Blog Scandal in San Francisco Public Defender’s Office
by Guest Contributor Angry Asian Man, originally published at Angry Asian Man
Some intriguing news out of the San Francisco public defender’s office… A MySpace blog entry written by former intern Carrie Wiplinger has prompted the superior court and Public Defender Jeff Adachi to investigate whether a lawyer in Adachi’s office was once told to keep Asians off a jury: Intern Blog Alleges Juror Racial Bias.
In the blog entry, posted September 3, Wipplinger wrote about a case involving a drunken man whom authorities found receiving oral sex in a car:
“I got to listen in on a conference regarding jury selection,” she wrote. “My bosses gave the following advice to the lawyer …don’t pick any Asian jurors, because (and I quote): ‘Asians don’t drink, they love Jesus, and they’re creeped out by everything.‘”
She wrote that the lawyer followed that advice, and the client was acquitted. But the attorneys who worked her deny making such a comment, and say Wipplinger got several other facts wrong: the jury hung and the defendant was not acquitted; there was no testimony or evidence that the man was drunk; and there were at least one or two people of Asian descent on the jury.
Adachi said the deputy public defender assigned to the case, Lateef Gray, and his supervisor, Kwixuan Maloof, both denied that they or anyone else made the statement about Asians. Well, of course they denied it. The question is whether or not the blog’s claims, even if she got some of the facts wrong, is based on something that actually happened, or if she just made the whole thing up.
One thing is probably for sure. Everyone involved, including the intern, is not happy that this damn MySpace blog has suddenly received so much attention. And if what she says happened is indeed true, and the lawyer did give this advice, well… that’s racist!
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Cynthia wrote:
I guess this person has never met my uncle. He is a wine expert and knows a great deal about which wines go best with which types of food. He doesn’t do the hard stuff, though.
Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 10:57 am ¶
jmn wrote:
I think disgrasian’s blog makes a nice reaction to all this hoopla: http://disgrasian.blogspot.com/2009/01/we-dont-want-to-be-on-your-damn-jury.html
And with that, I bid everyone a Happy Lunar New Year! =)
Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 11:41 am ¶
Monie wrote:
Asians are now being stereotyped as loving Jesus? Who knew?
Yep, if this is true its bad stuff. This sort of thing goes on all the time. I’m not sure what the cure for it is. Our criminal justice system is pretty good on paper but once you add the human element it becomes pretty flawed.
Is the day coming when computers will be the jury? That seems to me the only way to avoid these situations. Well then again humans will be programming the computers, so maybe not.
Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 12:10 pm ¶
Lisa J wrote:
Crazy. Next time I see one of my Asian friends with a drink in their hands I will take it away since they obviously haven’t gotten the non-drinking message. And though I know that there are Christians in Asia (though this article doesn’t specify if they are just referring to Far East Asians or all Asians) and people in this country who are of Asian descent who are Christian, aren’t a fair number not even Christian at all, especially since Christianity isn’t a majority religion in lots of Asian nations?
What doubly sucks about this is that MySpace and Facebook stuff is getting dragged into work and I think that is so wrong b/c it is sort of private yet public all at the same time. I explicitly have no info on my Facebook page about my job at all b/c I don’t want my work stuff to get tied up in my personal life. I know she is the one who mentioned work in her account, but still.
Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 12:42 pm ¶
Amused0472 wrote:
Well, seems to me it’s problematic for her to be discussing a pending case on an open forum like that, whether or not the alleged statements were made.
Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 12:51 pm ¶
Chris wrote:
I’ve never even heard of these stereotypes. The Asians I know drink, and they are not Christians. I don’t even know what to make of that third one. So not only is this racist, it doesn’t even make sense.
Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 12:51 pm ¶
Jess wrote:
If she didn’t want anyone to make a fuss about it, then she shouldn’t put it on a blog. D’uh!
I can see a few ways this might have gotten to where it is.
Someone made an offhand, racist comment that this girl took more seriously than it might have warranted.
Before y’all flog me for giving a pass to a bunch of Klansmen, let me say that the strategy of profiling jurors in some fashion is common and accepted, especially in the challenge process. If I am a defender and the accused is charged with attacking a nun, you can damned well bet I am going to make sure I minimize the number of catholic school graduates on the jury. It ain’t fair, but it’s how the system works.
With that in mind, I don’t think this is indicative of some massive problem with racist defender who are all just itchin’ to screw up trials for minority defenders.
