Prosecutor-Novelist Has Conflict

A prosecutor in California published a crime novel about a rape-by-intoxication case this year. Now there's a case with similar facts and the defense says: hey, wait a minute. The California Court of Appeal agrees:

"She has a disabling conflict of interest,” Justice Kenneth R. Yegan [wrote] * * *

* * *

Justice Yegan wrote that Ms. Dudley’s desire for money and fame might tempt her to throw the book at the defendant, as it were.

“Dudley will garner no laurels, and the case will not generate favorable media publicity for her book,” Justice Yegan wrote, “if she enters into a negotiated settlement.”

California Prosecutor's Novel Gets Her Bumped From a Case, N.Y. Times, Oct. 9, 2006.

The case, Haraguchi v. Superior Court (Cal. App. Oct. 5, 2006) is here.

Thanks: Maureen Howard.