Meet Eric Lindell, Solo Who Takes Tough Cases and Hates to Lose
Eric Lindell was never a particularly good student, although he excelled in basketball and track in high school. In law school, only the opportunity to try cases as an intern for the local prosecutor captured his interest.
But as a solo Washington state criminal defense lawyer, taking the cases nobody else wants, he found his true calling. Now 50, he has been in practice over 20 years and hates to lose, a quality that has helped him pull off some unlikely wins, recounts the Seattle Times in a lengthy weekend article.
In one such case he represented Mike Oakland, seen by sheriff’s detectives walking out of his King County home with a dazed expression and found with meth in his pocket. When they searched his home, there was a meth lab inside, although Oakland insisted he wasn’t the guy in charge of it.
At trial, seeing the jury with some Krispy Kreme doughnuts on the final day, Lindell incorporated the treat into his closing arguments. He compared a hunger for doughnuts to a hunger for illegal drugs but pointed out that just because a person partakes of them doesn’t mean that a person manufactures them, the article says.
After a little over two hours of deliberation, Oakland was acquitted. One of the departing jurors told the attorney there were still some doughnuts left over if he wanted one.
“He was good, he was good. Not necessarily likable. But he was good,” recalls Heather Enajibi, one of the jurors who decided the Oakland case and remembers feeling sorry for the prosecutor who had to contend with Lindell. “My impression was, ‘Huh. He’d be a good one to get.’ “
