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Horizontal vs. Vertical Prosecution: How is your case handled? - YouTube
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in this video we're talking about
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prosecution and specifically prosecutors
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offices and how they are structured to
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prosecute cases so there are really two
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main differences between certain
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agencies and how they actually operate
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their systems they can prosecute what's
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called horizontally or they can
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prosecute vertically and we're gonna
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explain what each one of those are and
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why they're important to know so some
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agencies will do what's called
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horizontal prosecution and what this
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means is that the way that they
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prosecute cases is tiered so they've
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there's different levels and prosecutors
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are assigned at different levels to do
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different tasks so let's say for example
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somebody's charged with a felony you'll
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have different stages you'll have what's
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called pre charging then you'll have
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what's called early disposition court
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and then you'll have what's called trial
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levels you have a trial group and this
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isn't this is in felony court so you
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have one set of attorneys who make the
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decisions here all of the pre charging
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decisions are done at this level then if
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once they decide to actually file
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charges then it will go up to the next
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level and then you'll have what's called
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early disposition court so it's called
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the EDC in Maricopa County and this is
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where you have another set of
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prosecutors who are totally different
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than this bottom set of prosecutors who
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are making decisions as to how to
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resolve a case at this level then if
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they say the case is not resolved at
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this level it will move up to another
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level this is called trial group and
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this gets a whole new set of prosecutors
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so now the case is really going through
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a bunch of different levels of people
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and they're doing different things this
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can happen in Superior Court it can
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happen in city courts it can happen in a
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number of different agencies but
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generally this is how they're
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structuring things so the downside to
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that is that the person who may be
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handling the trial has no decision as to
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whether to charge the case or no
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decision as to whether to resolve the
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case in early disposition court they
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kind of just get the case as it moves up
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the chain that's different from what's
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called vertical prosecution so in
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vertical prosecution
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all of these decisions are made like
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this so basically one prosecutor is
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handling the case from beginning to end
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so they'll have the case throughout the
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entire charging phase through the entire
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early disposition phase through the
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entirety of all of the pretrial
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conferences through the settlement
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conferences through the oral arguments
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at any evidentiary hearings they're
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gonna be married to that case throughout
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the entirety of the case and so if they
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take it to try if the case goes to trial
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they're gonna be handling it this is
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different from other from the horizontal
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prosecution where sometimes some people
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doing trials like in certain
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jurisdictions they may not have ever
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even seen the case at all they just the
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case works its way through the system
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and then it lands on their desk because
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they're the trial attorney and then they
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get the file and they go in and they do
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the trial the downside to that is that
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they may not know anything they may not
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know what happened in terms of your
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negotiations throughout the entire
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pretrial process whether the case should
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have even been charged whether it should
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have gone through grand jury indictment
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it runs its way all the way up through
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and then horizontally and then they get
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it read in their desk and they go do the
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trial
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so that's horizontal which is different
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than vertical as a vertical meaning they
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have the case the entire time and
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there's pros and cons to these things so
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sometimes in a vertical prosecution the
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defense likes that better and the reason
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why is because we were working with the
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same person the entire time
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you know which is good because now we
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can have a long series of developing a
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relationship with them there's a lot
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more negotiation that can happen we can
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actually really present our case without
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fear of having them just say that's not
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my problem like might happen here and
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they just kick it up to the next level
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they say well I have to worry about that
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case I'd never have to take that case to
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trial I don't really care if you have a
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good issue or not it's not my problem
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it's gonna be bumped up to somebody else
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that's that's the downside of horizontal
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prosecution everybody's just kicking the
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can down the road they don't even want
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to have a good conversation with you
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because it's ultimately not going to be
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them who's doing the trial it's
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different in vertical so in vertical
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you're not dealing with somebody who has
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a very unique kind of a vested interest
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in resolving the case or else it's going
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to trial
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the downside of that is that if you get
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an unreasonable prosecutor in a vertical
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type of a situation they may be
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unreasonable throughout the entirety of
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the case there may just be somebody who
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just refuses to negotiate at all or they
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have some sort of belief that this
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particular case deserves the maximum and
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they're not going to negotiate at all in
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which case it's very difficult to see
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any movement on that person whereas here
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in horizontal prosecution you may be
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seeing somebody who is unreasonable at
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this level but you kick it up to the
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next level and you get a much more
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reasonable person so you have that
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option you have that that kind of gamble
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that you might have that that may
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actually provide you some significant
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benefits whereas on a vertical case you
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don't have that chance and you can't
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just hop between prosecutors and say I
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want a new prosecutor that does that's
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not how that works so these are the two
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different ways that we see prosecuting
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agencies structure themselves in Arizona
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in Maricopa County we see both of these
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we also see some changes happening right
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now so there are some shifts from a
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horizontal into a prosecutor into a
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vertical type of prosecution and so
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we're always monitoring that we're
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always developing strategies the way
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that we operate our team here is we have
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different attorneys that are assigned to
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different courts we all will basically
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do what it called staffing meetings
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where we all sit together and discuss
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strategies on all of our cases but at
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the same time we want to know what
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agencies are doing what so that we can
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develop the best strategies get to know
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the people who are in these different
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systems so that we can negotiate and
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resolve your case in the best way and
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the most favorable way possible for you
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so if you've been charged with a crime
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any crime at all make sure you contact
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our office so that we can tell you what
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we know about your specific agency in
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your specific jurisdiction your judges
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your prosecutors and how they operate
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their internals so that we can advise
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you and make sure that we are developing
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a strategy that responds to that and in
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a way that's going to give you the best
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outcome possible thanks for watching
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