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Tag: Barry Bonds
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Theatrical Rusty Hardin takes Clemens’s case
Baseball’s Roger Clemens has never been one to back down and go easy on batters.
So it’s no surprise that he has launched a very public campaign to clear his name of allegations leveled against him in the Mitchell report on the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.
And it’s also not surprising that Rusty Hardin, a Houston-based criminal defense lawyer, is representing Clemens. (Story continues below interactive map.)
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“(Hardin) remains the name that should be on the speed-dial of every athlete or deep-pocketed Houstonian who might ever conceivably get into trouble,” wrote the Houston Press in naming Hardin Houston’s best criminal defense lawyer of 2005.The honor didn’t come easily, as Houston has long had a reputation for effective and flamboyant criminal defense lawyers.
However, selecting Hardin was a no-brainer, the Press wrote, “like naming Lance Armstrong as Best Bicyclist from Texas.”
Hardin, 66, a Vietnam War veteran, and a graduate of Southern Methodist University Law School, first made a name for himself working as a prosecutor in Houston for the Harris County District Attorney’s office.
During his 15 years there, he almost always won. By his own account, he sent 15 men to death row, according to The New York Times.
The key to his victories was his preparation and his folksy ability to win over juries. “His closing arguments were pure theater,” wrote Pamela Colloff in a 2000 Texas Monthly profile.
Summing things up for the jury at the end of one trial, Hardin reenacted the murder by pretending to pump shotgun shells into a truck. In another summation, he swung a pickax — the murder weapon — into a phone book.
Hardin left the D.A.’s office in 1990 and went into private practice. His resume shows a wide variety of clients. He represented the accounting firm of Arthur Anderson LLP in an Enron-related case. His firm, Rusty Hardin & Associates, P.C., has also handled cases for Rice University, ExxonMobil and Dow Jones & Co.
Hardin successfully represented the estate of J. Howard Marshall II against claims by Marshall’s wife, Anna Nicole Smith, a former Playboy centerfold.
He has also has fared well defending sports stars, so much so that his firm’s website has a section headed “Professional Athletes.”
Former basketball star Calvin Murphy turned to Hardin when he was charged with sexual assault of a child. A jury acquitted Murphy after a five-week trial.
Hardin also got an acquittal after NFL quarterback Warren Moon was charged with assaulting his wife. Hardin represented basketball coach Rudy Tomjanovich and basketball player Steve Francis in separate driving-while-intoxicated cases. Juries acquitted both men.
Clemens, one of the biggest names in baseball and the winner of 354 games over a 24-year Major League career, hasn’t been charged with any crimes.
But former Sen. George J. Mitchell, D-Maine, named Clemens in a report about the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.
Allegedly, Clemens used steroids while playing for the Toronto Blue Jays in 1998 and while a New York Yankee in the early 2000s. The report also accuses Clemens of using human growth hormone.
Brian McNamee, a former trainer with the Blue Jays and strength coach with the Yankees, is the source of these allegations.
Hardin says that McNamee is lying in exchange for easy treatment by federal authorities. “(He) only came up with names after being threatened with possible prison time,” Hardin said at a press conference earlier this month.
The Times reported Saturday that McNamee has retained Richard D. Emery, a New York City lawyer with experience in libel and defamation cases. Emery took aim at a 60 Minutes interview by Mike Wallace with Clemens that’s scheduled to air Jan. 6.
The lawyer said that if Clemens uses the interview to accuse McNamee of lying, the baseball player could expect a defamation lawsuit.
Hardin responded by saying, “My advice to Brian and his lawyers would be to stay tuned because (Clemens) told Mike Wallace the truth.”
Related stories on Muckety:
George Mitchell: connected or conflicted?
Barry Bonds hires powerful defense team
Steroid report centers on two suppliers
Read related stories: Law · Sports 
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Benazir Bhutto’s American support network
MAP HINTS: Click expands a name. Control+Click centers map on a name. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For advanced tools choose Tools > Options from the menu at top. More help. Not seeing the maps? Please go here to check for the latest version of Java.No other foreign politician appreciated the importance of connections more than the late Benazir Bhutto.
The Pakistani opposition leader, assassinated Thursday in Rawalpindi, made regular trips to the U.S., paid the D.C. lobbying firm Burson-Marsteller hundreds of thousands of dollars, and cultivated a long list of friends among American journalists and politicians.
A graduate of Radcliffe and Oxford, she maintained decades-long friendships with classmates. Commentator Arianna Huffington, who had known Bhutto since their student days, described her as “fearlessness epitomized.”
Among Bhutto’s many American friends and advisers were Washington Post columnists E.J. Dionne and Michael Kinsley. Mark Siegel, former executive director of the Democratic National Committee, has co-written a book with her, set for publication in 2008.
The U.S. played a major role in her return to Pakistan last October, after being forced from power in 1996. But in the end, support in America was not enough to protect her in her home country.
“I always thought this was roughly how it would end for her, but I didn’t think it would happen today,” friend Peter W. Galbraith, a former U.S. ambassador and son of economist John Kenneth Galbraith, told The New York Times.
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John Keker too pricey for Barry Bonds
Barkin and Perelman continue their quarrel
MAP HINTS: Click expands a name. Control+Click centers map on a name. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For advanced tools choose Tools > Options from the menu at top. More help. Not seeing the maps? Please go here to check for the latest version of Java.The battles between Revlon billionaire Ronald Perelman and ex-wife Ellen Barkin didn’t stop with divorce court.
Despite a divorce settlement in the tens of millions (estimates range from $20 million to $60 million), Barkin sued Perelman in August for $3.4 million. Last week, Perelman sued her right back.
Barkin’s suit had accused Perelman of withholding money he promised to invest in her film company, Applehead Pictures. Perelman, in turn, accused Barkin of diverting his original investment into a competing venture, Applehead Pictures II.
Barkin, known for her work in Ocean’s Thirteen and The Big Easy, founded Applehead Pictures in 2005 with her brother, George Barkin. During the marriage, Perelman invested $465,000 in the venture.
Perelman’s complaint, referring to the original company as Applehead I, charged: “Far from operating Applehead I as a good-faith venture of three members to produce motion pictures, the Barkin Defendants have misappropriated Applehead I’s assets, diverted business opportunities away from Applehead I and have otherwise breached their fiduciary duties to Applehead I.”
Perelman maintains that Barkin used his money to fund a lawsuit that she filed against him, as well as to pay her own company, Barkin Industries, approximately $7,000. Perelman also said his investment has been used to inappropriately fund George Barkin’s “excessive compensation package” from Applehead Pictures of $250,000 per year.
Barkin and Perelman divorced in 2006 after being married for five years. It was the fourth marriage for Perelman, and the second for Barkin, who told Parade Magazine last May: “I’m not proud of that marriage.”
Barkin was previously married to actor Gabriel Byrne.
Perelman recently was named the twenty-eighth richest American by Forbes, which estimated his net worth at $10 billion.
Read related stories: Celebs · Law
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Woodie To Groucho And Other Erratic Paths
Other than being Jewish and funny, how is Woody Allen linked to Groucho Marx?
MAP HINTS: Click expands a name. Control+Click centers map on a name. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For advanced tools choose Tools > Options from the menu at top. More help. Not seeing the maps? Please go here to check for the latest version of Java.His decidedly ex, Mia Farrow, was married to Frank Sinatra, whose multiple wives included Barbara Blakely, who was married to Zeppo Marx, Groucho’s brother. As if you didn’t know!
This post is tagged with: Barbara Blakely, Frank Sinatra, Groucho Marx, Mia Farrow, Woddy Allen, Zeppo Marx
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