The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

Lost Jury Note Means New Trial in Murder Case

As Omar Euceda's lawyer opened up the case file to start working on an appeal of Euceda's murder conviction, he found something surprising: a jury note that neither side knew about at trial. There was no record of a court response to the note, and, according to an opinion released today by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, the trial judge later determined it "fell through the cracks."

A three-judge appellate panel ruled today that the lost note was significant enough to warrant a new trial for Euceda in District of Columbia Superior Court.

According to the opinion, Euceda and another man were accused of trying to rob two drug dealers and killing one of them, Walter Kirkland, in November 2003. During deliberations, the jury sent several notes that the judge shared with both sides. The presiding judge, now-Chief Judge Lee Satterfield, was out of court for part of deliberations. While Satterfield was out, former Superior Court Judge James Boasberg, now a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, stepped in to deal with any issues.

Daily D.C. Lateral Roundup: Fried Frank

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson has added a former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chief to the Washington office.

Daniel Mullen, a former Division of Investigations Branch chief at FERC’s Office of Enforcement, has joined the firm as partner in the litigation department and energy group. He will head up the firm's energy enforcement practice and provide counsel on energy and commodities enforcement matters as well as government investigations, enforcement proceedings and litigation.

Mullen helped develop FERC’s enforcement regime and conducted investigations and litigation against companies who participated in the wholesale electricity and natural gas markets. His focus was on investigations concerning energy market manipulation, reliability and other violations of FERC-jurisdictional statutes, regulations and tariffs.

Before joining FERC, he was a partner at McDermott, Will & Emery. He has tried complex commercial matters in state and federal courts, and has defended publicly traded and privately held clients in investigations by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The Morning Wrap

Ricin: Letters sent to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns both received letters laced with ricin. The Wall Street Journal reports that Bloomberg did not come in contact with the letter.

FBI: President Obama is expected to tap a former Justice Department official to serve as the next director of the FBI. Our own Zoe Tillman and Todd Ruger report.

Retirement: Michele Bachmann announced Wednesday that she will not seek reelection to her current House seat in 2014. Bachmann said the decision was not linked to investigations into her campaign finances, Reuters reports.

Off the Record: Attorney General Eric Holder announced his desire to sit down with the Washington bureau chiefs of news agencies to discuss guildelines for handling leak investigations. However, the AP and The New York Times have both refused the invitation. CNN reports.

President to Tap Former DOJ Official as FBI Director

By Zoe Tillman and Todd Ruger

Former senior U.S. Department of Justice official James Comey is expected to be President Barack Obama's pick to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to several reports.

Comey served as the deputy attorney general under President George W. Bush in the mid-2000s, leaving Main Justice in 2005 for the private sector. He was general counsel at Lockheed Martin Corp. and, more recently, hedge fund Bridgewater Associates LP in Connecticut. Earlier this year, he joined Columbia Law School as a senior research scholar in national security law. Since 2012, according to Columbia, Comey has been a member of the defense legal policy board, which provides independent advice to the secretary of defense.

If nominated, Comey would replace outgoing FBI Director Robert Mueller III, who is slated to leave the agency's top job by early September. A Justice Department spokeswoman referred questions to the White House. A White House spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Comey could not immediately be reached.

Senate GOP Asks Justices to Hear Recess Appointments Case

Senate Republicans are urging the U.S. Supreme Court not to sit on the sidelines in the legal showdown over the constitutionality of President Barack Obama's recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the 44 other Republican senators on Tuesday asked the high court to take up the case and affirm a Washington federal appellate court decision in January that invalidated three of Obama's appointments to the labor board.

"There is no dispute that the purported January 2012 recess appointments to the board present a momentous constitutional question," the amicus brief states.

Federal Public Defenders Facing More Furlough Days

Updated 5/30/13 at 9:02 a.m.

A committee of judges tasked with deciding how the federal judiciary spends its money announced in mid-April that federal defenders wouldn't face more than 15 furlough days under mandatory budget cuts. Less than a month later, however, the committee alerted defender offices it had raised the maximum furlough time to 20 days.

The change wasn't publicly announced. According to a May 10 memorandum sent by Chief Judge William Traxler Jr., chairman of the Executive Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, the committee reconsidered its April decision after getting new information on how defender offices were coping with the cuts, also known as sequestration.

The new furlough plan meant lawyers and staff in the D.C. federal public defender office faced a month of mandatory unpaid leave—20 work days—as opposed to three weeks. The change was preferable to the 27 furlough days the office originally faced under sequestration, said Federal Public Defender A.J. Kramer, but he said they were disappointed.

Stroock Opens Washington Office

Updated 8:26 p.m.

Stroock & Stroock & Lavan has opened a Washington office, bolstered by the addition of two partners.

Chris Griner and Robert Plaze join the firm from Kaye Scholer and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, respectively.

Griner, who takes on the role of D.C. managing partner, was formerly a special counsel at Kaye Scholer and co-chairman of the firm's national security, government contracts and regulatory compliance department. He focuses his practice on matters before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. The committee assesses potential national security issues involved in transactions that could result in foreign control of U.S. businesses.

Q&A: Dechert's Paul Friedman

When Dechert moved into its new office at 1900 K Street N.W. in January, Washington managing partner Paul Friedman traded in a traditional desk in favor of a square table with four chairs around it.

Friedman said that it helps foster a more collaborative environment, one of the ideas behind the design of the new office.

"The practice of law in Washington is a hierarchical business and yet one of the things I think that makes it fun and alive and interesting is the exchange of ideas," Friedman said. "We work together and we collaborate."

Friedman focuses his antitrust practice on mergers and non-mergers investigations and litigation. Legal Times sat down with Friedman to discuss the Whole Foods / Wild Oats merger, practices in the D.C. office and federal enforcement.

French Oil Giant Pays $398 Million to Settle Bribery Case

UPDATED AT 2:30 pm

French oil and gas giant Total S.A. today agreed to pay more than $398 million to settle charges that the company illegally funneled $60 million in bribes to an Iranian official to win oil and gas development contracts.

The U.S. Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Total, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange, of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by entering into sham consulting agreements in a bid to cover up the payments.

"Total used illicit payments to win business in Iran, and reaped substantial financial benefits as a result," Andrew Calamari, director of the SEC's New York Regional Office, said in a statement. “Total must now pay back all of its profits from the company’s corrupt conduct and additionally pay criminal penalties on top of that."

Court: American Jailed in Cuba Can't Sue U.S. Government

Updated at 12:35 p.m.

An American citizen jailed in Cuba for his work as a federal subcontractor can't sue the U. S. government for negligence, a Washington federal judge has ruled.

Alan Gross was convicted by Cuban authorities in March 2011 of committing acts against the government and was sentenced to serve 15 years in prison. Diplomatic efforts to free Gross failed. In November, Gross and his wife sued the U.S. government and the private contractor that hired him, claiming they failed to disclose the riskiness of his work or to train him to minimize those risks.

Gross agreed to a confidential settlement with the private contractor, Developer Alternatives Inc., in May. Yesterday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg dismissed Gross' claims against the federal government, finding the Federal Tort Claims Act protected the United States against claims "arising in a foreign country."