Superior Court Judge Roland Fasano wants to hold a hearing to determine whether he should initiate criminal contempt proceedings against Jeremiah Donovan. In a one-line order, the judge wrote: “[I]t is alleged Attorney Donovan made extrajudicial statements relating to the matters of State v. Hayes and State v. Komisarjevsky for public dissemination, that raise a reasonable likelihood of material, prejudicial impact upon the Hayes trial currently in progress and the Komisarjevsky trial to follow, all in flagrant violation of this court’s order of Sept. 13, 2010.”
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September 30, 2010
Consider the following fact pattern, as a jury did this week: A man shoots a woman through the head during an argument in the kitchen of his own home. As he shoots her, his girlfriend, the mother of his his three children, jumps onto his back. He shoots a third woman in he chest. She runs from the kitchen and down a narrow hallway; when she returns moments later, he shoots her again. When his gun jams as he tried to shoot her a third time, he tosses the weapon to he side, choking her. He is charged with murder as to the first woman, and attempted murder and assault as to he second...
September 30, 2010
I always thought the white collar guys were a more gentlemanly cast of lawyers. They certainly look the part: Expensive suits, fancy shoes, and brief cases that all but announce: "Power, power, power." Most of my legal career has been spent in the tweedy trenches defending more obvious crimes, such as murder, rape and narcotics offenses. Hell, I used to consider bank robbery a white collar crime.
But I've been defending folks accused of white collar crimes increasingly in recent years. I even bought a couple of new suits and a new pair of shoes not long ago. And I've learned, to my...
September 28, 2010
UPDATE: Sentencing Has Been Postponed Until November 5
Mickey Sherman heads to court today. There is nothing unusual about that. He is one of Connecticut's best known criminal defense lawyers. But when he goes to court today, he will going to face his own sentencing. I'm betting on a jail sentence for Sherman.
Sherman plead guilty earlier this year to two misdemeanor counts of failure to pay federal taxes. It seems that Mr. Sherman did not pay federal taxes in 2001 and 2002, despite earning more than a million dollars in income during that period. The 63-year-old Greenwich lawyer...
September 27, 2010
September 26, 2010
"Only one-third of all Americans can name the three branches of government (two-thirds can name a television judge on American Idol); only one-third...
September 25, 2010
When I heard that Jeremiah Donovan stood on the courthouse steps yesterday and held a press conference regarding press reports about his ciient,...
September 24, 2010
I won't pretend to be neutral about the death penalty. The state ought not to have the power to kill its citizens. Period. It is too awesome and...
September 23, 2010
Herewith a debate of sorts on the morality of the death penalty and the rule of law in the Connecticut case of State v. Steven Hayes. Is killing the...
September 23, 2010
More than once I have heard a prosecutor in trial urge a judge to admit contested evidence: "The state cannot prove its case without this evidence,...
September 23, 2010
I note the irony for what it is worth: On this, the 666th post on this blog site, I am announcing a change to a new blog site:...