Publisher's Notebook

Before joining this newspaper in 1988, I practiced law in Southwest Virginia for about three years. Like many rookie lawyers, I got a lot of court-appointed criminal work. 

I handled a jury trial for one of my court-appointed clients not long before I moved to Richmond. Bristol Circuit Judge Butch Flannagan called me into his office with word that another lawyer in town was having a “difference of opinion” with the client and he was relieving that guy of the privilege. My number had come up. The trial was set in two weeks.

The charge: writing a bad check, a big one, to Sears. I met with the client, whom I’ll call Mary (not her real name). Mary said that she and her identical twin sister Sherry (not her real name, either) often switched identities and pretended to be each other. Sherry, she was adamant, was the one who wrote the check to Sears, using her – Mary’s – rubber checkbook.

Sometimes you go with all you have, so I worked up the Evil Twin Sister Defense. I subpoenaed Sherry and started getting ready, hoping to leave the jury wondering whodunnit.

On the day of trial, George Warren, the commonwealth’s attorney, got the security guard from Sears on the stand; he said, yep, there she is (Mary), she’s the one who I saw write the check and hand it to the salesclerk. This was bad. I couldn’t shake him from his story. This was bad, too.

Mary got on the stand and said Sherry did it. This was possibly good. George couldn’t shake her from her story. This was possibly good, too.

I called Sherry. Sherry was indeed Mary’s identical twin, but, um, Sherry had been sick and had had surgery and weighed about 50 pounds less than Mary, who was, at 6 feet and 200 pounds, a big gal. This was bad. Sherry admitted she and Mary sometimes swapped identities, but no, she did not write that check to Sears. This was as good as I had, given the in-court ID by the security guard.

The jury heads out. And stays out. This was good. And stays out. Hmm. Finally, after about an hour, the jury comes back. They found Mary guilty on the bad-check charge. This was bad. The sentence was a couple of years, which the judge said could run concurrent to some other time she was serving. This was good, if you were Mary.

My enduring memory of Mary, and I promise this is true: After one of our interviews in the jail, the deputy came to take her back to her cell. As she shuffled out, Mary sang Whitney Houston softly to herself, “Where do broken hearts go?” I couldn’t answer that one.

Got a good war story? I’d like to hear it and share it. Send me a note at paul.fletcher@valawyersmedia.com. The best entry will win a nifty prize.

Here’s another entry for the list of  Lawyer Could-Have-Beens, that is, people who earned a law degree but decided to pursue some other career. 

It’s one you wouldn’t expect.

Julio Iglesias.

That’s right – the handsome Latin international singing star (left) who did “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before.” The guy who has sold over 300 million records worldwide. The guy with a Web site, www.julioiglesias.com, that you can view in 21 different languages.

Julio was a soccer player and law student at Universidad Complutense Madrid in the early 1960s. He was in a bad car wreck in 1963; it took him three years to recover fully. During that time, he learned to play the guitar and soon was writing songs.

He attended music festivals throughout Europe and won a recording contract. His wealthy family in Spain, however, didn’t totally approve of his new musical career. So to make them happy, he completed his law degree in 1972.

His family might still say it’s important to have a fall-back. But Julio, who turns 66 tomorrow, clearly has had the last laugh. In 21 different languages.

I was in Indianapolis late last month for the convention of the Society of Professional Journalists (I am the vice president of the Virginia Pro chapter), the first time I’d ever visited the Hoosier capital.

A very nice place. Indianapolis goes by a number of nicknames. Indy. Nap-town. The Crossroads of America. The Circle City.

I’d never heard the last one — it’s based on a downtown circle that has the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in the center. It’s 284′ tall and honors Indianans who fought in a number of wars – the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War and the Spanish-American War.

Finished in 1901, the monument has four fountains that the locals jump when celebrating something really important, such as V-E Day near the end of World War II or, oh, the Colts winning the Super Bowl.

 It also has a big Civil War museum housed in the basement of the monument.

Richmond styles itself as the City of Monuments, and Monument Avenue is dotted with Civil War heroes – Lee, Jackson, Stuart. Lee went up first, in 1890, and the others were erected about the same general time the Hoosiers were putting up their big monument.

Big difference in Indiana, though – up in Indianapolis, they were celebrating a victory by the home team.