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After attending a great mid-August mountain retreat celebrating Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert) with several hundred people -- complete with kirtan with Krishna Das (lead singer of the precursor to Blue Oyster Cult), Nina Rao, David Nichtern (who wrote "Midnight at the Oasis", for starters) and more; talks by Robert Thurman and more; and a deep rapport with many -- Fairfax criminal defense lawyer Jonathan Katz returned from the mountains and found himself repeating old patterns in dealing with such challenges as tailgating drivers.

Three weeks later, Jon Katz joined his friend and peace teacher Jun Yasuda for a whole weekend at her battery-recharging peace pagoda in upstate New York, where the days were filled with mindful eating, doing concrete work, stacking wood, driving through the beautiful mountains to Bennington, VT for supplies, and repeatedly chanting the Odaimoku and sections of the Lotus Sutra. By then, Jon got back on track with the importance of focusing on both an open heart and internal peacefulness -- together with keeping touch with like-minded people -- as the way to integrate this practice in dealing with challenging people and situations, where sometimes the most challenging people are really ourselves. This applies well both to his personal life and life as a criminal defense lawyer.

Blessing us in joining this Beat the Prosecution episode is Raghu Markus, a friend of the late Ram Dass and executive director of the Ram Dass Love Serve Remember Foundation (donate here and subscribe here to the foundation's extensive learning material). Raghu talks about connecting with Ram Dass and their mutual guide Neem Karoli Baba (Mahara-ji), how Raghu's father's joining Raghu and Mahara-ji in India marked a turning point in their father-son relationship, and how Raghu also can be challenged in fully applying his lessons from Mahara-ji in dealing with challenging situations. This is about constant daily practice, work, and connecting with like-minded people.

This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at info@KatzJustice.com, 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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When Fairfax criminal defense / DUI lawyer Jonathan Katz joined with Ramsey Clark in defending the Plowshares activists for their 2000 criminal jury trial for their depleted uranium action, one of the group's supporters suggested getting ideas from lawyer David Walsh-Little , who served as standby trial counsel to the Gods of Metal Plowshares Five in 1998. In the interim, Jon instead consulted with another lawyer who had defended a slew of political activists.

Now, twenty-five years later, Jon Katz for the first time talks with David Walsh-Little, about winning with a devotion to true justice. David and his wife met in college and organized against Gulf War I when Jon was visiting peace protestors during lunchtime across from the White House, three blocks from the corporate law firm where Jon then worked, several months before Jon transitioned to his true love of criminal defense, with a nearby public defender's office. David became a public defender lawyer, and then transitioned to running a legal office from the Viva Catholic Worker House in Baltimore, followed by returning to public defender work at the state and then federal levels, and now in his solo law practice. In law school, David worked for William Kunstler and Ron Kuby.

David does not see a secret to beating the prosecution beyond full devotion to our clients and strong experience. He makes a good point about the times that prosecutors ensnare themselves in weakness. David is a progressive lawyer and a true believer in the work he does. This episode is also available on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmJnytznE2c .

This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at info@KatzJustice.com, 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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Fairfax, Virginia criminal defense lawyer Jonathan Katz's teacher Gerry Spence lived until 96 years, and transitioned from his body on August 13, 2025. Gerry has had a profound and lifelong impact on Jon Katz's personal and professional lives, as he has had on thousands of people's lives.

Great public defender lawyer Shalev Ben-Avraham in this episode joins Jon Katz in diving deep in illustrating the great gifts from Gerry and in deeply thanking and bowing to him.

No liner note substitute exists for listening to what Jon and Shalev have to say in this episode.

This video is also available on YouTube and on Apple Podcasts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk_U4BajNnI

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gerry-spences-gifts-live-on-talk-by-his-students-jon/id1721413675?i=1000722965208

This video is also available on YouTube and on Apple Podcasts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk_U4BajNnI

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gerry-spences-gifts-live-on-talk-by-his-students-jon/id1721413675?i=1000722965208

This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at info@KatzJustice.com, 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz started law school seeing the glass as more half empty than full when it came to protecting people's Constitutional rights and civil liberties. That situation began shifting as Jon Katz learned about the many people around him who not only were fighting like hell for the side of justice, but who refused to depart from their optimism.

One of those lawyers is Gerald Zerkin. Jerry's name became more well known with his helping to get Earl Washington, Jr., off death row with DNA analysis. Then, Jerry became the death penalty defense-eligible lawyer on the team defending Zacarias Moussaoui against the federal death penalty, where the prosecution was unable to put him on death row.

It is not enough to have the skill to be a criminal defense lawyer. The fire in a great criminal defense lawyer's belly, true caring for the defendant in the attorney's heart, and being a true believer can provide an attorney that oomph spelling the difference between winning or not.

This Beat The Prosecution episode is also available on YouTube.

This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at info@KatzJustice.com, 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz one day Googled for other lawyers practicing martial arts, and came upon David Kaufman of KarateLaw.com . Now, several years later, Jon Katz speaks to David (now retired from law practice and serving as an expert witness and business security consultant) about applying martial arts experience and knowledge to criminal defense and to the practice of law generally, benefitting from the regular practice of martial arts, and keeping our wits and summoning our calmness during our legal battles.

David has devoted years to learning and practicing judo and karate. Jon Katz daily practices the internal martial art of taijiquan Yang style short form, approaching every challenge in courthouse battle and beyond as one more opportunity to engage and improve in proverbial push hands / sensing hands sparring.

