me so I went to her office where she had a co-worker listen to my account of details. I started from the beginning and before even 5 minutes was up, we(she) ran out of time.
Ultimately, I was found guilty according to the jury members who were kind enough to speak about the trial to me because of a jury instruction that said if I break/disregard any laws I must be found guilty. Since I had stated that I had pulled over to the left side of the road, that was it. My fender bender was now officially an assault with a deadly weapon. Intention is not required nor damages nor sober credible alleged victims. They could have said ANYTHING they wanted and I would have been found guilty due to the jury instruction Ms. Manning allowed in.
My job which was federally regulated requires a criminal charge to be reported to them. Ms. Manning told me that since it was a misdemeanor I did not need to disclose it to them. Due to not disclosing the criminal charge and proceedings, this was deemed "misconduct" by my employer and I was thus terminated, lost my retirement and subsequently denied unemployment benefits due to the "misconduct".