Judge reverses guilty verdict; Yells at prosecutor for cop lying; Judge gets punished

Judge and prosecutor got into argument because he wanted officer to be charged with lying.

A jury had just found a woman guilty of driving under the influence when the attorneys and judge started discussing the woman's license suspension. The Sanford police officer who made the arrest caused the defendant to lose her driver's license for a few months because of a mistake on the arrest paperwork.

Officials told Eyewitness News that as a result of the incident, Schott will soon only be presiding over civil cases.

The reason the woman lost her license was because the officer wrote the woman blew an .08 even though she took NO BREATHALIZER! The prosecutor saw this as a "mistake" on her paperwork, the judge saw this as "perjury" and berated the prosecutor. He wanted the cop prosecuted. The prosecutor refused saying it was a "mistake" on his part. As far as the judge was concerned, he lied on official paperwork.

At best, the prosecutor did not know the cop was lying and was doing her best to save her case. At worst, she suborned perjury and is just as guilty as the cop. Worse yet to me is a cop padding his arrests and cases by lying on his paperwork and to the courts, and when he finally gets caught, he's not the one who gets in trouble, the judge who catches him is!

"That is a very poor example of judicial temperament that judges are supposed to display," legal analyst Belvin Perry said. "He should've counted to 10 and kept quiet."

So in other words, the judge, should have let a potentially innocent civilian take the rap for something they may, or may not, have done, and let the cop get away with lying. Gotcha. We see how our society is suppose to work. Thanks for the heads up.


Judge went on tirade

The public defender’s officer believes Circuit Judge Frederic Schott was angry about a Sanford police officer’s questionable testimony that no one from the Sheriff’s Office was able to do a Breathalyzer test on Licette Gonzalez.

Gonzalez insists she’s innocent and is grateful for the judge’s decision, but said the whole thing was upsetting.
“I didn’t know what was going on. All I know is I was crying,” she said.

The officer said he didn’t ask her to do a Breathalyzer test because no one from the Sheriff’s Office was available to do it.

He indicated in reports she had an unlawful blood or breath-alcohol level, which automatically suspended her license for six months.

The jury found her guilty, but Schott threw out the verdict and went on a tirade accusing the officer of lying, and possibly breaking the law.

Again, if she never took the test, how did she know if she was over or under the legal limit? When they retry the case on the 2nd on appeal, it will be interesting to see how they get around this? Will they bring in the imaginary .08 test that the officer never gave? Because now the public defender can blow this right out of the water.


Testy Exchange with prosecutor

At issue was Sanford Police Officer Michael Wagner's testimony, in which he said he made a mistake in marking a box when arresting Gonzalez that said she had a .08 or higher blood alcohol content, without a test.

"No he lied, he lied on a sworn citation," Schott said.

"Absolutely not your honor. That is not true," the prosecutor said.

No it IS true! Since she did not DO a test, how could the officer know what her blood alcohol content was? He obviously magically pulled a number out of his hat. Therefore he lied on an official form, which was technically perjury. In my opinion the judge was right, but they busted him down to civil cases for being right.

Pardon me... But how in the hell does a cop mistakenly fill in a percentage for BAL when no test was administered?

How is this not an outright lie?

I am with the judge on this one!
Sorry for the repeated edits.... but this pisses me off!
A mistake would be if he had administered a test and wrote down the wrong number. He didn't make a mistake, he lied.

a reply to: Anyafaj

GO JUDGE!

Its people like him that keep my faith alive and well that somewhere in government, there are good people doing their damndest to be true and faithful to the rest of us.

The cop should be fired, the prosecutor should be fired for seeing this and doing her part to make a bad system worse, and the judge should get free beer and BBQ invitations for the rest of his life.

This cop could have ruined this persons life. In 5 minutes, ruined another persons life and that of their family over his own BS he is too much of a douche to deal with outside of work.

originally posted by: butcherguy
Pardon me... But how in the hell does a cop mistakenly fill in a percentage for BAL when no test was administered?

How is this not an outright lie?

I am with the judge on this one!
Sorry for the repeated edits.... but this pisses me off!
A mistake would be if he had administered a test and wrote down the wrong number. He didn't make a mistake, he lied.

