Legal Pad

Advice to Criminal Defense Lawyers: Think More Like Willy Loman

[Kate Moser/Christine Jegan]

At San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi’s annual justice summit today, panelists (from left) TV writer and former federal prosecutor Jonathan Shapiro, former Court TV anchor Jami Floyd, defense attorney Gerald Schwartzbach and public defender/blogger Carol Huneke laughed over media portrayals of public defenders. “You have a great product and you don’t sell it,” Shapiro told defenders in the audience.

Making Criminal Defense Lawyers Look Heroic Again

[Kate Moser]

Whatever happened to Atticus Finch and Perry Mason? A panel is talking about “Remaking the Image of Defense Attorneys in the Media” at SF Public Defender Jeff Adachi’s 2010 justice summit Wednesday morning (that is, tomorrow).

Here’s the list of experts assembled for the panel:

• Jami Floyd, news anchor/Court TV broadcaster
• Jonathan Shapiro, TV writer and producer (including “The Practice” and “Boston Legal”)/former federal prosecutor
• Carol Dee Huneke, former Washington state public defender/founder of blog Public Defender Revolution
• Gerald Schwartzbach, Mill Valley defense attorney (won the acquittals of actor Robert Blake, civil rights lawyer Stephen Bingham and organ transplant surgeon Dr. Hootan Roozrokh)

The panel, moderated by Teresa Caffese, chief attorney at the SF public defender’s office, starts at 11:30 a.m.

The entire summit goes from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and all takes place at the Koret Auditorium in the San Francisco Main Library, 100 Grove St.

At S.F. DA's Office, a Little John Keker Deja Vu

[Pam Smith]

San Francisco DA Kamala Harris just announced that John Keker is going to be a special advisor to her office. (Full press release after the jump.) Sounds like he’ll be helping her prosecutors assess the case damage when/if the Police Department releases info about the misconduct and criminal history of some of its employees.

Hmm, Kamala Harris, John Keker … Something about this was all sounding vaguely familiar. Maybe because:

• In late 2003, he was one of the bigwigs who signed up for her advisory committee that took shape between her election and early '04 inauguration

• In 2004, he was one of the bigwigs who signed up to help her office with trial-skills training

• Also in 2004, he was one of the bigwigs who helped announce a Bar Asssociation of San Francisco resolution saying that Harris had reasonably exercised her discretion in deciding against the death penalty for the killing of cop Isaac Espinoza

More details on who at the DA's office is doing what here, in the full press release after the jump ...

Director Forced to Appeal or Show Up for Sentencing

[Cynthia Foster]

A California appeals court has denied the request of director Roman Polanski to be sentenced in absentia for unlawful intercourse. Polanski pleaded guilty to raping a 13-year-old girl 31 years ago.  

Earlier today, the same court also denied a request from Polanski's victim that the case be dismissed. 

For more on this latest update in the Polanski case, and for background information, check out the WSJ's Law Blog.

KB Homes CEO Guilty of Four Felonies

[Cynthia Foster]

The LAT is reporting the KB Homes CEO Bruce Karatz has been found guilty of four felony charges, including mail fraud and making false statements. He was acquitted of 16 charges.

The case stemmed from a stock options backdating scandal that prosecutors said could have netted Karatz millions in undocumented compensation.

Karatz faces up to 60 years in prison. 

Crime Lab Scandal Brings Out More Than Two Sides In Court

[Kate Moser]

Today in court, lawyers from the S.F. police department’s legal division and the district attorney’s office looked as if they’re not on the same page.

They were there to wrangle some more over the release of documents in the San Francisco crime lab scandal, this time to the public.

The DA’s office had no objection to KTVU jumping in to fight the police department’s request for a protective order to cover crime lab documents that have already been released, or might be in the future. So Judge Anne-Christine Massullo granted the motion to intervene, filed by attorneys at Farella Braun & Martel. Then police lawyer Kelly O’Haire jumped in, saying she wasn’t served with KTVU’s papers. “I believe I have to be here to protect the police department’s interests,” O’Haire told the judge. So Massullo vacated her order and gave O’Haire more time to look at the KTVU motion.

