Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Lawyer to Stars Leads Peterson Defense

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Lawyer to Stars Leads Peterson Defense

    Lawyer to Stars Leads Peterson Defense
    By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer

    Newsday.com
    Tuesday, June 1, 2004

    May 31, 2004, 2:52 PM EDT

    REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- The attorney who is Scott Peterson's best
    hope of not being convicted of murdering his pregnant wife and their
    fetus is a lawyer to the stars, a man who charms jurors, attorneys
    and judges with an easygoing style. Mark Geragos says he is committed
    to fighting for underdogs.

    "The whole idea ... is to defend people and to fight for their rights
    and their liberties," Geragos said.

    Geragos has said police and prosecutors did all they could to convict
    Peterson in the court of public opinion before a gag order was imposed
    on the case.

    That's one reason why he is so chummy with reporters, in stark contrast
    to prosecutors in the case. "What drives me just crazy is when I think
    that somebody is getting a raw deal," he explained in an interview.

    Geragos gained public attention after he secured an acquittal for
    Whitewater figure Susan McDougal and took on the cases of actress
    Winona Ryder and former congressman Gary Condit.

    Beyond the cameras' glare, Geragos is committed to his job, his family
    and his Armenian-American culture.

    "Being Armenian and having all four of my grandparents who fled
    genocide, I have a great and deep and abiding appreciation for what
    it's like to be the subject of tyranny," Geragos said.

    One of his proudest achievements is a settlement in January that
    went mostly unnoticed. The descendants of some 1.5 million Armenians
    who were killed nearly 90 years ago in the Turkish Ottoman Empire
    will share in a $20 million settlement for unpaid life insurance
    benefits. The class action took four years of work.

    Married with two children, Geragos, 46, is managing partner of a Los
    Angeles law firm that includes his father and brother.

    He had been defending both Peterson and Michael Jackson, until the
    pop star complained his child molestation defense wasn't getting
    enough attention. Geragos shrugged off his firing, saying only that
    "I truly, truly wish him well and am hopeful for a favorable outcome
    for Michael."

    Geragos has lost his share of cases, but even the best lose some, said
    Shepard Kopp, a lawyer at his firm. "That's the ultimate challenge. As
    a trial lawyer, you take cases that appear to be unwinnable and you
    find a way to win."

    Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press
Working...
X