Is Criminal Lawyer Who Witnessed Client's Suicide Attempt Disqualified? NJ Appeals Court to Decide
The New Jersey Supreme Court has revived a government effort to disqualify a defense lawyer who discovered a client’s failed suicide attempt.
Earlier, a state appellate court had refused to hear Monmouth County’s challenge of a ruling allowing attorney Steven Nelson to continue representing accused killer Thomas Dorsett, the Star-Ledger reports.
But last week, the state’s top court said the Appellate Division should reconsider a trial court’s ruling that Nelson was not disqualified because police could be called as witnesses to testify about Dorsett’s suicide attempt.
The government contends that Nelson, who found his client unconscious in a parked vehicle at Nelson’s law office in Neptune and called 911, was conflicted out as a potential witness in the case.
