Defense posture: Harland Braun, who just resigned as actor Robert Blake's lawyer, argues a good offense is one of the best ways to assure a fair trial. (People).HARLAND Braun, the Century City attorney hired by actor Robert Blake Robert Blake may be:
 This article or section is written like an .Please help [ rewrite this article] from a neutral point of view. Mark blatant advertising for , using . . Braun, who says he believes Blake is innocent, maintains that setting up the interview was the "straw that broke the camel's back The idiom the straw that broke the camel's back is from an Arab proverb about loading up a camel beyond its capacity to move. This is a reference to any process by which cataclysmic failure (a broken back) is achieved by a seemingly inconsequential addition (a single straw). " in his efforts to keep Blake out of the press. A former prosecutor who has been a criminal defense attorney for the bulk of his career, Braun is known for his openness with the media. He has spoken bluntly about the Blake case since Bonny Bonny (bŏn`ē), town, SE Nigeria, in the Niger River delta, on the Bight of Biafra. In the 18th and 19th cent., Bonny was the center of a powerful trading state, and in the 19th cent. it became the leading site for slave exportation in W Africa. Lee Bakley's May 2001 murder Braun, whose past clients include police officers embroiled em·broil tr.v. em·broiled, em·broil·ing, em·broils 1. To involve in argument, contention, or hostile actions: "Avoid . . . in the Rodney King Rodney Glen King (born April 9, 1965 in Fort Worth, Texas) is an African-American taxicab driver who was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers (Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno and Sargent Stacey Koon) after being chased for speeding. and Rampart scandals, said he is already working on new cases in his three-person office. Question: You resigned from Robert Blake's defense because you didn't want him to do an on-camera interview. What difference would the interview have made? Answer: To tell the story, it would take about a day to a day and a half in court. There's no way Diane Sawyer is going to put him on for 24 hours Adv. 1. for 24 hours - without stopping; "she worked around the clock" around the clock, round the clock and unedited. You'll have a 15-minute interview that's done for entertainment. We're talking about entertainment, not news. So they'll take the facts out of context and make him look guilty just because that's better entertainment. I've put people on television before. I don't object to it. But in this case, it wouldn't make any sense to do it. Q: It was thought unlikely that the sheriff's department would allow the interview -- and it didn't -- so why resign over something that was unlikely to happen? A: Scheduling the interview was the straw that broke the camel's back. I had had ongoing discussions with him on the necessity of waiting until trial. We had been working on this for months. I allowed him to talk to a few people in the press, not on camera, just to satisfy his need to speak out. All of a sudden, I was presented with a fait accompli. I thought I could persuade him not to, but he's an actor. He has in his mind to have a connection with the public. And it's important to him that the public out there knows his side of the story. To me, I'm only concerned about 12 people in a jury box. Q: Why is a media strategy so important? A: To get a fair trial, ultimately you have to do a lot of press stuff. You have to stay on top of the press and speak for your client and get his side of the story out there. If someone makes an accusation A formal criminal charge against a person alleged to have committed an offense punishable by law, which is presented before a court or a magistrate having jurisdiction to inquire into the alleged crime. and you don't give a response, it's assumed to be true. What's the point of representing him if you're not representing him in the court of public opinion that will make or break a jury trial? That would be like not showing up at the first day of trial. Q: Doesn't your resignation affect public opinion negatively? A: I doubt it. In all the interviews, I said I still have faith in his case and innocence. But that was a choice he and his civil lawyer made when they decided to schedule an interview. (His civil attorney is helping pick a new criminal attorney.) Q: You took some heat at the beginning of this case when you questioned Bakley's character, days after her death. Why did you do it? A: If you didn't understand who Bonny Bakley was, you wouldn't understand the fact that maybe Robert didn't kill her. You have to get out who she was. When you do that, you initially look like the bad guy because you're dealing with a dead woman and you're calling her a criminal. Q: Your legal tactics have been described as "outrageous" by many of your colleagues and opponents. A: People are not used to the truth. Everyone is mealy meal·y adj. meal·i·er, meal·i·est 1. Resembling meal in texture or consistency; granular: mealy potatoes. 