Supreme Judicial Court

Today, October 9, 2002, Thomas Hallett for the Defense made Oral Arguments. Immediately, Justice Alexander, was hyper critical of Doyle for not heeding a warning in a letter from DeTroy to Dancoes in January 1997. VanDyke did not disclose this letter to Doyle. Doyle found it on May 23, 2001 at the offices of Berman & Simmons. At the same time the Court totally ignored the Dyer memo sent to Doyle also dated in January 1997, in which Dyer states "Peter's (DeTroy) plan is excellent... tell them (the clients) the investment is working." This is another example of Doyle being severely admonished for not heeding a warning never received (in this situation) due to it being addressed to a different party.

Chief Justice Saufley, an insurance client of Doyle's, and the second cousin of an ex-girlfriend of Doyle's harped on Doyle's two guilty pleas that were the product of VanDyke's repeated instructions to Doyle that Doyle could not plead NO CONTEST, that only a guilty plea would be accepted by the State. The balance of Doyle's guilty plea was held against him and that the misconduct of VanDyke in coercing and engineering the guilty pleas so Doyle would not be able to get a trial in the future was not material to the appeal. Justice Saufley commented on Doyle's failure to pay restitution between April 24, 2001 and July 24, 2001. This ignores the discovery of the evidence on May 23, 2001 that VanDyke had withheld from Doyle for three years and which gave rise to three Motions to Vacate the second guilty plea.

Justice Rudman is the uncle of Sam Rudman, a partner in the firm of Lambert & Coffin, one of Doyle's previous lawyers. The ending of that business relationship was extremely unfriendly and resulted in a forced representation by VanDyke in an auto accident claim with over $20,000 in medical bills. One can only speculate on what conversations transpired between uncle Justice Rudman and nephew Attorney Rudman prior to the Doyle Appeal. Justice Levy, reputed to be the best legal mind on the Court, appeared to favor the Motion to Vacate; however, it would appear that he faced an uphill battle with the other members of the Court.

Introduction | Timeline | Timeline Summary | Lawyers | Contact Us | Home