1974

In July I was backup in Federal Court for the first time in two years. I saw a lot of my courthouse friends, including Judge Allen Chancey, who is about to retire from the bench after 23 years of service. I tried my first criminal case in front of Judge Chancey about two weeks into my job as federal public defender. All trial lawyers remember their first trial, and this was a lover's quarrel that turned into a family dispute in the kitchen in Ft. Mcclellan, Ga. Evidently, the boyfriend of one young lady had acted inappropriately. He worked in the kitchen. Well, his girlfriend, Sally, decided to go give him a piece of her mind and took along her brothers, Warren and Jeffrey. At the time, Jeffrey was a lineman for the Falcons, and, as you can imagine, things got out of hand. The kitchen at Ft. Mcclellan had ladles as big as baseball bats, and after all was said and done, and the broken dishes were put away, the government had a hard time proving aggravated assault and who did what, where, when, and why.

So, I got to win my first criminal case, and the judge and I laughed about it many times. When I left the Federal Court ten years later, I gave him a huge, two-by-four Denied stamp as a good-bye gift- There were a lot more denied motions than wins over there, and I told the judge it would be a lot easier to just put that stamp on everything. He told me he plans to use it for the last month and just stamp everything before he leaves.

It was good to hear from Charles Post, who has recently made a career change after about 15 years in the publishing business. Charles is now working with his brother in an industrial distributorship called Tool Systems, which concentrates on pneumatic tools. Charles and his wife, Ann, and their sons Daniel 5 and Nathan 3 recently moved from Wisconsin to Atlanta. Part of his territory is Macon, so he recently took me to lunch—just because he liked this column.

Congratulations to Chris and Sarah Pfaff on the birth of Stewart Francis. Chris remains with Paine Webber in Chicago.

Rick Ranger in Alaska sent interesting news about Rocky Whitaker. Rocky presently works with Kennelworth Property and Rental Management Corporation in Washington, D.C., which manages public-housing properties and trains residents in setting up their own management organizations and recreational and health programs. On the side, Rocky keeps a hand in performing and writing with a trio that gets together in Washington every so often and has even produced a few records and tapes for local distribution.

The best news is that we have a reunion chairman, Marty Mehlbreath. Thanks to the nomination by Fritz Ledbetter and Herbie Hopkins. If you are interested in helping Marty out, please give him a call in Ohio.

I had a great time at Harvard and at Fenway Park. My best friend and I sat through a rainy night game. Twenty years ago we went to the Dartmouth/Harvard Hockey game. Still friends.

Dean's Office, Mercer Law School, 1021 Georgia Ave., Macon, GA 31207-0003