To Honorable Judge Ellis: I am writing to inform you that I was coerced into signing the plea agreement. This is my motion to withdraw my plea agreement, entered on the 29th of March 2012. I move to have a hearing on the illegal coerced plea. I also move to represent myself and have counsel of choice represent me at the illegal coerced plea hearing. I motion/move to withdraw the plea agreement. Please give me notice of the coerced plea hearing five business days prior to the hearing. Thank you, without prejudice. — Christopher Diaz
Embattled Texas medical marijuana defendant Chris Diaz, 22, facing 5-99 years prison for 14 grams of cannabis hash that he uses as legal medicine in California, got a rare piece of good news from the trial court on 4/20/12.
Judge Stephen Ellis granted Diaz a hearing, May 10, 1:30pm, in Brownwood Superior Court on the right to withdraw his felony intent-to-sell plea as coerced and involuntary. Chris adamantly insists he was not in his right mind when he agreed to the plea and that he had no intent to sell the small amount of cannabis he carried for his own medical use, driving thru Texas to visit his ill grandmother. If Chris’ motion to withdraw his plea is granted and a mistrial declared, his conviction and 3-year prison sentence would be reversed, allowing him to start again in his effort to challenge the Texas marijuana law for lack of medical access.
The DA can file the same or different charges...or decide not to bother, considering the mounting evidence of criminal coercion and civic humiliation heaped on the little town of Brownwood Texas from this wrong-headed prosecution of a qualified California asthma cannabis patient for a tiny amount of medicine.
On the other hand, the more likely scenario is that Chris' motion to extinguish his plea will be denied, the Judge will say it was not coerced, giving as proof that he asked Chris at his 3/29 plea hearing if he was aware he was giving up his right to appeal and Chris answered, “Yes.”
What Chris was not aware of were the implications of forfeiting his right to appeal, since his lawyer was so busy extracting the plea that he never explained to Chris the practical effects of the plea. Chris was misled to believe that agreeing to the plea would more or less get him immediate parole with time served rather than a year of prison, allowing him to continue his fight on the outside with legal assistance that has been lacking on the inside.
Involuntary pleas are strictly illegal. Defendants are required to state that their plea is voluntary and knowing — no promises, no threats — for the court to accept it.
Nine months of incarceration under miserable conditions from Mendocino County California to Brown County Texas, including 111 days in solitary confinement, took its toll on Chris Diaz. Waiting for trial in total isolation, deprived of mail, phone calls, visits, all human contact, even legal mail prior to trial when defendants most need guidance, Chris, at age 22 with no prior record, felt confused, scared, abandoned by family & friends, and just wanted release from the “nightmare you never wake up from,” as his Public Defender Rudy Taylor had promised if he’d agree to the plea.
It appears there was never any intention of putting on a defense at trial. Diaz qualifies as a genuine medical necessity patient since his lifelong severe allergy condition is life-threatening, but his doctor was never contacted. In his Mar 31 letter to Judge Ellis, Dr. Courtney wrote: “Your honor, I am confused as to why my patient's lawyer has not made contact with me regarding my appearance nor reviewed my participation in Mr. Diaz' defense...the family understood that Mr Taylor would make a motion to the court...but to date I have yet to receive such notice.”
At Chris' plea hearing 3/29, Judge Ellis asked, “Do you understand you are giving up your right to appeal?” Chris answered “Yes.” He was totally alone in the hearing, unaware of what was going on. His family and supporters were not present because they were not told about the hearing or that a plea agreement would cancel the trial.
Chris later wrote his mother that he'd never been informed of the implications of giving up his right to appeal. “I would never have knowingly given up my right to challenge all the wrong that has been done to me.” This is a classic example of an unknowing plea; he did not understand the consequences of his signature on the plea agreement. Rudy Taylor's ineffective counsel was responsible for that.
Chris Diaz was misled into thinking the plea would spring him from “the nightmare you never wake up from” by substituting parole for prison. He believed his lawyer was on his side, seeking justice at trial based on medical necessity, in a challenge to the Texas marijuana laws. The act went on for months of deception and degradation with promises never kept, instead solitary confinement imposed without lawyer or family communication, until it came time to extract the plea that would end the case forever. Such treatment cannot possibly be legal, unless torture is now considered legal.
