A man who helped his son hide the bodies of four murder victims in a Wisconsin cornfield after the younger man “snapped” has learned his fate.

Darren Osborne, 59, was sentenced Thursday to 16 years in prison, online court records show. He was found guilty in October of four counts of hiding a corpse involving the deaths of Jasmine Sturm, 30; her brother, Matthew Pettus, 26; her boyfriend, Loyace Foreman III, 35; and her friend, Nitosha Flug-Presley, 30.

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Entertainment & Sports Law

Lawyers, witnesses used privilege to ‘obfuscate and hide information’ in Eagles stolen-lyrics trial, judge says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 7, 2024, 10:54 am CST

A judge in New York City has tossed charges of conspiring to possess stolen property—namely, Eagles handwritten lyrics—after band front man Don Henley waived attorney-client privilege during the trial, leading to late disclosure of 6,000 pages of material, some of which could be helpful to the defense.

Judge Curtis Farber of the trial-level New York Supreme Court dismissed the charges Wednesday against rare books dealer Glenn Horowitz and two others at the request of prosecutors, who acknowledged that the disclosure included relevant information.

Farber tossed the case after testimony by Henley, Eagles manager Irving Azoff and lawyers from Manatt Phelps & Phillips and Loeb & Loeb, Law360 reports.

They had testified that a biographer stole the notes from Henley’s barn in the 1970s. Emails and other material released after the privilege waiver contradicted that version of events, according to the publication.

“Among other things,” Law360 reported, “the emails show Henley and his lawyers acknowledging the possibility that the Eagles may have voluntarily given [the biographer] the lyric notes pursuant to a 1979 contract for him to author a never-published biography of the band. Henley’s team also had possession of Sanders’ original biography manuscript but never produced it, according to the new evidence.”

Besides Law360, other publications with coverage include Rolling Stone, the New York Post, the Associated Press, Entertainment Weekly and the New York Times. The other coverage does not mention the names of the law firms.

“It is now clear,” Farber said, that Henley, Azoff and “and their lawyers, two of which also shielded themselves from thorough and complete cross-examination by relying on Mr. Henley’s invocation [of privilege], shielded themselves from thorough and complete cross-examination,” according to Rolling Stone.

Those four witnesses, Farber said, “used the privilege to obfuscate and hide information that they believed would be damaging to their position that the lyric sheets were stolen. This is a basic confrontation violation.”

Rolling Stone and the other publications did not identify which lawyers had testified.

Farber said the disclosure was “jarringly late.” Prosecutors were “eating a slice of humble pie,” Farber said, but they were also “displaying the highest level of integrity in moving to dismiss the charges.”

During the trial, prosecutors alleged that the biographer sold the notes to Horowitz, who sold them to the other two defendants, according to the New York Times.

Loeb & Loeb said in a statement cited by the AP that it respects the attorney-client privilege decisions and is “confident that its attorneys acted in accordance with their professional and ethical responsibilities.”

Spokespeople for Manatt Phelps & Phillips and Loeb & Loeb did not immediately respond to the ABA Journal’s requests for comment, made respectively in a voicemail and an email.

Henley’s new lawyer, Daniel M. Petrocelli, told Rolling Stone and Law360 that Henley “has once again been victimized by this unjust outcome. He will pursue all his rights in the civil courts.”

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Ethics

Lawyer who wrote on ethics issues is suspended after he is accused of helping client hide assets

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 7, 2024, 12:49 pm CST

An Iowa lawyer has received a two-year suspension for helping a client hide money from creditors and for “furtively” inserting a provision into a custody agreement.

The Iowa Supreme Court suspended 68-year-old lawyer David L. Leitner of Iowa in a Dec. 8 opinion, according to a March 4 story by the Iowa Capital Dispatch.

Leitner had argued that his ethics articles had contributed to the profession and should be taken into account by ethics regulators. The Iowa Supreme Court’s Attorney Disciplinary Board had responded that the assertion is “particularly eyebrow-raising when his misconduct involves financial fraud,” according to the Iowa Capital Dispatch.

The disciplinary board allegations against Leitner were deemed to be admitted because he did not respond to the initial complaint.

The hidden money case involved Leitner’s representation of an Iowa seed dealer who was convicted of bankruptcy fraud in 2007 for hiding assets. Leitner allegedly created a company for the seed dealer in 2013. Leitner made himself the managing member of the company, allowing the seed dealer to send part of his income to the company while hiding it from the government, which was owed about $71,000.

Although Leitner made himself the contact for the seed dealer’s corporation, neither he nor his client converted funds from anyone, the state supreme court acknowledged.

“Moreover, the record does not show that the federal government or any other creditor was actually trying to collect [the seed dealer’s] receivables,” the state supreme court said. “And so the record does not show that the federal government or any other creditor was actually deceived or otherwise hampered in its efforts to collect. At most, the record shows that [the client] and Leitner hoped to deceive any creditors who might
try to collect.”

Leitner was also accused in a second disciplinary count of “furtively” adding a stipulation to a custody agreement. An opposing lawyer had crafted a PDF of the agreement based on terms adopted in a mediation and had sent it to Leitner. Unbeknownst to the opposing lawyer, Leitner added a provision giving his client a “first right of refusal” to care for his minor child whenever his ex-wife couldn’t do so, according to the allegations.

Leitner’s client signed the modified agreement, and it was returned to the opposing counsel. The modified agreement was then filed with the district court.

Other counts in the disciplinary complaint alleged that Leitner violated rules regarding conflicts of interest, contact with represented parties and client trust accounts.

The Iowa Supreme Court cited two aggravating factors. Although Leitner acknowledged trust account issues, he had not taken responsibility “for his worst behavior,” the state supreme court said. He had also made misleading statements about reaching an agreement on a suspension.

In mitigation, Leitner had no disciplinary history. Leitner had also provided pro bono and reduced-fee representation and had accepted appointments for indigent criminal defendants.

A lawyer for Leitner, David L. Brown, did not immediately respond to an ABA Journal email requesting comment. The phone number for Leitner’s law office was not taking messages.