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Criminal Defense
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DOMESTIC TERRORISM
United States v. Eric Rudolph
Mr. McGuinness was a defense team investigator for over 15 months and led a team of two other investigators conducting the Army of God investigation, a component investigation of the overall defense strategy. He worked directly for Birmingham Alabama defense attorney, Richard Jaffe and for lead attorney Judy Clarke, former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys. Ms. Clarke had previously represented the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski and others over the years in complex federal capital cases.
The investigation spanned four states and the review of thousands of items of evidence by McGuinness and other members of the defense team. The investigation involved arduous hikes in the mountains of North Carolina. Mr. McGuinness and lead investigator, Bill Proctor hiked to Rudolph's winter and summer camps with FBI agents in order to video-document and still photograph the camps which Rudolph utilized over the five years he was on the run from federal authorities. It was the largest federal manhunt in U.S. history. Rudolph ultimately pled out to multiple life terms in order to avoid the death penalty for his admitted roles in the bombings of the Atlanta Olympics and abortion clinics in Birmingham and the Atlanta area.
AGGRAVATED ASSAULT WITH A FIREARM
State of Florida v. Sean Taylor
Washington Redskins player, Sean Taylor had been charged with aggravated assault when attempting to recover his own stolen property. He was represented by noted Miami criminal defense attorney Edward Carhart and others. McGuinness was retained early on by Ed Carhart to conduct the defense investigation: interview and obtain statements from key witnesses. He was also responsible for crime scene documentation: photography and for locating some difficult to find witnesses that the defense needed for their case.
The State's case ultimately fell apart when it became known that just prior to trial that the state's key witnesses who were the alleged victims were arrested with stolen property quite similar in nature to the property stolen from the NFL star. Sean Taylor was exonerated and a sad chapter in his life closed. Ironically, he was the victim of a home invasion robbery within two years and while protecting his wife and young child was brutally gunned down in his own home. Sean Taylor was a hero in many ways not only on the ball field. He was an outstanding young man and an inspiration to many.
INVESTMENT FRAUD
United States v. John Doe, et. al.
We conducted the defense investigation for counsel representing the former CEO of Premium Sales Corp., a wholesale grocery supply diverter firm. Miami trial attorneys, Nathan Clark, and Russell Rosenthal had a monumental task before them. The Discovery documents alone totaled over two million. The client was charged in a 169 count indictment involving money laundering and investment fraud. The case generated a great deal of media coverage including several articles in Forbes and Time magazines and a segment on NBC's Dateline. The indictment alleged that the defendant defrauded over 1800 investors out of over $200 million.
The Miami Herald described the investment scandal as the largest fraud case in Florida's history. We were responsible for backgrounding hundreds of witnesses and interviewing investors. This was by far, the largest and most complicated case that we have ever handled. We spent countless hours interviewing our client in this highly complex financial fraud case. The case resulted in the CEO - lead defendant, accepting a plea just prior to trial.
JUDICIAL CORRUPTION
United States v. (Dade County Circuit Court Judge)
Our office was retained several years ago by defense counsel, Edward Carhart, then with Miami's prestigious Law Firm of Bailey, Gerstein & Carhart. In addition to Mr. Carhart, a highly respected trial attorney, the firm partners included F. Lee Bailey and former Dade County State Attorney, Richard Gerstein. We conducted a long term defense investigation on behalf of a Circuit Court criminal judge in this highly publicized judicial corruption case code named "Operation Court Broom". Several judges were indicted and some were sentenced to prison. This was reportedly the largest judicial corruption case in U.S. history. Our client was acquitted on 30 of 34 counts and the jury was hung on the remaining four counts.
DRUG CONSPIRACY
United States v. (John Doe)
We were retained several years ago by a South Florida family whose son was serving time in Leavenworth Prison. We were to assist famed criminal appellate attorney, Professor Alan Dershowitz from Harvard Law School by locating and interviewing the government's lead prosecution witness from the Federal criminal trial a few years prior. We were to search in Miami, St. Louis and Nicaragua. We were successful in locating and interviewing this individual in St. Louis. He was a former bodyguard for a Contra leader and a federal informant in the drug trade. The case involved highly creative fact finding & witness location techniques as it was rumored that the FBI was looking for this individual for possible violations of the US Neutrality Act, reportedly training Contras.
AGGRAVATED ASSAULT AGAINST A SECURITY GUARD
State of Florida v. Jane Doe
We were retained by prominent Miami defense attorney, Joseph Beeler, to assist in the representation of a young woman falsely accused of a felony, aggravated assault against a security guard. The woman was a union representative who helped organize several hundred protesters at a shopping center. The protest turned into a confrontation which drew extensive media coverage. We conducted interviews and assisted in the editing of a critical videotape. After the defense team provided the State Attorney with the videotape (a compilation of live and slow motion footage from several TV news stations), the prosecution agreed to a Pre-trial Intervention program and the case was dismissed. The footage showed our client struggling with the guard as she was forcefully ejected from the premises. Her hands never reached the guard's neck as, claimed, nor was the guard likely in fear for her life.
CONTINUING CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE / 28 COUNT MARIJUANA IMPORTATION CONSPIRACY
United States v. John Doe
Our firm was retained by well known Miami trial attorney, Edward Carhart, to assist in the defense of a former Vietnam pilot and the owner of a small aircraft rental firm. The client was charged with using a fleet of crop dusters from central Florida to fly to Colombia and Belize, Central America in order to import marijuana into the United States. The case involved travel by Mr.McGuinness to Belize in order to locate and interview an important government witness. We were successful in locating and interviewing this key witness. The case also involved months of investigative work in central Florida conducting interviews and background investigations.
