Blog Posts

The end came swiftly: Yesterday, Waterbury State's Attorney John Connelly resigned, ending a 30-year career as one of Connecticut's most colorful and successful prosecutors. The Waterbury Republican, the hometown paper and long a supporter of Connelly's, reported his resignation as health-related....

Experienced criminal defense lawyers and even judges know a simple truth: Ask the wrong questions, and the truth will slip through your fingers. Sometimes it is all about plausible deniability, a truth parsed so finely that the difference between fact and fiction becomes indistinguishable. That's...

If I were a betting man, I'd wager a few dollars, but not the mortgage money, on the possibility of indictments arising from federal probe of the Waterbury state's attorney's office and a local defense lawyer as early as next week. Uncle Sam has been poking around in the Brass City for the better...

The next time members of the Connecticut General Assembly are asked to consider whether the prosecutors of this state should have routine access to investigative grand juries, they ought to take a trip to the Walker Reception and Special Management Unit. That's a euphemism for prison. It's located...

Just how badly do federal prosecutors want to prosecute Waterbury State's Attorney John Connelly? Pretty badly; the vision of Connelly in handcuffs haunts the heartless corridors of the New Haven office of the Justice Department. It's the sort of vision that makes FBI agents do crazy and...

I am a come-and-go member of the Connecticut Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. I say come and go because I from time to time quit in a huff about one thing or another. Just now, I am on the cusp of taking my dues elsewhere. But first, I would like some answers from the CCDLA executive...

If you have ever tried to get the personal address of an FBI agent in an ongoing criminal case, you know what futility means. This sort of information is kept confidential. It is personal, off limits, and even asking for the addresses will yield a storm of consternation. I used to accept that as...

The law of supply and demand influences almost everything, including legal services. There is only so much chaos to go around. In a bad economy, few clients can afford the legal services they need. Lawyers straining to makes end meet may resort to sharp practices to gain competitive advantage....

There was a moment, however fleeting, in Scott Turow's latest novel, Innocent, in which I thought him near perfect. He tip-toed to the very cusp of the reality of what it is to practice law in the private sector. He peered into the abyss.
"Winning appeals was a rarity for a defense lawyer," he...

The case of State v. Hayes has once again ground to a halt. A competency exam has been ordered. But Judge Jon Blue ordered an examination of the wrong party. The State of Connecticut should have been remanded to a forensic institution to see whether it is playing with a full deck. That's the party...