David Carroll's lawyers want to resign

Judge balks at allowing lawyers to withdraw from Carroll's case
Brunsman, Barrett. Cincinatti Enquirer, Dec. 16, 2006, Metro pg. B2.

BATAVIA - David J. Carroll Jr.'s two attorneys won't know until at least next week whether they will be allowed to withdraw from his defense in the Clermont County murder case involving the death of 3-year-old foster child Marcus Fiesel.

Judge Jerry R. McBride is expected to rule on the request by defense lawyers Stephen J. Wenke and Scott A. Rubenstein, who appeared with Carroll on Friday in the Court of Common Pleas.

Wenke told the judge he and Rubenstein felt it was their "professional duty" to resign, citing ethical concerns based on their confidential conversations with Carroll, 29.

If he detailed why the lawyers wanted off the case, Wenke told the judge, it might compromise Carroll's right to a fair trial. "You guys are going to have to do better than that," McBride told the defense lawyers, saying "a blanket assertion" that they might risk violating disciplinary rules for lawyers if they continued to represent Carroll was insufficient grounds for the judge to let the court-appointed attorneys quit.

At Wenke's suggestion - and with the OK of Carroll - McBride then left the courtroom to meet in the judge's chambers with the two defense attorneys. Joining them were Clermont County Assistant Prosecutor Daniel J. "Woody" Breyer and Hamilton County Assistant Prosecutor Mark E. Piepmeier.

When all the lawyers emerged 23 minutes later, Piepmeier said McBride was expected to issue a written ruling on the request by the defense lawyers within a week. Carroll's trial on murder and other charges is to begin Feb. 26.

Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Alex Triantafilou on Thursday allowed Wenke and Rubenstein to resign as Carroll's attorneys there after they cited the same ethical concerns.

Wenke told McBride that he and Rubenstein had made the request first in Hamilton County - where Carroll faces less-serious charges - because their client was in the Hamilton County Justice Center at the time and they wanted to proceed "as expeditiously as possible."

The Hamilton County case involves charges of inducing panic and making false alarms. Carroll and his wife, Liz, reported Marcus missing in an Anderson Township park in August. Breyer has said Marcus died after being left bound in a closet of the family's Union Township home over a weekend while Liz and David Carroll attended a family reunion in Kentucky.

In Clermont County, the Carrolls are charged with murder, involuntary manslaughter, kidnapping, felonious assault and endangering a child. David Carroll is also charged with gross abuse of a corpse.