A man in Utah was arrested due to his own lawyers conspiring with the judge, prosecutor, and other court staff. But thankfully, video footage of the unjust incident exists and now could spell trouble for them.
Luis Sanchez was scheduled to be in court at 9:00am in March 2018 for charges that he allegedly drove drunk more than three years prior.
But in his lawsuit, he says that his court-appointed attorneys Daniel Torrence and Heather Chesnut called his case early, at 8:45am so that a warrant could be issued for his arrest.
Torrence can be heard whispering to Chesnut in the court video, "Let's call it and get a warrant." Minutes later, at 8:45, the attorneys go to the podium and tell the judge they are ready to start his case, but that he wasn't present. So, a warrant is issued for his arrest.
Sanchez believes he thought his public defenders wanted him to go to jail because he wanted to challenge the charges. "From the beginning, they didn't want me to fight the case. They were pressuring me to plead guilty. At one point, I had to file my own motions," he said.
Sanchez showed up, shortly after 9:00am after a long wait at security and was put in a holding cell. He later appeared in front of the judge and asked when the warrant was issued and when they left and didn't get an answer.
Sanchez then spent two weeks in jail. He says he felt forced to plead guilty because of financial issues and losing trust in the court system.
He is now seeking an unspecified amount of money and alleges that Torrence and Chesnut committed legal malpractice, abused the court process and violated his rights to due process. He also lost wages and had his reputation damaged from his time in jail, he claims.
Source: The Salt Lake Tribune