You've said before that you would not defend a person accused of rape or any other sexual offense, and I assume that's because you don't want to defend a form of violence enacted (predominantly, but not always) on women, and so, my question is, would you defend a person accused of domestic violence or a abusive partner or is that too a red line?
This is more complicated because it depends on the context. I’ve defended people who have been in very toxic relationships that escalated to violence, but they were also people whose partners had the same issues, both addictions and psychiatric problems. And in those kinds of cases, it’s basically impossible to establish relationships without abusive dynamics, because well, it’s very intense.
We had a couple in the association where both were ex-convicts, both had problems, and had gone through several centers. I was representing both of them, and they were very problematic because they literally ran a drug business together. On top of that, she had spent two years in the psychiatric wing of prison, he was a compulsive liar, and they both had a terrible, really terrible, relationship. But they had been together for no less than 15 years, and had been through prison, CEM centers (for people with psychiatric issues in residential treatment), and other supervised centers, it was wild.
The psychologists and social workers tried to manage their relationship dynamics as best as possible, but they had pretty much written them off. I mean, they were a couple who literally used to beat each other up. And beat each other up as in really giving each other beatings. And of course, the man had much more power over the woman, because she also had psycho-emotional problems that had led to much more severe cognitive deterioration than his. But what do you do in a situation like that? They refused to be in separate centers, refused to be in different institutions, they had shady businesses together, trafficking together… They weren’t going to split up, not from him and not from her. Plus, they had developed a really messed-up codependency where, when he behaved well, she would actually look for conflict. It was a toxic relationship with a lot of abuse—not just physical but also psychological—and she was the one who ended up worse off. But I couldn’t not represent both of them because they came as a package, and it was bad for their reintegration and also for the work of the social and psychological professionals not to treat them as a unit, because that couple was basically the foundation for both of them, crazy as it sounds.
I would never represent someone accused of gender-based violence, let’s start there. But I have represented people who are in relationships where there is some violence, like in the example I gave. But if you ask me whether I would represent someone who has been tried and convicted specifically for abusing their partner, or is currently being tried for it, no. That’s another story. Another thing is if it’s someone accused or convicted of other crimes who also happens to have ultra-dysfunctional and crappy relationships, that’s a different matter. I think it’s important to draw that line.
In fact, we had a guy in the program who was extremely violent, not only did he treat his girlfriend terribly, but he also treated other residents and animals terribly. And I told my boss I wasn’t going to represent him, that either he worked on his behavior or he got a court-appointed lawyer. But it wasn’t just because he was abusive toward his girlfriend, it was because he was abusive toward everyone. He was constantly bullying and harassing his housemates, and one day I lost my patience and told him off completely. Especially because he was interfering with the psychological progress of a couple of residents he particularly targeted, and I wasn’t going to allow that. And then he slashed my car tires, very charming of him, by the way. I couldn't stand him, honestly. A piece of trash that dude.