--Pebbles Trippet
Pebbles,
You are terribly uninformed. Chris made the decision to take the plea, which reduced the charge to a second degree felony. The range of punishment for a second degree is 2-20 years and Chris got only 3 years. He has already spent more than 4 months OVER the minimum parole eligibility and will be paroled very quickly. After the evidence presented to me by the DA that Chris was selling grams of hash for “40 a g,” all of the good will in the community that I had built disappeared (even though you and I know that he was going to sell a little medicine for gas money.)
I have been a long time advocate of legalization of canibus. People like you are the ild-time warriors who deserve the credit for taking the issue this far. But your time has come and gone. It will be people like me, in suits and ties, that takes us the rest of the way. We can no longer call non-believers evil while ailienating them from the truth. The all-out assault on Texas and Brown County was unproductive. The assault on me is ridiculous. Peace. Rudy Taylor
RESPONSE TO RUDY TAYLOR by Pebbles Trippet
To Rudy Taylor,
Your letter (“A Deal’s A Deal,” AVA, 5/16/12) said some things I need to correct, lest someone think they might be true.
After bragging — “I have been a long time advocate of legalization of cannabis” — you lapsed into wishful thinking: “People like you are the old time warriors who deserve the credit for taking the issue this far. But your time has come and gone. It will be people like me in suits and ties who take us the rest of the way.”
No, that is confused thinking. It’s because of people like you, lawyers in suits and ties, that we are in this mess today. Lawyers hold the power to make good laws and to challenge bad laws but have done neither with any success over decades of prohibition. The war on marijuana is the most protracted war on US soil — federal prohibition began in 1937 — and lawyers have done virtually nothing to help us climb out of this hole.
That is because there is a conflict of interest in your profession. Marijuana laws keep lawyers employed, so it is not in your interest to overturn them. It has been left to people like me — defendants with no legal training other than what we learn in the trenches — to step up to the plate and try our hand, because our lives are being destroyed by these laws.
Chris Diaz, age 22, is a good example of countless youth who innocently use marijuana, locked up for their use of a beneficial plant that has never been known to kill a single person. Millions of marijuana felons are marginalized. Jobs, student loans, scholarships and the like are off limits. Youth and people of color are hit the hardest, using profiling, stop and frisk and other questionable methods to find small amounts of pot to lock them up. 85% of all marijuana cases are for simple possession. Who are they harming to justify all the harm done to them?
Secondly, the vicious lies and tricks run on marijuana people to keep us chasing our tails are part of the game plan which works remarkably well to keep the laws in tact. You, dear public pretender, are complicit in this game as chief protagonist in the Chris Diaz case.
A public defender’s job is to defend the defendant; instead you have expedited his misery and confusion, shamelessly intimidated him in his most weakened state after being locked up in solitary confinement for three weeks prior to trial, without a single visit or phone call to help him understand his situation as he faced 5-99 years in a Texas prison for 1/2 once of medicine, the perfect situation to pluck a plea from the uninitiated.
Chris was unaware, when you finally went to visit him in his concrete box on the eve of trial, that you, in fact, had cancelled his trial behind his back and had no other purpose than to mislead and coerce a felony plea for 3-years prison by touting it as a “bargain” to be grateful for. According to Chris, you looked over his shoulder and told him what to write as he signed the Plea Agreement. You told him to write in three years and he’d get out soon, so that’s what he did. When he wanted to write, “without prejudice” next to his signature, you told him not to do that because it would “piss off the judge.” So he went along, because he was too scared and confused to do anything else.
You abandoned, intimidated, misled and coerced your client into doing something he “would not ordinarily have done,” but for your misleadership. Even Judge Ellis lost his mind for a moment and congratulated you on the record at the plea hearing for a job well done (for plucking the misled plea from a person locked in solitary).
The judge later apologized to the press since it expressed his bias in the case; judges are supposed to be strictly neutral.
Chris at age 22, a first time marijuana offender with no criminal record and no experience with injustice, didn’t understand what was going on.
He begged for an explanation of why he had lost his daily mail and access to a phone to speak to his family and legal counsel.
He didn’t understand if his witnesses — his California cannabis doctor and his mother — were ready to testify at trial about his medical necessity. Half of his life had been spent in and out of hospitals with collapsed lungs and other breathing problems to treat life-threatening asthma attacks that had plagued him since birth. Cannabis is a powerful bronchial dilator and worked wonders to control and stave off his life-threatening asthma attacks.
