Articles
Legal Tactics Debate Prompted By Lawyer’s Trick
When a distinguished criminal attorney was defending a man charged with the sexual assault a young boy and possession of child pornography, he tricked the victim to gain access to his computer to help in the case.
Now, Wisconsin state regulators are asking the state Supreme Court to reprimand the attorney for the ruse. Stephen Hurley, the criminal lawyer, was said to have hired a private investigator to scam the boy into trading his computer for a brand new laptop.
A Question of Ethics
This case exemplifies what the American Bar Association claims has been at the forefront of serious debate in legal circles in the last several years: Can attorneys ethically be involved in secret operations?
According to Hurley’s lawyer Claude Covelli, Hurley was not in the wrong when he supervised a secret investigation to gather evidence—similar to undercover operations conducted by law enforcement when examining complaints.
However, a complaint filed against Hurley by the state disciplinary board states that the criminal defense attorney violated the rules that ban lawyers from engaging in “dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation” by approving the ruse.
“There are limits to zealous advocacy,” said William Weigel, attorney for the Office of Lawyer Regulation, who filed the complaint.
Professional Responsibilities
Hurley’s supporters believe he is being unjustly targeted and that he hasn’t done anything outside the realm of his professional responsibilities.
“I certainly wouldn’t be proud of taking advantage of a teenager,” said Jack King, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers spokesman. “But I don’t feel the guy did anything unethical as far as the professional responsibilities go.”
Hurley claimed that the only way he was able to get the boy’s computer, which could have provided evidence to exonerate his client was to play a ruse on the boy.
“Given that the defense does not have the police at its disposal, this was the only means to obtain this exculpatory evidence,” as stated in a motion filed by his law firm. “The defense was correct in its instinct as the computer did contain relevant pornography.”
Many other defense lawyers contend that Hurley’s deceptive actions were justified.
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