Monday, September 16, 2013

Cases Of Ken Nowlin And Penni Tingle In Mississippi Raise Red Flags About Criminal Defense Lawyers


Steven Farese Sr.
The legal "profession" is filled with ugly secrets, and one of the ugliest is this: Quite a few criminal-defense lawyers are more concerned with serving prosecutors' interests than those of their own clients.

Our research indicates this can happen in several ways. One, the defense lawyer will charge a client an outrageous sum and then do relatively little work, putting the accused in danger of being both convicted and financially ruined. Two, the defense lawyer will do little or no discovery that could prove his client's innocence.


We already have touched on this issue in the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. G. Douglas Jones, chief defense lawyer in the early stages of the case, charged Siegelman $300,000 and bailed out before taking the case to trial. One of Jones' primary "accomplishments" in the case was agreeing to extend the statute of limitations for prosecutors who admitted they could not prove their case at that point.


Two ongoing cases in Mississippi provide classic examples of how vulnerable a citizen can be when charged with a crime--especially in the murky world of federal, white-collar statutes that tend to be so poorly worded the accused often has no idea if he's actually committed a crime or not.


One of the Mississippi cases involves Ecru insurance broker Ken Nowlin, who became entangled in the kind of Bush-era political drama that is all too familiar to many Alabamians. The other involves Penni Tingle, a former chief financial officer from Hernando who was accused of embezzling funds from IKBI Inc., a general contracting firm owned by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.


Lawyers from the Ashland firm of Farese Farese & Farese served as defense counsel in both cases. Nowlin and Tingle now say in court documents that they were pressured to plead guilty to crimes they did not commit. Both also say the Farese lawyers made little or no effort to seek documents that were available and would have proven their innocence.


In Nowlin's case, a letter from an ethics expert would have shown that Nowlin believed his method for paying county supervisor Gary Massey was proper under the law. The letter, Nowlin states, shows that neither he nor Massey had the state of mind required for convictions on corruption charges. Defense lawyer Anthony L. "Tony" Farese, however, insisted the letter did not exist and made no effort to find it, even though court documents state he had information that pointed to both its existence and whereabouts.


In the Tingle case, defense counsel Steven E. Farese Sr. apparently was too busy sexually harassing his client to seek exculpatory evidence in her case. Tingle, a 42-year-old single mom at the time of her sentencing, recently produced copies of text messages that show Steve Farese Sr. engaged in a vile and persistent campaign of sexual harassment against her.


On his firm bio, Farese Sr. is portrayed as quite the big-time lawyer--and a family man, to boot:



Mr. Farese has lectured extensively throughout the United States to trial lawyers on criminal trial techniques. He has handled numerous "high profile" cases and has been interviewed by Vanity Fair. He has also appeared on Prime Time, Court TV, A&E's City Confidential, People Magazine, Nancy Grace, Larry King Live, Greta Van Sustren, and Good Morning America.
Steve and his wife Suzanne have three children, one of whom is Steve Jr., an attorney who practices law in the Farese Law Office. They have five grandchildren.

Did Greta Van Sustren, Nancy Grace, Larry King, and other big timers from cable TV ever think about what it's like to actually be one of Steve Farese Sr.'s clients?  Somehow, we doubt it. But Penni Tingle's text messages reveal Steve Farese Sr. to be a lawyer who was interested in using his client in ways that probably aren't anticipated in Criminal Defense Law 101. Here is just a sampling:


Steve Farese (SF): "I won Best Orgasm Provider for 8 years in a row . . . "
SF: "I think you're hot."
SF: "Do I interest you at all?"
SF: "Would you please come fuck me?"

Now that we know what the Farese law firm seems to be all about, we will take a close look at their actions and inactions that led to Ken Nowlin and Penni Tingle pleading guilty to crimes the record suggests they did not commit.

44 comments:

James Greek said...

seems to me that Steve Farese is the Bill Swatek of Alabama. I wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Swatek ever did his female clients that way.

Anonymous said...