Leading up to the hearing, the DA’s office had filed the request on behalf of the police department. But then, after lawyers for criminal defendants objected, it was O’Haire who submitted the reply brief on behalf of the police department.

City Employee Turned Hacker's Fate in Jury's Hands

[Kate Moser]

After enduring nearly four months of excruciatingly boring testimony (as reported by tech blogs, which have followed the trial pretty closely), a San Francisco jury now has the case of Terry Childs (free reg. req.), the architect of the city’s computer network who walked off the job in 2008 and refused to hand over network passwords to his superiors. He ultimately gave the information to Mayor Gavin Newsom, who testified at trial.

In closing arguments today, Assistant District Attorney Conrad del Rosario portrayed Childs as a manipulative, brilliant egomaniac who prioritized protecting his job over protecting the city’s network. “This was nothing more than his attempt to become an indispensable employee,” he told jurors in the courtroom of Judge Teri Jackson.

Hearing Pokes Holes in DA Office's Procedures for Checking Witnesses' Backgrounds

[Kate Moser]

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo once again put the screws to the district attorney’s office today in an ongoing discovery hearing over the San Francisco crime lab’s tainted evidence scandal. 

The judge was annoyed that the DA’s office hadn’t submitted a declaration answering whether the office routinely checks whether police witnesses (both cops and non-peace-officer employees of the department) have any convictions the defense should know about.

Massullo’s line of questioning pertains to a 2008 San Mateo County misdemeanor domestic violence conviction of Deborah Madden, a former criminalist at the center of the scandal. The judge’s questions fell to Sharon Woo, narcotics chief for the DA, who was again in the hot seat in Department 25 at the Hall of Justice.

“It comes down to this, and it’s pretty simple,” Massullo said, laying out that it’s “the people’s burden” to determine if a witness has suffered a conviction that could imply moral turpitude, and the DA’s job to inform the defense of any such conviction.

In Transcript, Cops Tell Crime Lab Worker: 'You're Causing a Huge Nightmare For the City'

[Pam Smith]

This transcript of the S.F. police department's Feb. 26 interview with Deborah Madden just became public last night, and it's some jaw-dropping reading. You can read it for yourself (see huge (.pdf) here). As you can see, it kind of grabs you right from the start: 

INSP. KELLER: I think it’s probably something that you’re not [unintelligible] right now. But I’ve known, I’ve known you for a lot [unintelligible] probably never have seen me. But I’ve had a lot of narcotics arrests, I’ve been on the Police Department almost thirty years, okay. You’re always very well respected Debbie. But right now we have a huge problem, okay. Not only is the Police Department going to be in a lot of trouble, all these lab samples or whatever, whenever this started, all these people can be released from jail and you’re causing a huge nightmare for the City. But if we could find out from you maybe when this started, when you started. You know, like I’ll just try it or whatever maybe it’ll make me feel better. Maybe it started back in May, okay. But at least we know where to start our problem, where to start looking and figuring out what to do for the City. You don’t want to ruin the integrity that...

Defense attorneys are gonna have a field day with this. And that's only one of the things they got thanks to a judge's order yesterday (free reg req.).

Prosecution and Defense Agree: Let's Postpone This Sentencing

[Kate Moser]

In light of the ongoing San Francisco crime lab scandal, it looks like the government doesn’t mind killing some time in the sentencing phase (free reg. req.) of a triple homicide gang case.

In a court filing today (.pdf), federal prosecutors proposed delaying sentencing in the case of Dennis Cyrus Jr. Last week, his attorneys, John Philipsborn and James Thomson, asked Judge Maxine Chesney to hold off on sentencing him while they get more information on Deborah Madden, a longtime crime lab employee who allegedly took drugs from evidence samples. Madden testified at the Cyrus trial.