BAY AREA NEWS GROUP » SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2019
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001 SECTION E
Q&A » Interview with Joseph Tully, author and criminal defense attorney
JOSEPH TULLY PROFILE
Position: Criminal defense attorney Previous jobs: Public defender, attorney since 1999 Age: 50 Education: UC Davis and Golden Gate University Residence: Martinez
ARIC CRABB — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Criminal defense attorney Joseph Tully works in private practice in Martinez and takes on high-profile cases throughout California.
T H E U G LY T RU T H B E H I N D C A L I F O R N I A’ S
“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.”
JUSTICE E SYSTEM
— Joseph Tully on the problems with the criminal justice system
Veteran criminal defense attorney sheds light on the power struggles and dynamics from the inside By Nate Gartrell » ngartrell@bayareanewsgroup.com
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alifornia’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. plenty busy.
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.
I was always struck by the fact that people are justifiably supportive of law enforcement. I am A too; I like good cops. People do ride-alongs with
made you want to become an author? Sounds like your law career is keeping you Q What
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. You say in the first chapter that “before you’re arrested in California, you’re already Q screwed.” You want to expand on that? (Laughs) Take a thousand different reasons. Have someone, anyone, from the public go and A sit in a motions courtroom. What they’ll see is deTULLY » PAGE 2
PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY
Infrastructure updates need to focus on future
Like ‘Uber for organs’: Custom drone delivers kidney to Maryland woman
unavailable because they As I thought about depend on cellular service President Trump’s recent that wasn’t available. My White House infrastrucphone’s navigation app ture meeting with “Chuck was also unable to get and Nancy,” I recalled a route information. drive I took in January on Later I pulled onto ana rural highway about 20 Larry Magid other highway where the miles from Las Vegas. road was a lot smoother I noticed two things on Digital crossroads and the cellular network that drive. One was that was strong. But suddenly the road was bumpy and the car’s autopilot warned full of potholes. The other me that I needed to take control, was that my car’s navigation and entertainment systems were MAGID » PAGE 2
By Karen Zraick The New York Times
A custom-made drone delivered a kidney recently to a Maryland woman who had waited eight years for a lifesaving transplant. While it was only a short test flight less than 3 miles in total, the team that created the drone at the University of Maryland says it was a worldwide first and a crucial step in its quest to speed up the delicate and time-
sensitive task of delivering donated organs. The team’s leader, Dr. Joseph R. Scalea, an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said he pursued the project after constant frustration over organs taking too long to reach his patients. After organs are removed from a donor, they become less healthy with each passing second. He recalled one case when a kidney from Alabama took 29 hours to reach
his hospital. “Had I put that in at nine hours, the patient would probably have another several years of life,” Scalea said Tuesday. “Why can’t we get that right?” To carry out the project, Scalea’s team of medical experts worked with colleagues in aviation and engineering at the university, as well as the Living Legacy Foundation of Maryland, which oversees organ donations. He performed DRONE » PAGE 3
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Tully FROM PAGE 1
SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2019
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT JOSEPH TULLY
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He’s a double black belt in shotokan karate. fense attorneys losing motion after motion after motion after motion. I’m a pretty good attorney, a win record of He plays in two bands, one around 90 to 95 percent — I’m guessrock ’n’ roll, one alternative. ing, but it’s a pretty good record — that means I know what I’m doing, I know He is a pescatarian. the law and how people interpret the law. Yet, motions are very disappointHe owns a teacup Yorkie that ing. Judges don’t seem to care about the goes to work with him every day. law, they don’t seem to care about truth, they don’t seem to care about justice. He’s an avid surfer. 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 this very public stance, calling judges they may. It’s partisan, and they’re out psychopaths and whatnot? to win. They will do whatever they can, some more than others, to get that conI don’t care. I’m going to tell the viction. truth, and like I said, the good judges out there, I salute them, I’m very respectful. The good DAs out there, I Our system has all these proteclove them to death. I’m glad we have tions in place to prevent that kind good ones out there who are going to of stuff from happening, yet you’re sayget the bad guys but let the good people ing it goes on anyway. Why? go. I just don’t care. I do a lot of work all over and when I get a batch of cases Everybody knows the old adage in Contra Costa County, I start rememof “power corrupts, and absolute bering why I was so pissed off and had power corrupts absolutely.” The thing that most people don’t know is that posi- to write that book. It’s one of the worst tions of power attract psychopaths. Right counties to practice in. … If people off the bat you get a lot of bad people at- knew what it was really like and how tracted to positions of power. So you get