Lawyer apologises for abusive tactics
January 5, 2010 04:01:00
Tracey Tyler
Legal Affairs Reporter
http://www.thestar.com/mobile/iphone/news/ontario/article/746050--lawyer-apologizes-for-abusive-tactics
A turbulent murder case that cost a Superior Court judge his career took another strange twist Monday when a former defence lawyer admitted to professional misconduct and apologised for what was described as the worst display of incivility ever seen in a Canadian courtroom.
Kevin Murphy, 52, was suspended from practising law for six months, but not before a thrashing by the head of a Law Society of Upper Canada disciplinary panel.
...
Murphy, who since 2008 has been employed as a lawyer with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, admitted to verbally abusing witnesses and making unfounded accusations against opposing lawyers at a notorious murder trial that began more than a decade ago in Ottawa.
The woman at the centre of the case, Julia Elliott, was charged with killing and dismembering Kemptville-area mechanic Lawrence Foster, whose body parts were found floating in the Rideau River in August 1995.
As two years of pre-trial motions ground on, Murphy accused lawyers for Ontario's Ministry of the Attorney General of coaching witnesses, deliberately misconstruing evidence and conspiring to frame his client.
...
"Shakespeare's comment in the Taming of the Shrew – 'strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends' – applies here," Stern told the panel. "People don't understand that. But that's what makes the (legal) profession a profession."
Krishna said while there was "a terrible dereliction of duty" by Cosgrove, Murphy's role in the episode has also come at great cost to the law society, which has spent between $300,000 and $400,000 to prosecute him. Murphy was ordered to pay $10,000 toward those costs.
No comments:
Post a Comment