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JEFF BELOTE
(McAlester) ran into some prosecutorial shenanigans but still managed an acquittal on May 10, 2005, in a felony stalking case. Client charged with stalking his current, but separated, wife by driving behind her in traffic and excessive phone calls. Felony because a PO was in place at the time. Client testified that he did not intentionally follow wife in the car because the route he was driving was on his way to work and, despite the PO in place, they have two kids and he made legitimate phone calls about the welfare of his own children. The prosecution impeached client with statements he made to the cops. Problem was that the State never gave the statements to Jeff in discovery(!) The court let them slide on it, but complete dirty pool. Be on notice in McAlester (and everywhere, sadly) to aggressively file and pursue written discovery motions. Jeff notes to all that the OUJI-CR standard instructions do not address the "legitimate conduct" defense aspect of this crime and the judge did give him some leeway on arguing to the jury the legitimate nature of the phone calls. Nice job Jeff.
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