The Bennington County State’s Attorney’s Office, in a move that experts said is highly unusual, charged Marble Valley Regional Correctional Facility inmate Martin “Serendipity” Morales with falsely representing herself as a lawyer. Morales, who identifies as a woman, did not appear at the hearing, held at Vermont Law School.
Several inmates told authorities that Morales, who has gained a reputation for her legal skills, helped them file court appeals.
So-called jailhouse lawyers such as Morales are in prisons around the country, and Vermont prisons have law libraries to ensure inmates can pursue legal claims. Seven Days recently wrote about Morales as part of a larger story about how Bennington County locks up more inmates per capita than other Vermont counties.
Deputy Bennington County State’s Attorney Alexander Burke argued that allowing jailhouse lawyers to help inmates who have access to public defenders could confuse legal proceedings. Professional attorneys, Burke noted, must pass the bar exam and maintain a state license.
“This is a pending matter where the inmate already had access to the court and access to an attorney,” Burke told the justices. “There are reasons this court has decided to license attorneys.”
Morales, who is serving time for burglary and domestic assault, did not accept any compensation for her work — she declined when one inmate offered her food — and never signed any documents or called herself a lawyer. Inmates said they approached her for help. And the inmates’ public defenders never complained about Morales helping their clients.
During Wednesday’s oral arguments, Vermont Prisoners’ Rights Office attorney Emily Tredeau argued for Morales, saying that there was no reason to pursue criminal charges. Tredeau also said that if lower court judges disapprove of inmates getting help from both a public defender and Morales, they could simply disregard documents written by Morales, or dismiss public defenders and let Morales continue her work.
Justice Beth Robinson sharply questioned Burke about the need to pursue charges against Morales. “What’s the harm you’re protecting the public from?” Robinson asked.
“This was not a one-time event,” Burke said. “In a short period of time she was preparing … a variety of motions.”
“Why is that a bad thing?” Robinson asked.
“The inmates already had access to the courts,” Burke answered.
Attorneys say it appears to be the first time in more than 50 years that an inmate has been prosecuted for a similar alleged offense.
But the Bennington County State’s Attorney’s Office is not without allies in this fight. The Vermont Attorney General’s Office filed paperwork with the Supreme Court that said allowing jailhouse lawyers to help other inmates could complicate legal proceedings across the state.
Bennington County State’s Attorney Erica Marthage previously declined to discuss the Morales case with Seven Days, but she did note an increase in the number of motions that inmates have filed with courts in recent years.
“I don’t charge people with being a nuisance,” Marthage said. “I charge people with violating the law.”
The justices did not rule on Wednesday. The court usually takes several months to issue a decision.
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Erica Marthage sounds like a control freak. She feels threatened by a jailhouse lawyer? Unless Serendipity Morales has super powers, the Supreme Court’s time is being wasted and Bennington County is being turned into a laughingstock, much to Vermont’s chagrin.
Here is my audio recording of the discussion http://vce.org/VSC_UPL_033016.mp3. The Vermont Supreme Court posts their oral arguments, that is not what this recording is. This is a one minute excerpt of Justice Robinson asking the Bennington Deputy Attorney a hypothetical question http://vce.org/RobinsonQuestionBenAttAns_0… regarding assisting someone with the preparation of documents.
After reading about this case in Seven Days, I contacted the clerk of the court and got the documents. This case was filed Feb. 10 so it seems fairly unusual for the court to take up something in oral argument so quickly. I learned that the court was taking it up March 30 from a press release on http://vtdigger.org the day after reading the Seven Days story. The order from the court and the filings by the parties were focused on the “jailhouse lawyer” case. The Attorney General went further in his Amicus memo and asks the court to revise the definition of the practice of law in this case or through rulemaking, and also sets out what the AG considers the practice of law. The AG’s Amicus is here http://vce.org/16-043%20AGO%20Memorandum.p….
This is just bizarre in the extreme. For decades the state of Vermont has been explicitly training inmates to assist each other in legal matters. Through the Inmate Legal Education program, each jail and prison has been training and encouraging official inmate law librarians (who are paid by the DOC just like inmate kitchen workers and inmate janitors) to prepare legal motions and cases on behalf of their fellow inmates. The state’s attorney’s office in Bennington is completely out of control. They are totally out of step with the rest of the state when it comes to prosecuting and jailing citizens, as established by the cold hard statistics. For them to do this now is a red flag warning to the people of Vermont that the Bennington State’s Attorney needs to be reigned and made to heel. Ridiculous!!!
She must feel threatened by a jailhouse lawyer. Maybe they found wrong doing in there cases. Maybe she just needs to get a life, because all the press lately tells me there something wrong in hen house, LIKE STOP WASTING TAX PAYERS DOLLARS ON BS cases. If the votes of Bennington County would smarten up and vote her out, real justice could take place. Just read the seven days article about her. I suggest stay out of Bennington County until she is gone from the SA office.
Bennington is already a laughing stock LOL, I used to live nearby, do not miss it one bit
I personally spent calendar year 2002 in Vermont’s DOC as an inmate. I was the official facility inmate law librarian at Chittenden Regional for most of that time. I was trained by the staff of the Defender General’s office to prepare motions and other filings on behalf of my fellow inmates. I ‘practiced law without a license’ in hundreds if not thousands of instances, having drafted and filed countless Writs of Habeas Corpus, Petitions for Post Conviction Relief and many other documents, all the while being encouraged and PAID by the DOC by the hour for doing so.