Most of us don't want to believe that this goes on in our justice system. We want to believe that only guilty people wind up being found guilty.

Anonymous said...

LS, you are an incredible source of legal news. I live in NW Alabama, not far from where these cases took place, but I had not heard about either of them. Sounds like these cases came from the general Memphis/Oxford area, and that's not far from where I live, just across the state line in Alabama. But I guess neither case made "big news," enough to reach my eyes and ears. Thanks for keeping the public informed.

Anonymous said...

James:

I know Bill Swatek pulled this kind of stuff with at least one female client, and I plan to report on that in the not-too-distant future.

David in S. Alabama said...

I heard that Bill Swatek tried to bed down a client not long ago. He failed when he failed to rise to the occasion as it were. A few days later he was golfing with one of his golfing buddies and admitted to this judge that he was having a personal problem. The judge told Bill go to their other golfing buddy and get a script for Viagra. Bill did so had the script filled. When he got home he was in such a hurry that he didn't to read the instruction on the bottle. He just took a hand full and went to bed.
Four hours later he woke up in extreme and called the rescue squad. Them came and after some trouble getting all of him into their truck. On arrival at the ER Bill was covered in a sheet that now formed a tent over him. When it was removed all the nurses gasped and jumped backwards. A young intern laughed so hard that they had to give him some oxygen to calm him down.
Bill woke up the next day in ICU to a half sized tent. All the nurses have into a pool on how long it will stay up.

His chart lists him ViagraMan.

I hope Bill doesn't hire Bill Baxley or Mark White to sue me humorous harassment.

Anonymous said...

Interesting stuff, Mr. Schnauzer. How was the Nowlin case political?

legalschnauzer said...

I will be providing more details in upcoming posts, @8:52. But the gist is this: Gary Massey was a Democrat on the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors, and he and Nowlin got cross ways with a GOP political rival on the board. My understanding is that Nowlin hasn't been much involved in politics at all, but his connection to Massey caused him to step into a hornet's nest.

legalschnauzer said...

Thanks for a great chuckle, David in S. AL. This sounds like just the case for Bill Baxley to handle. Be on the lookout for a process server.

Anonymous said...

Good God Almighty . . . Steve Farese Sr. sounds like the biggest lawyer creep to come down the pike in years.

Anonymous said...

I'm guessing a lot of this is driven by greed and laziness. Lawyers on both sides want to make as much money as possible, for as little work as possible. Guilty pleas are the "magic ticket" for both prosecutors and defense lawyers. Makes their lives incredibly easy. If an innocent person goes to prison . . . they don't care.

Gerry with a G said...

More signs that lawyers, of all sorts, are sub-human slime.

Raymond said...

Ask Ronnie Gilley, Jarrod Massey, and Jennifer Pouncy in the Alabama bingo case.

Anonymous said...

Very interesting post, LS. The most interesting part, to me, is the fact that Penni Tingle worked for a contractor owned by Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. I wonder what Ms. Tingle might know about the corrupt leaders of that organization.

Anonymous said...

Steve is a real sicko!!

Anonymous said...

Best Orgasm Provider? Not on your life, Mr. Farese. How about "Creepiest Lawyer" for eight years in a row?

Anonymous said...

Liewyers have been brainwashed, terrorized and severely mentally, emotionally, and spiritually in the worship of the wrong concept about 'wealth-money' ...

PROGRAMMED by the people whom truly set the system into place. American Liewyers are damaged goods and this probably includes 99.9% of them.

First, Thomas Jefferson and our U.S. Constitution say the word lawyer: it's counsel.

Second, we are to be highly well educated, & well-informed voters.

Suri Juris.

The idea, Self Representative Special Appearance. Simply, every individual American has the power to be in court as our own Attorney General, WELL INFORMED-EDUCATED.

Liewyers got real heady about their ability to do whatever the guild wants. The GUILD can take a liewyer and lock 'em up & throw away the key, scary world to be licensed with the most dangerous predator in earth.

