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    Lawyer accuses man she helped exonerate of $3,000 shakedown


    By Steve Mills
    Tribune staff reporter
    Published January 7, 2003

    One of four men convicted and then exonerated of the rape and murder of medical student Lori Roscetti was arrested Monday after he allegedly tried to extort money from the attorney who had worked to clear his name.

    Marcellius Bradford was arrested at a fast food restaurant on Chicago's West Side after he allegedly secretly tape-recorded a conversation with lawyer Kathleen Zellner and then tried to sell her the tape for $3,000.

    The tape, according to Zellner, captured a conversation in which she told Bradford and two of the other men in the Roscetti case in blunt terms that they would be fools to break with her and find new lawyers for a multimillion civil lawsuit because she was familiar with the case. Bradford apparently hoped to embarrass Zellner with the tape, she said.

    Instead, Zellner said she reported the threat to the Cook County state's attorney's office, then wore a hidden microphone to capture a conversation with Bradford as police and prosecutors monitored it.

    Bradford, 32, was then arrested. Official charges were pending Monday night, said a police spokesman, who confirmed Zellner had cooperated.

    "It's appalling to have gotten them out of prison and then have [Bradford] try to extort money out of me. It's very disappointing," Zellner said. "I don't care if they switch attorneys. But I am not going to put up with someone trying to blackmail me."

    The turnabout in the relationship between Zellner and the former inmates comes after Zellner not only helped win their release after more than a decade in prison but also helped them make the transition to the outside world. She gave them jobs at her law office in Naperville and helped find apartments for them.

    Bradford's arrest and the decision by the three men to seek new lawyers also underscores how difficult it can be for both lawyers and those they help to free to maintain a working relationship.

    Although Zellner said she has not had problems with the other inmates whose freedom she has won, several exonerated Death Row prisoners have experienced difficulties in the outside world.

    Most notably, Anthony Porter dumped Dan Sanders, the attorney who crafted the strategy that won Porter a reprieve and gave a private investigator and Northwestern University students time to discover the evidence that would lead to his release.

    Rob Warden of the Northwestern University Center on Wrongful Convictions said attorneys walk a fine line as they help clients become independent after long years in prison.

    `You do all you can to help'

    "Anybody who has spent this length of time in the Department of Corrections for a crime they didn't commit comes out severely damaged. It is incredibly tragic," said Warden. "But then you do all you can to help, and then this is what happens."

    The arrest also spells more trouble for Bradford, who had a stroke in prison, was arrested for theft after his release and who says he has been plagued by guilt for his role in helping to send his friends to prison for a crime they did not commit.

    Bradford and the three other men--Omar Saunders, Larry Ollins and his cousin Calvin Ollins--were charged with the 1986 slaying of Roscetti, a Springfield native attending Rush University medical school.

    Bradford cooperated with prosecutors and received a 12-year sentence, while Saunders and Larry and Calvin Ollins all were given life terms. They were released in December 2001 after Cook County prosecutors dismissed the case.

    DNA tests excluded the four men as the source of semen found on Roscetti, and a Tribune investigation undercut the other evidence.

    Gov. George Ryan issued pardons to the four men last October. DNA tests have since connected two other suspects to the rape and murder.

    In the months after their release, the men stayed close to Zellner and the relationship was a close one, according to Zellner and the four men.

    But over the past six weeks the relationship had become strained for three of the four.

    Saunders cited business reasons, although he declined to detail what specifically prompted him to leave Zellner.

    "I have a lot of respect for Mrs. Zellner. I'm grateful for the role she played in getting out," Saunders said. "But the business part of the relationship didn't work out."

    Dispute centered on money

    Zellner said the issue was money. When Larry Ollins received a confidential settlement from a claim that he had been battered during a wrongful arrest last year at a suburban clothing outlet, Zellner said she waived $28,000 in legal fees and he got the entire settlement.

    But Ollins, according to Zellner, spent much of the money he got and wanted more. She tried to arrange a bank loan, she said, but Ollins was rejected. She said the men also were not showing up for work as scheduled.

    She said Ollins, Saunders and Bradford decided to leave her.

    Larry Ollins said he did not want to "take anything away from Kathleen as an attorney," but he declined to specify the nature of their dispute.

    At the meeting Bradford allegedly taped without Zellner's knowledge, Zellner told the men they would be fools to seek another attorney. She said she had worked on the case so long she understood it better than anyone. Besides the lawsuit, the four stand to collect more than $100,000 from the state for being wrongfully imprisoned. Zellner would presumably receive a share of any financial settlements or awards.

    "It was very blunt, what I was saying," Zellner said. "They're troubled. They're just sitting back and waiting for this big payday."

    Zellner said Bradford called her on Christmas Eve and told her about the tape. He said he believed it would embarrass her but offered to turn it over for $3,000.

    Calvin Ollins was not involved. He said his relationship with Zellner remains good and she would continue to represent him in a civil suit alleging Chicago police framed the men for Roscetti's rape and murder.

    "I kind of feel sad about them leaving. Our unity is important. But I guess that they didn't feel that way," said Ollins, who is taking classes at the College of DuPage. "I'm glad that I'm sticking with her."

    He added, "There's a whole lot of crazy stuff going on."

    ***********
    No kidding, but this article raises so many questions.

    1. Great way to show gratitude for all the effort to get them out of jail. And assisting in their transition into a normal life.

