‘I’m Not a Cat,’ Says Lawyer Having Zoom Difficulties
Courts usually don’t let cats argue cases. But here was Rod Ponton, a county attorney in Presidio County, Texas, unable to figure out how to turn off the cat filter on his Zoom call during a hearing on Tuesday in Texas’ 394th Judicial District Court.
The result was a video immediately hailed across the internet as an instant classic, in the rarefied company of classics like Knife Kid and BBC Dad. It offered an injection of harmless levity when many people are experiencing a rough time — and Mr. Ponton took it in good spirits.
“If I can make the country chuckle for a moment in these difficult times they’re going through, I’m happy to let them do that at my expense,” he said in a phone interview on Tuesday afternoon.
“I’m prepared to go forward” is the best part of the whole thing. So very lawyer.Report
My boss texted it to me with instructions to pass it around to the junior attorneys as an example of how she expects us to keep it together, even under the most challenging of circumstances.Report
The second time around I noticed the upper left corner has the warning “Recording of this hearing or live stream is prohibited.” I don’t guess showing it is. One report said that the court itself had released the recording, but can they really prohibit recording? I know courts have prohibited cameras in the courtroom in the past, but less so today. It now seems pointless and impractical.Report
Love to hear the backstory–like “it was my granddaughter that was using the computer this weekend talking to her friends.”Report
That, or he likes to cosplay a cat.Report
The prequel is not nearly as fun.
https://www.insider.com/zoom-cat-lawyer-rod-ponton-prosecutor-texas-2021-2Report
There it is. Trust the media to take something that makes people laugh and throw mud on it for the clicks, and so people will now feel bad for laughing at something the bad person did.Report
Remember when that guy saved that plane and it turned out that despite what I am sure was a lot of looking nobody ever found any dirt on him at all? That was awesome.Report
Of course, then Hollywood had to go and make up all sorts of controversy for the Tom Hanks movie.
I wonder how many dirt diggers were just super annoyed and frustrated at the lack of anything. Like they get paid by the tidbit.Report
I immediately googled “Sully” and “Flight” to see which came out when.
Because, you know, if Flight came out after, it’d be the script that the guy *REALLY* wanted to write.
Sadly, no.Report
Wasn’t he peddling conspiracy theories about Trig Palin?Report
I was really hoping this one wasn’t gonna be a milkshake duck, too.Report