Legal News

Breaking: Former White House Lawyer Charged With Murder

By Ashby Jones

White House lawyers go on to do a lot of things. The become highly-paid partners at Washington law firms. They go to think tanks. They, like Fred Fielding, reemerge to serve as White House Counsel again. They write memoirs.

John Michael Farren, a lawyer in the Bush (II) White House, might be on his way to doing any of those things. But for now he’s got an issue. A potentially big issue. Farren was charged Thursday with strangulation and attempted murder. Connecticut authorities are claiming that he tried to kill his wife at their Connecticut home by beating her with a flashlight and strangling her.

Farren was arraigned Thursday and held on $2 million bond. Click here for the AP story.

Police said his bloodied wife, Mary, passed out during the attack Wednesday night at their New Canaan, Conn., home but regained consciousness and fled the house with her children. She was in stable condition at Norwalk Hospital with a broken nose, a broken jaw and other injuries.

Her husband’s attorney, Eugene Riccio, declined to comment.

An arrest affidavit says the attack occurred after Mary Farren delivered divorce papers to her husband Monday.

For now, LBers, that’s what we know. We’ll update the post when we get more.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 07, 2010 (boomark / email).