Legal Ethics
Convicted Client Cites Lawyer’s Stalking Indictment in New Trial Bid
Posted Oct 24, 2007, 06:01 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A convicted murderer is seeking a new trial because his lawyer was under indictment for stalking.
The appeal by Mylee Cottle of Newark, N.J., argues his lawyer was likely reluctant to oppose or negotiate with prosecutors because he needed to curry favor with them in his own case, the New Jersey Law Journal reports.
The lawyer, Steven Olitsky of Irvington, was placed in a pretrial diversion program before Cottle's trial. He was also facing an ethics investigation for mingling personal and business funds and was later disbarred, the legal publication says.
The New Jersey Supreme court heard arguments in the case on Monday. Cottle’s appellate lawyer, Paul Casteleiro, argued that Olitsky’s indictment by the same office prosecuting his client was a per se conflict of interest.