Thursday, December 13, 2007 Seares: Two cops and a lawyer By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
WHAT do a cop and a defense lawyer have in common? They both help administer justice.
Cop catches the suspect and collects evidence to keep him in jail. Defense lawyer sees to it his client gets all the legal rights of an accused.
Standards and ethics apply even though their purposes collide.
The cop doesn't concoct evidence or push the charge when there's no "probable cause." The lawyer doesn't tamper the process by buying off witness, cop, fiscal, or judge.
The reason is trust. They administer justice, not screw it up.
'Not happening'
Here I pause, because this is the part where the reader pissed off by the justice system screams, "It's not happening!"
The same reader will cite as "evidence" Tuesday's news about a lawyer using a policewoman to hand over a P50,000 bribe to another cop. The barter: have the charge against his client, a suspected female drug pusher, reduced.
The courier said the suspect's lawyer made her do it. She couldn't say no. He is her law professor and lawyer on an annulment case against her husband.
If half of it is true, the student is a whiz on gratitude but dumb on legal ethics. And the professor: What on earth is he teaching students aside from basic law?
With past stories of actual and rumored sins of people running the justice system, Monday's entrapment may tend to justify skeptics' stance.
Still, let's not lose faith. The real story may be something else. Trust lawyers to come up with a twist.
And if a crime was done, there's a sunny side: A "good cop" exposed it and the "bad cop" was caught.
But, hey, the lawyer is getting away. Is that the twist?
