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MA: Defense counsel and a ADA sleeping together was not actual conflict in this case

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

An intimate relationship between defense counsel and a prosecutor was not enough to establish an actual conflict. Commonwealth v. Stote, SJC-09582 (March 5, 2010): If the fact of the relationship in Croken, which was serious enough to lead to cohabitation (during the representation), was not sufficient standing alone to establish an actual conflict of interest, the relationship between Walsh and the ADA standing alone is similarly not sufficient. Walsh and the ADA's year-long relationship was surely more than a brief, casual affair, yet we cannot conclude that it was an intimate relationship similar to a marriage. Particularly as they did not live together, their relationship was not conducive to "inadvertent breaches of confidentiality," as cohabitation or marriage is...continue to full post

Full post as published by Law Of Criminal Defense on March 10, 2010 (boomark / email).