On Nov. 3, Brandon Pierson showed up for court wearing slippers and a leather jacket, scheduled to testify during a trial in Allen Superior Court.

But the next time he shows up, he could be handcuffed and wearing a jailhouse orange jumpsuit.

There's a warrant out for the lanky 31-year-old Fort Wayne man, subpoenaed twice in the case of Derrick Martin – a 29-year-old felon accused of unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of marijuana.

Pierson has run afoul of the courts twice – first by walking out of a scheduled deposition at the Allen County Prosecutor's Office and then again when he did not show up for a rescheduled deposition on Nov. 9. Depositions – recorded interviews of what witnesses intend to say at trial – are important for trial preparation on both sides of a case.

The first time, Pierson received a lecture from Allen Superior Judge Fran Gull – standing before her in his slippers, looking inconvenienced. The second time he was charged with felony obstruction of justice.

Allen County's judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys are fed up with the lackadaisical attitude many seem to have for the criminal justice system. And they've been cracking down in recent weeks, ordering witnesses held for contempt of court or in the case of Pierson and another scheduled witness in the Martin trial, Mario Gray, filing criminal charges.

"This isn't a joke. This is serious business," Gull said. "You have an obligation as a citizen … to participate in the life of the community."

Threat of retaliation

Gull, a former deputy prosecutor, and her colleague on the bench, Allen Superior Judge John Surbeck, both acknowledged the problem, but attribute it to different causes.

Surbeck, who handled cases as a defense attorney in the 1970s and 1980s, saw prosecutors being overly protective of their witnesses, saying it was out of fear of reprisals

Back then, that was not a realistic problem then, Surbeck said. "It was nonsense," he said. "That stuff didn't happen here."

But Surbeck believes that may have changed, with more of a threat of retaliation on the street now than there used to be.

Gull sees the current situation as a general disrespect for authority. She's cautious to say such contempt for the system is worse now than it was in years past because there are no statistics to back up her belief. But anecdotally, it seems much more prevalent.

Along with the Martin case, there are other recent examples of disrespect for the courts spelled out in court documents:

•In the case of David Velez, accused of child molesting, a woman and her children failed to show up for scheduled depositions at the Allen County Public Defenders Office. Served personally with subpoenas for the depositions, the witnesses also didn't show up for the hearing to explain why they shouldn't be held in contempt in court.

•Quenton Davis was charged in November 2008 with domestic battery. He pleaded guilty, but his victim failed to show up for depositions as the case proceeded and did not always cooperate with prosecutors, a somewhat common situation in domestic violence cases.

•Accused of shooting and nearly killing Hilton Morris in July, Quincy English is charged with attempted murder and gun charges. But the key witness in the case has not cooperated, failing to sign for subpoenas and not showing up for depositions. Both prosecutors and defense attorneys filed a joint motion with the court asking for a hearing in which the witness could be held in contempt. At a hearing on Friday, Surbeck ordered her held in the Allen County Jail until the December trial.

Frustration grows

Not showing up for depositions or failing to show up for court hearings may seem trivial to those who choose to ignore their subpoenas, but it puts the brakes on criminal cases, bringing them to a near halt.

"We have had to continue jury trials because people haven't shown up for depositions," Gull said.

And it is expensive. In public defender cases, the county pays to hire court reporters and have lawyers present for depositions. When the hearing doesn't occur or the deposition doesn't happen, it is a loss of man-hours and money, she said.

For prosecutors, the problem of absentee or uncooperative witnesses can affect the type of charges that are filed or how the case is resolved.

In April 2008, Adrian Carswell was shot to death inside a parked car at a local apartment complex. Two men are in prison for robbing Carswell of the marijuana he was selling. But no one was convicted for firing the gun that killed Carswell, though Dametrick Gray and Demarcus Morgan were initially charged in the slaying.

Witnesses, largely friends and family of the accused men, were less than helpful during Dametrick Gray's trial and, by the time Morgan's case came around, prosecutors offered a guilty plea to a single charge of robbery.

At Morgan's sentencing, Allen County Deputy Prosecutor Steve Godfrey expressed frustration with the witnesses.

"They didn't come through in the first (case)," he said. "There was no reason to believe they would do so in the second."

Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards said her office is having a terrible time getting people to cooperate with investigators and prosecutors.

"There's a real lack of respect for authority in the criminal justice system. It makes prosecuting cases really, really difficult," she said. "People complain about homicides not getting prosecuted, but the issues with witnesses is the main reason."

And for defense attorneys, the inability to find out what the state's witnesses plan to say at trial inhibits their ability to put together a good defense for their clients, or to press them to plead guilty based on evidence against them.

William Lebrato, who handles a number of public defender cases, attributes his ability to resolve cases without having to take them to trial to the deposition process.

But when witnesses don't show up, it is not only irritating but it causes problems in the case itself, causing delays and forcing the judges to get involved, he said.

"They think the subpoena is just a piece of paper," he said.

"They don't understand the seriousness of it. Because it has been happening more and more, we can't do our jobs. We can't effectively get these cases through the system when people refuse to cooperate … It prevents you from doing your job. It prevents prosecutors from doing their job and it prevents all of us from finding the truth."

All in this together

A loss of civility and respect for the process is not just damaging to the criminal justice system, but also to the community, Gull said.

And if everyone decides against participating in the process, then the lowest element of society becomes the one determining how society will act, she said.

"It's frustrating as somebody who has been a part of this system my whole career to see the disrespect people show the system," Gull said. "How do you have a society where you don't take care of each other?"

Her feelings were echoed by Richards and Lebrato – sitting on opposite sides.

"It seems like we've lost the feeling that we're all in this together," Richards said. "They've lost sight of the fact that this is a community and we need to look out for each other, to help each other out."

rgreen@jg.net