News Coverage

Accused Monroe madam Anna Gristina has hired a new high-profile attorney known for defending civil rights cases to lead her legal team.
On Wednesday, Gristina, who is charged with running a high-end prostitution ring out of a Manhattan apartment, disclosed that she has hired Norm Pattis, the bespectacled and pony-tailed Connecticut lawyer who appears frequently as a TV news commentator.
In a statement, Pattis said the charges against Gristina and $2 million bail "are part of a...

The Monroe mom whom Manhattan prosecutors say ran a high-priced call-girl operation has changed lawyers again, despite a legal victory on Friday by her most recent lawyer.
Anna Gristina has been held for months on a felony charge of promoting prostitution. A judge in Manhattan set her bail at $1 million cash or $2 million bond after prosecutors argued that Gristina, who's not a U.S. citizen, has powerful supporters and connections overseas who could help her...

The American Civli Liberties Union has leveled an attack on the FBI's "mosque outreach" program, which the groups claims was used to illegally obtain information about the religious practices of San Francisco-area Muslims.
In a Tuesday press release, the ACLU accused the FBI of violating the Privacy Act of 1974 and released what it said was an ACLU analysis of documents it obtained from the FBI's San Francisco field office.
However, a leading civil rights attorney and author...

One of four East Haven police officers accused of abusing and harassing Latinos is asking a federal judge to dismiss the charges because of the publicity the case has received.
The lawyer for East Haven officer Jason Zullo filed a motion on Thursday to dismiss the charges.
The lawyer, Norman Pattis, said in the motion that federal prosecutors engaged in "Barnum-like pre-trial publicity," including a "cheap theater of press conferences and name-calling," and should not have unsealed...

The East Haven Police Department is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department.
One of four East Haven police officers accused of abusing and harassing Latinos is asking a federal judge to dismiss the charges because of the publicity the case has received.
The lawyer for East Haven officer Jason Zullo filed a motion on Thursday to dismiss the charges.
The lawyer, Norman Pattis, said in the motion that federal prosecutors engaged in "Barnum-like pre-trial publicity,"...

Four East Haven, Connecticut police officers facing federal charges that they harassed and used excessive force against Latinos will go on trial next year, one of their attorneys said on Thursday.
The officers, described by the FBI as "bullies with badges," were arrested and charged last week with conspiracy to commit racial profiling and using threats and intimidation.
They are accused of routinely injuring, threatening and intimidating Latinos with false arrests, false reports and...

A Hamden police report says that Mark Powell confessed to the assault, but Powell's attorney, Norm Pattis, says it's not true

The paramedic accused of sexually assaulting a woman in the back of an ambulance was in court on Thursday.
The defense lawyer is already making a case by attacking the credibility of the victim and questioning whether the paramedic really made a so-called confession.
Paramedic Mark Powell was swarmed by the media as he left the courthouse.
"We will look forward to addressing these charges in open court," Powell's lawyer Norm Pattis told the press.
The ...

And author, ’Taking Back Our Courts’, talks to Jeff about the Marine video urinating on the corpses of 3-Taliban fighters they had just killed in battle.

You can't get any more adversarial than being a trial lawyer. Norm Pattis is a veteran of more than 100 jury trials and I think that probably beats the combined Supreme Court experience; many of them don't have any trial law experience at all. He is the author of a new book; it is called Taking Back the Courts, What We Can Do to Reclaim Our Sovereignty...