ON LEGAL

kelly

Judge slams Legal Aid for abandoning accused

A Brantford man accused of attempted murder found an unlikely ally in an Ontario Court judge as he was sentenced instead on one count of aggravated assault.

Barry Foster Kelly, 33, admitted to getting into a fight with an acquaintance and stabbing the man repeatedly on Oct. 21, 2021.

The man was treated at a trauma centre for cuts into his chest, including one that was 10-centimetres long and entered his chest cavity.

But Justice Gethin Edward said Kelly ended up being “abused by the criminal justice system” and he laid the blame squarely at the feet of the Legal Aid Ontario.

“Early on, the accused wanted to change lawyers,” said Edward.

“These were serious charges, so it’s not unusual for an accused to realize they need more experienced counsel, yet there was nothing but radio silence to the accused from Legal Aid.”

At one point, the judge said, the case brought Kelly back to court every week for updating. Finally, a Toronto area lawyer, Darren Sederoff, stepped in and made an application to get special funding to handle Kelly’s case.

“Hope is often the only thing that keeps you going in custody, particularly with the conditions at Maplehurst,” said Edward.

“The accused lost that hope due to the way he was treated by Legal Aid and that counts for something, in my view, as far as mitigation.”

The judge added that the delay kept Kelly in pandemic conditions when COVID was more of a concern, time when he was triple-bunked and locked down for months.

Edward said Kelly has no related record, and had waived his right to a trial despite the victim being “currently out of touch with the police” and not ready to testify against him.

There was also no evidence

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March 21, 2023 by LEGAL

Lawyer Involved in 9/11 Conspiracy Lawsuit Facing Jan. 6 Charges

  • A New York attorney was arrested this week on several January 6 charges.
  • Prosecutors used facial recognition technology to identify John O’Kelly in photos from the siege.
  • capitol-pro-trump-riot-arrests-charges-names-2021-1″ data-analytics-module=”summary_bullets”More than 900 people have been arrested in connection with the Capitol attack.

Federal prosecutors used facial recognition technology to identify and arrest a New York attorney on January 6 charges this week.

John O’Kelly, 66, is charged with two felonies and four misdemeanors related to his role in the insurrection, including civil disorder, assaulting, resisting or impeding officers, and disorderly conduct, according to court documents.

Prosecutors say O’Kelly tried to disarm police officers who were guarding the Capitol on January 6, 2021, by grabbing an officer’s baton and “attempting to wrestle it” from his hands. O’Kelly also pushed a metal bike rack into multiple officers during the siege, according to the government.

NBC News was first to report O’Kelly’s arrest Thursday. According to the outlet, O’Kelly previously worked for the Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry, a group that believes pre-planted explosives were responsible for the fall of the Twin Towers in 2001.

In 2019, O’Kelly filed a lawsuit on behalf of the group against the Justice Department in an effort to present the organization’s conspiracy theory to a grand jury. A judge dismissed the lawsuit in March 2021, and the decision was upheld on appeals five months later.

A representative for the organization told NBC that O’Kelly no longer worked with the group.

Prosecutors ultimately identified the attorney thanks to a tip from online sleuths, according to court documents. The tipster said they used open source photo ID software to identify O’Kelly in

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October 22, 2022 by LAW
May 2024
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