Court Opinion

ID: 9699921
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 20:57:27.579908+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:00.239443
License: Public Domain

BURKE, Judge
(concurring specially).
I concur in the opinion filed by Chief Justice SATHRE. I think, however, that reference should be made to an additional statement of the defendant as shown by the record. This statement is as follows:
“Your Honor, as you stated, this is merely a misdemeanor, it is not a real serious offense from one viewpoint. Mr. Mills vanished for the reason that there are 59 charges of mail fraud filed against me and Universal Securities in that indictment, and each can carry five years, which is a totaL *621of 295 years. Counsel is trying to protect Universal Securities and my position in that. That is why he did not care to linger; it is important 295 years and 59 counts of mail fraud is not a misdemeanor your Honor.”
From this statement it clearly appears that the reason defendant’s counsel was not present to represent the defendant in the instant case was because defendant, himself, had sent his counsel away to attend to other business for him and did so at a time when, according to his own statements, he knew he could not obtain other counsel to try the case. It is thus clear that defendant was not unable to obtain counsel, and that his failure to have counsel to represent him in this case was due to his own deliberate act. His complaint on this score is clearly not meritorious.
BURKE and MORRIS, JJ., concur.