NYLJ Reports on Kramer Levin Win of New Hearing for Client Deprived of Right to Counsel

The August 12, 2011 New York Law Journal reported on Kramer Levin's win of a new hearing for a client who was determined to have been deprived of his right to counsel because the court commenced an evidentiary hearing without his former lawyer. The Appellate Division, First Department ruled that Kramer Levin pro bono client Heath Strothers, who was convicted and sentenced to twelve years in prison on drug charges, was deprived of his right to counsel when his lawyer at the time was late for an evidentiary hearing in the case. Kramer Levin and co-counsel from the Legal Aid Society argued that the $2200 taken from their client when he was arrested at the scene of a drug deal should have been suppressed, since his attorney arrived in the middle of the direct examination of a Special Agent from the task force that made the arrests. The court also determined that because this case did not meet the standard of "truly overwhelming" evidence of a defendant's guilt, it would not engage in so-called "harmless error" analysis to determine whether depriving the defendant of his Constitutional right to counsel at his suppression hearing was prejudicial to him at trial. Litigation associate Amy Weiner was quoted in the article as saying that the decision made clear that "the evidence of the defendant's guilt has to be extreme, direct and overwhelming in order for the court to overlook that the defendant was deprived of counsel at his suppression hearing."

The Kramer Levin team that represented Mr. Strothers consisted of Litigation associates Amy Weiner, Samantha V. Ettari, Selina M. Ellis and Lynda Tricarico, and Corporate Restructuring and Bankruptcy associate Matthew C. Ziegler; with supervision from Andy Fine of Legal Aid and Litigation partner Paul H. Schoeman.