Gurbaksh Chahal attempted to beat his girlfriend to death. But he’s rich so when he was arrested he posted a million dollar bail and lawyered up. The judge threw out the evidence, the charges were reduced to a misdemeanor, and Chahal ended up getting a sentence of twenty-five hours of community service and a mandatory domestic violence workshop.
Seriously, this is getting bad.
Tech Millionare Who Beat Girlfriend 117 Times Ducks Jail Despite Damning Video
You fail to mention that the victim refused to give evidence. So millionaire or not, it’s bloody hard for any prosecution to get a ‘just’ outcome without victim testimony.
Just sayin’.
And also that the video could not be used as evidence because the police seized it illegally.
Regards,
Shodan
Hopefully his next girlfriend will cut off his dick while he’s asleep.
Actually, anyone willing to date this guy after his publicized tirade wouldn’t be smart enough to think of something like that.
I’ve always believed that the police should follow the law, and respect people’s rights. I also believe that if they get evidence illegally, the evidence should be excluded.
I wonder, though, what the police could have done in this case. They argued that they seized the video immediately because they feared that, if they didn’t, it would be erased. That seems like a very reasonable fear to me. I know that if i had just beaten somebody over an extended period of time, and the whole thing was on video, and i was left alone with the video, my first inclination would be to not only erase it, but destroy the hard drive (or whatever) completely.
Did the police have the option to stand guard over the video, in situ, in order to secure it while waiting for a warrant? Was there any way they could have gained possession of the video without violating the suspect’s rights, and also without leaving him free to erase or destroy the evidence? Any lawyers here willing to weigh in on the issue?
Apparently, what happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas.
Right. And I’m sure these things would have been equally likely to happen if Chahal was being represented by a public defender.
There’s a reason millionaires hire high-priced lawyers. It’s because they’re the guys who know how to work the legal system.
Not to spoil your tirade, because I agree that people with money get off more often than people without money. However lots of women, no matter what their or their partner’s financial status, don’t testify against their partner when he’s beaten her. This often has to do with fear of the partner not with the actions of his lawyers.
Misplaced rage on this one. If you want to rant about how Chahal is getting ‘immunity’, then rant about how his Board of Directors for the IPO he’s about to have did not immediately kick him to the curb.
Even public defenders try to get inadmissible evidence excluded. Police must follow the rules.
Only high priced lawyers know when the police seize something illegally?
Let’s drop the pretense here. Obviously high-priced lawyers are going to provide better services than run-of-the-mill lawyers. That’s the reason they’re able to charge high prices. Does anyone think a wealthy person would be willing to pay a law firm hundreds of thousands of dollars if he knew he could get the same service for a couple thousand dollars?
Now some people might argue “What’s the big deal? It’s the way the world works. You get what you pay for. These guys are able and willing to pay more money so they get better service.”
I agree that’s not a problem in most things. But it shouldn’t be that way in the criminal justice system. Money should not be giving you an advantage in court. Trials should be decided based on guilt and innocence; not on how much money you have.
You still haven’t given any reason why you think this guy’s high-priced law-talkin’ guy did anything that a public defender couldn’t (or wouldn’t.) Was his argument to exclude the evidence novel and brilliant in some way? I doubt it. Chances are very good that it was straightforward and something a million public defenders have done in a billion trials before this one.
And victims refusing to testify against domestic abusers is not a phenomenon that is confined to the wealthy.
There are plenty of cases where wealthy people have abused the justice system to get away with things. I don’t think this is one. I think this case is ordinary. If there’s something to be outraged about, it’s the incompetence of the investigation and the recalcitrance of the victim. And the guy just being a general asshole.
Listen to friedo.
This case was open and shut. The lawyer who finished last in class and took 8 times to just barely pass the bar would have won this case. This case has nothing to do with paying expensive lawyers exorbitant funds to circumvent the legal system. This is a case of the police screwing up the evidence and the victim failing to prosecute.
Chahal is the CEO of RadiumOne, an large internet ad company that is expected to IPO soon. Instead of railing against the injustice in the legal system (there is none in this case), rail against the Board of Directors that has refused to respond to questions about the CEO and that haven’t kicked him to the curb. If the IPO goes through and if the price doesn’t seem to be affected by this incident, rail against the Wall Street investment banks who don’t see what a worthless piece of shit Chahal is and still choose to throw money at him. Don’t double down on a pit against the wrong target, simply re-target.
Boy, wouldn’t that be just dandy. It has never been the case, and until you find some way to take the human out of human nature, it will never be the case. The best we can hope for is to try to make it less uneven, by…oh, I don’t know…at least providing those without funds some representation in court.
Most folks would agree with that. But it’s not clear that it has anything significant to do with this particular case.
Yes.
Is it your contention that no one should get a better lawyer than anyone else? You seem to think the guilt or innocence is something that exists in the abstract, outside the legal system. Ain’t so.
Little Nemo, you’re way off base here.
In case anyone’s interested, the guy’s company has fired him as a result of this case.
Chahal himself has ensured further sentencing in the court of public opinion by posting an incredibly tone-deaf and self-serving defense on his website:
Nice!
If it’s all as innocent as he suggests, maybe he should just release the video that was ruled inadmissible in court. It’s his video, after all. Maybe he can clear up the whole question of what the difference between “temper” and “domestic violence” is.
It is said the video shows him kicking her 117 times. Temper, indeed! But apparently, he does not see that as domestic violence.
You know, I could see kicking a woman 53 times, but beyond that is simply unacceptable.
I can’t say what the perfect way is in this case but there are ways to seize evidence and then later get a judge to rule on a search warrant later. That apparently wasn’t done here.
It’s more often done because the couple is still together and not fear. Life is not a Lifetime movie.