A barrister has been suspended after telling a jury the choose attempting the case was speaking ‘absolute garbage’.
Jacqueline Vallejo was additionally fined £2,000 after persevering with to be ‘impolite and unprofessional’, a conduct committee was instructed.
The trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court docket in London, in February to March 2016, noticed the prison specialist make a number of ‘disrespectful’ feedback in entrance of jurors.
Ms Vallejo, who had been working as a barrister for nearly 20 years on the time, requested sarcastically: ‘Is your Honour giving proof?’
She additionally instructed the choose ‘don’t attempt to make me sound like an fool’, the Bar Tribunals and Adjudication Service heard on the Council of the Inns of Court docket.
The battle first began when the prison barrister, from Backyard Court docket Chambers, refused to interact with the prosecution regardless of being instructed to by the choose.
The choose warned her to not delay or distract from the trial, to which Ms Vallejo replied: ‘Nicely, that’s precisely what you’re doing.’
When the choose later requested her to make clear some proof, she stated she had ‘defined it already’.
Ms Vallejo added she felt she was being ‘compelled’ to simply accept the prosecution case, the listening to heard.
The panel was instructed she was ‘unduly’ argumentative and answered the choose with an ‘unhelpful tone, perspective and method’, and each talked over her and interrupted her.
She answered the choose by saying: ‘I can't pressure my consumer to supply a defence assertion. What a part of that does your Honour not perceive?’
Ms Vallejo additional stated it was the ‘fifth time your Honour has requested me to take a seat down’ when she was requested to be seated, after which instructed the choose she didn’t should be requested to take a seat.
When the unnamed choose ultimately warned her about her conduct, Ms Vallejo instructed the listening to: ‘In case your Honour desires to do something about me and my conduct that’s superb… I’d relatively you do it sooner relatively than later, although.’
The listening to heard she was ‘abrupt and disrespectful’ and suspended her for 4 months. She should pay her £2,000 superb inside one yr.
The panel concluded: ‘[Ms Vallejo] failed to watch her responsibility to the court docket within the administration of justice in that she behaved in a impolite and unprofessional method.’
The skilled lawyer labored on the ‘Salsa Spy’ case of 2008, the place an Military translator and salsa dance instructor was discovered responsible of spying for Iran in Afghanistan.
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