A friend reached out to me yesterday.

A young man who she works with was standing in front of a judge and was offered a plea deal. He was told that he had to decide on the spot whether he would accept it. She needed to know if the deal was a “good” one. She called me.

I am not a lawyer but I have had a lot of experience being inside courtrooms. The young man was facing several felony battery charges against three police officers. He claims that he was harassed and then beaten by the cops. The officers were apparently looking for a robbery suspect, came across him, and promptly began to get rough with him. It was a case of mistaken identity and he fought back. The court case has dragged on for almost a year.

The prosecutors are now offering to decrease the charges to one misdemeanor count of battery of a law enforcement officer. If he agrees to the plea, he would not be able to expunge or seal this conviction. He currently has no criminal record and is in his early 20s.

I called some lawyer friends of mine immediately. They suggested that the deal sounded like a “good” one for the young man. One lawyer friend suggested that the state likely did not have a strong case which was why it was offering this deal. This of course gives one pause.

The judge continued the case to early November so the young man now has some time to consider the offer. He wants to take his case to trial rather than to take the plea because he is innocent.

All of us are worried. We don’t want him to plead to something that he did not do. However, those of us with experience in the criminal legal system know that a he said/he said between a young black man and three cops is unlikely to end well for the young person.

If he goes to trial and is found guilty of just one of the felony battery counts then he will get prison time. If he takes the plea deal, then it is likely probation. The stakes are high.