Congratulations to Tyler Beach on a Felony Assault IV Dismissal at Preliminary Hearing

This is rather spectacular.  Defense is not really supposed to obtain a dismissal at a felony preliminary hearing.  The prosecutor really just needs to have the police officer testify why s/he believes a crime occurred and why s/he thinks the defendant is the one who committed the alleged crime.  There is no right to a jury at these hearings.  The purpose of these hearings is to satisfy a constitutional requirement to have the government demonstrate that they are not prosecuting a person due to that person’s race, religion, politics, or other inappropriate reason.  Basically, the prosecutor’s job at this hearing is to show why s/he has a legitimate witness complaining that a crime actually occurred and that they think the defendant is the one that did that crime.  Normally, they don’t bother with a preliminary hearing in these types of cases and rather take it to the grand jury where the defense is not allowed to appear and cross examine witnesses.  Well, on this case, the prosecutor didn’t get that done in time, and thus had to hold the preliminary hearing.  That was a mistake for the prosecutor.  Mr. Beach used his opportunity to cross examine to burrow into the government’s weaknesses in the case.  The judge agreed with Mr. Beach’s arguments and dismissed the case.