The Prosecution ‘Screwed Up’, Says Attorney Emil Arguelles

According to Attorney Emil Arguelles this morning proceedings did not require his clients to submit a plea. Arguelles’ objections revolved around the prosecution’s decision to bring forth new charges which he described as abusive.

Emil Arguelles, Attorney for Defendants

Emil Arguelles

“We had pleaded autrefois acquit which is the legal equivalent of having been put in jeopardy and peril on the previous occasion. It’s a fundamental principle of law that a man should not be prosecuted twice for the same offence or a serious of charges. “The prosecutors argument in court was that he screwed up so much and so badly that it was as if nothing occurred the first few times, and therefore he should be given another bite at prosecution now. We argued that the prosecution ought to know what is to do. He had stated that on the night before the last event he had to be scurrying around to get a signature from Mr. Allegria, whose mom had died and my condolences go out to him, but that is no way to run a prosecution especially when my clients were served many days before. You can’t be getting a signature on the night before and when you don’t get it you used it as an excuse why you can’t proceed. What is worse is that we are ready to proceed and the magistrate was too. They sent us a letter saying ‘we’re withdrawing all charges’. They could have adjourned the matter if they wanted to but no, they withdrew the whole thing. Our argument is that commencement of a proceedings starts when a person pleads guilty or not guilty which my clients clearly did and that they withdrawal of the matter ended those proceedings at that point. To bring it again is abusive.”