50 Lawyers Pack Court to Support Solo Whose Office Was Searched

Attorney-Client Privilege

50 Lawyers Pack Court to Support Solo Whose Office Was Searched

Posted Aug 12, 2008, 05:59 am CST
By Molly McDonough

Lawyers in Texas upset about a judge-authorized search of a solo practitioner who is representing an alleged contract killer filed into a Collin County court last week in a show of support for lawyer Keith Gore.

In February, with the OK of 401st District Judge Mark Rusch, Texas Rangers and local police searched Gore's McKinney office purportedly to look for evidence in the case against Mark Lyle Bell, Texas Lawyer reports in a detailed story about the controversy.

Now, dueling motions to recuse Judge Rusch because he's seen too much and Gore because he's a fact witness are now muddying the case.

Among those present at the Aug. 5 hearing was Rick Hagen, president of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, which has filed an amicus brief in the case.

"It's a tremendous concern regarding the government's ability to raid a lawyer's office," he says. "And you've got to understand this is not a case where Keith Gore is accused of any wrongdoing whatsoever."

Prosecutors, however, maintain that Gore had evidence in his office, and the search was legit.

"It was the last resort. We were concerned that the items would be destroyed or would be further concealed," Texas Lawyer quotes Greg Davis, Collin County's first assistant district attorney, as saying.

The judge hearing the recusal motion is expected to rule sometime after Aug. 15.

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Posted by C - 3 months, 1 week, 1 day, 21 hours, 42 minutes ago

Yep, and he probably knows whether his client did it or not too… doens’t mean the government is entitled to that information.
Posted by Paul - 3 months, 1 week, 1 day, 17 hours, 45 minutes ago

This is the line of jurisprudence hat naturally arises from the last seven years of the Bush Administration. No surprise there.
Posted by JBo - 3 months, 1 week, 1 day, 16 hours, 53 minutes ago

That insolent lawyer deserves to be investigated by the State Bar for defending his client to the best of his legal ability. The next step will be to dispense with the attorney-client privilege if the prosecution claims it involves national security. Wait, George Bush already took that step by permitting federal prosecutors to sit in on attorney/client conferences to protect national security. Three cheers for those 50 Texas lawyers. Remove that incompetent judge from the benchj.
Posted by associate - 3 months, 1 week, 1 day, 16 hours, 9 minutes ago

Yeah, I have to renew the tags on my car, and it’s all Bush’s fault.

Anyway, this article would be a lot more meaningful if it told us whether the warrant was for any evidence, or whether it was limited to a specific item of material evidence beleived to be in the lawyer’s possession based on a reasonable source of information. To me, those two choices seem in stark contrast as to the legality of the search.

But to get 50 lawyers to show up, that tells me it was probably a general “toss the place” warrant based on no fact other than “we want to.“
Posted by A. Menendez - 3 months, 5 days, 20 hours, 52 minutes ago

Oh, Texas!
Posted by Bird Smack - 3 months, 5 days, 20 hours, 14 minutes ago

It’s all Bush’s fault. By the way, was the 1968 Democratic Convention Lyndon Johnson’s fault? Whatever “line of jurisprudence” you reference, it didn’t start in 2000, because the “line” is called stupid judges. They’re everywhere, have been forever, and they come in both Democratic and Republican flavors and other flavors as well.
Posted by mike money - 3 months, 5 days, 17 hours, 45 minutes ago

so if he doesn’t testify against his client maybe then they can charge him with obstruction of justice and, now that he’ll be investigated, get a “proper” search warrant
Posted by m - 3 months, 5 days, 16 hours, 44 minutes ago

Here is an article with the details

http://www.scntx.com/articles/2008/07/20/breaking_news/84.txt
Posted by mack - 3 months, 5 days, 16 hours, 44 minutes ago

Congresspersons office are immuned under a tortious reading of the constitution. There can be no attorney client privelege in Collin County Texas because in gets in the way of convictions and relection.
Posted by Odysseus Rex - 3 months, 5 days, 15 hours, 44 minutes ago

Hmmm…for two years I was in Afghanistan and Iraq, trying to introduce “rule of law” to these jurisprudential savages…now I’m back, and this happens in TEXAS?? But wait… oh yeah! Of course! Texas IS our own third-world country!
Posted by R - 3 months, 5 days, 12 hours, 43 minutes ago

No, it’s all Bill Clinton’s fault. Isn’t that still the GOP line?
Posted by troglodyte - 3 months, 3 days, 11 hours, 41 minutes ago

Don’t search warrants in Texas require probable cause? If the search produced no evidence then the prosecutor should be disbarred.for filing a bad faith affidavit without probable cause.
Posted by cp - 3 months, 2 days, 13 hours, 34 minutes ago

This does not surprise me. Firstly, it is texas, which, quite frankly, should be given back to Mexico. In any event this type of conduct has become more common as our governments (state and fed) continue to garnish more and more power and trample peoples rights. The problem as I see it is our citizenry is generally oblivious. The judges are simply self interested politicians with little experience before taking the bench. And, in my experience, our judiciary represents money and power and would rather decide cases on that basis than uphold a rule of law (less appeals from people who can’t afford it, and, it is always easier to side with the big dog) Moreover, every politician thinks we need more laws. More law to govern absolutely every aspect of our lives. Have you read the criminal statutes lately? I’m sure we are committing some crime or another just speaking out like this. Our idiotic self-interested representatives have continued to blindly pass broad based legislatiion every chance they get without even reading it. We can point the finger at Bush (whom I detest) but our people elected him. Our people need to wise up and stop being concerned with only themselves.
Posted by Wow - 3 months, 1 day, 17 hours, 50 minutes ago

Thanks to #8 (m) for posting the link to Star Community Newspapers, where the article on this item provides enormous amounts of info that would help answer lawyer concerns expressed in these comments. It’s too bad the ABA’s reporting aimed at attorneys doesn’t do as well as that general readership paper.

As for the rants about Bush and how he must have caused all this, a simple Google search (just type “attorney ethics conceal evidence crime”) reveals a treasure trove of articles and opinions showing that legal systems of the U.S., Great Britain, and Canada have been wrestiling for many years with the enormous difficulties presented when an attorney accepts physical evidence of a crime from a client. Not surprisinly this debate massively pre-dates the Bush presidency. Please cut the rants; they show your immaturity and the immaturity of your positions.

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