We all remember the hunky, salt-and-pepper haired NBC26 reporter featured in a few episodes of Making A Murderer. Ya know, the dude who looks like his portrait was probably featured in one of those 90’s haircut style books you see at the old-timer barber shops.
Well, the man’s name is Aaron Keller, and in a very candid interview with Rolling Stone, Keller said that the Steven Avery case caused him to venture from journalism to pursue a law degree. The interview is fascinating, as Keller reveals how the case affected him emotionally and how deeply entrenched he was in the whole thing.
But there was one part in particular, as pointed out by Uproxx, that I certainly haven’t heard before and found not only interesting as it pertains to the Steven Avery case, but in a more general sense–how information in an ongoing trial is packaged for the public and the responsibility lawyers have to not prematurely muddy the waters of public perception.
In this particular case, Keller is speaking about now infamous Ken Kratz press conference after Brendan Dassey’s arrest that claimed Avery and Dassey raped and butchered Teresa Halbach with a knife.
The general rule in the model rules for professional conduct is that attorneys can’t make statements to the press that would cause material prejudice to a case. Basically it’s a blueprint for almost every law enforcement and prosecutorial press conference everywhere, ever. You can give the name of the accused. Age. Address. You know, identifying information. If there is an active search for someone who is an outstanding suspect, there can be a plea for public health in finding someone.
The American Bar Association writes the model rules. One of the rules says that an attorney can discuss with the press anything that’s on the public record. Ken Kratz — whose professional conduct I called into question on TV after the press conference, and who got madder than heck at me and hung up on me when I had to call him and ask him about it — his response was, “Well, I can talk about anything that’s on the public record.” Well, the problem was, as the prosecutor, he has the power to write up the criminal complaint in the matter, and the criminal complaint is the public record.
Fucking Kratz, man. What a slimy snake.
Check out the entire interview here.
[h/t Uproxx]