STATE v. DAVID MICHAEL PECARD:

David was featured in a full hour segment of CBS' 48 Hours news program November 1999 due to his having assumed more than twenty identities over his lifetime. He worked primarily in law enforcement and in the military, including a brief tour in Vietnam ending when he was found to be only 12 years old. In December 1996 he was discovered to be working as an investigator for the Army under an assumed identity. Because he had been cross-certified by the Maricopa County Sheriff while he worked in Phoenix, this discovery led to a multicount indictment in State Court.

Although these charges were so serious that he could have spent the rest of his life in prison had he been convicted, all charges were dismissed when it was proven that the Sheriff's Office had systematically violated his constitutional rights while he was incarcerated. These violations included illegally recording his telephone calls to his attorneys, opening his legal mail, and holding him in punitive isolation 24 hours a day for nearly 18 months. He also suffered a permanent 92% loss of vision in one eye because of the Sheriff's refusal to provide even the simplest of medical care for him.

STATE v. MARK HARTVIGSEN:

Mark is a prisoner from Alaska being held in a private prison in Arizona. He and all other Alaskan prisoners dispute the legality of this confinement. On October 19th 1996 he and eleven other prisoners walked away from the facility in protest of the illegality of their confinement, as well as the intolerable abuses inflicted upon them in that facility. They were all charged with escape. Prior attempts by the inmates to alert the officials in Pinal County to this situation had been ignored, so Mark headed north to Maricopa County upon his unauthorized furlough.

Mark surrendered the next morning to a Maricopa County Sheriff's Deputy, identify ng himself as an Alaskan prisoner and asking for his help. After he was eturned to the private prison he resisted further beatings and abuse at their hands as they attempted to coerce a guilty plea from him. We presented these facts at his trial in February 2000 and the jury acquitted him.

STATE v. DANNY BONADUCE:

A child star in the 1970's television program "The Partridge Family", Danny was working in Phoenix as a radio personality when he was suddenly thrust back into the international media spotlight by being charged with several felonies, complicated by being on probation from the state of Florida. While I wouldn't recommend this strategy for everyone, Danny appeared on several nationally broadcast television talk shows such as Oprah Winfrey and Larry King Live in response to the renewed interest in his story. Largely by sheer force of his winning personality, interest in him continued and his career revived.

Ultimately, he pleaded uilty to two misdemeanors, served no time in jail and went about his life. He presently resides in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter where he pursues a successful career in radio, television and films.

STATE v. PHILLIP GILMER:

Phillip Gilmer was seventeen when he and two others were charged with first degree murder in a double homicide arising from a streetside drug deal/rip off. His videotaped confession to the police, in which he claimed to be one of the shooters, presented a daunting challenge at trial. Up until that evening however, Phillip had never been in any trouble. He enjoyed the support of his pastor, his teachers from High School and many others in the community. At trial, we combined his good character defense, a meticulous comparison of the physical evidence to his "confession", and his own testimony to show that his statement to the police was untrue and made out of fear of his co-defendants, who were the real shooters. Phillip was acquitted after several days of jury deliberation.