Awaiting verdict of his life

WILKES-BARRE – For 15 years Gerry Deady fiercely defended accused criminals in Luzerne County, gaining a reputation as a talented, dedicated attorney.

In a six-year period from 1990 to 1996, he successfully overturned the convictions of two men found guilty of homicide and the death sentence of a convicted murderer. No other local attorney in recent memory has had as much success in homicide appeals.

But for all the effort Deady put into saving his clients, there was one person whom he could not save: himself.

Wracked by mental illness and drug addiction, the once respected attorney agreed to be disbarred by the state Supreme Court in 1998 following a series of legal problems and complaints filed by clients.

It was the start of a two-year period in which Deady spiraled out of control as his yet-to-be-diagnosed bipolar disorder plunged him into a deep depression.

“For 18 months I stayed in one room of my home,” Deady said in a recent interview, recounting the period between 1997 and 1999.

Bipolar disorder is a mental illness characterized by extreme emotional highs and debilitating lows. Its sufferers are prone to self-medicate with alcohol, narcotics or both to deal with the mood swings.

Deady said his disease was marked mostly by manic highs -- until he “crashed” sometime in early 1997.

He spent his days in the family room of his home, then located in West Pittston, leaving only to go to the bathroom. He watched television, played on the computer and snorted up to an eighth of an ounce of cocaine each week, he said.

He lost the West Pittston home and a law office in Wilkes-Barre to foreclosure in 1997. He was charged with writing numerous bad checks from 1997 to 1998, and was accused of burglarizing a Dallas business – a charge that was later dismissed for lack of evidence. His legal troubles culminated in 2000, when he was arrested on drug charges in Bergen County, N.J.

It’s been 10 years since Deady, now living in Franklin Township, hit bottom. Now he’s fighting to make his way back.

With the support of fellow attorneys, the 54-year-old Deady recently filed a petition seeking reinstatement to the Pennsylvania Bar. He appeared before a hearing committee of the disciplinary board of the state Supreme Court last month. A second hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. The Office of Disciplinary Counsel, the prosecutorial arm of the disciplinary board, has objected to Deady’s reinstatement based on the seriousness of the original misconduct and the fact that Deady used drugs and was charged with crimes following his disbarment, said Sam Stretton, Deady’s attorney.

The three-member panel, which consists of attorneys, will make a recommendation to the disciplinary board, which can either accept or reject it. The board will then forward its recommendation to the state Supreme Court, which has the final say.

Stretton said he understands the infractions Deady committed were serious, but he believes the ODC needs to focus more on what Deady has done with his life since his arrests.

“Their opposition is based on the past. My position is that’s fine, but in the last seven, eight, nine years. the past has changed,” Stretton said. “The man is truly reformed and I see no real basis for the opposition.”

Victories gain him reputation

Deady’s career is one that, much like the mental disorder that afflicts him, has been marked by incredible highs and lows.

He won new trials for Richard Gaffney, who was convicted in 1987 of killing a woman in a drunken-driving crash, and Joseph O’Boyle, who was convicted in 1988 of beating his mother, Jean, to death. He also successfully argued in 1996 to overturn the death sentence imposed upon Brian Smith of Hazleton for the 1991 beating death of his girlfriend’s infant son.

Those cases are among only a handful of homicide cases in Luzerne County that have been overturned on appeal in the past two decades.

But it was within that same time period that Deady, who was heavily addicted to cocaine, began to falter. He took money from several clients who hired him to appeal their criminal convictions, then never did any work on the cases.

Those issues, coupled with his failure to take continuing education courses to keep up with changes in the law, led to his suspension and eventual disbarment 1998.

“It didn’t sink in,” Deady said. “I continued to get worse and continued to use drugs.”

Nothing got his attention until that day in 2000 when a carefree trip to New York City with his wife and daughter ended with him in handcuffs.

Deady and his wife, Constance, were celebrating their 16th wedding anniversary. They and their only child, Mary, who was then 15, left their room across the river in New Jersey on Nov. 17, 2000 with plans to do some sightseeing.

