Legal Ethics
Accused Lawyer ‘Hung Out to Dry’ By Ex-Detroit Mayor, Expert Witness Says
Posted Sep 4, 2009 1:00 PM CST
By Martha Neil
A lawyer accused of violating legal ethics rules while representing then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in police whistle-blower litigation did nothing wrong, says a former Michigan state bar president.
Testifying today for attorney Samuel McCargo at an attorney disciplinary trial, expert witness Thomas Cranmer said McCargo "was hung out to dry by his client and placed in a very, very difficult position as a result of that," reports the Detroit News. Cranmer is a former president of the state bar and a former chair of the Michigan attorney disciplinary board.
Contacted by plaintiff attorney Mike Stefani about secret text messages he had obtained between Kilpatrick and a then-top aide, McCargo had a duty to discuss them with his client and investigate further, Cranmer said. And, although the texts showed Kilpatrick had lied under oath in the whistle-blower case, McCargo shouldn't have been expected to violate his client's confidentiality by informing Wayne Circuit Judge Michael Callahan, who presided over the 2007 whistle-blower trial, about his client's apparent perjury.
Likewise, it wasn't McCargo's job to inform the judge that Stefani had apparently violated a court order in obtaining the texts without Callahan's knowledge, Cranmer testified.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: "Dual Pact in $8.4M Detroit Texts Case Didn’t Seem ‘Nefarious,’ Lawyer Says"
Detroit Free Press: "McCargo: Politics trumped sense"
Detroit Free Press: "McCargo misconduct hearing to wrap up today"
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Comments
J.D.
Sep 4, 2009 1:09 PM CST
Democrat. Democrat. The corrupt, former mayor is a democrat.
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Philip
Sep 6, 2009 3:32 PM CST
I agree 100%: McCargo was handed a bombshell. His client had lied to him and the court- but McCargo had not known this at the time. It was too late to prevent false testimony. But it was not too late to prevent his client from getting socked with a gargantuan punitive judgment. He made the right decision in settling this case.
It’s a shame the bar has chosen to go for the cheap publicity of sanctimoniously prosecuting him.
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