Call me heartless, but I don't have one ounce of sympathy for this guy, Harvey Updyke. From everything I've seen or read on this guy, he seems like kind of a prick. The original prick move was poisoning those dumb trees, but you can really class up the joint by flipping the bird to the local news camera crew while sitting in the back of a squad car. Nicely done, Harvey.According to AL.com, the third public defender that was assigned to represent Mr. Updyke, asked to be removed from the case, citing a conflict of interest. According to the article, "Jerry M. Blevins, who was hired as Updyke's attorney last Friday, filed a motion Tuesday afternoon asking to be removed from the case. He's the third defense attorney to ask to be removed......Blevins, in court papers, said he asked to be removed because an "irreconcilable conflict arose" between he and Updyke." Turns out that if you live in or around the town of Auburn, Alabama, it's pretty hard to find a lawyer without a) ties to Auburn University or b) who is not a fan of Auburn football. Go figure.
If I was asked to be this guy's lawyer, the only "conflict of interest" that I would cite is that he's an asshole. (Zing!) On the flipside, some people are making the lives of these trees to be equal to, like, the lives of actual human beings. And that's kind of out there, I mean, c'mon people. They are freaking trees.
Still, I stick to my original point that this guy should get a few years of jail time just because of how stupid he is, not necessarily for what he did. Oh and the only TV he gets to watch is playing a continuous loop of Auburn's 24-23 comeback victory against Alabama in this past season's Iron Bowl. Now that would be a worthy punishment.
[ AL.com story ]
