Oops. Lawyer's Mistaken ID of 'Client' Nearly Wins Reduced Sentence
When attorney Joseph Santo pointed at him in a Brooklyn courtroom, 17-year-old Victor Hernandez says, he didn’t think much about it as he went up to stand beside the lawyer.
But getting a five-year probation sentence instead of the seven-year jail term he might have expected definitely caught his attention, he tells the New York Post. He didn’t understand how he’d gotten so lucky, but figured there was something he’d missed due to not speaking English well.
The mystery was explained, however, after another lawyer, who actually represents Hernandez, couldn’t find his client. Santo had mistaken Hernandez for another man he represents in a different case, which involves lesser charges, the newspaper recounts.
Says Santo: “I see as many as 40 clients in a week. I don’t remember their faces all the time.”
Santo’s actual client wound up with the probationary term, and Hernandez will be resentenced, the Post reports.