The trial witnesses were never contacted. The trial was cancelled. The race to the bottom was on. You and the DA knew the insidious plan, but the defendant, his doctor and his mother were not informed and had no idea what was up your sleeve.
Your betrayal didn’t stop there. It continues in your 5/16/12 letter to me, which states, “After the evidence presented to me by the DA that Chris was selling grams of hash for ’40 a g’, all of the good will in the community that I had built disappeared (even though you and I know that he was going to sell a little medicine for gas money.)”
What??????? You and I know what?
First of all, please do not speak for me. “You and I know” this is a lie, designed to cover your discredited ass. When you raised this preposterous idea to Chris’ mother, she absolutely denied it, saying, “Chris has never and will never sell his medicine.”
You insisted that DA Murray said it was so, making it clear you were taking your cues from the DA to get a conviction in the case. This is evidence you were not defending your client, but rather collaborating with the prosecution to nail your client.
Chris’ mother insisted on seeing the text messages that allegedly showed Chris intending to sell hash for ’40 a g’. They were never produced because there are none.
You are still slandering Chris, post-conviction, trying to put another nail in the conviction coffin, because the kid won’t die.
The most recent development in the case is that Chris wrote another letter to Judge Ellis to reinstate his original motion to withdraw his plea as illegally coerced and misled, based on his PD’s ineffective counsel.
After Chris’ plea hearing on April 28, the Judge scheduled a May 10 hearing to consider Chris’ motion to withdraw his coerced plea. But a few days before the scheduled hearing, Chris was shipped to prison from Brownwood jail without his legal papers going with him.
He then wrote the court to withdraw his withdrawal motion, because he was once again being deprived of his own case documents, his legal notes in preparation for the hearing, and all communication with family and legal counsel by phone.
The following is a 5/11/12 letter from prisoner Chris Diaz to his mother, summarizing his new letter and motions to Judge Ellis, explaining his previous change of heart:
“I withdrew my pro se motion only after being moved to TDCJ, further disrupting my communication with my family and legal counsel, as well as being scared I would again be left alone and defenseless with no one to help me in the courtroom, facing the same people who threatened, coerced and misled me before.
“I motion/move again to withdraw the plea agreement that was ill gotten and that I was illegally coerced into signing. The counter offer to DA Murray was not my counter offer. Rudy Taylor told me what to write word for word.
“Then he told me not to sign the agreement on March 29 2012 ‘without prejudice’, like I sign every document and is my true signature, because he thought it would ‘piss off the Judge’ (you), which further scared me and was intimidating.
“Also I did not fully understand what it means to give up my right to appeal. Nor was I explained to what it meant to give up that right and I would not have given up that right if I had known.
“In my right mind, I would never have given up the right to challenge all the wrong doing done to me and my family by Brown County. I was misled and did not have full disclosure of the agreement and the consequences of signing the plea agreement.
“You all would be in dishonor to accept the plea agreement and the way it was produced. Are Murray and Taylor dishonorable? Are you Mr. Ellis?
“I motion/move to withdraw the plea agreement.
“I motion/move for a hearing on the coerced plea and ineffective assistance of counsel.
“I motion/move to represent myself at the hearing with the counsel of my choice present.
Thank you.
Without prejudice.— Christopher Diaz”
* * *
Chris Diaz is standing on principle, more power to him.
You, Rudy Taylor, were the key in this whole equation. The Texas laws are as extreme in their prohibition nature as the federal laws and you could have taken them on with a medical necessity defense, as well as a constitutional challenge in the trial court.
Instead you secretly cancelled the trial, informed neither the defendant, his family, nor his doctor, allowed Chris to be kept in solitary for weeks before trial without any communication from you, and at the last minute before trial, went to him and told him what to do if he wanted to get out soon.
As for the parole promises, they are like politicians’ promises…empty. When they say you can parole out from this date, they should be saying you are eligible to parole out from this date, but that doesn’t mean they’ll allow you to.
Chris shouldn’t have to do one day in jail for his medicine. Your smug satisfaction with the three year “deal” you coerced shows you are not challenging Texas’ extreme marijuana laws; you are complicit.
