On March 29th, an appeal of the "Show Cause" hearing was held before Judge Shadderick in Virginia Beach.
The Judge got it wrong.
Trial by Jury? Not in Virginia Beach!
Despite Linda Johnson wish to have a trail by a jury of her peers, the City of Virginia Beach denied her this fundamental right. The reason? The City had not called jurors to court that day and as such, jurors were "unavailable" for the Johnson appeal.
The Judge however insisted that the trial continue without a jury. His attitude was "well, this is just an appeal of a show-cause motion, so we really don't need a jury for that."
Hours of Testimony, Evidence Lost
The hearing lasted all day and well into the evening. Some of those who were called to testify on Linda Johnson's behalf were never called and other evidence that Linda Johnson's attorney tried to present to the court was overlooked or compleatly ignored. The Judge even refused to view the video-taped deposition of an expert witness Linda's attorney tried to present, prefering to read the transcript. "I took a speed-reading course" was his response.
When Animal Control raided Linda Johnson's home, an evidence unitl from Virginia Beach Police arrived and photographed the "evidence" against Linda Johnson.
However, over 30 of the photographs that the Evidence Unit took were, according to the testimony, "lost".
This was blamed on the Evidence unit, but when weighed against the facts that Animal Control has lied (the Johnson's dog and the non-existant dog-run they told the Mayor he had), ignored their own procedures and neglected Linda Johnson's cat Adora, an argument could be made the these "lost" photos could have helped Linda Johnson's case, so "losing them" was the better option.