For good reason this is Jon Katz's fourth martial arts-focused Beat the Prosecution episode. Great criminal defense is a fighting art, and the great martial arts already has paved the way for fighting in court and beyond. Jon Katz's zeal for fighting dates back for decades and continues to this day.

This episode's links are on YouTube, on our URL and on Apple podcasts.

This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at info@KatzJustice.com, 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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Fairfax criminal defense lawyer Jonathan Katz daily practices the martial art of taijiquan / t'ai chi ch'uan Yang style short form, also known as Cheng Man Ch'ing (CMC) taijiquan form. This episode introduces our third taijiquan teacher, after previously introducing you to Jon Katz's vitally important teacher Julian Chu (a student of CMC senior student Benjamin Pang Jeng Lo, several of whose weekend training classes Jon has attended), and Len Kennedy, who is one of two lawyers who has inspired Jon on the taijiquan path.

Taijiquan is vitally important to Jon. Courtroom defense is war, and Jon's regular taijiquan form and sparring (push hands / sensing hands) practice is just the thing to enable him to find calm in the eye of the courtroom storm, so as to keep his eye on the prize of pursuing his clients' best defense.

Sifu William C. Phillips is one of CMC's junior students, and among the youngest to receive permission from CMC to teach taijiquan. Bill is among the small number of CMC's student who have written about him and his taijiquan. Bill's first book is In the Presence of Cheng Man-Ch'ing- My Life and Lessons With the Master of Five Excellences. Bill's second book is due out this year. This Beat the Prosecution episode explores the essence of CMC beyond what has already been written about him, and the further essence of Bill -- who also has advanced in several other martial arts -- beyond what is already available. Bill grew up with street fights, stumbled into a love of judo in college, and from the judo studio director learned about CMC, and the rest is history.

Bill declines an invitation to speak much about how criminal defense lawyers can come closer to beating the prosecution, but he actually says it all for himself in this interview: Learn and apply taijiquan. Be patient. Be compassionate (I add to be compassionate without sacrificing the interests of the defendant, nor the fighter's firepower). Fight for justice. Practice daily. Stay true to your practice.

Deeply thanking and bowing to Sifu Bill Phillips for joining this podcast episode.

This podcast episode is also on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnAD5GGZi90 and Apple podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/winning-with-full-martial-firepower-sifu-bill-phillips/id1721413675?i=1000713682983

This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at info@KatzJustice.com, 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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Fairfax criminal defense lawyer Jonathan Katz knows that acquittals are great and often exhilarating, but trials can also bring risks. On this Beat the Prosecution episode, Jon Katz talks on his own about the art of obtaining favorable plea or settlement deals, which need to be backed up by the threat and strength of trial readiness.

Settlements can only be earned, but are never owed to a criminal defendant. Many Virginia criminal and DUI defendants expect to be offered a plea deal, and want it to be a desirable plea deal. However, nothing in the law requires a Virginia assistant commonwealth’s attorney (prosecutor) to make a plea offer, nor for the accused to do anything other than proceed to trial. Jon Katz's parallel blog entry on this subject illustrates one of his successful plea negotiations that can be of help to you as a criminal defendant and your Virginia criminal defense attorney. With this settlement, we started out with a Virginia DUI / driving under the influence of alcohol prosecution alleging a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) over 0.20, which carries a mandatory ten days in jail. Jon reached an impasse with the prosecutor about going lower than the mandatory minimum five days in jail for a reduced BAC in the 0.15-0.20 range.

Jon asked the prosecutor if he had read Roger Fisher’s and William Ury’s Getting to Yes on negotiated settlements, which emphasizes negotiating on goals versus positions. The impasse continued. Jon transcended the impasse by standing up, calling out the names of the two lead police officers in the case, telling them the great self improvement his client had pursued, explained why the defendant's livelihood was at stake from the prosecutor’s plea offer, and asked them for ideas on how this case could be settled without active jail. Without missing a beat, the arresting officer suggested three years of the ignition interlock device. The prosecutor went along with that, adding to complete forty-five community service hours...

Fairfax criminal lawyer Jon Katz pursues your best defense against Virginia criminal & DUI prosecutions. Call us at 703-383-1100 or Info@KatzJustice.com to obtain your free in-person confidential consultation with Jon about your court-pending prosecution.

This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at info@KatzJustice.com, 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz knows that it is not radical to protest, but instead is among our rights under the Bill of Rights. As an undergraduate alum of Tufts University, Jon Katz opened his eyes and ears all the more to the plight of Rümeysa Öztürk, who is not known to have written or said anything more radical than the decidedly non-radical op-ed she co-authored with three others in the Tufts Daily.

Ms. Öztürk has a great team of lawyers -- including our interviewee Mahsa Khanbabai -- and she recently won a federal court order to release her from detention while she fights deportation proceedings. The question arises about which lesser known people facing the same plight will be able to pull together the right legal team.

Attorney Khanbabai suggests these relevant links:

- Senate Judiciary Committee report on immigration detention https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/SENATE%20JUDICIARY%20COMMITTEE%20RANKING%20MEMBER%20REVEALS%20DEVASTATING%20INSIGHTS%20INTO%20ICE%20DETENTION%20IN%20EXCLUSIVE%20SITE%20VISIT.pdf

- Justice for Rümeysa Öztürk financial campaign page

- Abuse of migrants at detention centers https://www.laaclu.org/en/news/abuse-migrants-rampant-louisiana-ice-centers-report-finds

- Deaths in adult detention https://www.aila.org/library/deaths-at-adult-detention-centers.

This podcast episode also is available at YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH2sNLkhKH0

This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at info@KatzJustice.com, 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675