You stated in your AVA letter to me, “It will be people like me in suits and ties who will take us the rest of the way.” If this is true, we are really in trouble. Chris Diaz with his innocent medical use of hash is not the world’s problem; people like you are.
Pebbles Trippet, Elk
PS. CHRIS DIAZ WRITES BROWNWOOD TEXAS JUDGE TO REINSTATE PLEA WITHDRAWAL, 5/11/12
I am writing to you to request to withdraw my pro se motion. I now move/motion to withdraw the withdrawal motion and motion to reinstate the first illegal coerced plea hearing motion. I withdrew my pro se motion only after being moved to TDCJ, further disrupting my communication with my family and legal counsel, as well as being scared I would again be left alone and defenseless with no one to help me in the courtroom, facing the same people who threatened, coerced and misled me before.
I motion again to withdraw the plea agreement that was ill gotten and that I was illegally coerced into signing. The counter offer to DA Murray was not my counter offer. Rudy Taylor told me what to write word for word.
Then he told me not to sign the agreement on March 29 2012 “without prejudice,” like I sign every document and is my true signature because he thought it would “piss off the Judge” (you), which further scared me and was intimidating.
You all would be in dishonor to accept the plea agreement and the way it was produced. Are Murray and Taylor dishonorable? Are you Mr. Ellis?
Also I did not fully understand what tit means to give up my right to appeal. Nor was I explained to what it meant to give up that right and I would not have given up that right if I had known.
In my right mind, I would never have given up the right to challenge all the wrong doing done to me and my family by Brown County. I was misled and did not have full disclosure of the agreement and the consequences of signing the plea agreement.
I motion/move to withdraw the plea agreement. I motion/move for a hearing on the coerced plea and ineffective assistance of counsel. I motion/move to represent myself at the hearing with the counsel of my choice present.
Thank you. Without prejudice.
Christopher Diaz
speaking of the law, where was attorney-client privilege when you wrote that? if you really are Rudy Taylor (doubtful)
This discussion leaves out a “sleeper” issue which was the felony charge of bail jumping based on Mr. Diaz’ failure to show up in court and his flight to California. There are some defenses to this that could be brought up but which most likely would not fly: that the laws and penalties and Texas are so cruel and inhumane that due process will excuse flight from them, like for example those in the Deep South a half century and more ago that the 1930s movie “I Escaped From a Chain Gang” was based on. More importantly, however, it is the client, Mr. Diaz, who would face the liability and serve the time if this type of long shot defense-usually reserved for desperate situations where there is no alternative on the table-were not to prevail.
For what its worth, the local Brown County press commented adversely on the doctrinaire and irresponsible antics of some of Diaz’ misguided supporters which they stated needlessly poisoned the atmosphere against him in what is already a conservative environment.
“some of Diaz’ misguided supporters which they stated needlessly poisoned the atmosphere against him in what is already a conservative environment”
Sue I just happen to be one of those misguided supporters, matter of fact I wrote his Motion Challenging Jurisdiction and Venue and his Habeas Corpus. I also filed said Habeas in an Article III Court…to date not one of them has been answered…Chris does have remedy, and it still waiting to be heard.
Chase
Chris Diaz did not jump bail. He was out on bail when he left for California to look for legal help since he was getting nowhere with Texas lawyers. He called his pd repeatedly to find out about his next court date, but the PD never phoned him back to inform him and apparently had no intention of representing him. Chris had no idea of the court date or would have returned for it. He simply failed to appear, which is different than jumping bail. The day before jury trial was set to start, Dr. Courtney still had not been contacted, even though he had prepared testimony on Chris’ behalf.
Pebbles,
This is all public record now including the photos of Chris’ phone. I will be glad to provide those to you at any time. I stopped communicating with his mother because his boyfriend threatened me. Those two caused ALL the problems for Chris. They disrupted court proceedings and included the sovereign nation self-described Attorney General who further disrupted the process. I watched Chris sit in the audience with his kooky “parents” while his lawyer attempted to Suppress the Evidence against him. Without all of the disruption and threats to Brown County, Texas, this would have been a simple probation case. You people USED Chris to make your point that cannabis should be legal. His own mother was the worst offender. I agree with the sentiment but you should pick and choose your fights a little better. A good kid went to prison because of your “movement.” Remember Pebbles, everything in moderation. Too much weed smoking is not good for your mind and that thought is embodied by you people. Peace, Rudy Taylor.