Word: matsch
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...Burlington, Iowa, grocer, Matsch, 66, was appointed to the federal bench by Richard Nixon in 1974, and has presided over cases ranging from school desegregation to murder by extremist groups. He and his wife Elizabeth do not socialize much, and, apparently to avoid conflicts of interest, he often eats alone at law conventions. However, he is devoted to at least two things: his alma mater, the University of Michigan, and his hero, Atticus Finch, the small-town white lawyer assigned the unpopular task of defending a black man against rape charges in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Finch does...
While McVeigh's lead attorney, Stephen Jones, has rattled some of the prosecution witnesses, he has failed to undermine them. Often his team appear unprepared. If that weren't enough, sources tell TIME that Jones may be about to suffer a blow from Judge Richard Matsch. For months, Jones has said the bombing may have been the result of an international conspiracy. To gather evidence, Jones sent investigators to the Middle East and Asia. Now, these sources say, Matsch may decide not to permit the defense to call witnesses who would testify about the alleged plot. Apparently Jones...
Hartzler's questioning was so effective that Matsch instructed the jurors to keep an open mind during the cross-examination. When his turn came, Jones went after Fortier using transcripts of the telephone calls the FBI had taped. "[D]idn't you say, 'I want to wait until after the trial and do a book and movie rights...Something that's worth the Enquirer?'...You talked about a million dollars, and it just rolled off your tongue, didn't it?" Fortier quietly answered, "Yes." Sarcastic and sneering, Jones made cracks in Fortier's character, but he did not shake...
Judge Richard Matsch is nothing if not precise. He starts his court at 9 a.m. sharp. No one gets into the courtroom after he walks in, between 8:59:40 and 8:59:50 a.m. Absolutely. Cross him, and you will have a tale to tell. "He's virtually always the brightest person sitting in that room," says Larry Pozner, a Denver attorney and a vice president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "In Denver, if you're going to be a federal trial lawyer, one stage is to be yelled at by Judge Matsch." Says Pozner...
...What's the objection?" Matsch growled, when prosecutor Joseph Hartzler raised one amid the Oklahoma-bombing proceedings. At mid-sentence, Matsch cut him off: "There is no basis in that! Overruled!" Hartzler offered no challenge. Says Bob Miller, a Denver lawyer: "He doesn't allow the government to wear the white hat." While Matsch has allowed McVeigh's defense a number of procedural victories, the judge remains tough with Jones and his associates. During jury selection, he berated a defense lawyer, calling his questioning "incomprehensible." The judge, who lost a daughter in a freak accident in 1992, has not gone...