the system really operated, they would be very disappointed. Judges are very some bad people and some good peocompliant to DAs here. Whenever there ple. The good people that are there, the is an imbalance of power, justice will “power corrupts” thing is going to kick in and they’re going to get corrupted. So take a few black eyes. out of everybody you have working in positions of power, just a small fraction are What’s your opinion of the wave of able to resist and remain a good human new justice reforms in California, being true to the spirit of justice. You like AB 109, or the felony murder rule have dynamics like, judges cannot get re- changes? It seems like these issues are elected if the DA’s office opposes them. If more front and center now. a DA’s office runs ads about a judge that say, “This judge is soft on crime,” that Yeah they are, thank God. I think judge won’t get reelected. If the police what people need to know is that and sheriff’s union don’t support a juour old course was not financially susdicial candidate, the judge won’t get retainable, it just wasn’t. We couldn’t keep elected from that either. There is a lot building prisons and convicting people of pressure on judges to make the cops and filling them up and rinse and repeat. happy and make the prosecutors happy. It was not financially sustainable. DAs There’s not a lot of accountability. And get a lot of convictions, and you can’t just my clients, when I clear them, even if pad the system over and over every day. they’ve been politically targeted, they A lot of the reforms were really financan’t go out and sue. No one cares. The cial. Our hatred and vindictiveness was best you can do is clear someone and tell not sustainable. (Reforms) are going to them, “OK, go rebuild your life, sorry this be able to keep the system running, but a happened to you. But at least you’re not byproduct is people are acting and thinkspending your life in prison.” ing differently because of the changes. They were all moves for the better. Well if that’s true, did you ever have second thoughts about taking Contact Nate Gartrell at 925-779-7174.
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Magid FROM PAGE 1
because the lines on the road were too faded for the cameras to keep the car centered in the lane. A few miles later the lines were visible, and the autopilot reengaged, but the car suddenly pulled too far to the right to remain centered in a lane that was much wider because of an upcoming on-ramp. On the drive home from Las Vegas, the car aborted an automatic lane change because the line to the left of the highway was too faded for the car to be sure it could safely transition to that lane. It was then that I realized that any infrastructure initiative needs to include more than just repaving highways and shoring up bridges. The people who make and fund those plans need to think about the needs of high-tech vehicles as they figure out how to improve our nation’s infrastructure. While there will be plenty of traditional human-driven gasoline cars on the road for years, we are already seeing the impact of new technology on our roads and highways. Just about every automaker is working on electric cars, and most are also making plans to develop fully autonomous vehicles. And just about all automakers now have semiautonomous cars, when you consider the driverassist functions that are increasingly common. Tesla now has “autopilot” and so-called “full self-driving” that makes it possible to drive from on-ramp to off-ramp, change lanes and transition highways without having to do anything except keep your hands on the wheel, strictly as a safety measure until the company (presumably with regulatory approval) eliminates that requirement. Today’s cars, and even tomorrow’s cars such as the fully self-driving prototypes being tested on public highways, are capable of driving on current roads. But as long as we’re thinking of upgrading, replacing or at least repaving those roads, it makes sense to think about how highway and road design could accelerate automation and make the highways safer for both autonomous and human-driven vehicles. At the very least, in addition to getting rid of potholes, we can make sure the lines are visible to both human eyes and vehicle cameras.
for fully autonomous vehicles. The smart roads could feel the position, weight and velocity of every vehicle on the road and, says the company, could automatically call for help if it senses that a vehicle is in trouble. Although the company doesn’t advertise this, Sylvester told me that it might someday be possible to charge electric cars as they drive, via an inductive charging system embedded in the road. Futurist and autonomous vehicle expert Brad Templeton advocates a different approach. In an interview, he referred to himself as the “enemy” of smart roads, preferring “stupid roads” instead. All he wants from the government is better paving, arguing that the technology to make cars smarter and safer should be in the cars themselves and in the drivers’ mobile devices. Templeton observed that mobile devices can be replaced every year or two and both cars and mobile devices can be upgraded as needed through over-the-air software updates. Embedding technology into the infrastructure, he argues, will make it obsolete as soon as it’s built. Even mandating vehicle-to-vehicle radios in cars (as some have suggested become law) would burden drivers and auto companies with technology that will soon be out of date and discourage the innovation that comes from a vibrant marketplace that allows consumers to adopt new technology as it becomes available and affordable. He makes a good point. The iPhone might have never happened if Blackberrys were the only government approved smartphones back in 2007. And, today, even that early iPhone seems primitive.
