January 25, 2023 Dinner Meeting and Team Presentation

The social hour began with Team Etta James playing their namesake’s most famous song “At Last.”

President Hon. Jennifer “Jen” Gerard began the meeting by welcoming all Leo A. Deegan Inn of Court (Deegan Inn) members to the meeting, which was held indoors at the Canyon Crest Country Club. Judge Gerard reminded Deegan Inn members that the joint meeting of the Inland Empire chapters of the American Inns of Court will be held on Thursday, March 16, 2023 with details to follow. Jen also reminded the members of the importance of RSVP’ing to every meeting.

President Gerard called upon Hon. John Vineyard, Judicial Master, to begin the presentation on “The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia.” Team Etta James consists of Hon. John Vineyard (Judicial Master), D.W. Duke (Attorney Master), Abram Feuerstein (Attorney Master), Rebecca McKee (Barrister), Philip Johnson (Associate), Samantha Pruett (Associate), Jeremiah Raxter (Associate), and Marissa Stone (Associate). Judge Vineyard began the presentation by providing a biography of the late Etta James, who resided in Riverside.

Each team member introduced themselves when they began their portion of the presentation.

After Judge Vineyard concluded his biography of Etta James, Deegan Inn members were invited to sing along to “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia”, which was originally performed by Vicki Lawrence. Deegan Inn members were invited to sing along to the version by Reba McEntire. Unfortunately, no one took the team up on their offer to get the book “Gideon’s Trumpet” in exchange for performing.

The lyrics to the song were analyzed by the team members. Samantha and Marissa discussed domestic violence within the U.S. and cases where individuals were convicted of murder without a body ever being found. Excerpts of Taylor Swift’s “No Body, No Crime” and The Chicks’ "Goodbye Earl” were played for Deegan Inn members.

Rebecca introduced Riverside Police Department Chief Larry Gonzalez to speak about crime and the advances in technology and techniques when processing a crime scene.

Photograph courtesy of City of Riverside

Jeremiah spoke about the right to counsel, which transitioned into Abe’s portion of the presentation. Jeremiah also handled all technical aspects of the presentation.

Abe spoke about Gideon vs. Wainwright 372 U.S. 335 (1963), the U.S. Supreme Court case which resulted in the law that criminal defendants are guaranteed the right to representation by an attorney and the book inspired by the events “Gideon’s Trumpet”). When Mr. Gideon was retried after the SCOTUS ruling, he was found “not guilty.”

D.W. spoke about the process of becoming a judge in the State of California.

At the conclusion of the presentation, Deegan Inn members were invited to score the presentation from a ranking of 1 (worst) to 5 (best). The team and winning presentation will be announced at the September 2023 Orientation Meeting.