But the craving for cocaine soon took over. He and Connie, who had also developed a drug problem, dropped Mary off at a bookstore, then headed into the city in search of a dealer.

They were on their way back to the hotel when Connie, who was driving, was pulled over by a police officer who claimed she failed to use a turn signal, Deady said.

Deady had 25 packets of cocaine in his pocket, but he wasn’t concerned. Police had no legal justification to search him, and he knew there were no drugs in the car. When the officer asked for his consent to search the vehicle, he agreed.

Both he and Connie were charged with possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance. Connie was permitted to go home with Mary, but Gerry spent the next two days in jail as Connie worked to find a bondsman to post his $7,500 bail.

As he sat in the jail cell, Deady, ever the attorney, calculated how he could beat the charge. He was confident the traffic stop was not legal and he could win a motion to suppress the evidence, he said.

It wasn’t until he entered a drug treatment program while out on bail that he began to realize the depth of his problem. His arrest, he now says, was the best thing that ever happened to him.

“I’d probably be dead if I hadn’t been arrested,” Deady said. “It forced me to confront my problems and seek help. I finally bottomed out.”

He dropped plans to fight the charge, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years probation.

Deady struggles to recover

Back in Luzerne County, Deady began the long, arduous process of rebuilding his life.

He was diagnosed as bipolar in the summer of 2000. That day was a turning point, Deady said, as he began to understand some of the behaviors that had plagued him for much of his life – such as an obsession with remodeling his home.

“When I bought my first house, I gutted it and rebuilt it from scratch,” he said. “I became manic about it. I was obsessed with it, spending 16 to 18 hours a day doing nothing but remodeling. That’s the pure mania side of the bipolar illness.”

His trouble with depression deepened around 1991, shortly after the death of his father, James, at age 61. His mother, Mary, died when he was 5 years old. He was raised in Philadelphia by his father, who worked as a police officer, and stepmother.

Deady moved to the Wilkes-Barre area in the mid 1970s to attend King’s College. He graduated in 1977, then moved to Sacramento, Calif., where he attended the McGeorge Law School, graduating in 1982.

He still had family in the area and returned to Wilkes-Barre in 1982 to begin practicing law. His career focused on criminal defense work, with a special emphasis on representing indigent defendants charged with homicide.

Attorneys who know Deady say there are few who can match his courtroom skills. He also had a gift for raising original legal strategies in appellate issues, they said.

“I think he’s got one of the greatest legal minds I’ve ever met,” said attorney Michael Cefalo of Pittston, who is scheduled to testify on Deady’s behalf at Tuesday’s disciplinary board hearing. “He has a real passion, not only for the law, but for his clients.”

Deady showed those skills in 1990 when he won a new trial for Gaffney, of Wilkes-Barre Township, who was convicted of causing the drunken-driving crash that killed 21-year-old Audrey Laure of Jenkins Township.

The verdict was overturned by the state Superior Court, which ruled the trial judge should have questioned jurors about whether they had read a newspaper article that described evidence against Gaffney that would not be permitted at trial.

In 1992, Deady convinced the state Superior Court to grant O’Boyle, of Wilkes-Barre, a new trial.

Deady successfully argued that the judge in O’Boyle’s 1988 trial erred when he declined to instruct the jury that they could consider intoxication as a defense to a lesser degree of homicide. Part of O’Boyle’s defense had focused on diminished capacity because he had been drinking heavily the night of the murder, Deady said.

Both men were later reconvicted at their retrials. But attorneys credit Deady for uncovering the problems in their first trials and ensuring their re-trials were fair.

“It’s rare to get a case at that level overturned on appeal,” said Al Flora of Wilkes-Barre, a veteran defense attorney. “Gerry is an excellent writer and is very good at identifying issues and creating novel defenses.”

Deady’s most notable success came in 1996, when he convinced the state Supreme Court to vacate the death sentence imposed upon Smith.

Deady had argued Smith’s trial attorney was ineffective because he failed to present evidence that Smith suffered from a mental illness. That evidence could have been considered a mitigating factor by the jury in deciding whether to sentence Smith to death or life in prison.

