Introduction

• Library: How to Win an Acquittal (ABA) (2011 Ed.)

INTRODUCTION Rum Diaries—Winning Trial Techniques and an Inside Look at the Trial of Puerto Rico's Governor

Trial lawyers learn best by doing. By handling cases. Getting up on our feet. Making arguments. Losing. Winning. Maybe we learn more by losing, but the winning is very sweet. We learn as well by watching other lawyers perform. "Borrow" what works. Avoid what doesn't work. For several years, I have kept journals during my trials of the crazy antics of the courtroom days and the dynamics of criminal defense. This book combines a set of these journals, told in "real time" and about a "real case," with observations and comments about how criminal defense work is done; what succeeds and does not succeed; how criminal defense attorneys perform; why we take on the cases we do and work so hard, typically in the face of odds heavy against us and the client. I call the journal postings my "rum diaries." They represent a somewhat apocryphal account of the recent trial of the Puerto Rican ex-governor, Anibal Aceveda Vila, and his top aide, Luisa Inclan Bird, told from the perspective of the lawyer representing Mrs. Inclan Bird. And it is not at all impossible that the recounting of the events of the court days was affected by an unyielding belief in the client's innocence; a love of Puerto Rico's people and culture; and regular sips of strong Puerto Rican rum. Then again, as to the rum, maybe not.

BACKGROUND

An indictment of a sitting governor is hardly commonplace. The indictment in 2008 of the governor of Puerto Rico, Anibal Acevedo Vila, was perhaps the biggest case in the history of the Commonwealth. The curious saga of this prosecution is replete with colorful characters and complicated issues of law. It touched a nerve with the citizenry of Puerto Rico, where politics is often likened to blood sport and where most voters wear either "red" or "blue," the colors of the two leading political parties in Puerto Rico—the Popular Democratic Party (called the "PDP") and the New Progressive Party (called the "NPP"). Mr. Acevedo Vila was a member of the PDP".

The origins of the Government's investigation trace to in or about September of 2004 when former Puerto Rico governor and resident commissioner Carlos Romero Barcelo, a vocal critic and political rival of Mr. Acevedo Vila, reported to federal authorities that Governor Acevedo Vila, while serving as the Puerto Rico resident commissioner, received illegal campaign donations from Philadelphia-based contributors. At...