The Buried Bodies Case, also known as the Lake Pleasant Bodies Case, is a mid-1970s upstate New York court case where defense attorneys Frank H. Armani and Francis Belge kept secret the location of the bodies of two women murdered by their client, Robert Garrow, Sr.
The Buried Bodies Case, also known as the Lake Pleasant Bodies Case, is a mid-1970s upstate New York court case where defense attorneys Frank H. Armani and Francis Belge kept secret the location of the bodies of two women murdered by their client, Robert Garrow, Sr.
The Buried Bodies Case, also known as the Lake Pleasant Bodies Case, was a New York court case in the mid-1970s in which lawyers Frank Armani and Francis Belge, citing attorney-client privilege, refused to disclose the location of the bodies of two people murdered by their client, Robert Garrow.
Ahead of trial for an unrelated murder, Garrow confessed to his lawyers that he had murdered two missing women and hidden their bodies. Armani and Belge found the women's bodies but chose to keep the information confidential. Authorities continued to search for the missing women for months as their families grieved.
Garrow’s lawyers were faced with the dilemma of upholding their ethical duty to preserve information told them by their client. They had information that would enable the families of the slain girls to know for certain the fate of their daughters and to properly bury the bodies.
The Buried Bodies Case: Alive and Well after Thirty Years. Lisa G. Lerman,' Frank H. Armani,' Thomas D. Morgan, and Monroe H. Freedman. 4
In the summer of 1973, four college-aged friends set out on a camping trip in New York’s Adirondack Mountains. What happened over the next hours led to a case that generated a national debate about confidentiality between an attorney and client.
Fifteen years ago, in the first edition of my book on legal ethics, I wrote about a notorious case that had been tried 20 years before, which had become known as the Lake Pleasant bodies case.
November 4, 2010. A lawyer knows where the body is buried. Must he tell? Frank H. Armani stands as a role model for legal ethics and is widely regarded as a hero within the legal profession.
Per Curiam. County Court dismissed the indictment in this case on two grounds, the existence of the client-attorney privilege of confidentiality, a ground constituting a legal basis under CPL 210.20 (subd 1, par [h]), and, alternatively, in the interest of justice pursuant to CPL 210.20 (subd 1, par [i]) and 210.40.
Commonly referred to as the “Buried Bodies Case,” it is an essential part of law school curriculum that addresses legal ethics and professional responsibility.
Robert Francis Garrow attacked the four campers in July 1973, stabbing Philip Domblewski to death while the other three escaped and summoned help. After a massive 12-day manhunt, Garrow was captured. Immediately after his arrest, Garrow requested that Frank Armani, a general practice lawyer in Syracuse, New York, who had represented Garrow in previous minor matters, represent him in the pending murder charge. The court named Armani and Francis Belge, another local lawyer, as Garrow’s appointed counsel.
Garrow’s lawyers were faced with the dilemma of upholding their ethical duty to preserve information told them by their client. They had information that would enable the families of the slain girls to know for certain the fate of their daughters and to properly bury the bodies. Armani also came to the painful realization that he was acquainted with the father of one of the victims and that she had been the classmate of Armani’s daughter.
Armani and Belge told no one of Garrow’s confession. The female victims were considered missing persons and police suspected Garrow of murdering them. Petz’s distraught father confronted Armani at his office, asking whether Armani had any information about his daughter. As a result of this incident, Armani refused multiple attempts by Hauck’s father to meet with him.
Armani never questioned the duty imposed by the oath of the office he held to “keep inviolate the secrets of our clients.” He believed the dilemma to be “a question of which is the higher moral good at the moment … the question of the Constitution, the question of even a [expletive] like [Garrow] having a proper defense, having adequate representation, being able to trust his lawyer as to what he says.” Id.
The lawyers kept their secret and Garrow’s case proceeded to trial many months later. Under direct questioning, Garrow confessed to Domblewski’s murder, as well as the murders of the two missing women. He also confessed to multiple rapes and abductions throughout upstate New York. The day after Garrow’s testimony, Armani and Belge acknowledged publicly that they had known all along about the murders and the locations of the bodies of the two women.
Well, had the lawyers assisted Bennette in moving or disposing the body, that would be unlawful, because they (the lawyers) would be hindering the government above and beyond what the defendant himself did.
