The maid in the Dominique Strauss Kahn case has filed a civil suit against him yesterday.  The Wall Street Journal reports that this development comes on the heels of her decision to speak publicly.  Her public performances are almost unprecedented and will ultimately damage the slim chance that the New York County District Attorney’s Office will proceed with this case.   Her decision to bring this civil action will not only lock her into sworn statements, but will potentially provide more discovery to the defense than would be available in the criminal case.  When the Wall Street Journal asked me about this development this is what I told them;

Ms. Diallo’s decision to file a civil suit while criminal charges are pending is “completely out of the ordinary,” said Charles A. Ross, a criminal defense lawyer in Manhattan. He said a sworn statement she makes in the civil case “locks her in and provides the defense with tremendous amounts of grist for cross-examination.”

“I think that it will continue to substantially damage the district attorney’s chances of prevailing,” Mr. Ross said. He said a civil suit can be used in a criminal case to portray her testimony as financially motivated.

He added that Ms. Diallo will face “significant limitations” in trying to get evidence involving other women admitted. Such evidence is allowable only in certain circumstances, when a judge determines it is relevant to the current allegations and outweighs the risk that the material would unfairly sway a jury against the defendant, Mr. Ross said.

The tremendous amount of discovery and sworn testimony in a civil case give the defense an advantage.  Any sex crime attorney will exploit inconsistencies among testimony, statements to the prosecution, interviews with the media, and now sworn statements in a civil filing.  A rape defense lawyer will make use of this sort of filing to the great benefit of his or her client.

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The Second Circuit reversed the convictions of four executives in a complex, white collar criminal trial regarding a reinsurance transaction.  The Court cited the following grounds for reversal;

(1) an improper jury instruction on “willful causation” and (2) the admission into evidence of misleading charts.   According to the Court, the “willfully caused” instruction allowed the jury to make a finding of guilt without finding causation, even though both the prosecution and defense submitted proper jury instructions on the issue.  While the defense interposed an objection to the jury instruction generally,  it “did not specifically object” to causation.  Therefore, the issue was ruled not to be properly preserved.  Thus, the Second Circuit was required to reverse only if  it could “determine with absolute certainty that the jury based its verdict on the ground on which it was correctly instructed.”  The Court ruled that it was “improbable, let alone absolutely certain” that the jury’s relied on a proper causation instruction to render its verdict.

In the second ground for reversal, the government admitted into evidence charts that portrayed a transaction at issue caused AIG’s shares to plummet 12% during the relevant time period.  The Court ruled this chart was admitted without foundation.   The charts were inadmissible to show a criminal chronology because they fell outside the scope of actions the defendants were charged with committing.  The charts were unduly prejudicial because they set forth only one reason for the many problems faced by AIG, raising serious issues that concerned the materiality of the alleged lies.

The Wall Street Journal asked me whether the prosecution would be likely to retry the case.  They said;

Charles A. Ross, a New York criminal defense attorney, said he doesn’t believe the stock-loss issue will ultimately keep prosecutors from retrying the case. Other issues, such as witnesses whose memories have grown stale in the interim, could have more of an impact on any retrial decision.

“This legal issue alone, I don’t think would cause them not to retry it,” Mr. Ross said.

The AIG-Gen Re reversal illustrates how important it is in a white collar criminal defense for the trial lawyers to be not only focussed on winning, but also make a good record for the potential appeal of any possible conviction.  A fraud defense lawyer with a handle on the law is absolutely critical to the success of any representation.

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A second cooperating witness is slated to plead guilty in the on-going investigation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.  The Wall Street Journal wanted to know whether multiple informant witnesses might embolden prosecutors to charge more people.  The Journal stated;

“Having another cooperating witness can bolster prosecutors’ efforts to pursue cases against other individuals, legal experts say.

‘Government lawyers always want to have more than one,’ said Charles A. Ross, a criminal defense lawyer in New York who has represented a former U.K. Madoff employee not charged in the case. “If you have one cooperator only, the case is going rise and fall, absent ironclad documentary proof, on that one cooperator.”

It looks like there is the distinct potential for others to be charged in the on-going Madoff investigation now that the government has more than a single cooperating witness.

The post New Plea In Madoff Case – Wall Street Journal Consults Chuck Ross appeared first on Charles A. Ross & Associates.

In Brooklyn State Supreme Court today our client received probation and community service for his plea of guilty to a long list of felonies including grand larceny charges in connection with a cash advance scheme.  Two years ago when our client was first arrested, the Kings County District Attorney’s Office trumpeted that he had committed a “tremendous fraud”.  Even though the Daily News made light of our client’s sentencing remarks, it is crystal clear that his heartfelt plea had a positive affect on the judge.  It is the job of white collar defense lawyers to guide a client through the initial glare of publicity and then either aggressively represent them at trial or try to work out a settlement that involves no jail time or as little as possible.

Here, despite a flurry of media attention orchestrated by the Brooklyn D.A.’s office, we negotiated a no-jail time deal once the dust had settled.  Part of that process involved preparing our client to properly address the court at sentence.  Here, the effort paid off.  As excellent fraud defense lawyers we got our client what he cherished most.  His freedom.

The post Sometimes It’s Good For The Client To Speak. appeared first on Charles A. Ross & Associates.

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As today’s article in the New York Times demonstrates, choice of the right bail bondsman for a criminal case can make all the difference in the world.  We used Ira Judelson to post bond for our celebrity comedian client Katt Williams.  After Chuck Ross convinced the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to come off their position that Mr. Williams be remanded, Ira Judelson posted bond and Katt made it to his sold out Carnagie Hall concert, as Mr. Ross told reporter John Eligon, “fashionably late”.

Too many times, friends and loved ones who are unexpectedly or unfairly arrested, spend much more time than is necessary in jail awaiting release.  Whether it is a murder defense, robbery charge, conspiracy charges, illegal gambling, or famous insider trading cases, in the state court a good bail bondsman is an essential part of a defense team.

The post Charles Ross & Ira Judelson – The Importance of a Great Bail Bondsman to a New York City Criminal Defense Attorney appeared first on Charles A. Ross & Associates.

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The post Securities Law 360 Reports On S.E.C. v. Dorozhko appeared first on Charles A. Ross & Associates.

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On July 22, 2009 the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled against our client in SEC v. Dorozhko. Despite strong precedent to the contrary, the Second Circuit permitted the SEC to proceed with a 10b-5 fraud case against our client even though he had no fiduciary duty to the company whose shares he traded.

Numerous securities experts, academics, and attorneys have stated that the Second Circuit may have overstepped and ruled incorrectly. Chuck Ross told American Lawyer that the decision “flies in the face of 75 years of U.S. Supreme Court precedent”. The firm is preparing to file a petition for certiorari.

Below is a sampling of the broad internet press coverage:

American Lawyer

UCLA Law Professor Bainbridge

Wall Street Journal Law Blog

The post Ross & Associates Weighs Whether To File Petition For Certiorari In The U.S. Supreme Court On SEC v. Dorozhko appeared first on Charles A. Ross & Associates.