Legal News

Judge Rejects Lerach?s Request for Residential Alcoholism Program

By Jamie Heller

Judge John Walter in L.A. has rejected a request by jailed plaintiffs’ lawyer William Lerach to be moved to a residential alcohol abuse treatment program for inmates, Reuters is reporting.

Lerach, who is serving a two-year sentence in connection with the Milberg Weiss kickback case, should be able to get adequate treatment through other prison programs consisting of counseling and self-help programs, the judge wrote in a court order. If those programs are inadequate, the judge said, Lerach can ask the court to reconsider.

“Although it is apparent that Mr. Lerach has struggled with alcoholism in the past, the court finds that the defendant has failed to demonstrate that he currently requires the intensive treatment offered by the Bureau of Prison’s Residential Drug Abuse Treatment program,” U.S. District Judge John Walter wrote in the order issued on Thursday.

Lerach’s defense attorney was not immediately available for comment on Friday, Reuters said.

Photo: AP

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on June 13, 2008 (boomark / email).