16 Thursday Feb 2017
Posted in Uncategorised
Being arrested can be a terrifying thing. There is nothing quite like contemplating your future while you’re waiting for your fate to be decided. At the same time, you’re wondering if you will have to spend months in a prison cell waiting for your trial. It’s equally tough for your family, since they are usually the ones whose job it is to try to bail you out.
With that in mind, I’ve put together a simple reference with essential information, you know, just in case.
23 Monday Jan 2017
Posted in Criminal Law, Uncategorised
Tags
acquittal, criminaltrial, deathbynegligence, penalcode, prosecution, roadtrafficaccident, singaporecriminallawyer
“He must be guilty. The police wouldn’t charge him unless they had sufficient evidence“.
I hear that being said a lot. About someone who’s arrest has made the papers, about an ongoing trial, or even about a client. I usually smile politely, not because explaining how that isn’t always true is usually pointless (it is), but because I will always remember the One Who Got Away.
20 Friday Jan 2017
Posted in Uncategorised
It seems like everyone who’s anyone has, at some point, to claim to have been harassed. Beyonce’s done it, socialites have done it, even the Singapore Government has done it- albeit with varying degrees of success.
While it is easy to dismiss harassment as a problem of the rich and famous, the unfortunate reality is that anyone can be the victim of harassment. Have you ever had a business dispute or ended a romantic relationship? In some cases, when relationships break down and parties react emotionally, some people resort to causing alarm, annoyance or even acts of violence.
What then, can you do if you are a victim? Enter the Protection From Harassment Act, or POHA (how this acronym was derived from the name of the statute is beyond my powers of comprehension, although no doubt numerous government white papers exist to explain this).
19 Thursday Jan 2017
Posted in Uncategorised
Here’s to new beginnings! Like a person who has been recently bitten by a Walking Dead zombie and died, ELA is coming back- just in a slightly different form.
The Firm, Characterist LLC, will be launching a brand new corporate identity soon and with it, a brand new website. I’ve decided, in tandem with the launch, to remake ELA.
04 Saturday Oct 2014
Posted in Uncategorised
Tags
A number of years ago, I defended a young man who was charged with gang rape. That case ultimately ended in a plea bargain and each lawyer delivered a plea in mitigation on behalf of his client. One of the lawyers for another accused person submitted that the victim had not been entirely blameless in that her conduct had led her assailants to believe that she might be amenable to the acts that followed.
These remarks were published in the media and soon attracted a rather heated response from AWARE (Association of Women for Action for Women and Research). AWARE is a Singapore- based gender equality advocacy group with emphasis on a feminist agenda.
In particular, Ms R Rheaume’s article, written shortly after the verdict in the above case, suggests that such comments are made in almost every case of rape and that such “victim-blaming” suggests that the victim is partly at fault. Needless to say, Ms Rheaume takes issue with any such suggestion.
15 Tuesday Jan 2013
Posted in Uncategorised
The courts were buzzing this week with news coming thick and fast from the Tey Tsun Hang sex- for- grades trial. Amidst the raunchy details of who did-what-to-who-and-where, some people might not have picked up on the fact that the Prosecution applied to impeach witness numero uno, Ms Darinne Ko.
Sound familiar? That might be because the Prosecution also applied to impeach Ms Cecelia Sue in the Ng Boon Gay trial last year. In case you have short- term memory loss or just returned from the moon, Mr Ng stood trial for allegedly receiving sexual favours from Ms Sue in exchange for furthering certain “business interests”.
What then, is this impeachment? Continue reading
28 Friday Sep 2012
Posted in Uncategorised
“Let me be quite clear – we will never tolerate corruption; we will not accept any slackening or lowering of standards,” he said in a speech at the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau’s (CPIB) 60th anniversary celebration. “Anyone who breaks the rules will be caught and punished….” [Emphasis added]
-TODAY, 19 Sep 2012, reporting on a speech by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 18 Sep 2012
“Q: Are both the giver and receiver of the bribe money guilty of corruption?
A: Yes, it is an offence to give or receive a bribe.”
-FAQ, CPIB Website http://app.cpib.gov.sg/cpib_new/user/default.aspx?pgID=26#13, accessed 28 Sep 2012.
Unless you have spent the last 3 months living in a hole, you will know by now that there have been a series of corruption probes and prosecutions involving the supposed giving of sexual favours in exchange for certain benefits. In the case of former CNB head-honcho Ng Boon Gay, Ng currently stands trial for corruptly receiving sexual favours from Cecelia Sue in exchange for advancing the interests of Ms Sue’s then- employer. Associate Professor Tey Tsun Hung was charged in July for receiving, among other things, sexual favours from one Ms Darinne Ko in exchange for better grades.
16 Monday Jul 2012
Posted in Uncategorised
There is a strange creature loose on the streets of Singapore. Some say it travels faster than rancid laksa down your digestive tract. Others say it has a strange affinity for the Forum Page. All we know is, it’s called the Knee Jerk Reaction.
For those who actually have a life and can’t be bothered to keep up with the news, some scholar got caught with his hands down a 15 year old’s panties and now the public is clamouring for a registry of sex offenders. The airwaves were particularly heavy today, laden as they were with drivel from callers eager to prove they weren’t perverts themselves. Continue reading
15 Sunday Jul 2012
Posted in Uncategorised
The media hasn’t done criminal lawyers any favours. Almost everyone can remember seeing the sleazy defence lawyer on tv weaseling his way toward reasonable doubt while his child- rapist client sits grinning in the dock. Small wonder that criminal lawyers have a reputation slightly inferior to, say, granny molesters.
So, in defence of my brethren, these are 5 popular myths about hiring a defence lawyer debunked: Continue reading
11 Wednesday Jul 2012
Posted in Uncategorised
Singapore has, perhaps understandably, been the subject of much international tsk-tsking over its policy of capital punishment for serious crimes. We are not just talking Punishment with a capital “P” here- the good old noose awaits persons convicted of drug trafficking, murder and certain firearms offences.
For would-be drug traffickers at least, the high- stakes game of Singapore-style roulette means that the odds are stacked firmly in favour of the house. The Misuse of Drugs act provides that any person found in possession of drugs is presumed to know the nature of the drug. Also, any person who has in his possession drugs exceeding a statutory amount (the amount varies depending on the drug) is presumed to have that drug for the purpose of trafficking. And, finally, any person who trafficks in excess of a certain amount of hardcore drugs (yes hippies, weed is a hardcore drug in Singapore) gets the death penalty.
