New Meaning to ‘Criminal Attorney’

These days, televised court cases have opened an unprecedented window. The tactics of both prosecutors and defense attorneys in prominent cases have seemingly exposed suspicious and underhanded efforts to hide evidence or twist its meaning. Well, what we want to address is the possibility that one awful example will pass unnoticed.

This case began on July 5, 1987, in the Mojave Desert east of Palmdale, with the execution-style murders of a Yucca Valley man and a Norwalk man. Brad Millward was arrested and subsequently faced the death penalty for the special circumstance of a double-murder charge. In October, 1989, Millward was acquitted of the Norwalk man’s murder, even though the body had been found in Millward’s garage. The acquittal eliminated the possibility of a death sentence on the other murder charge. A mistrial was declared in that case after the jury deadlocked.

In 1990, Millward pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the killing of the Yucca Valley man and faced eight years in prison. He was paroled in 1994. Was the prosecution’s original case so weak? Maybe.

At Millward’s trial, defense attorney Leonard R. Milstein, a former prosecutor, argued a stunning scenario--that the key prosecution witness was the real killer.

But in 1991, a grand jury indicted Milstein on eight felony counts: two of perjury and one each of conspiracy to obstruct justice, subornation of perjury, bribery of a witness, solicitation of a crime and preparing and offering false legal documents.

It was alleged that Milstein had shifted suspicion to the prosecution witness through the use of a County Jail inmate. Prosecutors said Milstein had promised to represent the inmate if he agreed to lie in court. The inmate then testified falsely that he had worked on the car of the key prosecution witness and had found ammunition similar to that used in the murders.

Prosecutors said the inmate confessed when Milstein stopped appearing for his court cases. A second jail inmate also said that he had been offered $3,500 to testify. That inmate was paroled and later found shot to death in the same area where the double murder had occurred.

A jury needed only a day of deliberation to convict Milstein on six counts, acquitting him of soliciting a crime and suborning perjury. Last Friday, San Fernando Superior Court Judge William A. McLaughlin sentenced Milstein to three years in prison. Milstein had portrayed himself as an ethical lawyer who was duped by his client. He was backed by 40 letters of support, including some from judges, public defenders and attorneys. Judge McLaughlin was unconvinced.

“There isn’t anyone who should be more aware of the values of our legal system . . . and the oath an attorney takes to uphold that system than an attorney,” McLaughlin said. The case also offers a most unwelcome definition of what attorney misconduct really means.