Middle ground
I’m sure there are middle grounds between Integrated Roadway’s vision and Templeton’s concern about, literally, paving what will soon be old technology into concrete, but I still think it’s important for federal, state and local planners to think about making sure there is nearly universal connectivity on roads and highways and paving that is friendly to both human- and robotic-driven cars. There should also be incentives for more charging solutions for electric vehicles. Right now Tesla has an advantage because of its network of Superchargers. Although I’m grateful for the federal and state incentives I enjoyed when I bought my electric car, I’d also like governments to help shore up a charging infrastructure that pumps clean renewable Smart roads energy into the nation’s still small but growing fleet of electric cars. A few weeks ago, I was on a panel So, while Trump, Sen. Chuck Schumer, at the HardwareCon conference with Tim Sylvester, the founder of Integrated House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other policymakers contemplate spending trilRoadways. Sylvester talked about his lions on infrastructure, let’s hope that company’s “Smart Pavement” system, they don’t just repair the 20th century which the company website describes roads, but think about what we will need as “precast concrete sections embedfor the 21st and even 22nd centuries. And ded with digital technology and fiber while they’re at it, maybe they can figure optic connectivity to transform ordinary roads into smart roads.” Such roads out better ways to get around besides one person per 3,000-pound car. would have the equivalent of cell towers embedded in the highway, assuring high-speed connectivity to every car Larry Magid is a tech journalist and internet safety activist. driving over them, which is important
Personal Finance The Motley Fool
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Drilling down I’ve made a bunch of dumb investments — such as buying into Atwood Oceanics. I bought it to add some diversification to my portfolio, as it was in the energy sector. It did well for a while, but then started getting battered by low oil prices, along with other energy companies. It ended up being bought by Ensco, and I’m still holding those shares, hoping for a big turnaround. — Mark M., Radford, Virginia
supply of offshore rigs, presented a tough challenge, along with low-cost shale oil making deep-water drilling less attractive. It was a promising time for stronger players in the industry to consolidate, buying weaker ones, and Ensco scooped up Atwood (later buying Rowan, as well). The future for Ensco Rowan is not crystal-clear, but bulls expect there to be more deep-water drilling in the future, noting that Ensco Rowan has several billion dollars’ worth of contracted backlog and relatively little debt. It’s in a stronger competitive position, with the industry more consolidated now, and oil prices have been rising lately — though they will likely always be at least somewhat volatile. FOOLISH TRIVIA
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Name that company I trace my roots back to the 1930 founding of a food store in Winter Haven, Florida. My profit-sharing helped me stand out. My founder opened a supermarket in 1940 that featured air conditioning, frozen-food cases, dairy cases, a flower shop and more. Today I’m the U.S.’ largest employee-owned supermarket chain, and one of its largest-volume supermarket chains, as well. I boast more than 1,200 stores in seven Southern states, with more than 200,000 workers and 2018 sales topping $36 billion. I’ve been one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For — for 22 consecutive years. Who am I?
Last week’s trivia answer I trace my roots back to a 400-square-foot cookie store that opened in Boston in 1980. It later joined a bakery business, forming Au Bon Pain, and then bought the St. Louis Bread Company, and took on my current name. Au Bon Pain was spun off — only to be reacquired in 2017. I now have more than 2,000 eateries in the U.S. and Canada, and over 100,000 workers, selling billions of dollars’ worth of food and drinks annually. In 2017, I was acquired by investors led by JAB Holding Company, and my stock stopped trading then. Who am I? (Answer: Panera Bread) THE MOTLEY FOOL TAKE
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Atwood Oceanics certainly looked promising in the past. It was a smallish offshore driller, and was aiming to specialize in ultradeep offshore drilling, which can be more lucrative. It had a backlog of contracted business, too. But low oil prices, coupled with an over-
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