The Smith case turned out to be a paradox for Deady, however, as he would later be faulted for failing to take additional action that could also have led to a new trial for Smith.

After the death sentence was reversed, Smith’s case was sent back to a county judge for an evidentiary hearing to determine whether Smith should get a new trial. Deady was granted time to gather medical records, but he never did. The conviction thus stood.

In 2006, Smith’s new attorney, the late Gerald Wassil, convinced then-Judge Michael Conahan to award Smith a new trial based on an ineffective counsel claim filed against Deady. Conahan’s ruling granting the new trial was later overturned on appeal, but the ruling reversing the death sentence stands.

In 1996 Deady was hired by John Merrick, formerly of Wilkes-Barre, to appeal his 1982 conviction for the stabbing death of his father, George. Merrick, who had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, hired Deady to represent him in a federal court challenge.

Deady took $1,250 from Merrick, but he never filed the appeal. By the time Merrick found out, the deadline for filing the appeal had expired. He remains incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Dallas.

“There’s not a week that goes by that I don’t think about them and think about how I failed them. I have to live with that, and it’s not easy,” he said.

That’s part of the reason he wants to again practice law. He hopes to at least partially make amends for his failures by focusing on providing top-notch defense to indigent defendants.

His goal is to serve as court-appointed counsel to indigent defendants, focusing on homicide and death penalty cases.

Life takes on new meaning

Deady said he thought about seeking reinstatement several times before, but held off, believing it wasn’t time yet. Now he’s sure it is.

He says he has been clean from drugs since his arrest in 2000. He meets regularly with a psychiatrist and counselor and continues to take medication to control his bipolar disorder.

He and Connie, 55, whom he says is also clean from drugs, are working to help their daughter Mary, now 22, and in her second year of law school, complete her education.

Deady also is a member of Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, a support group similar to Alcoholics Anonymous that focuses on helping attorneys overcome substance abuse and mental health problems.

Although disbarred, Deady has continued to work in the profession as a paralegal. Over the past decade he has worked on more than 500 cases for about a dozen attorneys, doing research on a variety of matters ranging from criminal law to medical malpractice cases.

Several of those attorneys traveled to Harrisburg last month to testify on his behalf before the disciplinary panel.

“He’s a good trial lawyer and superb appellate lawyer. If I was accused of a crime, Gerry is certainly one of the people I’d consider hiring,” said attorney William Ruzzo of Kingston, one of the attorneys who testified. “I knew him at his worst and I know him now. I believe he’d be a welcome addition to the defense bar.”

Attorney Tom Marsilio, a longtime colleague and friend, described Deady as a tireless worker. Marsilio, who also testified for Deady, got a firsthand look at Deady’s work ethic when he hired him to work on his unsuccessful campaign for district attorney several years ago.

“The guy works 20 hours a day. He’s totally committed either to politics or the law,” Marsilio.

Deady has had his troubles, Marsilio acknowledged, but he firmly believes he’s on the right track now.

“Through the years, despite his ups and downs, he’s remained incredibly passionate about the law. He deserves to be readmitted to the bar,” Marsilio said.

Attorney Karl Kwak of Pittston has also worked with Deady in recent years and testified on his behalf.

“Gerry has made some mistakes in the past, but I think he has his act together,” Kwak said. “He’s demonstrated his ability to bounce back and work hard. He deserves a chance and deserves an opportunity.”

While he feels he has made significant progress, Deady acknowledges remaining troubles, most notably financial woes.

He owes the Internal Revenue Service more than $135,000 in back taxes. He said he’s now trying to work out a payment arrangement.

There also are several outstanding judgments against him from clients relating to his non-performance. Most of those people were reimbursed by a fund set up by the Pennsylvania Bar Association that compensates people who paid for legal services they were not provided, but several still remain unpaid.

Deady said he’s willing to abide by any conditions the disciplinary panel might suggest, including mental health and substance-abuse monitoring. “It’s been 10 years. I think I’ve established a track record,” he said. “All I’m asking for is a chance.”