I agree. I don't know if the prosecutor was trying to save her own hide with this case by covering for the officer, or just out and out didn't GAF, worse the judge was the one to get in trouble in here, NOT the cop who committed perjury TWICE, once on the paperwork, the second time in court!

originally posted by: butcherguy
Pardon me... But how in the hell does a cop mistakenly fill in a percentage for BAL when no test was administered?

How is this not an outright lie?

I am with the judge on this one!
Sorry for the repeated edits.... but this pisses me off!
A mistake would be if he had administered a test and wrote down the wrong number. He didn't make a mistake, he lied.

Happens every single day, they just don't get caught most if the time.

Whatever happened to "better let guilty men go free than to put one innocent man in jail"?

Now prosecutors don't care about guilt, they care about conviction numbers.

Ruining folks lives just to further a political career.

Never saw that one coming..........

a reply to: Anyafaj

I am a resident of Seminole County so I am trying to find a way to support this judge. We need more that will do that.

I know the prosecutor has to make her case but c'mon. What about the defendants lawyer where the hell was he. Was he asleep so that the jury could make a guilty verdict. I am with judge on this one as well.

So an honest judge gets taken away from the most lucrative money spinning cases that are lucrative because everybody lies on their evidences..Pffff!

originally posted by: celticdog
I know the prosecutor has to make her case but c'mon. What about the defendants lawyer where the hell was he. Was he asleep so that the jury could make a guilty verdict. I am with judge on this one as well.

He was a public pretender.

They do not defend you period.

They only try to get you a plea bargain.

If you go into court with a public defender you might as well get ready for a guilty verdict.

This is odd.


why didn't the judge stick both the prosecuter and the cop for contempt of court?

a reply to: Anyafaj

Let's just set aside for the moment the fact that the police officer and prosecutor could care less about the well being and livelihood of this most likely innocent citizen.

Our judicial system is intended to be used to prosecute criminals. It seems to me that the majority of the resources which we pay through taxes are being used to shake us down for more (guilty or not) or to falsely exonerate the crimes of officials.

When a judge attempts to hold everyone to account, this is what happens.

It is unfortunate the U.S. justice system has little to do with justice and more a clearing house to process us like cattle with no regard for truth.

And the veneer of legitamcy cracks just a little bit further.

Wonder where it ends.

Yep America is fraying at the edges, one day the whole cloth will rip apart, god help us all, just this once, please?

It must take a special kind of arrogance to be a prosecutor..have seen more than a few instaces of people incarcerated for life who have been proven innocent outside the courts but the prosecutor will refuse to grant a new trial or release. I do not know how some of these people sleep at night. Criminals often have more ethics/morality.

a reply to: Anyafaj

These cops are only half the problem I assure you.

Cops are encouraged to bust whoever they can whenever they can. Why? because fines equal revenue. I've seen it first hand, I have carpooled to work and the cops would sit and wait for us every morning-if it wasn't a fine for bald tires it was something else.

Have you ever noticed that cops are more active during the holiday seasons?- they know that there are more motorists about so that equates to more infringements, which leads to more fines, which leads to more revenue. If more people challenged these baseless convictions and if there were more judges that also challenged these baseless convictions then those who pull the cops strings would be forced out of the shadows and exposed.

Most motor vehicle infringements is just a blanket term for 'opportunist tax".

Good for the judge. I hate that he's being punished for doing what's right. It just goes to show how broken the system is.

originally posted by: grey580
This is odd.


why didn't the judge stick both the prosecuter and the cop for contempt of court?

This is what I was wondering. The judge's behavior is getting flak, but the prosecutor was trying to talk over him the entire time. The judge presides over the courtroom, not the prosecutor. Furthermore, the woman on trial was found guilty for DUI when it was the alcohol test that was lied about by the officer, who admitted it! Good on the judge. Bad on the police, the prosecutor, the public defender, and the State in general.

If you wish to contact the office of Judge Fred Schott to voice your support, the phone number is 407-665-4921. For a complete directory of public phone numbers for Seminole County FL govt, go here.

a reply to: Anyafaj

While I'm with the judge on this one, the jury probably convicted the defendant based on video of a field sobriety test or something similar. A BAC level is unnecessary to show and prove imparement.

originally posted by: SlapMonkey
a reply to: Anyafaj

While I'm with the judge on this one, the jury probably convicted the defendant based on video of a field sobriety test or something similar. A BAC level is unnecessary to show and prove imparement.

I wonder why the cop felt a need to falsify the document then?