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Public defender to ask for more case dismissals
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Posted on Jan 26 2005
The Public Defender’s Office yesterday insisted that attorney general Pamela Brown is occupying her post illegally, disclosing that it would ask the Superior Court for the dismissal of other criminal cases.
Public defender Masood Karimipour said there are six separate criminal cases that his office wants dismissed on the ground that they were not brought to court by a lawful attorney general.
Those cases include the sexual abuse charges separately filed against Joaquin Peredo and Md. Aktar Hossain. The court heard the arguments for and against the dismissal of the cases against Peredo and Hossain, as well as the case against one Hua Wu Cheng, in a consolidated hearing last Tuesday. Presiding judge Robert Naraja has yet to make a ruling as of press time.
Karimipour said three other criminal cases are pending before the other courtrooms and his office has similarly asked for those cases’ dismissal on similar grounds.
Karimipour disclosed that his office would file dismissal requests in other criminal cases that were filed during Brown’s tenure. He added, however, that the cases would be “just a couple more, not dozens.”
Karimipour belied the statement of deputy attorney general Clyde Lemons Jr. that the dismissal of the cases against Peredo, Hossain and Chen would lead to the possibility of the dismissal of other criminal cases that were filed in court after May 2003.
He said the courts could only dismiss those cases wherein the defendants sought the dismissal.