'Americans' in the majority, are to be the 'defendant mobile' so to speak. When liewyers see US 'citizens' driving around in lesser vehicles which ultimately attract the police state insane, it's a sign they are going to be in the 'money', liewyers.

Liewyers work and charge by the hour and the technology has long passed up the old fashioned that are mostly, not educated in IT, or definitely not well-informed.

The system of MONEY FRAUD needed a very tight system of LAW FRAUD.

LOUIS BRANDEIS is the/a top criminal liewyer in the USA. He should be exposed fully and US Supreme Court needs to be arrested for the treason to We The People.

Federal Reserve System [Fed], the court DIGITAL FRAUD system of fraudulent inducement and transference of wealth - AND, we know how operation USA functions.

WHITE COLLAR COLOR OF LAW.

Operation U.S.A. Overriding the UCC, Constitution, Bill of Rights', and whatever reality is, the Roaches In Robes dictate the UN New World Order right before our very eyes and under our very own noses.

ROCKEFELLER, DAVID, #1 Pedophile Globalist too, decided the USA was ready to not be governed by our 'good law' and thus, we got an entire cult of corruption and vulgarity. CREDIT SCORES decide our fate as 'consumers', according to the GOP and ITS' vile evil.

Gonna take no less than 100 years to get clean hands in the courts?

Liewyers almost all, are truly filthy scum in the department of harassment and worse, the reality in those that appear to go after women are really broken and so wanton for 'children'? then we see the most acting out appearing as though hungry for the 'woman', when indeed the ravenous predatory criminally insane want children.

Preferably the same sex is lusted after, predatory is the main drive in the so called 'liewyer'.

Love the tent pole super deflated dance -- hysterical.

Great reporting LS, absolutely stellar and certain to scuttle the near and not so distant future of the classless schooled in the past tense of 'law'.

Perhaps once the LAWYER BUBBLE (a book about this time), POPS, the not well informed in the current events and not educated other than in the clueless dumber than boxes of rocks, can get the FRAUD was really on 'them', those that were slaves to a system of fraudulent so called money.

Anonymous said...

Good work LS. Tribal members are not aware of what went down with with Ms. Tingle while working for IKBE. Hopefully this topic will shed some light why the FBI raided Choctaw Casino as well as shine light on Corrupt Tribal officials.

Anonymous said...

Is Penni Tingle uber hot? We need a picture. LS, your public demands a photo!

Anonymous said...

"... To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years ..."

ARTICLE I, SECTION VIII, U.S. CONSTITUTION.

When we begin reading our so called 'law' we discover there is no obeying the so called 'law'.

THE 'OFFICERS OF THE COURT' ET AL can only be in that capacity, in the event they are in 'good standing'. Let us get real, it's time to impeach all that have allowed EG BLACKWATER to operate now since George W. Bush, Jr. Chief Traitor to the US Constitution allowed this "Global War On Terror" to destroy America.

The intention was not about over there - words are backwards.

Gee, an agenda of the GOP. No they are mostly too stupid to get the fact, that, they've shat so many times in their own nest that the toilet USA is not flushing the horror of the 'free world leaders'.

HOME TO ROOST and time to ROAST, therefore, all the fowls mark to market and dump 'em, blubbering protoplasm piles.

Thank you LS for being the greatest reality USA dreamed, the citizen who truly cares about our enlightened due process law.

xo/PP

Anonymous said...

An entire culture was lured by the myths of higher education, little suspecting it was a system controlled top to bottom and beginning to end by an exclusive caste of rulers with no particular interest or respect for education, rulers that are in at least some cases holders of degrees achieved without learning anything, rulers who mutated higher education into their own image. Rulers paid very, very, well if they can but trap the culture into their own vision of education.

http://www.rense.com/general96/adminss.html

Anonymous said...

Holy Cow, those text messages are bombshells, LS! Where did you come up with those?

legalschnauzer said...

Those came from court documents, @10:55, but there are many, many more. And I have the actual text messages, which will be running shortly.

Anonymous said...

If Mr. Farese is not disbarred for this, something is seriously wrong in the state of Mississip

Unknown said...

