SAN FRANCISCO—State Senator Leland Yee has signed up a new lawyer to represent him with gun trafficking and corruption charges brought to him last week. Yee on April 2, chose San Francisco attorney James Lassart to replace Paul DeMeester.
DeMeester said that the change was Yee’s choice and that there was no disagreement between them.
Lassart, 71, is a senior lawyer with Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney; and has handled a mix of cases including organized crime to murder trials. According to Times Herald, he was heavily involved in recent years representing police officers in hot water, but is best known in the Bay Area legal circles for his work as a prosecutor in both the US attorney’s office and San Francisco district attorney’s office.
Another defendant, former gangster Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, was assigned to defense lawyer Martha Boersch by US Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero.
Yee’s next court date is on April 8 for his arraignment.
(www.asianjournal.com)
(OCIE April 4-10, 2014 Sec A pg.1)
(AJPress, with reports from AP and Times Herald)
