What Matters to the State Public Defender #4
Deb Smith utilized two cases in her recent effort to have me decertified. One is the scenario set out immediately below. This scenario appears to be the result of a ‘meeting of the minds’ between Dane County ADA Corey Stephan and Deb Smith.
ADA Corey Stephan claimed that all police reports relating to the crime in which Demarious Gray had been charged had been turned over, and that all exculpatory evidence had been disclosed. However, my investigator, when working on another attorney’s case, came across a police report wherein a Madison detective claimed that she was told by the sister of Tyshaun Robinson, that Tyshaun had confessed to being involved in the specific crime to which Demarious Gray was charged.
The detective also claimed that she had personally passed this information on to Detective Helgren. The timing of this was at the very time Detective Helgren was referring charges on Gray, and roughly eight months before the investigator obtained the report. The investigator obtained the report over five months after Dane County ADA Stephan began repeatedly claiming that all exculpatory evidence regarding Gray had been turned over.
In that I had received information that Robinson was an associate with many of the members of Lic Squad/MAD, and had committed multiple armed robberies in the Madison area, I provided this report to the court and insisted that the court address why this report had been withheld by the DA’s Office despite representations to the contrary.
ADA Stephan’s reaction to the above would be considered bizarre and self-serving by most. He took the position that by providing the report to the court, I was unethical. Stephan also claimed that this unethical action justified me being disqualified as Gray’s attorney, which he asked the court immediately to do.
One should reflect upon what was being asserted by Stephan: An ethical defense attorney is one who looks the other way when he obtains exculpatory evidence that was withheld by the DA’s Office, despite representations to the contrary?
Maybe even more bizarre than ADA Stephan’s opinion is that he found someone to agree with him…Deb Smith of the SPD.
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