McClish gets new lawyer for appeal
by Chuck Anderson | Press Banner |
Dec 28, 2007 | 17 views | 0 0 comments | 0 0 recommendations | email to a friend | print



Michael McClish of Ben Lomond has a new lawyer who will handle an appeal of his September rape conviction.

Oakland appellate attorney Mark D. Greenberg was named to represent McClish by the 6th District Appellate Program, which makes appointments in appeals when the subject can’t afford to hire a private attorney.

Greenberg said the appeal will be filed in the 6th District Court of Appeals in San Jose in “several months.” He said he received the case file two weeks ago but hadn’t started to review it because he had been on jury duty.

McClish, 38, is in San Quentin State Prison serving an 18-year, 8-month-to-life sentence for raping, sodomizing and threatening a former co-worker in 2005. He was arrested in September 2006.

Greenberg said he needed to study the case before deciding grounds for the appeal. The court file fills several boxes and includes a transcript of the 3½-weeklong trial.

Mark Garver, McClish’s trial attorney, had filed a “notice of appeal” the same day McClish was sentenced. Garver noted that Judge Robert Atack refused to allow testimony about the victim that Garver said could have cast doubt on her credibility.

In pretrial hearings, the judge ruled as inadmissible proposed testimony that she had earlier claimed to have been raped, then recanted, and that she frequently placed herself in vulnerable situations, such as in bars alone late at night.

To comment on this story, e-mail editor Chuck Anderson at chuck.anderson@pressbanner.com, call 438-2500 or post a comment.

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