Lawyers for Cardinal Law want to delay his depositions in a civil trial until after he goes before a criminal grand jury. The lawyer is afraid that Law will “inadvertently contradict” himself during a deposition and open himself to a charge of perjury.
- “It’s every lawyer’s nightmare,” said J. Owen Todd, Law’s personal counsel, after filing an emergency motion before Suffolk Superior Court Judge Constance M. Sweeney. “Any lawyer worth his salt who has a client about to go before a grand jury must consider that the client, through carelessness, could say something at variance with what has been testified to before.”
I don’t understand. If you’re telling the truth, what do you have to worry about? Okay, a lip of the tongue is understandable, but are you going to be convicted of perjury because of it? Now someone who’s been evading the truth or dissembling would have something to worry about, although I’m not accusing the cardinal of that.
I guess with his inability to recall certain details at various times, if he suddenly remembers something that he said in another deposition that he didn’t, he could be in trouble, but that seems unlikely, doesn’t it?
