Stephane Marchand arrived in Judge Stephanie George's courtroom this morning at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach wearing a black suit with no tie and carrying a small attache case. He mused about until the court room was opened and then proceeded to the bailiff to check in and inform the court that he was waiting on his attorney, whom he claimed was James Sunseri.
Sunseri successfully argued for a dismissal in a 2005 case against Marchand where he was accused of four misdemeanors including criminal threats, battery against co-habitant, dissuading a witness from testifying and child abuse and endangerment.
When his case was called this morning, Marchand said to the judge, "My attorney was supposed to be here."
"Who is your attorney?" asked Judge George, to which the clerk responded, "Sunseri".
"We'll give him a call," said the judge as she turned to the clerk for acknowledgement of the request.
Marchand spoke quickly. "My wife just left me a message, saying that he needs me to come to his office for some paperwork."
"So you don't have retained counsel," said the Judge.
"Well I paid him some money already," quipped Marchand.
Judge George explained that the case had a special circumstance; that there was a media request for cameras in the courtroom, and that she wanted to give Marchand the opportunity to have counsel present.
Marchand interrupted her explanation to say, "I would like to oppose that, your honor." He continued, referring to the media request. "There's a restraining order that says that I can't be within a hundred feet of him, and he can't be within a hundred feet of me." Marchand gestured in the direction of LaderaPortal NEWS editor and author of this story, Bo Kelleher, who has a protective order against Marchand. The order was served just after midnight Tuesday by an OC Sheriff deputy after a judicial officer deemed that threatening emails from Marchand amounted to "stalking". The order is not bi-directional, as Marchand wrongly told the judge.
Judge George stopped Marchand, saying: "You need to stop talking so much. You're really not helping yourself." She went on. "This is a very formal setting and everything you say here can incriminate you. None of these people up here [pointing at the Assistant District Attorneys] are your friends an you need to watch what you say."
She asked Mr. Marchand what he wanted to do about counsel and he prevaricated, first indicating that he wanted a public defender, and then saying that he wanted time to hire an attorney.
The judge explained to Marchand, "The public defender is generally for people that don't have any income. You could apply for that and see if you qualify."
Marchand's luck with the public defender has not been as good as it was with private attorneys. In 2009, he was arraigned in custody (jail) for four counts of grand theft, one count of petty theft, felony vandalism and two counts each of practicing law and real estate without a license. In a plea deal, all of the felony counts were dismissed, but Marchand pled guilty to two misdemeanors that carried three years of probation. The Orange County DA is now saying that because of the most recent burglary charge, that he is in violation of the terms of that probation.
Marchand said that he has the funds to retain an attorney.
The judge asked Marchand how long he would need to hire counsel and he indicated that he would need three weeks.
Judge George made some admonitions about speedy trial rights being waived and agreed to move the arraignment date to June 3, 2011.
