Subject:  Fieger pulls himself off case in the middle of trial in Ohio |
Author:
Chris
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Date Posted: 01/29/05 12:20pm
I wonder if this is the first time Geoff has backed down and out of a case in the middle of the trial... and because of a judge's threat to put him on the stand for threatening someone.
I guess Geoff has not tamed at all with age and is still a little too OUT THERE.
Here is a video
and here is a story:
Lawyer quits case on judge's threat
Attorney defends courtroom conduct
Saturday, January 29, 2005
James F. McCarty
Plain Dealer Reporter
A wrongful-death trial in a Cleveland courtroom ground to a halt Friday after the judge threatened to banish Geoffrey Fieger, the flamboyant personal-injury lawyer, for acting up in court.
Fieger saved the judge the trouble and resigned from the case.
Fieger was representing the family of Guy Wills III, a shoplifter killed by a security guard at the Dillard's at Randall Park Mall in 2002. Wills' mother is pursuing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the store and the guard, Jameel Talley, who is serving a three-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter.
"I really didn't want to be a distraction in the trial," Fieger said, walking out of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. "If I had proceeded to fight this I would have become a distraction."
Fieger, who gained fame for his defense of assisted-suicide doctor Jack Kevorkian, denied doing anything consciously to incur the wrath of Judge Nancy Margaret Russo.
"I think my conduct was exemplary," Fieger said. "I wasn't in contempt of court, and the judge never said I was."
But Russo leveled a litany of legal wrongs against Fieger, including: insulting and berating lawyers and calling them liars; making faces after she ruled against him; repeatedly interrupting testimony; entering objections loudly; and threatening an insurance adjuster with the loss of his job.
"He has been nothing but bullying, loud, obnoxious and unprofessional," Russo said. "I have tried for three weeks to rein him in. I have done my best."
The final straw came Thursday after attorney Larry Zukerman accused Fieger of accosting him and threatening to have his client -- former Dillard's store manager Frank Monaco -- arrested for obstruction of justice.
If the allegations are proven, Fieger could be punished for violating the state's disciplinary code for lawyers, Russo said.
"I have given Mr. Fieger so many opportunities to behave," the judge said. "I honestly don't believe that holding him in contempt is even a sufficient remedy at this point."
Dillard's attorney Jose Feliciano asked Russo before the trial to remove Fieger from the case, based on his conduct at trials in his home state of Michigan. Russo initially denied the request on the condition he controlled his conduct.
Feliciano renewed his request Friday.
The trial will continue Monday with Monaco returning to court. Fieger's co-counsel, Thomas Mester of the Nurenberg Plevin law firm, will assume the lead lawyer's chair.
Had Fieger chosen to fight the ruling, Russo would have held a hearing that could have lasted a day or more. It could have been appealed, which would have forced a mistrial.
Fieger's lawyer, Niki Schwartz, praised him for making an honorable decision.
"Whatever he did or didn't do in court, he is to be lauded for putting the interests of his client ahead of himself," Schwartz said.
Fieger's courtroom conduct in Cuyahoga County came under fire last year after he won a state record $30 million medical-malpractice lawsuit. The case is in the court of appeals.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
jmccarty@plaind.com, 216-999-4153
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