Anthony Dickson didn't argue that police in Orange County stopped him for a traffic violation in December 2009 and found cocaine.
Dickson, who was on parole for drug crimes at the time, didn't even argue that the cocaine wasn't his.
But he still claimed that he shouldn't have been convicted at his 2010 trial for trafficking the illegal substance.
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According to Dickson, the cocaine was merely for his own entertainment pleasure. He appealed and, given the defendant's lack of income, got a taxpayer-paid appellate lawyer.
This week, a California Court of Appeal based in Santa Ana issued what may be the shortest consideration and rejection of an appeal in state history: six paragraphs.
Observed Justice William Bedsworth, “[Dickson's] testimony was undercut somewhat by the fact the drugs found on him were individually wrapped in several small packets and a pay/owe notebook with his e-mail address on it was found in the car. … This was a strong case for the prosecution.”
Dickson, 42, will continue to serve his four-year prison sentence.
–R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.
