This one-hour webinar will provide an overview of police actions to question, allowing defense counsel to more effectively represent their clients.  Having taught at police academies in New Jersey and Arizona, Lisa offers a unique insight into police investigative procedures.

•  Why it’s critical for Defense Counsel to Police the Police. Defense counsel is always in a better position than Prosecutors to recognize and address police misconduct from minor acts of misconduct through homicides. When to advise a client about their rights to file a complaint with the Departmental Internal Affairs Division (IAD) or even file a Tort Claim. 
• How to request and obtain a “Brady List” and other officer sensitive information from police departments such as disciplinary records and criminal complaints against officers for offenses such as Domestic Violence.
• The paramilitary command structure and CompStat – holding police accountable and how citizen oversight committees have changed the face of policing forever
• Reports and media defense counsel should routinely request and what to do when you get it: CAD Audio recordings; daily briefings; property and evidence receipts; accident reports; witness statements; medical records; written explanations for missing bodycam/dashcam footage.  Why police officer report templates are bad for the prosecution and good for defense counsel.
• Cross Jurisdictional Issues. Tribal/State/Federal within the territorial boundaries of federally-recognized Indian tribes; Federal/State over certain major crimes; State Patrol vs. County Sheriffs vs. Municipal Police Officers. Who does what and why?

Bio:  Lisa Adams currently serves as an Assistant Public Defender for Adams County, NE.  She is a graduate of Willamette University College of Law in Salem Oregon, and Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She was a legal journalist reporting on significant federal Indian law and business law cases in Seattle. She was a prosecutor in both Newark, New Jersey and the Colorado River Indian Tribes in Arizona. She was certified by the State of New Jersey Law Enforcement Commission and the Arizona P.O.S.T. (Police Officer Standards and Training) Academy to teach law enforcement recruits criminal law and procedure. She served as the police liaison for the City of Newark Law Department and represented the City in police internal disciplinary proceedings and oversaw discovery in police tort claim actions.  She was the first Newark community prosecutor under the Partners Against Crime (P.A.C.) initiative to curtail officer misconduct by being stationed in the South District P.A.C. precinct to oversee officer conduct at the street level. She worked with the Public Defender’s Office to create a model for disposing of minor cases at arraignment which became the model for the State. Finally, she served as the Chief Judge of the Oglala Sioux Tribal Court and was also an Associate Justice of Tribe’s Supreme Court; in-house counsel for the Oglala Sioux Tribe; and the first in-house counsel for the Yurok Tribe of Klamath, California where she successfully negotiated a cross-deputation agreement between the Tribe and Del Norte and Humboldt Counties that allowed tribal officers to enforce state law on tribal land.