The Cult Of The Reptilian Republican

One of the advantages of living abroad is that when you infrequently return, the observations are more stark than if you were a frog in a slowing boiling pot. While most people are cynical about America's declining state and Washington DC (District of Criminals) mismanagement of the country, no one can agree on what to do, if anything.

One night at dinner someone told us that when they got out of school they joined a cult. I joked, “Don't tell me, you mean you became a Republican?” That got a big laugh from her, but not the other reactionary Fox News Republicans at the table who have a dogmatic belief in the two party political system.

Later I was lectured about how the problem with America is that young people don't go into “the service” and “serve” their country. This old man should have read Smedley Butler, the US Marine General who wrote that “war is a racket” that serves corporate interests, not the health and well being of the American people, let alone the people in those countries who are being raped. Ironically, bringing back the draft might force Americans to wake up to the brutal wars they are engaged in, and cause them to reflect on their Zionist controlled and genocidal military policies in the Middle East. In fact, it is a good sign that an overwhelming number of Americans are opposed to a US bombing intervention in Syria.

An Omission Of Cognition

Here is an example of the shocking level of cognitive dissonance that I encountered. A college student I know was originally going to be a medical [CORRECTION, 'STUDENT'] school, but has now changed his goal to become a teacher. When I asked him about current political affairs, he said he intentionally does not watch TV or listen to the media, and does not look at or read anything from the internet either. He told me he knows everything he needs from his Dad who gets all of his information from Fox News!

What is worse, kids who graduate from college with worthless degrees in the humanities cannot pay back their student loans, and are saddled with debt for the rest of their lives while attempting to live on meagre salaries in the restaurant, teaching or health care fields.

And this fellow is going to become a “teacher.” I admire his purity of vision by going to church and avoiding trouble at school, but he will be easily manipulated by the powers that be. When I mentioned that America has killed millions and millions of innocent people he seemed offended. “Americans are so naïve, they have no clue how many millions of innocent people they have slaughtered.” The future teacher had no response other than a look of disbelief.

And yet a lawyer I know who works on labor issues reacted similarly, he also could not believe America has killed millions, questioning whether I was exaggerating or not. The number of people who know nothing about American history is amazing.

Americans will never wake up ­ they are buried under so many layers of entangled propaganda, some of it crass, much of it sophisticated, that finding their way out of the matrix without a concerted effort will be impossible. As the prolific political analyst Jon Rappaport recently wrote, “Ever since television came in, there’s been nothing but television. All other reality was banished. People just don’t realize it yet” (4). That's right, unless they unplug the TV they will never be free.

http://www.rense.com/general96/lastam.html

Andrew Kreig said...

I can share a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how this column shows, yet again, that Roger Shuler is good guy and extraordinary journalist, even if some of his targets might think otherwise about his hard-hitting style.

In this instance, defendant Ken Nowlin's son has tirelessly sought with little success until now to obtain fair coverage of his father's case. That is extremely difficult these days. News coverage of court cases tends either to be simply the official record with a heavy pro- prosecution slant, or massive coverage of a few national cases with little in-between.

Roger took the time to lend his research and conclusions to these examples as all to few few others do across the country.

legalschnauzer said...

Thanks for your kind remarks, Andrew. Yes, John Nowlin has done a splendid job of bringing attention to his father's case--and the Penni Tingle matter also is troubling, involving the same law firm that pressured Ken Nowlin into a guilty plea. Hope to have much more on these cases and the issues they raise.

Anonymous said...

I've read the Suez moment of '56' is now a turn in the barrel for USA, and this shock and awe is going to really not sit well with the GOP.

What are the biggest buffoons in the country to do once they can't get whatever the criminals want?

Our 'country' isn't a super power globally as standing alone, anymore, and this was the GOP's greatest goal. War mongering investments are what get the hideous off.

The time has changed and the so called Presidents of America are not welcome in most any country where the BS of US has defrauded the intelligent.

LS, your intelligence hasn't been defrauded and Alabama can bow to your word armies of 'wake-up!'

