Arizona State Bar's selective approach to discipline against prosecutors and defense attorneys selling their clients' stories

I wrote on this blog about misconduct of an Arizona prosecutor Juan Martinez in publishing a book about the criminal trial of Jodi Arias and using as a sales pitch the materials of his office allegedly never presented to the court.

Prosecutor Juan Martinez was offered a "consent agreement" by disciplinary authorities - for putting him on "probation" because he published a book about a criminal case and sold in that book materials of his office or description of such materials which were not presented in court.

Juan Martinez adamantly refused to enter into the consent agreement, and the trial has not been yet scheduled in his disciplinary case.

On the other hand, the defense attorney in the same case, Laurence "Kirk" Nurmi, was offered, and reportedly accepted, an agreement for a 4-year suspension (not probation, like it was offered to prosecutor Martinez) for the very same conduct - of publishing a book about the very same trial.  The suspension consent agreement is still to be approved by the disciplinary court.

Both books:  Juan Martinez' "Conviction: the untold story of putting Jody Arias behind bars" and Laurence Kirk's "Trapped With Ms. Arias" continue to trade on Amazon.com, I've got the screenshots from Amazon.com for both books today:

And, Amazon.com even encourages buyers to consider buying these books - which are currently both grounds for disciplinary proceedings against their authors - together.

Attorneys have two cast-in-stone disciplinary rules - the rule of confidentiality of client information, and the rule that the attorneys cannot enrich themselves by selling information about the client's case, even if it is public.

Both rules are reasonable and go hand in hand with one another, because, if attorneys get more money for selling a client's story, there is no hope for confidentiality or effective representation - all that attorney will be doing is shaping the story to sell it better, instead of doing their jobs.

Prosecutor Martinez used as a sales pitch that he published in his book what was not presented in court, thus violating both of these rules.

Defense attorney Nurmi, apparently, did the same, describing in his book his interactions with his client

In the suspension agreement, reportedly, attorney Nurmi acknowledged that in his book he revealed evidence ruled inadmissible by the court and contents of confidential conversations with his client and her family members.


It is quite telling though that the disciplinary prosecutors did not make an effort to seek an injunction against the CONTINUED ENRICHMENT by both attorneys by selling the books and deriving a financial benefit from their own misconduct, and the misconduct apparently continues.

If the "consent orders" of discipline do not include prohibition to sell the books, and no preliminary injunctions against sales of the books are sought or entered by disciplinary courts, both attorneys are allowed and, in fact, encouraged, to publish books in sensationalized cases, because such books may bring more profit to attorneys than their legal careers, making suspensions or other forms of discipline ineffective.

Let's see what happens in Juan Martinez' disciplinary proceedings, but I have a funny feeling he will be given, as all prosecutors usually are, a slap on the wrist and will be allowed to practice - and commit misconduct - further.

Suspensions are only for defense counsel.

Prosecutors (the breeding pool of judges), when caught in the very same misconduct, can be offered "probation" and proceed on their merry way.

What else is new.