Good Morning, You’re Honor. As defense counsel it is my privilege to bring before a case, wherein by virtually twisting the facts of the case, the prosecution has been able to secure sentence to my innocent client, Mr. Shawn Miller. I would like to maintain, your Honor that my client is innocent of all charges and I shall set forth my corroborations and evidence to this effect. My client, Mr. Shawn Miller was not truly aware of the going-ons in the company which was being totally handled by the second accused, Ms. Sidney Taylor. This second accused was in direct control of the operations and by virtue of superior knowledge and technical skills was able to manipulate the business with impunity. My client is not technically highly competent as Sidney is and is thus hardly in a position to conduct manipulations of which he now stands accused of.
The only responsibility that my client, Miller had was to bring in clients, and this being so, I am sure your Honor would agree with me that this by itself is not enough to level criminal charges against him.
To my mind, his job ended as soon as he passed on the clients to Sidney, and it is from here onwards that the criminal actions began and continued until the business folded up.
Mr. Miller did not possess the technical skills and financial expertise to perpetuate the kind of fraud that he stands accused of. For one thing, he had failed several times to acquire his stock trading qualifications and for another, he does not possess the kind of malicious intent and ambition that is necessary to conduct a sustained fraud of this nature with impunity, stretching over several years.
- The so named company, M/s. S & S. Derivatives, L.L. C., was formed during January 2006, when my client, Mr. Miller was running the show independently. Later on, after May 2006, complaints were made by the Ashcotts. During that time, it was not Shawn Miller but Ms. Taylor who was handling clients and she, for reasons best to known only to herself, did not answer client Fran’s telephone calls, nor provide appropriate account of their investments in the company. You could hardly owe my client responsible for that , could you?
- My client, Miller was unaware of these proceedings and is innocent of the charges leveled against him.
Your Honor, you could hardly blame one person for the wrongdoings of another, especially since they were functioning independently and Sidney did not take my client into confidence on many matters pertaining to several assignments. Without knowledge nor the skills, I strongly believe that my client has been falsely implicated and drawn into this case, on just the flimsy grounds that he happened to be an associate of Sidney.
Depositions of key witnesses
Your Honor, a key witness, Mickey Pennman, personal accountant of Miller and company auditor for S&S Derivates, who knows him for over a decade, testified to the integrity of his character and the fact that the irregularities could possibly have been carried out by Ms. Taylor, unknown to Miller.
My client had implicit trust in his childhood friend, Sidney and saw no reason why he should question or doubt her business integrity.. Perhaps this was the only reason why he should have had to pay such a heavy price for his implicit trust and confidence on his friend and business partner.
Only the Aschotts brought case against the firm, no one else did so. Why ? Due to their greed and their desire for more. We have over 1000 clients and nobody even felt it necessary to question their investments with us. Business is based on trust and good faith, and this was totally lacking with the Aschotts. What I feel is that we should have paid them off and closed their account with us, but Sidney did not want that, since that would put an end to her nefarious game.
it was their greed and financial over ambition that ultimately caused them to lose all their retirement savings and end up in virtual penury. Your Honor, the actions of Ashcotts were motivated with a deeper malaise to injure the company and its business but ended with greater self harm that they could have possibly anticipated.
In effect, they were cutting off the branch of the tree on which they were themselves reclining.
Their lack of tact and discretion eventually led to their own ruination
Your Honor, the deposition of the other key witness, Ryan Williams, also seems to substantiate the general feeling that pervades regarding the innocence of my client, Miller. He describes him as an upright person who would not need to stoop to such low levels of fraudulent activities of which he now stands accused.
Besides, Williams did not have any misgivings about Miller leaving his firm and sticking out on his own, which he also attributed to his courage and independent nature. Besides even If Ryan had a grouse on Miller, he would have confronted him man-to-man and not taken recourse to such a low-down method.
Shawn Miller’s non-complicity in this case
Most of the witnesses who have testified in this case have been unanimous about Miller’s non-complicity in this case, more so, since Sidney Taylor was the person dealing with all the kinds of clients and their business requirements.
From all that has transpired in this case, Your Honor, it is abundantly clear that rivals of this firm and the top management may possible have conspired to wreck havoc on the firm and the lives of its owners. It would not be wrong even to insinuate the Senor Investigator of this alleged fraud, Mr. Sheridan Holmes who seemed to take personal delight in wrecking this business, since he had his own career failures which he attributed to owners of companies like S&S Derivatives LLC.
With duel respect to Holmes, I feel he should have used more tactful means to exhibit his career frustrations and failing for which he nailed this company with deliberate precision and vendetta, knowing very well that innocent people like my client would also be wrongly affected.
This is all the more painful since Shawn was not the mastermind behind these devious plans hatched by Sidney Taylor for self aggrandizement at the expense of others and the company as a whole.
Gross miscarriage of equity, justice and good conscience
It is indeed a gross travesty of justice that an innocent man has to pay up for the misdemeanors of others especially since he wished to carry out the business legally, to start with, but his new partner thought otherwise to advance her own financial interests.
In all probability, it was quite possible that had these events not occurred, this company could have gone ahead quite smoothly and would have been able to idea over the recession well with its inbuilt reserves and profits. Besides, nobody has ever complained of loss of investments and Ascott’s complaint was just a flash in the pan.
Your Honor, if a company were to arbitrarily investigated on the ground of a single complaint, there would not be very many companies left in the USA. And we could have many cases on our laps, which could even last a lifetime.
Besides, the impact of this complaint has shaken the very premise of this business and brought it on the virtual doorsteps of liquidation.
Conclusion
Your Honor, the hallowed institutions of Courts need to provide justice to aggrieved or harmed individuals and retribution to wrong doers. It would indeed be a travesty of truth and miscarriage of justice, if innocent people, (like Mr. Shawn Miller in this case) be held accountable for the misdeeds of others, for actions of which he was unaware, least of all which he had concurred or agreed to.
Your Honor, it is my earnest prayer to this Court that you seek and provide justice to my innocent client whose only fault has been that he trusted Sidney to the point that eventually hurt him. And yet there was no reason to distrust, was there?
That’s all, Your Honor and thank you for your time and patient hearing.
Works Cited
Miller, Shawn. New York State 2010 Statewide High School Mock Trial Tournament Materials: The People of the State of New York. The New York Bar Association. 2009. Web.