The other day the story of Julie Amero, the Norwich substitute teacher who is about to be sentenced for 4 counts of injuring minors with pornography (which could be up to 40 years), was reported again in this diary by HollywoodOz.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Many people expressed concern for Julie's plight. There is new news in the case today. subtropolis told me about it in the old diary, but I doubt whether other people will read it since the diary has long since left the front page. So here's the news: Julie Has a New Lawyer!! And Lord knows she needs one. Here's the link subtropolis gave me. But there's more. Follow me below the fold.
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/...
According to the article, Amero's previous attorney, John Cocheo, called in the new lawyer William Dow III. It also says that Dow is a well known CT lawyer, and that he has offered to work for free, all good news. But here's some more stuff.
Atty John Cocheo has an office in New London, CT, and says that he has been in the practice 37 years. However, you will find if you google him that he has almost no cites other than the Amero case, has no partners, and does not have a corporate website. It's also troubling that he practices in my area, and I've never heard of him, nor has my son who also lives in the area.
He doesn't sound like the right attorney for a computer case, and in fact he wasn't.
Given that Cocheo called in Dow, I was rather fearful that he might be another fellow of the same sort. And in fact, whatever Cocheo's limitations as a criminal lawyer, it looks like he does know where to find a good one.
Here's the bio of William Dow III, from the website of his firm,
http://www.jacobslaw.com/...
Jacobs, Grudberg, Belt, Dow & Katz PC. Granted, this is the puff piece from his website, but I have highlighted some of the good parts:
William F. Dow, III was born in New Haven in 1941 and grew up in Stony Creek. He graduated from Yale University with a B.A. degree in 1963. Between 1963 and 1965, Mr. Dow was a Peace Corps volunteer in Colombia and became fluent in Spanish. He then attended the University of Pennsylvania Law School, graduating in 1968. Between 1970 and 1974, Mr. Dow was with the Public Defender Service of the District of Columbia. He was an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut from 1974 to 1976.
For twenty-five years, Mr. Dow has been a lecturer in trial practice at Yale Law School. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He has been appointed by the Governor to the Judicial Selection Commission and is a member of the Connecticut Judicial Branch Criminal Division Task Force. He has served as Chair of the Executive Committee of the Section for the Administration of Criminal Justice of the Connecticut Bar Association and President of the Connecticut Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. He served on the Drafting Committee of the Evidence Code adopted by the Judges of the Superior Court. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Federal Practice Section of the Connecticut Bar Association.
Mr. Dow is included in The Best Lawyers in America in connection with criminal defense representation. In 2006, Connecticut Magazine named him a Super Lawyer and one of the top three attorneys in the state.Mr. Dow is heavily involved in white collar criminal defense and the trial and appeal of cases in both state and federal courts, involving homicide and other crimes of violence, drug offenses, and theft. He has defended both individuals and companies in criminal prosecutions. He also has argued numerous appeals in the Connecticut Supreme and Appellate Courts and the federal courts of appeals in New York, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia. Mr. Dow has extensive experience in both state and federal courts.
Most recently he represented the Governor of Connecticut in connection with impeachment proceedings as well as in a federal criminal investigation. Mr. Dow also represents members of the legal and medical professions in connection with grievance and licensing proceedings.
He presently serves on the Executive Committee of the Federal Practice Section of the CBA and was appointed by the Chief Judge of the United States District Court to chair a Committee on Appointment of the District's Federal Public Defender.
He certainly is a step up from Cocheo.
It's worth knowing that his firm also does a lot of work in Personal Injury...so if he gets Julie Amero off, the firm is well positioned for any civil suits against the Norwich, CT, schools that she might wish to file.
All in all, I'm happy to hear this.