    2. Or was their lawyer screwing them?

    3. It's really not their fault because their being in jail has driven them to this type of mentality. It's the system.

    4. Is it worth all the effort to try to free these men and transition them back into the real world, if they're just going to end up back in jail?

    5. They were always scum, but just inocent scum on this particular deed.

    You decide.

    RAH
    It's almost as if all his overconfident, absolutist assertions were spoonfed to him by a trusted website or subreddit. Sheeple
    RIP Tony Bogey & Baron O

  • #2
    Just lock them up with their lawyers.

    (\__/) 07/07/1937 - Never forget
    (='.'=) "Claims demand evidence; extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence." -- Carl Sagan
    (")_(") "Starting the fire from within."

    Comment


    • #3
      5. They were always scum, but just inocent scum on this particular deed.
      That's my choice.
      I make no bones about my moral support for [terrorist] organizations. - chegitz guevara
      For those who aspire to live in a high cost, high tax, big government place, our nation and the world offers plenty of options. Vermont, Canada and Venezuela all offer you the opportunity to live in the socialist, big government paradise you long for. –Senator Rubio

      Comment


      • #4
        Its easy to be critical of people like this, including the lawyer. But wrongful imprisonment is a truely awful thing. Most of us would be warped beyond belief from such an experience.

        Comment


        • #5
          2. Or was their lawyer screwing them?
          Literally or figuratively?
          Old posters never die.
          They j.u.s.t..f..a..d..e...a...w...a...y....

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by jimmytrick
            Its easy to be critical of people like this, including the lawyer. But wrongful imprisonment is a truely awful thing. Most of us would be warped beyond belief from such an experience.
            That's one of the points I was trying to make. Is it there fault or not? Can we blame the system. And if we do, is there any hope for rehabilitation for anyone in the system?

            But regardless, I feel considering the lawyer did continue to fight with no hope for any additional compensation in the immediate future, that these innocent punks should show a little loyalty here. And if there is any possibility for a payout on the wrongful conviction, you'd think they'd want the lawyer that helped them get out, share in that bounty.
            It's almost as if all his overconfident, absolutist assertions were spoonfed to him by a trusted website or subreddit. Sheeple
            RIP Tony Bogey & Baron O

            Comment


            • #7
              that's disheartening
              "Chegitz, still angry about the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991?
              You provide no source. You PROVIDE NOTHING! And yet you want to destroy capitalism.. you criminal..." - Fez

              "I was hoping for a Communist utopia that would last forever." - Imran Siddiqui

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Adam Smith
                Literally or figuratively?
                That issue seems a bit cloudy in the article. More may be going on than was reported.
                It's almost as if all his overconfident, absolutist assertions were spoonfed to him by a trusted website or subreddit. Sheeple
                RIP Tony Bogey & Baron O

                Comment


                • #9
                  If you lived as a child in the 40's, 50's,
                  60's or 70's.

                  Looking back, it's hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have...

                  As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in
                  the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

                  Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. We had no
                  childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our
                  bikes, we had no helmets.

                  (Not to mention hitchhiking to town as a young kid!)

                  We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors.

                  We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down
                  the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the
                  bushes a few times we learned to solve the problem.

                  We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back
                  when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day.

                  No cell phones. Unthinkable. We played dodgeball and sometimes the ball would
                  really hurt. We got cut and broke bones and broke teeth, and there were no
                  law suits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame, but
                  us. Remember accidents?

                  We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to
                  get over it.

                  We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda but we were never
                  overweight...we were always outside playing. We shared one grape soda with
                  four friends, from one bottle and no one died from this.

                  We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, video games at all, 99
                  channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones,
                  Personal Computers, Internet chat rooms ... we had friends. We went outside
                  and found them. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the
                  door, or rung the bell or just walked in and talked to them.

                  Imagine such a thing. Without asking a parent! By ourselves! Out there in the
                  cold cruel world! Without a guardian. How did we do it?

                  We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and although we
                  were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the
                  worms live inside us forever.

                  Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't, had to learn to deal with disappointment..... Some students weren't as smart
                  as others so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade.....Horrors. Tests were not adjusted for any reason.

                  Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. No one to hide behind.
                  The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They
                  actually sided with the law, imagine that!

                  This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers
                  and inventors, ever. The past 50 years has been an explosion of innovation
                  and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we
                  learned how to deal with it all.

                  And you're one of them.

                  Congratulations!


                  Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.
                  Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
                  "Hating America is something best left to Mobius. He is an expert Yank hater.
                  He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ Braindead

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Darn, I have to agree with something that slow posted.

                    The biggest difference that I see is that back then, if we did something wrong or failed at something, it was our fault. Now, it's someone elses fault.

                    And back then, only winner's got trophies. Now everyone gets them. How pathetic. They used to mean something. I still look fondly on a tiny trophy I got for a 750+ series in bowling. My daughter has a huge box of participating trophies in the attic. She's never once looked at them and they have no meaning. Even the ones when her team/individual effort was tops. But since everyone gets them...................bah.

                    RAH
                    It's almost as if all his overconfident, absolutist assertions were spoonfed to him by a trusted website or subreddit. Sheeple
                    RIP Tony Bogey & Baron O

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Exactly, but you agree with me more than you think you agree with me.
                      Almost everything I post is based off what that says.
                      Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
                      "Hating America is something best left to Mobius. He is an expert Yank hater.
                      He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ Braindead

                      Comment

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