posted on Dec, 16 2005 @ 12:32 AM
WRONG.
Pressures do not "supersede morals and values." EVER.
I am a criminal appeals attorney who is at the top of my profession in California. I represent inmates my state wants to kill--i.e., condemned
inmates residing in San Quentin's Death Row. Also, because I have won two cases which were literally national news (non-capital homicides), I've been
hired privately at nice rates to do private appeals (as opposed to far less lucrative state-paid cases).
The first thing I tell every potential client is, "You need to know that I am NOT an attorney who does everything possible to win a case. I am an
officer of the court first and foremost, and an advocate second, and that is how I do my job. So I will not do any sleazy thing I can to win."
I've never made 5% of what Barnett makes. Criminal appeals, even on a private basis, don't pay what most legal work pays, even when you're very well
known in the field. Now, I could make 2 or 3 times as much as I do by being a dirtbag, like MANY lawyers on both sides of the fence are (mostly
prosecutors, in my experience, but many defense lawyers, too). But I'm not going to do it, because it means more to me to know I'm clean and
represent my profession and its system properly. And when I retire, and when I die, I'll have the great pleasure of knowing I did the job
ethically.
NOW... If I can do that, Mr. $3,000,000 per year sure as hell can. Are you telling us that after 2 years of making that much money, he and his
family are not set for life?? If not, then what on earth kind of aristocratic standards of living do they have?
And as much as I hate Bobby Knight, I doubt he ever had sexual assailants, point shavers, etc., on his teams. Ditto Woody Hayes, a man I really
despised, but who I genuinely believe would have not only thrown such players off his team, but had them arrested.
I guess I should add that I've told people who wanted to hire me, "If you want someone who'll engage in unethical behavior and endanger his/her law
license, you've called the wrong number." Maybe at some universities coaches are EXPECTED to endanger their jobs, or even their freedom, in exchange
for the big bucks. If so, the A.D.'s and/or University Presidents need to go down, hard.
But the idea Barnett was under pressure to win is no excuse for transgressions 10% the size of his. I'd like to see the Colorado Attorney General
investigate the extent, if any, to which Barnett was guilty of crimes for his involvement (including aiding and abetting, and/or conspiring) in the
moral corruption of these high school students and the various other crimes at Colorado and Northwestern. If his guilt cannot be proven beyond a
reasonable doubt, so be it, but I'd sure like them to take a good, hard look at it.
B.H.N.