Life as a Public Defender
BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. -- He peddled through a stop sign. That is what the cop said and that is why Mr. Carter became my client. It was 2:30 in the afternoon and Mr. Carter was on his bicycle in the neighborhood near the African American Research Library in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. When the cop car with its lights flashing drove up behind Mr. Carter's bike he expected the officer to go around him, but he didn't. With the car's lights flashing behind him Mr. Carter stopped his bicycle on the side of the road.
Whenever I get a new file where the police encounter starts with a bicycle stop my blood pressure automatically starts to rise. My reaction to these cases is exactly the same as it was when I read about 'biking while black' for the very first time: Are you kidding me? Then I calm down and start the research necessary to write a pre-trial motion in hope that I can make the case go away.
Mr. Carter's crime from this "traffic stop" was possession of cannabis; the cop found a bit of pot in his pocket. The police report said that after Mr. Carter was stopped he consented to a search. The way Mr. Carter remembers things is that the cop said to him, "Is there anything in your pockets I should know about before I search you?"
While preparing for the motion I pulled up the area on Google Maps and immediately noticed something didn't look right. Armed with my camera I drove out to the location where my client was arrested. I retraced the route Mr. Carter had peddled and I couldn't find a stop sign in the direction he was riding. I took some pictures and then headed home, eager to discuss the case with my client.
I never had to print those pictures. The day before our motion to suppress the evidence was to be heard, the prosecutor told me she was dropping the charges. If only all prosecutors had the same sense to do the right thing.
Just think, if they did we could finally get rid of a real problem, one that most people are unaware even exists: biking while black.
The high profile trials of Manuel Noriega, Timothy McVeigh, OJ Simpson and George Zimmerman are among the important legal stories Kim Segal covered as a journalist for over two decades. While working as a producer for CNN, she began attending law school at night, and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2005.
At 46, she left her television career for a position as a Public Defender in Broward County, Florida.