Friends and colleagues profess confusion: Why would I do it, why cross a line that seems to separate good from evil? Some are angered: How could I do it? One woman wrote publicly to tell me how disappointed she was in me: I did not take her case against members of the East Haven Police Department, but now I am representing one of the officers, a man accused by the federal government of abusing his power and now charged with a crime. Am I traitor?, these folks wonder.
This business of line drawing among criminal defense lawyers and civil rights activists is tricky business. Outsiders...
February 6, 2012
I am not sure what is going on in the Connecticut Office of Adult Probation lately, but my telephone has been ringing off the hook. Until recently, probationers appear to have been given a fair amount of freedom to travel interstate. All of a sudden, there’s been a crack down. Folks who were once given permission to travel are suddenly on existential lock down. So the calls come in, people wanting to go to court to get the conditions of probation modified.
Such motions are usually a waste of time. I tell folks that while they are on probation they are in custody every bit as...
February 2, 2012
Here's the foreward to my new book, Taking Back the Courts, written by an idol of mine, F. Lee Bailey. To say I was thrilled to get this review is an understatement.
FOREWORD
Several years ago I was asked by my most important client at the time to find him a fearless, highly skilled lawyer in Connecticut to take the lead in a monstrous case which was then degenerating rapidly. After questioning a number of colleagues to get recommendations, I set an interview with Norman Pattis of New Haven. We met at dinner. At first glance, as he entered the room, I noted a generous...
January 29, 2012
Journalists and bloggers glory in the role of iconoclast. Nothing falls with quite such a crash as a hero toppled by disclosure of their failings. The writer who wields the toppling axe struts like a hero. But the line between iconoclasm and gratuitous mudslinging is a thin one. The New York Times demonstrated that this week with its story on a Yale student named Patrick Witt.
While college football fans sat dazed this fall over the allegations of sexual misconduct by a former football coach at Penn State University, and the abrupt firing of legendary coach Joe Paterno for...
January 28, 2012
January 27, 2012
I never got a chance to stop in to ask Judge Peter C. Dorsey what he thought of the new gym in the basement of the New Haven federal court....
January 24, 2012
The politics of federal law enforcement are now front and center in the courtroom of United States District Court Judge Alvin W. Thompson. That is...
January 22, 2012
I don’t know why the death of an old man takes me by surprise. But it always does. They pass into the night and suddenly a landmark is gone....
January 19, 2012
Does anyone really care whether Newt Gingrich asked for an open marriage from his second wife? (He wanted permission to cavort with his mistress....
January 17, 2012
Michael Connelly is as good as it gets when it comes to telling tales about lawyers and policemen engaged in the dark but heroic act of combatting...
January 16, 2012
I was born on the wrong side of the color line, and, to my shame, I would have it no other way. Not a day goes by in which I do not enjoy the benefit...