A reader wrote the other day to ask whether I ever get upset with a client for lying to me. What would I do, she inquired, if a client told me he was not guilty of murder, and I later learned that he had done the crime?
The answer is simple: Nothing.
This struck her as a revelation. All week long, I’ve wondered why.
The law is not about morals. That doesn’t stop prosecutors from strutting the well of a court demanding accountability. But to whom, exactly, are they asking defendants to be accountable? Certainly not to the prosecutors themselves, they are mere...
March 30, 2014
Word that U.S. District Judge Janet Arterton will soon take senior status makes this a good time to ask Senators Richard Blumenthal and Christopher Murphy why it is that no criminal defense lawyer ever makes the cut for nomination to the federal bench. It's been so long since a defender was nominated that the failure cannot be explained away as insignificant.
The latest appointee to the bench, Jeffrey Meyer, was a former federal prosecutor and law professor. There is no question that he is qualified to serve, and that he has the demeanor necessary to inspire confidence in the court. But...
March 29, 2014
I will never understand why police officers don’t embrace video recording of their work. But they don’t. Whether in the interrogation room, or on the street, lawmen fight for the right to keep the public they serve from seeing them in action.
Lawmakers are now considering a proposal to make it unlawful to video record a police officer making an arrest. That’s just plain stupid. Those arguing in favor of it should have their mugshots placed on a wall of public shame and ridicule.
Is videotaping distracting?
Nonsense.
Many departments are...
March 19, 2014
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 Hartford Courant the other day.
She was writing to let lawmakers know that all is well in the family courts. Sure, there are a few disgruntled litigants out there. But what would you expect? Family cases represent, and I quote, "painful and heart-wrenching scenarios." The chief wanted us to...
March 13, 2014
March 6, 2014
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...
February 28, 2014
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...
February 26, 2014
I missed the town meeting in Bethany tonight, where residents once again debated whether to permit condominium development. But a friend was there,...
February 26, 2014
Almost everyone pleads guilty to a crime when prosecuted. Some estimates place those pleading guilty, rather than facing trial, at more than 90...
February 24, 2014
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...
February 19, 2014
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...