Word: hazel
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Robert O. Blucker, 53, a State Department petroleum economist, got off the plane in Algiers looking rather natty in a three-piece suit and tie. In a phone call to his mother, Mrs. Hazel Albin of North Little Rock, Ark., he said that he had been wearing the suit when captured and had been given no other clothing during his detention except another pair of pants. He had once slept in the suit for 45 straight nights, and had not been allowed to take a bath for three months. The reason, he assumed, was that he had been "belligerent...
Cucinotta calls Morrison "Hazel's case," but it is his too. Charged with selling heroin, Hazel Morrison, a black woman of 35, hired Cucinotta to represent her for $200. But before he could, two federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents went to Morrison's home. They were blunt: "Your lawyer is going to make an ass out of himself, and you too," said one. Get rid of Cucinotta, they urged, and help the DEA finger a bigger pusher in return for leniency. If she refused, they said, she could expect a "stiff sentence" from the judge, who "hates black...
Morrison refused and called Cucinotta. He stormed off to court. The agents had so grossly violated Hazel's right to counsel, he argued, that the charges should be dropped. At first the agents denied any wrongdoing. But Cucinotta tricked them. On a table he placed two tape cassettes marked with the name of one of the agents. Thinking-wrongly-that Cucinotta had taped their talk with Hazel, the agents grudgingly told the truth...
...prosecutor and judge were furious and threatened Cucinotta with contempt and criminal charges for wiretapping. Finally Cucinotta persuaded them that the tapes contained nothing. Hazel was convicted and sentenced to five years...
...Cucinotta's surprise, his appeal succeeded: the charges against Morrison were thrown out, on grounds that her right to counsel had indeed been violated. Since the remedy was unusual and drastic, the Supreme Court decided to review the case. This meant that Cucinotta would be defending not just Hazel Morrison but also a key principle: the sanctity of the attorney-client relationship...