Marzilli case a contest of high-powered female lawyers
By Lisa Redmond, lredmond@lowellsun.com
Article Last Updated: 08/31/2008 06:35:38 AM EDT
http://www.lowellsun.com/todaysheadlines/ci_10350138
WOBURN -- Wendy Murphy and Karen Colucci are no strangers to courtroom drama.
The two high-powered attorneys have had their faces splashed across Court TV, offering their legal opinions on high-profile criminal cases viewed by millions.
While the two women have shared the legal airwaves and have similar backgrounds, they are on opposite sides of the legal fence when it comes to embattled state Sen. J. James Marzilli.
Murphy is on the attack; Colucci is providing the defense.
Murphy claims Marzilli, 50, has been targeting a certain class of people -- women -- by making lewd comments and sexually assaulting her three clients, as well as four women in Lowell for whom he is
facing criminal charges.
Due to Marzilli's alleged pattern of behavior, Murphy asked Middlesex Superior Court Judge Sandra Hamlin to do something novel: issue a civil-rights injunction that would "restrain" Marzilli from targeting any more women.
But Colucci, who is fighting against the injunction on Marzilli's behalf, counters, "This is not a civil-rights case. This is an allegation of one person touching another."
Colucci doesn't specialize in civil-rights cases, but she said this case fell to her because "I'm a bit of a purist. I'm passionate about some things, especially an inappropriate use of the law."
Hamlin denied the civil-rights injunction ruling that Murphy failed to show a likelihood of success on the merits or irreparable harm to the women
if the injunction was denied.
Murphy remains undeterred.
"You make new laws through appellate decisions," Murphy said, adding that she would appeal Hamlin's decision.
A well-known advocate of victims rights, Murphy says she has been waiting for a civil-rights injunction case like this one for years.
"Marzilli is a huge case," she said. "This law has been around for 25 years, but it has never been used in this type of case. It is unprecedented in the nation."
Colucci notes the irony of the Marzilli case is that women play most of the key roles.
"It's a clash of female against female," said Colucci, referring to her legal jousting with Murphy.
"This case has a female-versus-female perspective because you have two female attorneys, a female judge and the alleged victims are all females," she said.
Despite their differences in the Marzilli case, Colucci and Murphy, who have 22 and 21 years of legal experience, respectively, both cut their teeth in the Middlesex District Attorney's Office under former DA Scott Harshbarger.
Colucci spent seven years in the Middlesex office, taking current DA Gerry Leone's post in the forfeiture division. Later, she served as a supervising prosecutor in Newton District Court.
Colucci joined Bellotti & Barretto in 1997, where she represents clients in criminal defense, civil litigation, insurance defense, personal injury and other matters. She is a part-time attorney who works three days a week, so she can spend more time with her three children.
Murphy, a mother of five, prosecuted child abuse and sex crimes with the DA's office and has turned that experience into a specialty of sorts.
"When I was a prosecutor, I saw innocent people getting hurt. It really bothered me. I complained," Murphy said. So she stopped complaining and went to work.
One of her first cases after leaving the DA's office was representing the Lowell Rape Crisis Center. Officials from the center turned to her for help in blocking the court from trying to access confidential files of rape victims. Not only did she win, Murphy changed the law.
More recently, Murphy has become an adjunct professor at the New England School of Law and the founder and director of the Victim Advocacy and Research Group. She has also authored a book, And Justice for Some: An Expose of the Lawyers and Judges Who Let Dangerous Criminals Go Free.
Few people know that Murphy spent a year, while in law school, as a New England Patriots cheerleader.
But most people know Murphy through her work as a legal analyst for CBS News, MSNBC, CNN, Court TV, Dateline, Good Morning America, and Fox News.
Murphy says 70 percent to 80 percent of her legal work is pro bono.
"I take on these cases for academic purposes. Those are the cases that change the laws," she said.
"It is very compelling and rewarding work," she said.
