Getting Famous in California

by Mike Frisch

The October 18, 2006 edition of the Lawyers Manual on Professional Conduct has an interesting report of two California decisions disqualifying state prosecutors from cases based on their involvement in related book and film projects. One had published a book with characters and a story that bore similarity to a case she was prosecuting (Haraguchi v. Superior Court, Cal. Ct. App. 2nd Dist., No. B191161). The other involves a prosecutor acting as a paid consultant on a film project about his pending capital case– the defendant has the perfect name for a movie character- Jesse James Hollywood (you can’t make this stuff up). The prosecutor gave the screenwriters file material about the case, which may have violated state law. (Hollywood v. Superior Court, Cal. Ct. App. 2nd Dist., No. B188550).

Perhaps these two can get their own cable show or at least get profiled on Court TV.