QUOTE OF THE MONTH:
“Some of you have gone to trial and gotten a ‘guilty’ verdict. Some have gotten a ‘not guilty’ verdict. Some are still waiting for action to be taken, but all of you are the reason we come to work in the morning.”
(Norfolk County (Massachusetts) DA William R. Keating in his remarks to families of homicide victims gathered in his office to mark Survivors of Homicide Victims Awareness Month.)
Richard M. (Rick) Romley called it a career in December after four terms—16 years—as the longest serving prosecuting attorney of Maricopa County (Phoenix), Arizona. During that period, Romley, a “by the book” prosecutor and a strict proponent of what he calls “a consistency in the application of the law,” brought down hundreds of killers and drug dealers, 20 politicians, lobbyists and political consultants (in a bribery sting), and one Roman Catholic bishop—the latter after an investigation of sex abuse in the Phoenix diocese. A former Marine who lost both legs in a mine explosion in Vietnam in 1969, Romley admitted in an interview with The New York Times to a streak of self-righteousness, declaring, “I think it’s my salvation. I’m very outspoken. I say what I believe in. People know where I stand.” Romley, 55, a Republican, is reported to be considering a run for governor or a seat in Congress, and says he would consider a post in the Bush administration if it were offered.
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| Prosecutors Kevin (left) and Keith Harris didn’t plan to both end up at the Frank Crowley Courts building in Dallas. “I decided it would be stupid not to do what I wanted to do just because my brother was also doing it,” Kevin said. Photo by Nathan Hunsinger; courtesy of the Dallas Morning News. |
The Harris brothers still occasionally cause confusion in the large Dallas DA’s office where they’re ADAs, as well as in Dallas County courtrooms. That’s because Keith and Kevin Harris, 27, are fraternal twins, and up to now, everything in their lives has followed the twin pattern. Natives of Paris, Texas, in Northeast Texas, both brothers graduated from Abilene Christian University and Texas Tech University’s law school. Both passed the bar on their first try and were hired by the Dallas DA’s office on the same day. Occasionally one of the twins meets an acquaintance of his brother who doesn’t realize that the person to whom he is talking is not the twin he knows. However, the Harris twins are used to that and a brief explanation ends the confusion. “We’re competitive,” Keith Harris says, “in that we push each other to do the best we can. If Kevin is doing really well in court, I want to keep up with him.”
The Associated Press story from Redwood City, California started: “In the world of high-profile murder trials, flash is often pitted against substance. Celebrity attorneys, with all their flair, media savvy, expensive suits and teams of tag-alongs, face off against generally clean-cut, methodical and underpaid prosecutors. It was just such a match in Scott Peterson’s murder trial. From the start, LA defense attorney Mark Geragos appeared cocky and confident, swaggering past the cameras and through the courthouse’s front doors as if too busy to stop but too important to be ignored. He demonstrated the same showmanship in the courtroom. Lead prosecutor Rick Distasto always shied from the spotlight, slipping into court through a back door without a nod or smile and questioning witnesses with a soft-spoken tone. Distaso delivered everything he promised in his opening statements, although he waited until his closing remarks to place all the circumstantial evidence into a compelling narrative. Geragos’s downfall, experts say, was promising much in a dramatic opening statement and delivering little. The jurors found Peterson guilty of killing his wife (first-degree murder with special circumstances) and their unborn son (second-degree murder) and voted for the death penalty. The headline in The Tribune, a newspaper of San Luis Obispo, California, said it all: “Substance prevails over flash in Peterson trial.”
The name of Gil Epstein has been added to the Prosecutors Memorial at the Ernest F. Hollings National Advocacy Center, which honors prosecutors killed while performing their duties or because of their role as a prosecutor. Epstein, an assistant DA in Fort Bend County, Texas, was shot to death in a robbery attempt in the parking lot of Houston’s Jewish Community Center on September 18, 1996. Epstein was leaving the center after playing basketball with friends, when he was confronted by the perpetrator, who demanded his wallet. According to a witness at the killer’s subsequent trial, the robber shot Epstein after he saw Epstein’s DA’s badge in his wallet. Epstein was 27 at the time of his death.
