Seen a Rogue on the loose? Get in touch with our Roguemeister: JOHN SCHRAG jschrag@wweek.com (503) 243-2122 FAX: (503) 243-1115 A man is facing death by lethal injection, and you're his lawyer. How far do you go to defend him? That's the question defense lawyer Chuck Rogers has faced for the past 10 weeks during the trial of his client, David Allen Cook. The jury eventually decided against the death penalty--a victory for Rogers, whose client was called the "Larch Mountain Thrill Killer"--but not before Rogers put himself in a difficult ethical quandary. One of the questions at the trial was Cook's state of mind. Did he intentionally empty his AR-15 into the victims? The prosecution said yes. The defense said no. Rogers and co-counsel Marc Sussman theorized that although Cook pulled the trigger just once, the gun malfunctioned and fired like a fully automatic weapon. They put a gun expert named Peter Tran on the stand to testify to that point. Prosecution experts countered with claims that they had fired the gun hundreds of times but couldn't get it to operate like an automatic weapon until they tampered with it by sticking a paper clip inside. It's no surprise that witnesses for the prosecution and defense would disagree. But Tran's testimony was suspect because of his background: He was under federal indictment in California and Oregon for crimes including selling illegal guns. "I was flabbergasted," says prosecutor Bill Williams. "He's not a gun expert. He's a gun smuggler." What disturbed Williams even more was that Rogers was Tran's attorney on the Oregon charges. Moreover, one of the conditions of Tran's pretrial release was that he not "possess" any firearms. By experimenting with the gun--an action that was captured on videotape--Tran was at risk of violating that condition. Asking a client to put himself at risk on behalf of another client is something lawyers generally avoid. Oliver Rodz, who also represents Tran, explained that Tran used the AR-15 in a highly controlled setting under the supervision of a well-respected forensics expert. "That was a case where my client was literally on trial for his life," Rogers explained. "That's where I was coming from." Rogers did not check with federal authorities beforehand to see if Tran's use of the gun was allowed. Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Weinhouse said his office is looking into Tran's activities to determine whether he violated any conditions. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published April 7, 1999