Jury to Decide if Md. Defense Attorney Tried to Get Witness to Change Story
A jury will decide whether a veteran Maryland defense lawyer tried to get a prosecution witness to change his testimony in a murder case, because “there is enough there” that the jury in the murder case should hear the evidence, a judge has ruled.
“Baltimore Circuit Judge Timothy Doory said he made his decision not because he believed a convicted drug dealer over a 35-year veteran attorney but because it was an appropriate matter for the jury in the murder case to consider,” reports the Baltimore Sun.
The defense attorney, Leslie Stein, 65, removed himself from the case after Doory’s ruling, which has had the effect of postponing the first-degree murder trial of Stein’s now-former client, Bryant Williams.
Stein reportedly met several times with the witness, Christopher Meadows, 26, who was jailed during at least some of the meetings for reasons the newspaper doesn’t fully explain. On one occasion, Stein signed himself into jail as Meadows’ attorney, according to the judge.
Stein says he did anything wrong, and “denied telling Meadows he was a snitch, intimidating him in any way or trying to get him to lie in court,” the newspaper writes. “Stein said he only talked to Meadows about telling the truth and told him he would ‘burn in hell’ if he falsely sent Williams to prison.”
