Standing up and fighting for your clients
I am very impressed with the attorney in this story from Albuquerque New Mexico, where civil rights attorney Dennis Montoya went to bat for his client, Curtis Slade. Slade had complaints about police abuse by the local authorities who were allegedly harassing him and had filed hundreds of complaints against Slade's gravel pit business.
The police contacted Montoya and lied, saying that they wanted to arrange a meeting with Slade and Montoya to discuss Slade's complaints, when their intent was to arrest Slade. When the police then claimed that they had a warrant for Slade's arrest, Montoya kicked them out of his office, and refused to turn over his client until they showed him the arrest warrant. He did not allow the officers to take his client until they had proven that the warrant was valid.
Regardless of the merits of Slade's claim, or the validity of the arrest warrant, the story illustrates how police will lie, even to an attorney, to get what they want. But more importantly, the story shows an attorney standing firm in the face of unethical conduct by police, and fighting for his client. I wonder how many attorneys would have just turned their client over when the cops came back claiming that they had a warrant.
