Blog Posts

You know the state's Judicial Branch is bleeding when the chief justice takes to writing opinion pieces. I am not referring to legal opinions, mind you. I mean op-ed pieces designed and intended to influence lawmakers, as in the piece Chief Justice Chase Rogers penned, or had penned for her, in The...

Superior Court Judge Leslie Olear of West Hartford is no doubt a profoundly grateful jurist. She was nearly turned out of office by lawmakers the other day. The House of Representative voted 78-67 to permit her to keep her job, an unusually narrow margin. The state Senate voted 28-4 to keep her,...

As read to the Planning and Zoning Commission Wednesday night:
My name is Norm Pattis. I live in Bethany, and I also own Whitlock Farm Booksellers, located at 20 Sperry Road. I have lived in Bethany with my wife for the past ten years. I am a newcomer, still falling in love with what...

I missed the town meeting in Bethany tonight, where residents once again debated whether to permit condominium development. But a friend was there, and she read a letter from me to the town's Planning and Zoning Commission. I also got text message reports from those in attendance.
It turns...

Almost everyone pleads guilty to a crime when prosecuted. Some estimates place those pleading guilty, rather than facing trial, at more than 90 percent of all cases. In order to force defendants through the plea bargaining machinery, the law accepts outright hypocrisy. You can, for example, plead...

The good-neighbor folks of Green Haven are back, this time with new lawyers, a scaled-down version of paradise, and even a Johnny Appleseed impersonator. At a recent public meeting before the Bethany Planning and Zoning Commission, their consultants and lawyer enthused about how good co-housing...

If you’re of a certain age, you will recall the Jetsons, as in the space-age cartoon characters who’d do such things as leave their pod for work or play by means of an airborne vehicle they flew themselves. As George would leave in the morning, the skies were full of other commuters,...

Remember “Miller’s Boys,” the gang of corrupt racist cops whom the feds prosecuted, calling them bullies with badges for their treatment of illegal immigrants in East Haven? Well, Sergeant David Miller, the presumed leader of the pack, was in federal court today (Wednesday) for...

Massachusetts Judge Joseph Johnson has imposed a gag order on the parents of Justina Pelletier, preventing them from raising public questions about why their daughter remains in custody in the Bay State. It is not at all clear to me why the parents have not contested this gag order. Perhaps they...

It seems to shock friends when I tell them that it matters not at all to me whether a client has committed the very crime the state alleges. Even clients are wary. Some clients seem to suspect that if they tell you the truth, you won't defend them with all the might you can muster.
But it's...