United States v. Lemieux
District Court, D. Massachusetts · 2008-01-10 · cited 2×
In United States v. Lemieux, two defendants were charged with conspiracy to distribute OxyContin and conspiracy to collect an extension of credit through extortionate means. Attorney Walter Underhill had briefly represented co-defendant Joseph Catanese during pretrial detention and probable cause proceedings before seeking to represent defendant Mark Lemieux in the same case. The government moved for a hearing and later to disqualify Underhill due to a potential conflict of interest arising from the successive representation. After a hearing in which the court questioned the defendants and counsel, the magistrate judge granted the motion to disqualify, finding that Underhill's prior representation of Catanese created a serious risk that he would either inadvertently disclose confidential information or fail to rigorously cross-examine Catanese at trial, undermining the fairness of the proceedings.