The trial is over, but Valerie Wass fights on for Conrad Murray

by **Admin** Sat Oct 26, 2013 12:50 pm

Beat It - Did Conrad Murray really kill Michael Jackson? The trial is over, but Valerie Wass fights on
BY Margaret Wappler

Originally published in the Fall 2013 issue.

For 20 years, appellate lawyer Valerie Wass worked in relative obscurity, content to be known as the attorney of record on a couple of dozen appeals that have set precedents with the California Supreme Court. Far from a swashbuckling Law & Order-style trial attorney, Wass saw herself as more of an ink-stained scrivener type, toiling away in her Altadena home. She did some work on the high-profile case of Brian Mulligan, the international banking executive who alleged that he was beat up by the LAPD, but she was untrained in the wily art of the full-on celebrity trial.

“We appellate lawyers are used to working out of our houses in a pair of sweatpants, never seeing the light of day,” Wass said recently, adding, “As much as I admire trial lawyers, I like to call appellate law the intellectual side of the practice.” For the record, the South Pasadena native cleans up nicely: At the Coffee Table in Eagle Rock, the 55-year-old chatted and smiled easily, outfitted in a sleek sheath dress. And in the last six months or so, she’s also acquitted herself quite well in interviews with Anderson Cooper, Piers Morgan and on the Today show.

So how did a local lawyer who still hangs out with friends from junior high and frequently visits her 91-year-old mother in South Pasadena end up on the big-time legal media circuit?

Her quiet life received a jolt in 2011 when she met Conrad Murray, the man whom she now refers to as “my rock,” “a compassionate and warm individual” and “a very close friend.” He’s also known as the doctor convicted for involuntary manslaughter in November 2011 in the death of pop icon Michael Jackson. In case you’ve somehow missed this slice of recent history, the pop star’s story has involved a pet monkey, numerous charges of child molestation and then an untimely death from an overdose of the surgical anesthetic propofol in combination with sedatives on June 25, 2009. Oh, and he also changed the course of pop music history, but none of that is in Wass’ particular purview.

Instead, she has taken on the Herculean task of trying to overturn Murray’s conviction. In April, she filed a 51,000-word brief, culled from an initial 71,000 she submitted in March, outlining the reasons the court should reconsider Murray’s case. Her appeal was bound to get attention no matter what, but the scenario it presents has scandalized the fan sites and intrigued legal wonks alike: Jackson, desperate from exhaustion and Demerol withdrawal, may have administered the deadly dose of propofol to himself.
“We’re the Monday morning quarterbacks,” Wass said of the appellate lawyer’s task, and as a self-professed baseball fanatic with a strong mind for stats, she found plenty of botched plays when examining Murray’s criminal trial. She argues that the prosecution never definitely proved that Jackson was hooked up to an IV drip of the drug that killed him. In fact, the appeal states, Murray didn’t leave the anesthetic dripping into Jackson’s veins; he only had Jackson hooked up to a saline drip to hydrate the exhausted singer. It’s true that Murray administered 25 milligrams of propofol and watched Jackson for 15 minutes before leaving the room. But after that, Jackson might’ve taken matters into his own hands.

Wass writes in her brief that the pop star, under great pressure to fulfill his AEG contract to perform 50 shows set to debut in London in July 2009, was “so desperate for sleep that he would take the extraordinary action of self-administering propofol… outside the presence of” his doctor.

“I don’t know whether he had his own stash,” Wass said, “or if he was able to take the syringe out of Murray’s bag and just push it in himself.” Either way, it’s not the story Jackson fans want to believe about their beloved star.

She also cites Jackson’s addiction to Demerol as an exacerbating factor. For the last few months before his death, Jackson had been receiving injections of the narcotic, along with Botox and Restylane, from dermatologist Arnold Klein, who was excluded from testifying in the trial. Without testimony, experts in the case were unable to prove Jackson’s addiction or that a punishing withdrawal could have pushed him to extreme measures.