NDAA Board member and assistant secretary, Stephanie Anderson, DA of Cumberland County (Portland) Maine, was the subject of the cover story in The Maine Bar Journal. Of her job she said, “How many people get to wake up in the morning and go to work doing something they really believe in and knowing that there are no mixed motives whatsoever. I am solely motivated by doing the right thing. I don’t have to worry about billable hours or representing a client who wants me to take a position that I don’t think is the best thing to do, but he is the client (and) he has that right.” DA Anderson is co-chair of the program committee for the 2005 NDAA Summer Conference in her home city.
Eddie Jordan, DA of New Orleans, has been inducted into the Louisiana Museum Hall of Fame. Before his election as DA, he was the first black to be named a U.S. attorney in Louisiana, and successfully prosecuted former Governor Edwin Edwards on racketeering charges. Edwards received a 10-year prison sentence.
MOVES IN MISSOURI: Monty Platz is the new prosecuting attorney of Monroe County, by appointment of Governor Bob Holden. He succeeds Michael Wilson, who is now an associate circuit judge, also by gubernatorial appointment. Moving to the Missouri State Senate via election is Christopher Koster, longtime prosecuting attorney of Cass County. And moving to the bench is Carroll County Prosecuting Attorney Kevin Walden, who was appointed an associate circuit judge by the governor.
WELCOME ABOARD. Michigan has 16 new prosecuting attorneys as the result of the recent elections. They are: John Jarema, Charlevoix County; Steven Parks, Delta County; James Linderman, Emmet County; David Leyton, Genesee County; Al Schneider, Grand Traverse County; Ronald Schafer, Ionia County; Joseph Hubbel, Leelanau County; Jeffrey Fink, Kalamazoo County; Eric Smith, Macomb County; Susan Kasley, Mason County; Michael Carpenter, Midland County; William Nichols, Monroe County; LaDona Schultz, Ogemaw County; Kyle Legel, Otsego County; Mark Jernigan, Roscommon County; Michael Wendling, St. Clair County.
Richard T. Bissen, Jr., first deputy Hawaii attorney general and former prosecuting attorney of Maui, has been named a judge on the Maui Circuit Court by Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle. While a prosecuting attorney, Bissen served on the faculty of the Ernest F. Hollings National Advocacy Center.
Scott Newman, who served two terms as prosecuting attorney of Marion County, Indiana (1995-2002), and Mohammad A. Tahir, former technical manager of the Marion County Forensic Service Agency’s DNA section, are forming a private DNA testing laboratory in Indianapolis. Also joining the new lab will be Kristina Korobov, supervisor of the Sex Crimes Division in the Marion County prosecuting attorney’s office.
INDIANANS IN THE NEWS: James R. Fleming, prosecuting attorney of Indiana’s 62nd Judicial Circuit (Kokomo) is the new president (2005) of the Association of Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys. Gary L. Smith, prosecuting attorney of the 86th Judicial Circuit (Vernon) is president-elect. The association paid tribute to three Indiana prosecutors currently deployed overseas on military duty: Henry County Prosecuting Attorney (and army major) Kit Crane, serving in Iraq; Knox County Chief Deputy Prosecutor (and army major) Hal Johnson, serving in Afghanistan; and Benton County Deputy Prosecutor (and army captain) Justin Hunter, serving in Kosovo on peace-keeping duty with a unit of the Indiana National Guard’s 38th Infantry Division. Five Indiana prosecutors have moved to the bench, becoming circuit court judges in their respective counties. They are Mary Ellen Diekhoff, Monroe County; Roger Duvall, Scott County; Kim Hall, Starke County; Matthew Headley, Putnam County; and Jeff Biesterveld, Pike County.
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