Lies, Damned Lies, and Testimony: Tell It to the Magistrate!

Rating:
Summary: A mix of "COPS" and "Night Court."
Review: A collection of anecdotes, told by a real magistrate in Virginia which is at times poignant, funny, and distressing. Oh, the trouble some people have just getting on in life! The author describes what he deals with day in and day out, sharing his values and conclusions. I highly recommend this book to anyone, as it is both entertaining and educational. Would be excellent gift for high school or college students thinking about careers in social services or law.

Rating:
Summary: G R E A T R E A D ! ! !
Review: I've already ordered them as Christmas gifts. Certainly one of the most interesting, and well written, paperbacks this year. Sure to be a best seller.

Rating:
Summary: Witty and humorous, yet painfully real. Great reading.
Review: The author's self-effacing style brought a reality to the situations that made me feel like I was there experiencing the insanity, fumbling along with him in search of a valid assessment of impassioned criminal complaints. The quick pace, wit and humor kept my interest such that I didn't put it down until I was done. The book gives a base working level picture of the front end of the criminal justice system in the Commonwealth of Virginia from the perspective of an individual (The Magistrate) who is interviewing cops as well as suspects and witnesses hot from the "scene of the crime" before they have had time to reflect on and organize their stories for their own benefit. It is a great study on the devious side of human nature as it applies to suspects, witnesses and victims weaving a tangled web to try to save their hides or punish their enemies. It is a window inside a government bureaucracy as viewed candidly by a bureaucrat that is still clinging to a conscience and a heart. This book is stimulating, amusing, emotional yet easy reading. I can see it as a best seller when it is discovered.

Rating:
Summary: Want someone arrested? Go tell it to the magistrate!
Review: Want someone arrested? But the police won't do it? In Virginia, you go to the County Magistrate (used be called Justices of the Peace) and tell your story under oath. If you are the victim of a crime, and your sworn testimony doesn't veer too far from the truth, the magistrate will issue an arrest warrant and you will get your day in court. After 15 years as a county magistrate, and after hearing thousands of stories, John Jasper has discovered that no one tells 'the whole truth and nothing but the truth'. We all lie, some of us are damn liars, and it's his job to get behind the lies as quickly as possible and winnow the truth out of the strong emotional stew presented to him in the guise of testimony. Oh, and it's also his job to issue search and arrest warrants requested by the police, interview drunken drivers and spouse beaters and drug dealers brought in by the police to determine if they wait for trial in jail or on bail, and to also try to solve heartbreaking problems brought to him by citizens who really need the advice of Solomon and the protection of Superman. You will read stories here, first told in the basement of the county jail, which will make you laugh, make you cry, make you angry, make you smile. They will also leave you, as they have left John Jasper, very wary of the judicial process in the county, the state, and the USA.