If all these theories seem like the clever workings of a lawyer exploiting her loopholes, it is exactly that. But Wass also makes it clear that she is fighting for justice.

“She really believes in his innocence,” Jody Berglund, who’s known Wass since the 7th grade, said. Berglund, a paralegal, helped her old friend edit and proofread the appeal, working late into the night for several weeks. “That’s probably why she worked so hard and has been so driven,” she added. “He is very fortunate that he has someone as compassionate as she is.”

Although Wass didn’t closely follow the trial, she developed a theory about Murray’s role in Jackson’s death. “I always thought he was a scapegoat,” she said. She allows that the doctor may have “engaged in some acts that would probably be considered negligent. But I’m absolutely positive he’s not the one who caused Michael’s death.” While tapping her hand on the table for emphasis, she said Jackson was “not on a propofol drip. Murray has never wavered on this. I would bet my life on this, I feel that positive.”

Indeed, Wass’ devotion to Murray goes far beyond the call of duty. Soon after she signed on to the case, it became clear that Murray didn’t have the funds to pay her. Murray could have opted for a court-appointed lawyer but Wass agreed to work pro bono. She’s spent “hours and hours” visiting Murray at Los Angeles County jail, where he’s serving his four-year sentence (he’s likely to be released in the months ahead, after serving two years). She estimates she’s put in “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in billable hours, including the 18-hour days she worked writing his appeal.

“He said he wants to pay me someday, but I’m not expecting it,” Wass said without bitterness. The devotion goes both ways. When Wass got into a personal conflict with Michael Flanagan, her former close friend and one of Murray’s trial lawyers who was helping her with the appeal, Murray rushed to her side. “A slew of disparaging remarks and personal information about my appellate attorney were unjustly released to the media and the public,” Murray told CNN in March, referring to the disputes. “Because of this injustice, I am compelled to stand up for this woman, for whom I have the utmost respect and confidence.”

As far as her own take on the Flanagan dust-up, Wass keeps it simple: “He hasn’t been able to separate the personal and the professional and I’ve always maintained that you have to.”

Bored reporters enjoyed chewing on the lurid details in an otherwise slow moment in the Jackson litigation cycle. But the Flanagan matter disappeared quickly because Wass didn’t feed the flames. Chalk it up as another PR lesson learned in a case that’s been defined by ever-present media speculation.

“If there was ever a time for jury sequestration, this was it,” Wass said of Murray’s trial. She pointed out the absurdity of the judge barring the jurors from watching the news, but not Twitter or Facebook, where jurors could stumble upon details in their newsfeeds.

But in addition to scrutinizing the news media’s impact on the courtroom, she’s learning when to use the gossip sites to her advantage. “When Murray couldn’t get clean clothes and sheets in jail, I told TMZ,” she said. “Within six hours, the sheriff’s deputies were in there with fresh sheets and a new blanket.”

Her friends have seen Wass’s self-esteem grow during her public relations crash course. “All of a sudden, she’s learning how to handle hostile questions, what to wear, her posture on TV, how to talk to people on camera,” her friend and Wells Fargo lawyer George Carrier said. “I’ve seen her gain self-confidence from it.”

“I had horrible stage fright,” Wass said. “But not anymore. After this appeal, I can handle anything that’s thrown my way.”

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by Capricious Anomaly Sat Oct 26, 2013 6:08 pm

CM's lawyer is annoying and delusional imo. She has been talking like she believes he will win that appeal. NEVER will he win that. She needs to take a seat already!

I loved what Alan Duke entitled his article about the verdict and her reaction (as she was behind him in the courtroom when the verdict was read). She supposedly gasped loudly and made a spectacle of herself and said it vindicated CM and he wrote that NO way the verdict vindicated that loser. Love that Adam Duke!

The trial is over, but Valerie Wass fights on for Conrad Murray

The trial is over, but Valerie Wass fights on for Conrad Murray

Re: The trial is over, but Valerie Wass fights on for Conrad Murray