M. Gerald Schwartzbach
Encyclopedia
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
.
Early life and career
Schwartzbach, the youngest of three children, was born in Wilkes-Barre, PennsylvaniaPennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. After attending Washington & Jefferson College
Washington & Jefferson College
Washington & Jefferson College, also known as W & J College or W&J, is a private liberal arts college in Washington, Pennsylvania, in the United States, which is south of Pittsburgh...
, he graduated from George Washington University Law School in 1969.
He began practicing law in Detroit with the Volunteers in Service to America
Volunteers in Service to America
VISTA or Volunteers in Service to America is an anti-poverty program created by Lyndon Johnson's Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 as the domestic version of the Peace Corps. Initially, the program increased employment opportunities for conscientious people who felt they could contribute tangibly to...
program. He then worked for an organization that later became the Detroit Public Defender
Public defender
The term public defender is primarily used to refer to a criminal defense lawyer appointed to represent people charged with a crime but who cannot afford to hire an attorney in the United States and Brazil. The term is also applied to some ombudsman offices, for example in Jamaica, and is one way...
’s Office.
Schwartzbach moved to San Francisco in 1972. He worked in the Bay View-Hunter’s Point neighborhood of San Francisco, representing poor families. He eventually opened a solo practice where he frequently represented indigent criminal defendants. In June 1987 he accepted an offer to become a named partner in the firm of Garry, McTernan, Stender, Walsh & Schwartzbach.
Legal practice
In 1971 Schwartzbach convinced Michigan GovernorGovernor of Michigan
The Governor of Michigan is the chief executive of the U.S. State of Michigan. The current Governor is Rick Snyder, a member of the Republican Party.-Gubernatorial elections and term of office:...
William Milliken
William Milliken
William Grawn Milliken , is an American politician and served as the 44th Governor of Michigan from January 1969 to January 1983.-Biography:...
to deny a request by the Governor of Arkansas, Dale Bumpers
Dale Bumpers
Dale Leon Bumpers is an American politician who served as the 38th Governor of Arkansas from 1971 to 1975; and then in the United States Senate from 1975 until his retirement in January 1999. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Senator Bumpers is currently counsel at the Washington, D.C...
, for the extradition
Extradition
Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...
of black prison escapee Lester Stiggers. At age 15, Stiggers had been convicted of the murder of his physically abusive father. The jury was composed of eleven white people and one black person and the trial lasted one day with only two witnesses heard.
In Hawkins v. Superior Court, a 1978 California Supreme Court ruling, Schwartzbach argued, and the Court ruled, that all California felony defendants had a right to a preliminary hearing, whether prosecuted by indictment (charges issued by a grand jury) or by complaint (charges filed by a district attorney).
In one of the first uses of the Battered Women's Syndrome Defense
Battered woman defence
The battered woman defense is a defense used in court that the person accused of an assault / murder was suffering from battered person syndrome at the material time. Because the defense is most commonly used by women, it is usually characterised in court as battered woman syndrome or battered wife...
, Schwartzbach defended Delores Churchill against an attempted murder charge for shooting her police officer husband in a San Francisco Superior Court trial. Churchill was acquitted.
In 1982 Schwartzbach obtained the acquittal of Reuben Vizcarra, a "Brown Beret" activist charged with having masterminded the assassination of the Police Chief of Union City, California.
Also in 1982, in Keenan v. Superior Court, Schwartzbach persuaded the California Supreme Court to establish the presumptive right of defendants in capital murder cases to have two court-appointed attorneys.
From 1992 to 1995 Schwartzbach was chief trial counsel for Murray John Lodge, Jr. in Santa Clara County Superior Court. After two lengthy trials, Lodge received a life sentence, as opposed to the death penalty. Lodge had been convicted of a double homicide with special circumstances and an attempted murder.
Schwartzbach was one of the plaintiffs’ counsel who obtained a 1999 jury verdict of almost $300 million in the personal injury/products liability case of Romo v. Ford Motor Co. The case involved a family whose parents and brother died after its 1978 Ford Bronco rolled over and the roof gave way.
Stephen Bingham
Schwartzbach was chief trial counsel for attorney Stephen BinghamStephen Bingham
Stephen Mitchell Bingham, a legal services and civil rights attorney, was tried and acquitted in 1986 for his alleged role in Black Panther George Jackson's attempted escape fifteen years earlier from San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, California, in 1971.-Early life and education:Stephen...
, who was acquitted of conspiracy and multiple murder charges in a Marin County Superior Court trial in 1986. The case arose out of an alleged attempted escape from San Quentin Prison by Black Panther Party
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party wasan African-American revolutionary leftist organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982....
member George Jackson (Black Panther)
George Jackson (Black Panther)
George Lester Jackson was an American convict who became a left-wing activist, Marxist, author, a member of the Black Panther Party, and co-founder of the Black Guerrilla Family prison gang...
, an incident that resulted in the death of Jackson, two other inmates and three prison guards.
Richard Bandler
In a 1988 Santa Cruz County murder trial, Schwartzbach won the acquittal of Richard BandlerRichard Bandler
Richard Wayne Bandler is an American author and trainer in the field of self-help. He is best known as the co-inventor of Neuro-linguistic programming , a collection of concepts and techniques intended to understand and change human behavior-patterns...