It might have been a guy bitching about his day. It might have been a strategy session where someone gotg heated and said something they shouldn’t have. Absent context, I can’t tell from the materials presented. Was somebody making a really inappropriate joke? I can’t tell either. And you all know that context matters.
More importantly, given this person’s looseness with the facts, I am less than inclined to take her word for it. Yeah, she ain’t a reporter, but I try damn hard to get my facts straight when I make allegations and if this girl plans to be a lawyer she ought to do the same. After all, would you want her defending you if she couldn’t get the facts right? Me neither.
Again, I am not trying to excuse racist behavior, just trying to put this in some kind of perspective.
Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 1:47 pm ¶
brdnbutta wrote:
While I agree that the comments are racist. This happens all the time. It is sometimes referred to as scientific jury selection. This example is of course a base form of it, but I remember in undergrad doing several jury selection scenarios for pyschology professors for extra credit. They were helping to design protocols that would help lawyers choose a jury that would work to their client’s advantage. I’m sure these protocols looked at race, gender, and age, as factors in jury selection. It’s not right but it is definitely being done across the U.S.
Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 2:29 pm ¶
Asada wrote:
gosh….when Iwas growing up I was told asians didn’t believe in Jesus. Now looky here! Oh well….
Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 2:31 pm ¶
Rosetta wrote:
“‘Asians don’t drink, they love Jesus, and they’re creeped out by everything.‘”
Wow. All the Asians I’ve ever met are the exact opposite of this. Is Seattle Asians come to let their freak flags fly? I had no idea I was living in Asian Vegas.
Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 2:32 pm ¶
aimerrouge wrote:
“What doubly sucks about this is that MySpace and Facebook stuff is getting dragged into work and I think that is so wrong b/c it is sort of private yet public all at the same time.”
This is must be a generational issue. I am certain I’m older than you. I don’t understand how something public is private. To me it’s “either/or” not a combination of the 2.
Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 2:43 pm ¶
Lisa J wrote:
@aimerrouge, I have no idea how this girl sets up her MySpace page, and though I have one I never use (long story) , on Facebook I consider it public/private b/c you can put settings on your page for privacy that only allow your friends to see it, you can limit who can search for you, you can block people who you don’t want to access your page, and if you create a separate page for a pet topic, you can block who can join, and who can really view it. You can even block what your friends can see about you if you want to.
So if you don’t have any settings on your account anyone on FB can look at your stuff, but you can protect yourself to keep unwanted eyes away. I used to have mine 100% open but now only my friends, their friends and people in my networks can see my stuff, though I may cut the networks since they include DC and Syracuse, NY.
MySPACE is a little more loosey goosey I think b/c I think I recall seeing some stuff but not everything on there before signing up, but with Facebook , you have to sign up first to see anything. Maybe this girl assumed that no one from her office was on MySpace to the extent where they could look at her stuff, or they had better things to do than troll MySpace for what their interns right for things to investigate or she friended the wrong people who connected to her work. I also haven’t and won’t friend anyone from my current job, few from old jobs and the one person who I work with who I’dfriend on FB, I’ll wait till after she or I leave the current job and I will never put up where I work on my page (though some folks do).
I’m sure this girl will start restricting who can view what, what she puts in her profile about where she works, and be more careful about what she says and who she friends.
Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 3:15 pm ¶
Lisa J wrote:
meant, what interns W-R-I-T-E, not right. I keep doing that lately.
Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 3:17 pm ¶
heyhey wrote:
My agnostic-asian self is kicking it with my 2nd “brewsky” and creeped out by the fact that lawyers would actually believe this.
Oh, San Francisco, you disappoint me!
Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 5:15 pm ¶
TheBlackSheep wrote:
Tell that to the Japanese business men who I saw all over Sapporo and Tokyo. Saw Christians churches…but saw more Shinto shrines. More White people making up sub genres when it suits them. When will people start getting hip?
Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 5:32 pm ¶
lunanoire wrote:
Ugh. Where did this person get this idea about a category that encompasses billions of people?
Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 6:02 pm ¶
Jess wrote:
@Lisa J–
This must be generational. If you don’t want someone to see something, don’t put it online.
It’s that simple. To me, anyway. But I grew up in the days when people kept diaries o pen and paper.
Really tho, it’s the freakin Internet. By definition, it is a public space (with varying degrees thereof, but still public). It’s like snail mail — if I send a letter to someone, even just that person, by definition I want a record and I want to tell somebody. The internet is more like postcards.
