Angry Ex-Client Says Med-Mal Case Contradicts Criminal Plea
After pleading guilty to a manslaughter charge and serving a prison term of more than three years for a punch that allegedly caused a neighbor’s death, a Connecticut man is suing his defense lawyer for malpractice.
A subsequent medical malpractice case by a surviving relative against the hospital that treated the neighbor reportedly has shown that his death had nothing to do with the punch. (Parallel marks that a forensic expert claimed were caused by a weapon actually were left by hospital tape, the suit says, and it came out for the first time at the trial of the med-mal case that the neighbor had been drinking heavily before his death.) So plaintiff Allen Agard is now seeking damages from his defense counsel, Roland Moots Jr. and Michael Mannion of Moots, Pellegrini, Mannion, Martindale & Dratch, arguing that they would not have advised him to plead guilty had they had his criminal case properly investigated, reports the Litchfield County Times.
The Litchfield Superior Court suit contends that the law firm promised to investigate Agard’s case, but didn’t do so because he couldn’t afford to pay additional legal fees beyond the amount to which he says both sides initially agreed.
However, attorney Elizabeth Cristofaro of Litchfield Cavo in Avon, who is representing defense counsel, says “Mr. Agard received excellent representation from attorney Moots and the firm” which did not breach the standard of care. She declined to discuss specifics.
Agard learned of the investigation performed in the medical malpractice case after hospital attorney Trudi Hamilton, of Carmody & Torrance in Waterbury, wrote to him and the parole board. He is represented in the legal malpractice case by Zbigniew Rozbicki, a Torrington lawyer.
Agard says he punched the neighbor in self-defense after a female friend of the neighbor’s took refuge at his own home.