FIRST DEGREE MURDER CASE APPEAL
State of Florida v. (John Doe)
John Doe was receiving pro bono legal representation while sitting on Florida's Death Row for a murder committed 13 years prior in Tampa. He was represented by the prominent Washington DC law firm, O'Melveny & Myers, reportedly one of the ten largest law firms in the world. We were retained by the firm to conduct the defense investigation into the original murder. We traveled throughout the U.S. locating and interviewing witnesses including a number of never before heard-from witnesses. We successfully assisted winning a new penalty phase trial, whereby the defendant had his sentence commuted to 25 years.
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FIRST DEGREE MURDER CASE
State of Florida v. Brenton Butler
Brenton Butler, a 15 year old young man was scooped off the street by police for being black. Police went looking for a young black man who had murdered a Geogia tourist less than two hours earlier. He was put in a police cruiser and taken to the crime scene where the victim's husband positively identified him from fifty feet away as the man who shot his wife. He was represented by someone very close to me, my twin brother, Patrick McGuinness, a Duval County Public Defender for over 23 years. I assisted Pat in the location of two key witnesses for this high profile murder trial. Pat and his co-counsel, Ann Finnel, also a highly experienced criminal lawyer, did a phenomenal job in representing Brenton.
The trial is documented in the film, Murder on a Sunday Morning which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary feature in 2001 and continues to be aired on HBO and is available commercially on VHS and DVD. I attended the screening in Paris with over 200 French criminal lawyers at the Ministry of Justice and photographed Pat and Ann receiving the Medal of the Paris Bar for their work in representing this young man. It was a memorable experience.
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New York Times Review: Murder on a Sunday Morning
New York Times
March 30, 2002, Saturday
ARTS & IDEAS/CULTURAL DESK
TELEVISION REVIEW; When Black Alone Is Evidence Enough
By RON WERTHEIMER
Any pop novelist or screenwriter would be proud to claim credit for creating the hero of 'Murder on a Sunday Morning.' This film centers on Patrick McGuinness, a cocky, hard-driving public defender in Jacksonville, Fla. Dressed in fancy suits and chain-smoking unfiltered Lucky Strikes, he uses his wits and his guts to seek the truth, and he relishes the chance to outwit -- and make fools of -- police officers who are more intent on closing cases than on serving justice.
But this flawed hero is real. Two French filmmakers -- Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, director, and Denis Poncet, producer -- found him when they set out to make a documentary that would follow an American criminal trial. Mr. McGuinness was trying to exonerate Brenton Butler, a frightened teenager who was charged -- without real evidence -- in a murder.
That case became the subject of a riveting film, 'Murder on a Sunday Morning,' which won the Academy Award for best documentary feature last Sunday evening. HBO is showing it tomorrow night as part of its series 'America Undercover Sundays.' This is an unvarnished look at United States justice at its most basic. You won't forget it.
On May 7, 2000, Mary Ann and James Stephens, white tourists, were returning to their Jacksonville motel room when they were accosted by a black man who demanded Mrs. Stephens's purse, then shot her in the face and killed her. Her husband told the police that the assailant was a black man in his 20's, about 6 feet tall. An hour and a half later, officers picked up 15-year-old Brenton Butler, who lived in the neighborhood and was walking near the motel. He was considerably shorter than the man described, was dressed differently and had never been in trouble. But he was black, which was good enough for the policemen. They took him to Mr. Stephens, who identified him as the killer, initially from a distance of some 50 feet.
In custody that day, the unsophisticated young man signed a confession that he quickly recanted.After meeting the earnest, soft-spoken Mr. Butler and his tight-knit, religious family, Mr. McGuinness came to 'believe in my heart of hearts that he's innocent,' he says. 'This is not a loss I will be able to take easily.'
To avoid a loss, Mr. McGuinness and his fellow defense lawyer, Ann Finnel, work tirelessly to find out what really happened. They accept Mr. Butler's account that when he kept telling white detectives that he was innocent, they brought in a black colleague, Michael Glover, a former college linebacker and son of the local sheriff, who beat the suspect and told him, 'It's niggers like you that make me mad.'
Mr. McGuinness says, 'He beat a 15-year-old boy because he said he was innocent.'
In front of the jury, he relentlessly goes after Detective Glover and his colleagues. A white detective, Dwayne Darnell, admits on the stand that he wrote the confession, as he usually does for suspects because 'I always assumed they were too lazy to write it themselves.'
The filmmakers' sympathies are clearly on the side of Mr. Butler and Mr. McGuinness. The detectives seem to be the real criminals here, while Mr. Butler is shown in the best possible light. Melissa Butler, the young man's mother, weeps in court as she says, 'I told him to pray and just hold on.'
If you give this film a chance, you'll stick around for the climax, which packs a one-two punch worthy of the most compelling detective story. But unlike pulp fiction, this tale will leave you with a great deal to think about.
MURDER ON
A SUNDAY MORNING
HBO, tomorrow night at 10
Directed by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade; produced by Denis Poncet; executive producers, Yves Jeanneau and Christine Le Goff. A co-production with Maha Productions, Pathe Doc and France 2. For HBO, Nancy Abraham, supervising producer; Geof Bartz, consulting editor; Shelia Nevins, executive producer.
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