If you don’t want anyone to know it, don’t say it, especially in a medium where people can check stuff. Lawyers will tell you this. This girl obviously wasn’t paying attention.
Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 7:59 pm ¶
NancyP wrote:
Lawyers will stereotype during jury selection, whether you can catch them at it or not. I haven’t been picked yet – middle-aged white woman not wearing makeup and not femme, professor type – they’d conclude that I might be a hard sell aka pain in the ass aka unpredictable, and they’d be right.
Race and gender are commonly used to predict jury behavior, but anyone with experience must know that body language, speech patterns, clothing and accessories, anything the potential juror carries into the selection room are useful cues – and that adding all the “appearance” cues together, in most cases predictive value is weak, given some heterogeneity in jury composition.
Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 10:28 pm ¶
Lisa J wrote:
@ Jess, I grew up with handwritten diaries etc and the net was something you used to catch butterflies, or to play tennis or volleyball over
But I am a net junkie now and like to do every thing online I can and get the young’uns putting TMI online at times. 
Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 10:33 pm ¶
Asianlawyer wrote:
I am an attorney awaiting admission and frankly while using a peremptory strike based on race or gender is illegal, it happens. I don’t see the big deal in this to be honest with ya’ll. There are many Asians who meet such a description (especially in the Korean community) and frankly I would do the exact same thing in terms of strking jurors whether peremptorally or using some other pretext to strike for cause.
Posted 26 Jan 2009 at 10:51 pm ¶
MelMel wrote:
Another drinking, secular Asian-American is making herself present here. My Dad is a vanilla deist, and loves his beer. Grandma loves to rip into a bottle of ume wine… and she worships her ancestors, not Jesus. I’d rattle off the rest of my drunken, heathen, nipp-o family, but I think that would miss the point.
HMPH. At least get your facts straight.
Posted 27 Jan 2009 at 1:50 am ¶
Thea wrote:
To nitpick: what does Asian even mean? Judging by the stereotype I am assuming they meant East Asian. And the Asians that actually were on the jury – what were they? Korean? Sri Lankan? Palestinian? Come on, if you’re going to stereotype a whole bunch of people, at least be specific about who you’re insulting.
Posted 27 Jan 2009 at 11:13 am ¶
Restructure! wrote:
Asians in North America are not demographically representative of Asians in Asia. Most Asians I know are Christian. There may be some correlation between Christian missionary schools with English education with being able to immigrate to North America.
Posted 27 Jan 2009 at 11:23 am ¶
Restructure! wrote:
Sorry, I mean most East Asians I know are Christian.
Posted 27 Jan 2009 at 11:26 am ¶
bdsista wrote:
Asian lawyer has it right. I have practiced law for 12 years and although I have never had a jury trial, my duty is to my client and if I am getting them off a DUI, a jury of AA members or teetotlers or members of MADD isn’t going to get him/her off. We can argue merits or the sytem or whatever, but it was the prosecutions’ misjudging of juror behavior that got OJ off. They thought that the BW jurors would sympathize being female, but didn’t take into account their anger with Nicole for breaking up OJ’s marriage to his first wife who was Black. They did not buy the sainted, homewrecker, cocaine addicted, Nicole as necessarily being the victim, but perhaps being the victim of the circumstances and lifestyle she chose.
What is problematic is the public discussion of a case which violates client-confidentiality, she is lucky to have a job.
Posted 27 Jan 2009 at 12:14 pm ¶
Cynthia wrote:
Restructure! is right. The majority of East Asians I know are Christians as well (more specifically, Roman Catholic, as the East Asians I know are Hong Kongers and products or children of products of convent and other Catholic schools – Catholic schools had amazingly rigourous standards back in the day). However, as Catholics (and especially lapsed Catholics), we don’t have any issues relating alcohol consumption and immorality.
Posted 27 Jan 2009 at 12:51 pm ¶
Jay wrote:
The fact that most North American East Asians are Christians is probably true (my experience indicates the same), but that’s not the issue.
Most white Americans are probably Christians too, but they specifically target East Asian Americans based on this, which is the problem.
Posted 28 Jan 2009 at 1:59 pm ¶
theboxman wrote:
A question: Are there any credible studies that show whether these practices of racial profiling in jury selection have a significant impact on conviction or acquittal rates? Because without that, not only is the practice clearly racist (and if I understand correctly, considered illegal) in that it presumes to make a determination of character based on problematic stereotypes, but possibly even pointless.
Posted 29 Jan 2009 at 8:29 am ¶