Witness credibility was on trial on day five of the disciplinary hearings for Laura Marshard at the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers.
As Thursday’s session ended, the hearing was continued to Wednesday, June 7.
Bar Counsel Stacey Best opened Thursday’s proceedings with an hour long cross examination of assistant district attorney Sharon Thibeault. Ms. Best asked Ms. Thibeault about her communication with attorney Robert Moriarty regarding two allegations of prosecutorial misconduct against Ms. Marshard. Mr. Moriarty alleged that Ms. Marshard withheld information that would have helped his defense of Patrece Petersen, who was accused of attempted murder in a 2013 melee at the Ritz, and that she spoke to witness David Sylvia without an attorney present in a second case where he defended Mr. Petersen. Mr. Moriarty also challenged the severity of the charges Ms. Marshard filed against Mr. Petersen in that case.
Under questioning, Ms. Thibeault said she could recall “no major issues” with Mr. Moriarty’s work during his tenure at the Cape and Island’s DA’s office. She acknowledged that in the years that she knew Mr. Moriarty, he had never had issues with Ms. Marshard until October 2014, when he came to her twice. Ms. Thibeault said she did not recall Mr. Moriarty trying to leverage Ms. Marshard’s alleged misconduct for a better deal for Mr. Petersen. “It was more problems he had with two different [witness] statements,” she said.
Ms. Best produced screenshots of 2014 texts between Mr. Moriarty and Ms. Thibeault that she contended contradicted an earlier statement from Ms. Thibeault that she had not discussed Mr. Moriarty’s concerns with First Assistant Michael Trudeau.
Elizabeth Mulvey, attorney for Ms. Marshard, went on the offensive.
“I’m interested in the circumstances of when these text messages were saved and how it came into bar counsel’s possession,” she said. Ms. Mulvey said by her count, Mr. Moriarty had spoken with Ms. Best 21 times in preparation for the hearings. “Seems he’s becoming more involved with the prosecution,” she said.
Ms. Best contended the texts showed “classic impeachment” on the part of Ms. Thibeault.
“She didn’t testify there were no texts, she said she didn’t remember,” Ms. Mulvey fired back.
Board chairman James Breslauer questioned if the source of the texts was germane to the proceedings. Ms. Mulvey pressed for permission to recall Mr. Moriarty. After deliberation, Mr. Breslauer consented. “If you feel it’s critical, you may do so,” he said.
Ms. Best also sought to discredit Ms. Thibeault by raising a 2002 rape trial in Barnstable County, where a conviction was reversed because Ms. Thibeault improperly cross-examined the defendant and made improper comments in her closing argument.
“He told a tale that was wholly false about how he and victim had been in secret relationship, and that the witness was lying,” Ms. Thibeault said, her voice shaking. “We’re the only voice for the victim.” Ms. Thibeault said she still keeps a Post-it note at her desk with “0.02” written on it. “I figured out how many cases I’ve handled. It reminds me that 99.8 percent of them I did right. We make mistakes.”
Ms. Mulvey quickly established that the defendant later pled guilty in return for a 15 year sentence, and that neither the bar counsel nor the judge on the case “made a peep” about it.
Former bar owner grilled
The day concluded with Ms. Mulvey pressing former Ritz Cafe owner Christine Arenburg on the disparate details on her statements about what happened in a 2013 brawl at the Ritz Cafe that led to attempted murder charges against Patrece Petersen.
During the questioning, Ms. Mulvey alleged that Ms. Arenburg lied about the details of the evening because she was trying to sell the bar and that the incident could potentially lead to a revocation of the bar’s liquor license.
Ms. Arenburg submitted a brief handwritten affidavit to police the day after the brawl, which contained little detail. A subsequent statement she gave to Mr. Moriarty days before the trial in October, 2014, contradicted testimony of Jason and Frank Cray, who told police that Mr. Petersen initiated the melee and that it took place in the bar while people stood around and watched.
Under unrelenting questioning from Ms. Mulvey, Ms. Arenburg said she went to the police station the day after the brawl, a Sunday, because she hadn’t been asked for her side of the story. She said no officers were available and she was given the form by a woman in the office, and told to fill it out. “I was looking more to speak with someone but that didn’t happen,” she said.
Ms. Mulvey produced court testimony where Oak Bluffs police officer Daniel Cassidy, under questioning by Ms. Marshard, stated that he had asked Ms. Arenburg to come to the station, and he had asked her to fill out the form “with as much detail as possible,” which he said she did reluctantly. He also stated that no office staff work at the station on weekends, only police officers.
“Do you deny Officer Cassidy’s testimony?” Ms. Mulvey asked.
“I don’t think that is what happened,” Ms. Arenburg said.
Ms. Mulvey also produced a letter from the board of selectmen — the issuer of liquor licenses in town — asking Ms. Arenburg to attend their next meeting regarding troubles at the bar. A month before the Cray/Petersen fight, a person was clubbed with a barstool at the Ritz, and required hospitalization. Attached to the letter from the selectmen was the police report, with the Cray brothers’ statement, in which they said the fight with Mr. Petersen and his cohorts took place inside the Ritz and that people just watched them get beat up.
Ms. Arenburg told Mr. Moriarty, and the Superior Court via deposition, that the fight took place away from the bar, on Circuit Avenue, after the Cray brothers chased down Mr. Petersen after he left the Ritz, amid rising tensions between the two sides.
In her statement to Mr. Moriarty, Ms. Arenburg said Ms. Marshard called her to the courthouse to talk about the incident about a month after it happened, and she did not have an attorney present.
“I told her there was a lot of lies in the police report,” Ms. Arenburg said. “When I said the fight didn’t happen in the Ritz and it was up the street, she didn’t want to discuss it further.”
At the conclusion of the session, Ms. Mulvey asked the board to dismiss counts two of the three counts against Ms. Marshard, stating “there is absolutely no evidence the allegations are true.”
Ms. Best objected, saying she still had witnesses to call.
Chairman Breslauer denied Ms. Mulvey’s request.
Liza Williamson, the clerk magistrate at district court in Edgartown, was expected to testify on Thursday but the date was rescheduled.