Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Some more ADO's hit the road

Two more attorneys left the ADO to seek greener pastures.

Heather Cessna, a KU Law grad, started at the ADO in January 2003. After a well-run, but unsuccessful campaign for the state legislature, Heather decided to join Amy Girard in Amy's Lawrence firm doing veteran's benefits law. Here is a link to Amy's firm's web site.

Heather had a reputation for enjoying oral argument and won a number of cases including State v. Boykins, (COA, possession conviction reversed due to Fourth Amendment violation), State v. Larraco (COA, aggravated burglary/aggravated assault convictions reversed due to improper jury trial waiver), and State v. Houston, No. 93,771 (Kan. App. March 31, 2006) (winning a new trial after a Wyandotte County second-degree murder conviction). I think Heather's most famous case, though, was probably State v. Knight, (COA, possession conviction reversed due to an improper traffic stop). You should read Knight for Judge McAnany's observation that salt has been used by people since "the dawn of human history."

We also lost Jay Witt, another KU Law grad, who had only been at the ADO a little over a year. Jay went to the Chanute Public Defender Office to try his hand at trial work. I suspect he will do quite well there. Jay has a lot of cases in the pipeline, but no big published wins yet. But keep an eye out.

1 comment:

GK said...

Give up my life of being beat down by Judges who don't understand they are not part of the prosecution team to work on appeals? How could I ever leave this fair trial system? :-)

Seriously, if you know anyone who would be good at appellate work, let Randall know.