It's important that criminal defense lawyers provide zealous advocacy, because we punish those convicted of serious felonies quite harshly. To be sure, I don't mean to suggest that the harsh sentences are never justified. I do mean to say that, given how harsh prison can be, we as a society should be as reasonably sure as we can that we are punishing the right people. Mistakes may be inevitable, but if, at the end of the day, a convicted defendant was ably represented by lawyers whose onlyfocus was defending their client, we can feel better that we minimized the chances of wrongly convicting someone.
Cindy had an interesting remark when we parted in the parking lot. “Don’t write it,” she said. “Keep it as a memory.”
During the four months Alicia was missing, her father often visited the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception downtown, lighting a candle for his absent daughter. Then he walked to the nearby Public Safety Building to check with police about Alicia. Her mom used to cry on those cold, rainy nights when she thought Alicia was out there.
Frank and his partner, Frank Belge, were hauled up on charges, but both were cleared by the state bar association in 1978. The case cost them both in their health, their law practices and the respect of some colleagues. Belge died in 1989 at 63.
At one point during the panel discussion, a woman in her 50s stood up in the audience. She sat next to Capt. Dick Walsh, Syracuse’s chief of detectives who had worked on the disappearance of Alicia Hauck in the summer of 1973.
Her mom used to cry on those cold, rainy nights when she thought Alicia was out there. Garrow insisted at first he knew nothing about the missing girls. Later he confessed to Belge that he believed he had killed Alicia Hauck and put her body in Oakwood. As far as he knew, it was still there.
According to the documents, the investigation began in February 2017 when Clements' then fiance, called the FBI and said Clements knew where Isabel was buried.
Clements allegedly told the other inmate that there was "damning evidence" in the trunk of Clements car and he "had to get it back.".
Isabel was 6 years old when she vanished from her parents' east-side home in April 2012. Maribel was 13 years old when she went disappeared while walking to a friend’s house in 2014. Maribel's body was found a few days after she went missing. Isabel's remains were not located until March 2017. Isabel Celis and Maribel Victoria Gonzales were ...
Isabel's remains were not located until March 2017. Isabel Celis and Maribel Victoria Gonzales were kidnapped and killed in Tucson in 2012 and 2014. On Saturday, Sept. 15, authorities announced the indictment of a man in connection with both cases. ( (Source: Family))
Both girls were found dead near Trico and West Avra Valley roads outside of Tucson. According to the documents, the investigation began in February 2017 ...
During the search, Clements pointed out an area that had numerous discarded tires. He told them it was a landmark he remembered.
Clements also allegedly said that Isabel was never supposed to survive the kidnapping. The inmate said Clements showed him photos he had hidden in his Bible, photos that were allegedly of the Celis home. Copyright 2018 Tucson News Now. All rights reserved.
Buried Bodies Case. The Buried Bodies Case, also known as the Lake Pleasant Bodies Case, is a mid-1970s upstate New York court case where defense attorneys Frank H. Armani and Francis Belge kept secret the location of the bodies of two women murdered by their client, Robert Garrow, Sr. Ahead of trial for an unrelated murder, ...
The Buried Bodies Case attracted significant attention in the mid-1970s in the throes of the Watergate scandal. Several legal scholars believe Armani and Belge acted ethically in refraining from sharing their client's confession. During Watergate, the American Bar Association (ABA) began reconsidering attorneys' ethical obligations. Meanwhile, law schools too began reconsidering the form of legal ethics in their curriculum.
The central question Armani and Belge faced was whether to disclose the location of the missing women's bodies. Disclosure of their discoveries could have implicated their client in the women's murders.
The New York county court dismissed the indictment "in the interests of justice." The court found that Belge had protected the Fifth Amendment constitutional right of his client not to incriminate himself. It also found that Garrow's disclosure of information about the missing women was protected by confidentiality and the attorney-client privilege. In its decision, the court explained:
Armani and Belge faced criminal and ethical proceedings that were later found to be unwarranted. People v. Belge. A grand jury investigated the attorneys' conduct. Belge was indicted for allegedly violating two state public health laws by failing to disclose his discovery of the dead bodies. In People v.
The lawyers photographed the remains of both women. Belge moved Hauck's body to ensure a dismembered part was included in the photograph. They later destroyed the photographs, the record of their conversation with Garrow, and the diagram he drew. Belge and Armani told no one about their discoveries.
Garrow was convicted for Domblewski's murder. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.