Newsday has been running a series of articles about a Muttontown couple accused of enslaving 2 Indonesian women.  You don’t get too many slavery cases these days, though some might argue that its purely a matter of poor enforcement. 

Today, Newsday reports that US District Court Judge Thomas Platt has given up on releasing the couple on any bail conditions.  Despite their offer to put up $3.5 Million in cash, and pay $15,000 a day to turn their home into a prison, prosecutors have not agreed to the terms.  According to the article, significant doubts have arisen from the couple’s possibly deceptive information about their financial resources, particularly those held outside the country.  This suggests, of course, that the couple would flee and live quite nicely elsewhere. 

What today’s story doesn’t mention is that the couple’s attorneys today, Stephen Scaring and Jeffrey Hoffman, were not their lawyers yesterday.  And their lawyers yesterday were different from the ones the day before. 


Flavor of the Day: Defense Attorneys Scaring and Hoffman

It’s impossible to point the finger of blame at any attorney involved in this case, even though an earlier one apparently got into a bit of a pissing contest with Judge Platt, causing the judge to publicly shut him down.  Not generally considered to be a wise move given that Judge Platt gets to make the decision.  But what emits an unpleasant odor about this situation is that the “wealthy Muttontown couple,” as they are invariably referred to, have dug themselves into a legal hole (aside from any issue of guilt or innocence) from which they will never emerge.

Short and sweet:  Don’t change lawyers more often than socks.  Recently, I wrote about getting it right the first time, and the impact of half-baked initial choices as to defense counsel.  Of course I realize that it isn’t easy to select the best quality defense lawyer available, but knee-jerk resort to some guy “who used to be a DA” as referred by your real estate lawyer just doesn’t cut it.  Quick and easy, just foolishly wrong.

And so the couple, with their first set of lawyers in hand, provide financial disclosure that has permanently tainted the efforts of their current set of lawyers.  That was a mistake.  And the fact that a new lawyer shows up every time the case comes before Judge Platt creates a sense of, oh what to call this, instability?  That was a mistake.  This couple hasn’t figured out yet that they are walking into court as criminal defendants, no matter how important they are in their own minds (an inherent North Shore  curse).  No doubt they know better than any lawyer, and as they are absolutely entitled to get whatever they want (another inherent North Shore curse), the failure to secure release means that the lawyer must suck.  It certainly couldn’t have anything to do with the couple’s choices.

What will be interesting after today’s ruling by Judge Platt, shutting down efforts to turn their home into a fortress, will be what happens to the couple’s current lawyers.  Certainly the couple has better lawyers now then they deserve.  But will there be new lawyers defending them tomorrow?  I bet that will impress the judge.  Given this history of compounding one stupid move with another, I have but one piece of advice for lawyers in the game.  Get a big retainer up front, because the chances of actually seeing this case through to its conclusion seem mighty slim.  As for the “wealthy Muttontown couple,” Varsha Mahender Sabhnani, 45, and her husband, Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani, 51, bear in mind that America is the land of opportunity for everyone.  Not just you.