Veteran criminal defense attorney goes behind the scenes in book.
Veteran criminal defense attorney sheds light on the power struggles and dynamics from the inside
California’s justice system — especially the ranks of cops, district attorneys and judges — are “Machiavellians,” “sadists” and “sociopaths.”
That’s the message put forth in “California: State of Collusion,” a book written by longtime criminal defense attorney Joseph Tully. He started practicing law in the late 1990s, with the Fresno County public defender’s office. Now, he’s in private practice in Martinez, taking on high-profile cases throughout the state. Tully estimates his win rate is around 90 percent but says he doesn’t go out of his way to keep track.
Both he and his law partner, Jack Weiss, make a point of saying they will not take on “snitches” or “rats” as clients. “State of Collusion,” Tully’s first attempt as an author, made its debut at No. 1 in Amazon’s civil rights category.
Q
What made you want to become an author? Sounds like your law career is keeping you plenty busy.
A
I was always struck by the fact that people are justifiably supportive of law enforcement. I am too; I like good cops. People do ride-alongs with police officers, or watch the cop shows and stuff, but I felt there was this big disparity between reality and what was being presented on TV and what most people thought.
Most people think from the outside, criminal law is not a respectable profession, and that all the people accused are guilty scumbags and all the cops are Eagle Scouts or something. And, a lot of times the disappointing behavior that I see are in cops, DAs and judges. I wanted people to know what it was like, the truth from the inside. That was the first reason.
The second reason is there are good cops, there are good DAs, there are good judges. The good ones are some of the best people you’ve met in your life. And I wanted to give voice to those people; I wanted to let them know that they don’t have to be silent while the majority are doing bad things.
Q
You say in the first chapter that “before you’re arrested in California, you’re already screwed.” You want to expand on that?
A
(Laughs) Take a thousand different reasons. Have someone, anyone, from the public go and sit in a motions courtroom. What they’ll see is deAs
“The thing that most people don’t know is that positions of power attract psychopaths. Right off the bat you get a lot of bad people attracted to positions of power.” — Joseph Tully on the problems with the criminal justice system
fense attorneys losing motion after motion after motion after motion. I’m a pretty good attorney, a win record of around 90 to 95 percent — I’m guessing, but it’s a pretty good record — that means I know what I’m doing, I know the law and how people interpret the law.
Yet, motions are very disappointing. Judges don’t seem to care about the law, they don’t seem to care about truth, they don’t seem to care about justice. You also face a brotherhood of officers, and their goal is to get the W in their bracket at the end of the day. The vast majority don’t care about telling the truth and letting the cards fall where they may. It’s partisan, and they’re out to win. They will do whatever they can, some more than others, to get that conviction.
Q
Our system has all these protections in place to prevent that kind of stuff from happening, yet you’re saying it goes on anyway. Why?
A
Everybody knows the old adage of “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The thing that most people don’t know is that positions of power attract psychopaths. Right off the bat you get a lot of bad people attracted to positions of power. So you get some bad people and some good people. The good people that are there, the “power corrupts” thing is going to kick in and they’re going to get corrupted. So out of everybody you have working in positions of power, just a small fraction are able to resist and remain a good human being true to the spirit of justice. You have dynamics like, judges cannot get reelected if the DA’s office opposes them. If a DA’s office runs ads about a judge that say, “This judge is soft on crime,” that judge won’t get reelected. If the police and sheriff’s union don’t support a judicial candidate, the judge won’t get reelected from that either. There is a lot of pressure on judges to make the cops happy and make the prosecutors happy. There’s not a lot of accountability. And my clients, when I clear them, even if they’ve been politically targeted, they can’t go out and sue. No one cares. The best you can do is clear someone and tell them, “OK, go rebuild your life, sorry this happened to you. But at least you’re not spending your life in prison.”
Q
Well if that’s true, did you ever have second thoughts about taking this very public stance, calling judges psychopaths and whatnot?
A
I don’t care. I’m going to tell the truth, and like I said, the good judges out there, I salute them, I’m very respectful. The good DAs out there, I love them to death. I’m glad we have good ones out there who are going to get the bad guys but let the good people go. I just don’t care. I do a lot of work all over and when I get a batch of cases in Contra Costa County, I start remembering why I was so pissed off and had to write that book. It’s one of the worst counties to practice in. … If people knew what it was really like and how the system really operated, they would be very disappointed. Judges are very compliant to DAs here. Whenever there is an imbalance of power, justice will take a few black eyes.
Q
What’s your opinion of the wave of new justice reforms in California, like AB 109, or the felony murder rule changes? It seems like these issues are more front and center now.
A
Yeah they are, thank God. I think what people need to know is that our old course was not financially sustainable, it just wasn’t. We couldn’t keep building prisons and convicting people and filling them up and rinse and repeat. It was not financially sustainable. DAs get a lot of convictions, and you can’t just pad the system over and over every day. A lot of the reforms were really financial. Our hatred and vindictiveness was not sustainable. (Reforms) are going to be able to keep the system running, but a byproduct is people are acting and thinking differently because of the changes. They were all moves for the better.