2. a. Made of or containing meal. b. mouthed. If I think a judge is not doing a good job, I'll say, "Yeah, he's got bigcaseitis." I tell the truth. I'm not running for public office, so I'm not worried about that. I'm not a member of a firm, so I don't have to worry about what my partners think. Q: Were you ever part of a firm? A: Never. I did one year in Washington D.C. in '67 and '68. Then I entered the DA's office for five years until '73. Q: Why did you switch to defense? A: I don't want to spend my whole life in a bureaucracy. So I went into civil practice, thinking I'd be a civil lawyer. I found criminal to be more interesting. Many cases that are boring from a DA's point of view are interesting from a defense point of view because there's a person attached to them. That's the reason I left. Plus, the money. You top out at the DA's office. You have to live so your kids can go to college. Q: What's your workload? A: I'm probably handling 20 to 30 cases at a time. Usually about five to six are substantial and the others are smaller. I probably try a half-dozen cases a year. I probably put in about 70 hours a week. Q: What was one of your first criminal cases? A: It was of a mother accused of trying to suffocate suf·fo·cate v. 1. To impair the respiration of; asphyxiate. 2. To suffer from lack of oxygen; to be unable to breathe. suf a child. That was a very serious and difficult case. Her son had a health condition. She called the police and said, "I think I killed my son" because he went unconscious. The police wrote down, "I tried to kill my son." It was a mistake, but she was tried for attempted murder In the criminal law, attempted murder is committed when the defendant does an act that is more than merely preparatory to the commission of the crime of murder and, at the time of these acts, the person has a specific intention to kill. . She was acquitted. She later killed herself by drinking Drano because she lost custody of this child. You can see the consequences of the police coming in and misinterpreting what happens. She was acquitted, but she lost her life. About a year ago, her son came in and asked me the story of his mother because he'd never really heard the true story. His mother was always portrayed por·tray tr.v. por·trayed, por·tray·ing, por·trays 1. To depict or represent pictorially; make a picture of. 2. To depict or describe in words. 3. To represent dramatically, as on the stage. as this evil person who tried to kill him. I told him the real story. Q: Is that what you like about this job? A: It's really human. You see people at their best and at their worst. You see the complexity of who is telling the truth and who is lying. You see people who've made serious mistakes. You see the worst of human nature and the best. And the worst is sometimes the judges, not the clients. Some have a vicious streak to them. They like the power of inflicting pain on people. Q: How do you represent a client you know is guilty? A: That's actually easier than a case where you know he's innocent. What do you do when you lose a case and an innocent man goes to jail? If you know the person is guilty, there are some constraints. You can't provide false evidence, but you argue reasonable doubt. You can sleep at night if they don't get convicted, because it means the prosecution hasn't proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt and that you fulfilled your responsibility. Q: How did you know you were going to be a lawyer? A: Vietnam put me in law school. If you went to law school, you wouldn't be drafted. It was nothing more than that. I never knew a lawyer when I was younger. Q: What was the biggest turning point in your career? A: In 1974, there was a political prosecution. Vincent Bugliosi Vincent Bugliosi (pronounced boo-lee-OH-see, with a silent g) (born August 18, 1934 in Hibbing, Minnesota) is an American attorney and author, best known for prosecuting Charles Manson and other defendants accused of the Tate-LaBianca murders. , prosecutor of the (Charles) Manson trial, was charged with perjury perjury (pûr`jərē), in criminal law, the act of willfully and knowingly stating a falsehood under oath or under affirmation in judicial or administrative proceedings. in a completely bogus bo·gus adj. Counterfeit or fake; not genuine: bogus money; bogus tasks. [From obsolete bogus, a device for making counterfeit money. case. He's a recognized person everyone admired and all of a sudden I was standing next to him in television and newspapers. People knew me quickly. Q: What's the next step for you in the Blake case? A: I have responsibilities of the court. The judge does not have to allow a substitution if there are undo To restore the last editing operation that has taken place. For example, if a segment of text has been deleted or changed, performing an undo will restore the original text. Programs may have several levels of undo, including being able to reconstruct the original data for all edits delays. That means I have to get another lawyer and get him up to speed. I have to go through everything I have, go through the strategy and be available for questions. INTERVIEW Harland Braun Title: Sole practioner Organization: Harland Braun PC, Attorney at Law Born: New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , 1942 Education: Bachelor's degree in political science, UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX , 1964; UCLA School of Law The UCLA School of Law is the law school of the University of California, Los Angeles. It is generally regarded as the top law school in Southern California, as well as one of the top fifteen law schools in the United States. , 1967 Career Turning Point: Defended Manson trial prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi in a 1974 perjury case Most Admired People: 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Trott, retired L.A. Superior Court Judge Robert Altman Personal: Married, two children Hobbies: Reading about history |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion