Pssssssssst - this needs more coverage - Former George Bush WH Lawyer on trial for attempted murder

[malaise]

Wife Describes Alleged Beating In Attempted-Murder Trial Of Ex-White House Lawyer Michael Farren

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/07/07/wife-describes-alleged-beating-in-ex-white-house-lawyer-michael-farrens-attempted-murder-trial/
<snip>
The wife of a once-prominent Connecticut attorney told jurors Monday that her husband brutally beat her when she served him with divorce papers.

Mary Margaret Farren shared her story for the first time publicly as she testified at the attempted-murder trial of Michael Farren, who served as deputy White House counsel under President George W. Bush.

“He came forcefully toward me, and he put his hands around my neck and, in one motion, he tackled me to the ground,” she described of the alleged 2010 attack in the couple’s New Canaan mansion.

As WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau reported, Mary Margaret Farren testified that her husband repeatedly slammed her head on the hardwood floor of their bedroom and then reached for a flashlight he kept near the bed.

Jurors only saw a photo of the defendant. Michael Farren won an unusual request to be tried in absentia, arguing the trial could cause significant psychological problems.
--------------------------------
How did he win that unusual request - over to you Nancy Grace!!!!

[liberal N proud]

1. Has Nancy even mentioned this?

Not watching much news, keeps me insulated from such garbage.

[malaise]

6. Not a Nancy fan

but I'll peep over later to see if she does

[hobbit709]

3. I'd say he already had "significant psychological problems."

[malaise]

7. That did raise my eyebrows

Some guys have all the luck.

[PeoViejo]

10. A severe case of Affluenza for one.

How do these assholes get off doing shit like this. It sounds like a ploy for a later appeal to me.

[awoke_in_2003]

20. We have a multi level judicial system...

one for the wealthy, one for the average white guy, one for the poor whites, and one for minorities. It is sickening.

[littlemissmartypants]

13. Ditto. eom

[merrily]

4. I was hoping for Gonzo, Bybee or Yoo, but this one will have to do.

[NeoNerd]

5. Yoo who?

[malaise]

8. LOL

I'd like to see him in an orange jump suit

[merrily]

9. Is he still teaching law to impressionable young adults?

*shudder*

[Rex]

11. One set of laws for the serfs, another set of laws for the Haves.

[mountain grammy]

12. Surprised he was charged at all..

after all, the rich are so traumatized by the crimes they commit, they can't even go to prison cause that doesn't work for them Or something like that.

[littlemissmartypants]

14. Yep.

That's why we have to keep working those roots.

[malaise]

16. Here's why -Mary Margaret Farren was awarded $28.6 million for the beating

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/policereports/article/Judge-Jury-s-28-6-million-award-stands-5291686.php
<snip>

John Michael Farren will have to prove he was involuntarily committed to a Hartford psychiatric ward in December -- when a jury awarded his wife $28.6 million for the severe beating he gave her with a metal flashlight -- before a judge would consider overturning the judgment against him.

State Superior Judge Robert Genuario said Wednesday morning that he would hold a hearing in mid-May during which Farren, 60, can present witnesses to prove he was locked up at Hartford Hospital's Institute for Living on suicide watch and thus could not defend himself during the December civil trial, at which he was to act as his own defense attorney.

Two weeks ago, a Stamford criminal judge ruled that Farren does not qualify for a public defender, a decision ending 10 months of legal limbo. He is scheduled to appear in criminal court on March 12, which would be his 54th court appearance since his arrest, court records say.

According to testimony during December's civil trial, Farren unexpectedly received divorce papers on Jan. 4, 2010, and tried to get his wife, a high-powered lawyer herself, to withdraw the action.

[mountain grammy]

17. But charging a rich lawyer with attempted murder that might lead to prison.. oh my goodness!

He's so fragile..

[malaise]

18. I love how he needed a public defender

He should have called Bush or Cheney or Yoo

[Enthusiast]

15. Conservatives are all the same. Liars and killers.

Life destroyers, earth destroyers.

[Jefferson23]

19. Sounds like they had damaging evidence on him but there are aspects not detailed,

why was a wealthy man not able to post bond, what was the tracking device all about?
A court order is not mentioned...sounds like a dangerous man.

Personal life
Marriage

Farren married Mary Margaret Scharf, also an attorney, on May 3, 1997.[6]
Arrest for attempted murder of wife

Farren was arrested on January 6, 2010 and charged with the strangulation and attempted murder of his wife Mary Margaret Farren at their New Canaan, Connecticut home.[7][8][9] At the time of his attack on his wife, their two daughters were 7-years-old and 4-months-old.[10]

After his arrest, Farren spent six months in jail before posting $750,000 bond and checking into a psychiatric facility in Connecticut, according to a Greenwich Time article.[11] After being released from the facility, he was fitted with a tracking device and went to live with his sister in his hometown, West Hartford, Connecticut.[12]

In April 2013, Farren was granted permission to act as his own lawyer and to put forth an insanity defense.[13]

After a five day Connecticut jury trial in December 2013, Farren was ordered by the jury to pay his ex-wife $28.6 million in damages for beating her up.[14][15][16] The jurors deliberated for only 90 minutes before holding Farren liable.[17]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Michael_Farren

[UTUSN]

21. R#28 & K for, at least ONE of them is on trial. n/t

[Solly Mack]

22. Damn

Michael Farren won an unusual request to be tried in absentia, arguing the trial could cause significant psychological problems.

Guess going to prison would too. Poor dear.

[Oilwellian]

23. Here's a good pic of him

The 43-year-old lawyer swung the BMW into the drive of a family she didn't know, leaned on the horn, pounded on the front door. When it opened, she collapsed, bleeding, in the airy stillness of a New Canaan foyer.

"She made several remarks implying that she did not think she was going to live," New Canaan police Sgt. Louis Gannon noted in his report. Summoned by the owners of the house on Weed Street, the officer found Farren on her side, inside the front door of the dumbfounded family's house, shivering and pale under a pile of blankets in an expanding pool of blood.

She said her husband had tried to kill her, first with his hands, then with a metal flashlight, according to the police report. She said his plan was to kill her and then himself. She said that he was still at home, a mile away, and that there was a gun somewhere in the house.

The sergeant relayed the information to the squad cars screaming toward the house she had fled. And so what appeared before J. Michael Farren a year after leaving the White House were four police officers, two with shotguns, one with an assault rifle, one with a shield held across the other three, advancing toward the $4 million home of a man last employed as deputy counsel to the president of the United States.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/24/AR2010022405384.html?nav=hcmodule

[malaise]

26. Looks like Gonzo

another despicable ReTHUG

[Octafish]

24. Big deal. His client killed a million innocent people for their oil.

Ask Nancy Grouper, the White House, like fish, rots from the head down.

[malaise]

25. True but I'm willing to watch every one of them

end up in prison for their crimes. What he did to his wife was frightening

[Octafish]

28. They absolutely belong in prison.

Sorry about the sarcasm.

Domestic violence is never funny.

Killing innocents to make money is never funny.

[malaise]

29. Well you do have a point

but they are all criminals

[malaise]

31. All you never wanted to know about this wife beating ReTHUG scumbag

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/24/AR2010022405384.html


Fits the pattern of women hating ReTHUGs. If he can't have you - you're dead.

[Jamastiene]

27. That is backasswards.

She should not have to face him at the trial, not the other way around. After what he did to her, she should not have to sit through it and be traumatized again. He should have to face it until he feels some kind of remorse, if it is possible for a Republican to feel anything other than hatred and selfishness, which I doubt.

[malaise]

30. Here's why she received that $28.6million

http://abovethelaw.com/2013/12/ex-skadden-lawyer-wins-28-6-million-from-her-ex-husband-a-former-gc-and-white-house-lawyer/#more-291317
<snip>
How did Mary Farren’s damages get calculated? They reflect the fact that she went from a high-paid job at Skadden to unemployment:

Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor Albert Sabella said that even though Farren held a half-million dollar a year job at the Washington, D.C., office of Skadden, Arps, it was questionable if she could be employed anywhere. “Based on my review of the medical record & she would be unemployable for any job,” he said.

As a result of a brain injury caused in the attack and emotional trauma that includes panic attacks and a diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, she is unable to concentrate, has trouble figuring out how to begin tasks, and is incapable of analyzing information and taking action, Sabella said.

Given the horrific nature of the alleged attack and how it left Mary Farren unable to practice law, a field in which she once excelled, sizable damages are understandable.