A judge has tossed out a $1.2 million judgment against the city of Denver, citing the courtroom behavior of lawyer Mark E. Brennan, which he called "boorish and unprofessional.""I am chagrined that despite my continuing best efforts (to exert control over Brennan's behavior), the proverbial sideshow inexorably consumed the circus," U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn wrote in a scathing order granting a motion for a new trial.
"In over 19 years on the bench, I have seen nothing comparable," the judge wrote. "Such disrespectful cockalorum, grandstanding, bombast, bullying and hyperbole as Mr. Brennan exhibited throughout the trial are quite beyond my experience as a jurist, and, I fervently hope, will remain an aberration during the remainder of my time on the bench."
Brennan did not return a message left at his law office Friday.
Details here from Daniel J. Chacon, Rocky Mountain News, October 6, 2007. (via Overlawyered)