Judge Cockrum was correct to admonish Adrian Kamada who failed at his job today in representing his client; he and his office get paid by the taxpayers

 

For those of you who are new readers, this post from 2021 is context for today's post about Humboldt Deputy Public Defender Adrian Kamada. I have written previously about  Kamada appearing frequently by Zoom which no other Deputy Public Defender or Deputy Conflict does. Some private defense attorneys appear by Zoom sometimes but they pay attention.

This is from the April 2, 2021 post and I am referring to former judge Gregory Elvine-Kreis who is now an attorney and goes by Gregory Kreis. Some of the refrences in this exchange are will make sense to those who have followed me for 12 years and anyone familiar with why Gregory Kreis is no longer a judge. This post is not about him; it is about Adrian Kamada. 

"The second exchange may have been amusing to Judge Elvine-Kreis but it wasn't to the defendants and others waiting for trial assignment which took almost three hours. If Judge Elvine-Kreis wants to joke around with Public Defenders, maybe he could go on another boat outing with them.

Deputy Public Defender Adrian Kamada often needs to be called out repeatedly to get his attention to appear in court via Zoom. Today, after trying to get his attention at least three times, finally one of his colleagues had to alert him.

"Are you back from the AA yet?" joked Judge Elvine-Kreis. Later on, addressing Mr. Kamada again, Judge Elvine-Kreis said something like "There cannot be too many bald heads in this room" or "There can only be only so many bald heads in this room."

While Mr. Kamada wasn't paying attention, this was delaying other cases being called. "

If you want to read the entire post which is based on in person courtroom coverage and courtroom banter, other attorneys and judges , here is the link.

https://johnchiv.blogspot.com/2021/04/are-you-back-from-aa-yet-and-castaway.html?m=1#more

I was not in the courtroom today when the preliminary hearing was scheduled for Danielle Durand and Deunn Willis. I did add the 10/13 date to the previous post after checking court records.

Kreis previously represented Willis. Now it is Kamada. In this post, he is not addressed as Mr. Kamada because if he wants respect; he needs to act professional and do his job.

Durand is represented by Ms. Joanne Carter.

What I am sharing is from a credible, confidential source in the courtroom who gave me permission to share this with my readers.

"Mr. Willis was present in custody.  His attorney, Public defender Kamada, was present on zoom.  With his camera off the entire time.  The prelim was set for 10/13. His client wanted to address the setting date because he wants it sooner but was unable to, because as he said to Judge Cockrum, "I can't whisper anything to my lawyer because he's here on zoom".  Kamada was admonished by the court saying something to the effect of, this is why attorney's should be present in the court room when their clients are in custody. Since when/how/why do county employees get to chose to appear on zoom?  He literally responded to the judge that "he was running late this morning.  Was he even at work? "

The person who shared this with me told me that Ms. Carter was present in court. Readers know from previous coverage that Ms. Carter is a private attorney court appointed for Durand. Ms. Carter said she intended to file a motion before the preliminary hearing but did not provide details. Kamada said he did not think a motion would affect the preliminary hearing.

Kamada used to be a former Humboldt Deputy DA, he failed as a candidate for DA. Why can't he be bothered to show up for court, in person like others and why can't he do what he ispaid to do?

This chumminess between certain Humboldt Public Defenders and Kreis is yet another reason I have asked the County twice if Kreis is a potential candidate to head the Alternate Conflict Counsel Office.