Andrew Kreig said...

Hi Roger: Well, I sincerely meant those remarks. PS I was a bit rushed in writing them, with the Navy yard massacre here in DC along with some other things. I hope the journalistic gods will forgive you can clean up the two misspellings in the last sentence of my comment, which should read "...all too few others...."

Anonymous said...

When are the Luther Strange/Jessica Garrison apologists going to start showing up in support of Steve Farese, saying his texts to a client really weren't all that bad?

Anonymous said...

The Nowlin and Tingle cases are just another sign that state bar associations are utterly incapable of policing their members.

Anonymous said...

I would bet that Mr. Farese has a serious alcohol problem--maybe a number of other problems. Those texts sound like they came from a man who was under the influence of something.

Anonymous said...

From Mr Farese's bio: "Woodward & White's, B
List Lawyers in America, every year since the year 2003"
Really? Fellow lawyers rating other lawyers I wouldguess. You can't tell me this is his first client that he has harassed. If you run afoul of the legal tribe they will try to destroy you either via: financial or criminal routes. They also work to discredit you (Roger) as the first line of defense. I'm sure there are decent honest lawyers out there...somewhere.

Anonymous said...

Bradley Arant 'creditor'

http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/files/accredited-home-lenders-creditors-list.pdf

Anonymous said...

My apologies to Jr I referenced his bio instead of his father's.

Anonymous said...

Your comment made me LOL, @4:12. I keep waiting for certain commenters to show up and claim that the Alabama Supreme Court's ruling in Cornerstone makes it perfectly fine for an attorney to ask his female client to "come f--k me."

That Cornerstone decision solves all problems, I tell ya!

Anonymous said...

How can we expect the defense attorneys to be held to a higher standard than the prosecuting attorneys. The district attorney in Bessemer, Arthur Green, owns the only methadone clinic in town. Can you say "Conflict of interest"? By the way, his partner in the methadone clinic, Robert White, owned one of the bingo parlors in Bessemer. This is why Bessemer's bingo halls were still open after all of the others in the state had been boarded up. Green even had Judge Verin to place a restraining order against him which forbid him from closing the parlors.

e.a.f. said...

How sad for these lawyers' clients. Thank you for bringing these cases to light. It may give the clients/victims a measure of justice.

The lawyer who sent the texts certainly has displayed some very bad judgement. it is clearly a case of sexual harassment. Most employers would fire an emoployee who sent out texts such as this.

In Alabama it might be best to find a freshly minted lawyer, who hasn't been exposed to the"sytem". They may not have the experience, but then on the upside, they might not be "in bed" with the prosecution.

Looking foward to more posts on this. Hopefully the lawyer will be disbarred and the clients receive new trials.

Anonymous said...

http://www.vice.com/read/the-autobiography-of-bob-guccione-098098-v20n9

Bob Guccione retained 14 law firms at 3 million per year and this was because he actually did something with his vices.

He could support himself in Europe by reading palms in five languages.

As disgusting as Penthouse appeared, now the pedophiles are so much further in the disgusting category and in control.

Ordinary people need to revisit good ole Bob entrepreneur predator but, consenting adults were his clients and not this other vice evil in bad puppy tunnel shots.

Keep up the great work LS, exposing the tap root corruption in USA as the GOP wrong clue about what sex really is about.

Unknown said...

A great author, Andrew Kreig, and his photo to ID him. OMG this is a real person who is doing the best at providing Americans with reading to educate and therefore, become well informed.

Navy shooting FALSE FLAG. The story is of course emerging like the dark murky waters always part for the real to be resurrected finally. Boston Marathon didn't work out either.

Presidential Puppetry.

Thanks Andrew for your work.

Anonymous said...

Sicko

Anonymous said...

What was the outcome of the harassment situation?

legalschnauzer said...

I believe Ms. Tingle has filed a civil action that still is in litigation.

Anonymous said...

just found some info. Looks like it may have been referred back to Circuit Courts this year.

Anonymous said...

This was very Awful how you send someone to prison for a crime that should have been dismissed