Posted on 01/13/2006 12:25:14 PM PST by SmithL
Defense attorney Daniel Horowitz said Wednesday that his client, Susan Polk, no longer wants his services and prefers to represent herself when she goes on trial this month on charges she killed her husband in their Orinda home.
"It doesn't matter why she wants to represent herself," Horowitz said. "She doesn't have to have a reason."
Polk and her defense team are scheduled to meet with Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Laurel Brady on Friday, about three weeks before Polk's second trial is set to begin, Horowitz said. Polk will argue that she is competent and ready to represent herself.
Polk, 48, is accused of stabbing to death her husband, 70-year-old Felix Polk, in 2002 on their Orinda estate. She has said she killed him in self-defense.
Polk, in an interview Wednesday at West County Jail in Richmond, said that Horowitz has ignored her interests since the October slaying of his wife, Pamela Vitale.
"He has not been focusing on my case," she said. "He has not spent any substantial time with me since his wife's death."
Horowitz and his defense team have not pursued enough leads to prove her innocence and had portrayed her inaccurately to a defense expert.
"I would have liked to be represented by competent counsel," she said. "I don't think Dan is competent."
Horowitz said he is prepared to "do her defense 100 percent," but declined to respond to Polk's specific allegations.
"She has a right to her feelings," Horowitz said.
He added that he believes she does have the skills to represent herself.
Horowitz had argued successfully for a ruling that would allow a jury to learn that Felix Polk was diagnosed with schizophrenia -- a way to back up Susan Polk's claim that he attacked her. He also negotiated the dismissal of 24 misdemeanor counts against her for violating a court order.
Polk hired and fired three attorneys between the date of her arrest and April 2004, when a judge allowed her to represent herself. She appeared on her own in court and filed motions until the first morning of jury selection in August, when she asked the county's presiding judge to appoint Horowitz.
Her trial was delayed until October, as Horowitz caught up and filed more motions. During that time, Polk told the judge several times she wanted to represent herself, but soon withdrew her requests.
A week after her first trial began in October, Horowitz's wife was killed in their Lafayette home. Brady declared a mistrial.
Polk told Brady in December, in front of a dozen media organizations, that even though some of the same investigators who worked on her case also worked on Vitale's case, she wanted Horowitz to continue representing her.
"That was a time when I was unaware of conflicts of interest," she said Wednesday.
She insisted she is prepared to begin trial as scheduled on Jan. 31.
** for later
Wouldn't surprize me one bit.
Being one of the very few people who was willing to take the "long view" of the merits of Ms Polk's case, and ignore her glaring personality defects in favor of the historically abusive relationship she had with her victim/husband, I'm now more than happy to let her fry on her own, lol.
Horrorwitz probably had one of those down days in his mourning period and said something like "if I'd only been home when Pamela was attacked" and then "I feel so guilty about her death" or something to that effect.
Of course, it was Ms Polk's case he was working on, at county pay rates, when Pamela was killed. But is that enough to please this drama queen? Noooooooo. Why doesn't *she* feel a little guilty?
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