Blog Posts

My wife keeps calling today to inquire whether I have voted. "No," I answer. I don't think I am going to this year. All of the candidates look like a bunch of phonies. I can't figure out what they are talking about most of the time.
"You need to consider the lesser of two evils," she...

While most jurors stared dumbstruck at the evidence in the case of State v. Hayes, at least one could not take her eyes off one of the hunks keeping peace in the courtroom. Gosh, you know how it is: A man in uniform just melts some jurors' hearts: Even when the case is about the rape, murder and...

I will be on the witness stand today, an unusual role for me. My usual perch in a courtroom is in the well of the court, putting questions to police officers, doctors, witnesses of all kinds. It is easy to rattle just about any witness. The ones you worry about are the practiced, unflappable...

Let me see if I get this: The New Haven Police Department wants the assistance of a public relations firm to improve its image? If this is the best the new chief, Frank Limon, can do, he ought to be sent back to Illinois with a foot print or two emblazoned on his hind quarter. You just can't expect...

I used to think we got the law enforcement we deserve. But then I realized that we the people have very little to say in the matter. The truth is, we get the law enforcement federal judges think we deserve. Here's the real question: What did we do to deserve these judges?
A revolution has...

Salvatore Vitale cried in court the other day, The New York Times reports. The former hitman for the Bonanno crime family was being sentenced by United States District Judge Nicholas Garaufis. Call it pay day for Mr. Vitale. He was sentenced to time served, seven years, despite his self-confessed...

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 sure Superior Court Judge Roland D. Fasano really didn’t mean to begin laying the foundation for post-conviction relief as to Joshua Komisarjevsky. But the practical import of his decision to place Attorney Jeremiah Donovan on what amounts to a form of existential probation could benefit...

The Cheshire home invasion case has thus far been a media extravaganza, taxing the resources of a small courthouse in a small state. But for all the fanfare the trial of Steven Hayes has offered, the forthcoming trial of his co-defendant, Joshua Komisarjevsy, will offer even more pizzazz. That's...

Had attorney Jeremiah Donovan waited a week or two, his violation of a court order would never have been necessary: Joshua Komisarjevsky's diaries told us all we needed to know about his sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl in Cheshire. He didn't actually rape her, he reasons; he spared her that...