were very nice to the children and we exchanged pleasantries. I think the kids had lost the autographs by the time the plane landed, but that’s beside the point. When we were leaving the airport in Kansas City, we ran into Lasorda and Russell again.
Nick Civella had sent a limo to pick us up, and I offered them a ride since they were staying at the same hotel. Tommy Lasorda and I exchanged business cards, and I guess he figured that would be the end of it.
That night we were at the game. We had great seats, front row right behind home plate. At one point I turned around, and about fifteen rows up I saw Lasorda. He was looking at us, and I could tell he was thinking, “Who the hell is this guy?”
After that first encounter, we became friends, and whenever he was in Las Vegas or I was in Los Angeles we would try to touch base. Several years later Carolyn held a charity fundraiser for the Meadows, the school she had founded, and Tommy was in town to help with the event.
The Meadows was entirely Carolyn’s idea. She was never one to complain, but when she saw a problem, she’d try to figure out a way to correct it. It was clear to her in the late 1970s that the public school system in Las Vegas was a sure path to nowhere. She didn’t think it could be fixed from within, so in 1984 she started her own private school. I was bouncing all over the country at the time representing clients in high profile cases. Our children were in school, although only Cara was young enough to attend the Meadows.
Carolyn started that school with some pre-fab classrooms for kindergarten through sixth grade and ended with a modern, 40-acre campus that is now the home to one of the best prep schools in the state, grades pre-K through 12. She did this as a labor of love and because she valued education for children, and she never took a salary.
At the time of the fundraiser, I was in the middle of a really difficult trial. My client was the previously mentioned oral surgeon who was accused of sexually assaulting patients while they were under anesthesia. The case was being tried in Carson City before Judge Archie Blake, and I could tell he wanted to give my client a zillion years. I couldn’t catch one break: none of my motions were granted, and none of my arguments seemed to carry any weight.
But I knew Blake was a really big baseball fan, so I told Carolyn to have Tommy sign two baseballs. One he inscribed, “To Judge Archie Blake, the greatest legal mind of the century.” And then I asked him to sign another one for the prosecutor, Noel Waters. Tommy signed it: “To Noel Waters, the fairest prosecutor in the land.”
When I went back up to Carson City the next week for the trial to resume, I had both the baseballs with me and I told the judge I wanted to see him.
“I’ve got a gift for you, your honor,” I said.
He was a little standoffish and said, “Wait until Mr. Waters gets here.”
I knew he would do that. You couldn’t have an ex-parte conversation with one side or the other during a trial. It wouldn’t look right. That’s why I had Tommy sign a ball for the prosecutor as well.
When Waters got to court that morning, the judge called us both up to the bench.
“Get on with this, Mister Goodman,” he said.
But as soon as I handed him the baseball, his mood changed. After that, my motions were heard and some of them were even granted. I also received a very favorable jury instruction before the jury went out to begin deliberating. Did those things make a difference? I don’t know. There was a lot of conflicting and circumstantial evidence in the case. What I do know is that my client was found not guilty. I also know the judge was a big baseball fan. In a criminal trial, you have to use whatever tools are available. In this case, one of them was Tommy Lasorda’s autograph.
That’s not the kind of thing they teach you in law school, but it’s the kind of thing you have to use in order to give your client the best
Nick Civella had sent a limo to pick us up, and I offered them a ride since they were staying at the same hotel. Tommy Lasorda and I exchanged business cards, and I guess he figured that would be the end of it.
That night we were at the game. We had great seats, front row right behind home plate. At one point I turned around, and about fifteen rows up I saw Lasorda. He was looking at us, and I could tell he was thinking, “Who the hell is this guy?”
After that first encounter, we became friends, and whenever he was in Las Vegas or I was in Los Angeles we would try to touch base. Several years later Carolyn held a charity fundraiser for the Meadows, the school she had founded, and Tommy was in town to help with the event.
The Meadows was entirely Carolyn’s idea. She was never one to complain, but when she saw a problem, she’d try to figure out a way to correct it. It was clear to her in the late 1970s that the public school system in Las Vegas was a sure path to nowhere. She didn’t think it could be fixed from within, so in 1984 she started her own private school. I was bouncing all over the country at the time representing clients in high profile cases. Our children were in school, although only Cara was young enough to attend the Meadows.
Carolyn started that school with some pre-fab classrooms for kindergarten through sixth grade and ended with a modern, 40-acre campus that is now the home to one of the best prep schools in the state, grades pre-K through 12. She did this as a labor of love and because she valued education for children, and she never took a salary.
At the time of the fundraiser, I was in the middle of a really difficult trial. My client was the previously mentioned oral surgeon who was accused of sexually assaulting patients while they were under anesthesia. The case was being tried in Carson City before Judge Archie Blake, and I could tell he wanted to give my client a zillion years. I couldn’t catch one break: none of my motions were granted, and none of my arguments seemed to carry any weight.
But I knew Blake was a really big baseball fan, so I told Carolyn to have Tommy sign two baseballs. One he inscribed, “To Judge Archie Blake, the greatest legal mind of the century.” And then I asked him to sign another one for the prosecutor, Noel Waters. Tommy signed it: “To Noel Waters, the fairest prosecutor in the land.”
When I went back up to Carson City the next week for the trial to resume, I had both the baseballs with me and I told the judge I wanted to see him.
“I’ve got a gift for you, your honor,” I said.
He was a little standoffish and said, “Wait until Mr. Waters gets here.”
I knew he would do that. You couldn’t have an ex-parte conversation with one side or the other during a trial. It wouldn’t look right. That’s why I had Tommy sign a ball for the prosecutor as well.
When Waters got to court that morning, the judge called us both up to the bench.
“Get on with this, Mister Goodman,” he said.
But as soon as I handed him the baseball, his mood changed. After that, my motions were heard and some of them were even granted. I also received a very favorable jury instruction before the jury went out to begin deliberating. Did those things make a difference? I don’t know. There was a lot of conflicting and circumstantial evidence in the case. What I do know is that my client was found not guilty. I also know the judge was a big baseball fan. In a criminal trial, you have to use whatever tools are available. In this case, one of them was Tommy Lasorda’s autograph.
That’s not the kind of thing they teach you in law school, but it’s the kind of thing you have to use in order to give your client the best
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