, the controversial co-founder of Neuro-Linguistic Programming
Neuro-linguistic programming
Neuro-linguistic programming is an approach to psychotherapy, self-help and organizational change. Founders Richard Bandler and John Grinder say that NLP is a model of interpersonal communication and a system of alternative therapy which seeks to educate people in self-awareness and effective...
. The facts underlying the prosecution involved a shooting death. Only two people other than the victim, Corine Christensen
Corine Christensen
Corine Christensen was a prostitute and neuro-linguistic programming student, who was murdered in California on November 3, 1986. With her boyfriend, James Marino, she also supplied drugs to Richard Bandler, the co-developer of NLP...
, were present when she was shot and killed, the prosecution’s star witness and Bandler.
Glen “Buddy” Nickerson
In 2000 Schwartzbach persuaded the Honorable Marilyn Hall PatelMarilyn Hall Patel
Marilyn Hall Patel is an active judge presiding in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. She was Chief District Judge of that jurisdiction from 1997 until 2004, and heard several notable cases during that time....
, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California
United States District Court for the Northern District of California
The United States District Court for the Northern District of California is the federal United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises following counties of California: Alameda, Contra Costa, Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San...
, to set aside the statute of limitations of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 as it pertained to Glen "Buddy" Nickerson, a man serving a life sentence for a 1984 double murder. Judge Patel did so based upon what she found was a persuasive showing of “actual innocence.”
In March 2003, after Schwartzbach had worked 13 years to prove Nickerson’s innocence and Nickerson himself had spent nearly 19 years in prison, Nickerson was freed. Nickerson's federal habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
petition was granted by Judge Patel, who found that Nickerson was denied a fair trial as a result of police misconduct. She concluded that manipulation of evidence and failure to disclose exculpatory materials pervaded the law enforcement investigation and the evidence at trial. There was no physical evidence tying Nickerson to the crime of which he was convicted. Among the other factors compromising the guilty verdict was a witness misidentification. The witness initially described the culprit as an injured man weighing 200 pounds with a moustache, yet, after repeated conversations with law enforcement investigators, identified the culprit as Nickerson, an uninjured man weighing 430 pounds with a "full, shaggy beard."
Robert Blake
Representing Robert Blake (actor)Robert Blake (actor)
Robert Blake is an American actor who starred in the film In Cold Blood and the U.S. television series Baretta. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted for the 2001 murder of his wife, but on November 18, 2005, Blake was found liable in a California civil court for her wrongful death.-Early...
, Schwartzbach obtained an acquittal in the actor’s 2005 murder trial. The Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
District Attorney’s office alleged that the actor, who was famous for Our Gang and the Baretta television series, had both solicited others to kill his wife and then murdered her himself.
Marshawn Lynch
Schwartzbach represented then University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
football player Marshawn Lynch
Marshawn Lynch
Marshawn Terrell Lynch is an American football running back for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the first round of the 2007 NFL Draft. In his rookie year, Lynch became the Bills' first 1,000-yard rookie rusher since Greg Bell in 1984...
from late 2006 to early 2007, resulting in the Alameda County District Attorney Office’s decision not to file any criminal charges against Lynch. Lynch’s ex-girlfriend had accused Lynch of touching her inappropriately and threatening her. In deciding not to file charges, the District Attorney cited “grave inconsistencies” in the alleged victim’s accusations, a lack of injuries, and the statement of a third party witness who said that “nothing happened.” Schwartzbach subsequently obtained the revocation of a restraining order against Lynch arising out of the same alleged incident.
Schwartzbach again represented Lynch, now an All-Pro
All-Pro
All-Pro is a term mostly used in the NFL for the best players of each position during that season. It began as polls of sportswriters in the early 1920s...
with the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
’s Seattle Seahawks
Seattle Seahawks
The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle, Washington. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team joined the NFL in 1976 as an expansion team...
, in a 2009 Culver City prosecution for carrying a loaded firearm. The case concluded with Lynch pleading guilty to a misdemeanor offense.
Dr. Hootan Roozrokh
In the first criminal prosecution of its kind in the United States, Schwartzbach represented Dr. Hootan Roozrokh in a 2009 San Luis Obispo County case arising out of an attempted organ recoveryOrgan harvesting
Organ harvesting refers to the removal, preservation and use of human organs and tissue from the bodies of the recently deceased to be used in surgical transplants on the living...
. Roozrokh, an organ transplant
Organ transplant
Organ transplantation is the moving of an organ from one body to another or from a donor site on the patient's own body, for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or absent organ. The emerging field of regenerative medicine is allowing scientists and engineers to create organs to be...
surgeon, was charged with attempting to hasten the death of a potential organ donor in order to procure the donor’s organs while they were still viable for transplantation. The San Luis Obispo District Attorney’s office investigated the case for 18 months before deciding to file charges against Roozrokh. Roozrokh was acquitted after a six week jury trial. The Medical Board of California later withdrew its complaint against Roozrokh.