Criminal Defense
I have spent my entire legal career focusing on criminal law. As a prosecutor, I went out to homicide scenes and observed autopsies. I worked with detectives putting together cases. I saw good investigations and bad ones. I tried difficult, complex cases to verdict.
Now, as a defense attorney, I am able to use my earlier experiences to my client’s advantage. Having seen how cases play out from the other side, I can focus the defense and work for the best possible outcome.
King County Prosecutor’s Office:
I began working at the King County Prosecutor’s Office in the summer of 1998 as a law school extern in the Trial Teams Unit. When I left the office ten years later in the summer of 2008, I was a Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in the Complex Prosecution and Investigations Division. During those ten years, I did rotations in the following units:
- District Court
- Appellate
- Domestic Violence
- Special Assault
- Elder and Vulnerable Adult Abuse
- Complex Prosecution and Investigations
In each assignment, my cases increased in complexity and severity. During my time in the office, I handled cases that involved virtually every crime imaginable: simple assault, DUI, drug possession, criminal mistreatment, violation of no contact orders, malicious mischief, felony assault, theft, robbery, kidnapping, rape, child molestation, and murder.
High-Profile Criminal Cases:
While I was in the King County Prosecutor’s Office, I excelled in the courtroom and was entrusted with numerous high profile cases. Two cases of significance were the prosecution of the Huling Brothers’ salesmen defendants and the prosecution of Marie Robinson.
Huling Brothers Salesmen
RG spent nearly his entire life battling schizophrenia. In the Summer of 2006, he was losing the battle. He was off his medication. He lived alone. No one was looking after him. He was unkempt. He was unable to care for himself. He clothes were often soaked with urine and feces.
On July 22, 2006 he walked into the Huling Brother’s car dealership with $30,000 in cash. His life, the lives of multiple Huling Brother’s salesmen and West Seattle would never be the same.
I handled the high profile trials of three defendants for charges that ranged from Residential Burglary, Theft to Money Laundering.
Read the Seattle Times News Article >>
Marie Robinson
In the fall of 2004, City of Kent Police Officers uncovered a tragedy of unparalleled proportions. Marie Robinson had gone on a weeks long alcohol bender that left her 16-month-old son and six-week-old son dead from starvation. When the patrol officers did a welfare check on Robinson, they found her passed out surrounded by 307 empty beer cans in her bedroom with her two dead sons. The kitchen cupboards were stocked full of food.
Along with another prosecutor, I counseled Robinson through this extremely emotional case from its inception until she pleaded guilty to two counts of murder.
Read the Seattle PI Article >>
Read the Seattle Times News Article >>
Education
University of Washington School of Law, Seattle, Washington
Juris Doctor, June 2000
University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington
Bachelor of Arts, Politics and Government, May 1994
Cum Laude
Department Honors, May 1994;
All-America Scholar Athlete, 1993.
Bishop Blanchet High School, Seattle Washington
Before Law School
Jesuit Volunteer Corps
After graduating from University of Puget Sound, I entered into the Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC). I spent a year working in a group home for emotionally disturbed kids in Helena, Montana. To this day, I still think about the kids I met. They taught me a tremendous amount about perseverance and overcoming adversity.
Aspen Youth Alternatives
After JVC, I worked for Aspen Youth Alternatives counseling kids ages 14 to 17 who had been sentenced to this backcountry survival program as an alternative to jail. At the end of each session, these kids had accomplished something few others have: they had learned leadership and built self-confidence while enduring two straight months in the Montana mountains. (Montana winters are cold—we experienced 56 degrees below zero at one point.)
Echo Glen Children’s Center
While applying to law school, I worked full time at the Echo Glen Children’s Center. Echo Glen is a medium-maximum security facility that houses young male offenders and most female offenders in the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration system. Echo Glen is a medium-maximum security facility that houses young male offenders and most young female offenders in the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration system.
Tim@LearyDefense.com
phone: 206-382-2401
fax: 206-658-2401
705 Second Ave, Suite 1111
Seattle, WA 98104
