Attorney John C. Osborne
I wrote about John C. Osborne here:
The lawyer who promises to get the accused in a federal cocaine conspiracy case out on conditions of release is unethical and a liar.. . . .What happens next? My bet is that once the lawyer has been paid and four weeks have passed and the client is still incarcerated, the lawyer will “discover” some reason that the accused cannot get out on bond.
A little over four weeks later, I was proven prescient:
Today the lawyer I described in this post called me …. He wanted to know why his client (my former client) had been detained. I probably should have made like Matlock and flipped him off. But instead, I explained to him the presumption of detention in a federal drug conspiracy case with a possible sentence over ten years. I also explained that the particular magistrate who heard the detention hearing will most likely never grant an accused release over the Government’s objection. Why I had to educate was beyond me; he is the one who made the client promises that nobody could possibly keep, and now he’s talking like I somehow dropped the ball.
Six weeks later, he popped up again:
From a brief telephone conversation with him I was able easily to learn that he knew next-to-nothing about federal criminal defense. Now four people have hired him to represent them in serious federal criminal cases in the last eight months.. . . .[T]his guy exemplifies the problem of declining standards of representation in federal criminal cases.
A few months later, the first overpromised client was still in jail—and still represented by John C. Osborne, Texas Bar Number 15333200.
I didn’t use Osborne’s name in any of those four posts because he was still representing people whom I had represented, and I didn’t trust him not to treat them worse. I planned to get back to it someday.
Well, it’s someday now. The State Bar of Texas tells us that attorney John C. Osborne. who in my opinion got cases that he was not competent to handle by making promises that he could not keep, is under a probated suspension until December 2013. I’ve ordered the papers on that; until I receive them, there’s this:
John C. Osborne Disbarment Petition
The Texas Commission for Lawyer Discipline is trying to disbar John C. Osborne—not for making false representations to get people to hire him for cases beyond his competency, but for mishandling a client’s $130,000. It’ll have to do. And it might just: John C. Osborne is representing himself in his disbarment proceeding, which should in itself be grounds for disbarment under the “fools shouldn’t practice law” rule. It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
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That was great.
Yes, we are lawyers not magicians (I have yet to make 20 lbs. of weed disappear) and lawyers who promise the impossible to their clients make it damn hard on those of us who tell the often unpleasant truth
I’ve made lots of dope disappear (metaphorically speaking), but part of being a great magician is giving the audience more magic than they expect.
You can be the worst CDL in the world. Treat your client’s like shit, lie to them, fuck their defense up. You will keep your bar card forever. Just don’t misappropriate funds. The few times I’ve really tried to go after someone on behalf of a client, I always do it by way of asking for an accounting and refund of unearned fees because saying you promised X, Y, Z and either didn’t do it or fucked it all up just doesn’t bother the Bar.
That’s the conventional wisdom, but check out the case of another Houston lawyer who specialized in running clients from the Federal Detention Center, Steven Jay Rozan.
Detention is definitely a pitfall. But man, it’s nothing compared to sentencing.
Back when the USSG were “mandatory”, absent a departure, the problems with defense attorneys showing up without knowing their ass from the guidelines was a constant problem. I was an AUSA in the 90s. Now and then a state practitioner who thought he was smart enough to “go federal” would show up. He’d be incensed if I wouldn’t negotiate a deal with him the way you would in state court, would say he’d just convince the judge to give him what he wanted, and generally wouldn’t know anything about the rather complex guideline structure. And at the sentencing itself, he’d stand there like a poleaxed steer and gape at the judge if she asked rather straightforward questions about guideline analysis.
I once took what some might characterize as a dive in such a case — I made the defendant’s criminal-history-is-overrepresented argument for him, then argued against it. Afterwards, I was as rude as I have ever been to another human being to the guy in the hallway. It was infuriating.
Got lucky and had bond granted in a federal conspiracy case yesterday involving at least 10,000kg of Marijuana involving our client who is a government designated “key” player. Magistrate initially denied bond by finding we did not rebut presumption (surprise surprise). District judge granted it after we appealed Had one heck of a happy client in our office this morning! While miracles do happen (and I chalk this up as one) we certaintly did not promise the client bond in the beginning. Made it abundantly clear odds were stacked against us given presumption status and his alleged role in the consp.
Have never had bond granted in cocaine consp case.
That’s too bad. I worked for him as a young lawyer and he never seemed that bad.