State of Florida vs. John Connolly, Jr.
Of the many cases I have been involved in, none have been more interesting than the case of John J. Connolly, Jr (Right).. John, a highly decorated retired F.B.I. agent, was charged with murder. And he was innocent. I had the honor of being John’s lead counsel, and the pleasure of securing his freedom.
John started his career with the F.B.I. in the early 1970s. John was stationed in San Francisco, New York and eventually Boston, his hometown. While in Boston, John distinguished himself as an expert in the development and handling of “Top Echelon” informants. Armed with the information these informants provided John, and other agents from the F.B.I.’s Boston office, were able to indict top members of the Patriarca and Angiulo crime families from Rhode Island and Boston. John’s work also lead to the first ever recording of an induction ceremony, the ceremony used to “make” a member of the family. For his work John was recognized by every director of the F.B.I. while John was an agent, starting with J. Edgar Hoover.
In 1995 two of John’s Top Echelon informants, James “Whitey” Bulger and Stephen “Rifleman” Flemmi (Left), were indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston. Whitey Bulger became, and to this day remains, one of the F.B.I.’s most sought after fugitives. Stephen Flemmi was arrested and decided to fabricate lies about John in an effort to obtain a deal from the prosecutors handling his case.These lies lead to John being indicted in 2005 in Miami for the 1982 murder of World Jai Alai executive, John Callahan. The prosecution’s theory was that John provided information to Bulger and Flemmi that caused them to get their favorite hit man, John Martorano, to kill Callahan. The problem with the prosecution’s theory was that it rested on the credibility of Stephen Flemmi, an admitted liar and serial killer.
Realizing the weakness of their case, the prosecution decided to poison the jury by attempting to show the jury that John, as well as other agents of the F.B.I., were nothing more than corrupt cops, and that this corruption extended over a period. As a result of the prosecution’s theory, John’s trial lasted two month’s and covered events spanning over thirty years.During the trial I had the opportunity to cross examine the likes of John Martorano (Right), who made a deal that allowed him to serve a mere 12 years even though he admitted to personally killing at least 20 people. Martorano has been featured on the show 60 Minutes and is rumored to have sold the rights to his life story to a well-known movie director.
I also cross-examined Stephen Flemmi who also admitted to participating in, and/or committing the murder of, at least 20 people. Also cross examined by me was Kevin Weeks (Left), a Bulger lieutenant and author of Brutal, a book about his life of crime.
For the defense, we called a sitting federal judge, a former U.S. Attorney and several retired F.B.I. agents. Needless to say it was interesting when the witnesses called by the defense proved to be more respectable than those called by the prosecution.
The jury in John’s case came back with a verdict of not guilty of first-degree murder and not guilty of conspiracy to commit first degree murder. The jury returned a verdict of guilty to the lesser included charge of second-degree murder with a firearm. This verdict however is illegal since the statute of limitations on that charge had run before John was indicted. Following the jury’s verdict I filed a motion to set aside the verdict which the trial judge stated in his order that he would have granted but didn’t because he felt he couldn’t.
John’s case received a lot of attention in the media. I have provided you some links so that you can see for yourself the work I did for John, and the work I can do for you.