Life as a Public Defender
BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. -- It was an hour before court when Nate Dryer told us he changed his mind. Instead of taking the State's offer he said he wanted to go to trial on his possession of cannabis and resisting arrest without violence charges. The night before Mr. Dryer told my trial partner that he was going to plea. We knew he had been struggling with this decision. Mr. Dryer didn't want these charges on his record but going to trial was risky since the maximum sentence if convicted on both charges was two years in jail.
It was 2012 when the crime was committed. A young black male was riding his bicycle without a light at 10:45 at night. With lights and sirens activated, a cop pulled the bicyclist over for this infraction. The officer said he smelled marijuana when he approached the man on the bike. While the officer waited for "backup" to arrive, the officer asked the man for his name and date of birth. The man didn't have any ID and at the time the officer didn't confirm that the man was who he said he was, Nate Dryer.
During this encounter the officer checked the man's backpack and found a bag of marijuana. As the officer grabbed the man's wrist to arrest him the man took off running, leaving the bicycle and the backpack behind. It was over a year later when the real Mr. Dryer found out he had been charged with this crime. The night of the incident the officer looked up the name and date of birth that the man on the bike gave him and after seeing a picture of the person the officer thought that Mr. Dryer - Nate Dryer - really was the man who fled.
Our defense was simple. They arrested the wrong man. I mean really, who would give their real name and date of birth and then take off running? It didn't make any sense.
It's not often that a defendant takes the standbut in this case the real Mr. Dryer wanted to let the jury know it wasn't him who'd been arrested. He couldn't outrun a turtle he told the jury, and he showed them the scar from the surgery he had on his ankle.
Our unexpected day in trial had been a whirlwind and we were nervous when the jury went out to deliberate. Mr. Dryer may have sensed how we were feeling because he turned to me and said, "No matter what happens I want you to know you guys did a great job. I will deal with the outcome no matter what it is." I couldn't believe it. Here was a person who could be going to jail - in a case of mistaken identity -- and he was still thoughtful enough to think about us.
Thankfully the jury didn't make us wait long to find out that Mr. Dryer's last minute decision to take his case to trial paid off. While it took the State two and a half years to get this case to trial, it took the jury about ten minutes to realize that was all the time this case deserved. #NOTGUILTY
The high profile trials of Manuel Noriega, Timothy McVeigh, OJ Simpson and George Zimmerman are among the important legal stories Kim Segal covered as a journalist for over two decades. While working as a producer for CNN, she began attending law school at night, and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2005.
At 46, she left her television career for a position as a Public Defender in Broward County, Florida.