Coleman asks for free lawyers, says he is too poor

[crimeshot1]

Coleman asks for free lawyers, says he is too poor

By Nicholas J.C. Pistor
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

09/03/2009

Christopher Coleman says he is too poor to pay his legal fees and is asking a judge to declare him indigent.

Coleman, 32, lists his total debts and liabilities at $243,000, according to an affidavit filed on Thursday. The affidavit shows Coleman is upside down on the mortgage of his home in Columbia, Ill. The home's value is listed at $195,000. It currently has a $240,000 mortgage.

If a judge is convinced Coleman has no money, he could get access to the Illinois Capital Litigation Fund to pay the costs of his legal defense.

Coleman is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the strangulation of his wife, Sheri, 31, and sons Garett, 11, and Gavin, 9. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

The fund, supported by tax dollars, was set up in 2000 after revelations that innocent men had been sentenced to death in Illinois. It was designed to ensure that all death penalty trials are properly funded, allowing defense attorneys and others to tap the fund for their trial expenses.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed a bill overhauling the fund last month in response to a Post-Dispatch investigation., which found the fund was being abused by lawyers, private investigators and expert witnesses, who charge steep fees just to drive, make copies and send e-mails.

The investigation also found that John Paul Carroll, a lawyer who sparked outrage from state legislators in 2005 for billing the state $2 million for a murder case defense, was assigned to a new death penalty case last year even though his law license was once suspended and he recently admitted to making a serious legal error in another case.

The Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Committee filed a complaint against him last month.

Coleman was the private security manager for televangelist Joyce Meyer. He resigned the job shortly after the Post-Dispatch first disclosed he was having an affair with one of Sheri Coleman's friends in Florida.

The ministry job paid Coleman 100,000 a year, and it gave him a $10,000 pay advance the day after the murders.

Coleman has retained Clayton lawyers Art and William Margulis, who are in the process of being death penalty certified in Illinois.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/new...9?OpenDocument

[crimeshot1]

Sunday, Sep. 13, 2009

Coleman lawyer: 'I try to see Jesus Christ in the face of everyone I defend'

BY BETH HUNDSDORFER - News-Democrat

Belleville lawyer John O'Gara, has stood beside people accused of the most heinous crimes committed in the state -- a necropheliac serial killer who targeted children, a murderer convicted of shooting a 9-week-old infant in the face with a shotgun and most recently, a Columbia father and husband accused of strangling his whole family.

"I try to see Jesus Christ in the face of everyone I defend," O'Gara said. "Does that mean I love all my clients or have loved all my clients?

Absolutely not. I'm a person like everybody else. There are clients who have pushed every button and make me angry, then I have to draw inspiration from the people who love them."

O'Gara, 48, has a new client, Christopher Coleman, former bodyguard for television evangelist Joyce Meyer, who faces the death penalty if he's convicted of the strangulations of his wife and two young sons.





Attorney John O'Gara talks to the media at the Munroe County Courthouse on Friday afternoon. - Zia Nizami/BND

O'Gara defends clients facing the death penalty because his love of the law and his Catholic faith compels him to do it, he said.

There's a portrait of Thomas Moore, patron saint of lawyers, in the lobby of his office. O'Gara keeps a prayer written by Moore in the center drawer of his desk. O'Gara attended St. Stephen's Catholic Grade School in Caseyville, then Althoff Catholic High School, Quincy College and St. Louis University Law School.

"I'm a complete product of the Catholic school system," O'Gara said.
As a testament to his faith, O'Gara opposes the capital punishment, championing death penalty reforms by former Gov. George Ryan.

"He really believes that what people do to the least of his brothers and sisters you do to Jesus Christ," said the Rev. Clyde Grogan, O'Gara's friend. "He stands with people who have no one to stand beside them. He's a true Catholic."

In 2001, a jury recommended the death penalty for O'Gara client Lorenzo Fayne, who pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of East St. Louis children, but Ryan commuted the sentence to life in prison. In the 20 capital cases O'Gara's represented, it's the only case where one of O'Gara's clients received the death penalty.

O'Gara also speaks passionately about the U.S. Constitution.

"What makes this country great? The fact that we have a system of laws that protects even those individuals that society has decided should just be thrown away," O'Gara said. "It's a protection that we all have, not just those accused under the Constitution."

By "all," O'Gara means even those who can't afford a lawyer. Last year, St. Clair County judges named him the county's public defender, earning $25,000 a year for mentoring five full-time and 13 part-time public defenders who handle about 700 to 800 cases a year for the county's poor who are accused of crimes.

The first client a public defender has is the Constitution, Madison County Public Defender John Rekowski said, and O'Gara believes this -- especially when the client is facing the death penalty.

O'Gara worked on a murder case in 1984, assisting the Knox County public defender by preparing motions and interviewing witnesses, earning $75 a week and sleeping on his college roommate's floor. The prosecutor dismissed the case the day it was set to go to trial. O'Gara was hooked.

He passed the bar exam in November 1987. Less than six months later, he defended a man accused of residential burglary and arson. The man was acquitted.

O'Gara still has a bank statement from that some month that shows he had $3.33 in his bank account. He had just bought a 1979 LTD, then he said he gathered all the change from his apartment and went to the store and bought a bunch of macaroni. It was nine days from payday, O'Gara said.

"You don't do this to get famous and you don't do it to get rich," he said. "You do it because you love being in front of a jury and getting justice."
But even when the crime is less serious, O'Gara always advocates for his clients.

"His clients always come first, and he treats them with such respect," said Sharon Norsigian, office manager for the St. Clair County public defender's office. "He has the highest character and he expects the same from the other attorneys who work at the public defender's office."

O'Gara's father was a receiving clerk at an auto frame manufacturer in Granite City. His grandfather was the original member of Labor Union 100 and worked for the East St. Louis Street Department until he was 79 years old. O'Gara was the first in his family to go to college.
"My roots are really very blue-collar," he said.

O'Gara will get paid for representing Coleman from the Capital Litigation Trust Fund, earning $151 an hour, about $100 less than the rate for criminal defense lawyers.

A colleague chuckled at an online comment regarding the Coleman case posted by a News-Democrat reader who called O'Gara a "silk-stocking lawyer."

"He's probably the most underestimated lawyer in the state," East Alton lawyer John Stobbs said. "He looks and acts just like normal guy, but he's just brilliant."

Empathizing with clients is one of O'Gara's greatest gifts, Stobbs and Rekowski said. "He's a nice guy with a big heart who is absolutely, truly genuine," Rekowski said.

O'Gara's mother, a German immigrant, died the day after he turned 13. His father died just nine years later when O'Gara was in law school. Both died from the effects of alcoholism, O'Gara said

"Everyone is flawed, but they were great people," O'Gara said. "I wished they hadn't checked out so early."

But he's surrounded by family now. He and his wife, Anna, have been married 17 years and have two daughters, Maggie and Mary Kate. Jim Gomric Sr. founded the firm where O'Gara works with Jim Gomric Jr. and his wife, Julie. Jim's mother, Rose, is their legal assistant.

"He's a devoted family man," Rekowski said. "He's just all about his wife and kids."

Contact reporter Beth Hundsdorfer at bhundsdorfer@bnd.com or 239-2570.

http://www.bnd.com/news/crime/story/921340.html

[Sandi48]

He wouldnt be so poor if he hadnt killed his wife and kids. This just makes me so mad!