KIRK NURMI: THE MOST HATED LAWYER IN ARIZONA

Article BY Alan R Warren

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Do we Punish our Officers of the court by putting them on Television and Social Media During Trials? In Saving Jodi Arias' Life, Kirk Nurmi Became the Most Hated Lawyer in Arizona.

On June 4, 2008, Travis Alexander was killed by his ex-girlfriend, Jodi Arias, in Alexander's house in Mesa, Arizona. Arias was convicted of first-degree murder on May 8, 2013, and sentenced to life in state prison in April of 2015.

When the cameras turned onto the Arias case in January 2,2013, the televised courtroom drama became a worldwide sensation. At the time of the killing, Alexander sustained multiple knife wounds and a gunshot to the head.

Arias testified that she killed Alexander in self-defense. In opening arguments on January 2, 2013, prosecutor Juan Martinez sought the death penalty. Arias was represented by appointed counsel L. Kirk Nurmi and Jennifer Willmott, who argued that Alexander's death was a justifiable homicide committed in self-defense.

While working at the Maricopa County Public Defender's Office in 2008, Nurmi's supervisor handed him the Arias file, telling him, "It's a unique case." Nurmi saw immediately that the murder case was complicated, and the accused was a woman. "this was a tragic and sad case" kirk says, "a beloved young man was Murdered, when I heard, Kirk say those things, I realized that here sat an officer of the court, that was truly out to help our community by doing the best job as public defender that he could, and prevent Ms. Arias from the death penalty. " I don’t believe in the Death penalty and want to prevent it where I can", " I was there to try and save Ms. Arias' life"

Nurmi became a target of public hate for defending her. There were still the familiar sounds of the press about Nurmi's appearances, " was he having hair plugs?" " did he have the Lap Band or Gastric Bypass Surgery?" and even a whole Facebook page committed to what ties Kirk would wear each day. Kirk had stated that when meeting with Ms. Arias," it was real casual, like meeting somebody at a Starbucks" "She was Flirtatious " It was almost like she didn’t realize how serious the case was against her" So not only did Nurmi have a Client that seemed totally uninterested in her own trial, he had the ridicule of the public and media.

Nurmi grew to loathe Arias, her daily calls from jail, and her excessive needs. The case monopolized his time, thwarting his ability to work on other cases.

Deciding Arias wasn't good for his career after all, Nurmi quit the public defender's office in 2011 and filed a motion to withdraw as Arias' attorney.

Arias, who had a second court-appointed attorney, persuaded Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens that Nurmi should be forced to continue what he started.

Nurmi kept working as Arias' attorney alongside court-appointed lawyer Jennifer Wilmott. Though in May 2013, a jury convicted Arias of first-degree murder, it was deadlocked on the penalty.

That sparked a new penalty-phase trial in which Arias wanted to represent herself. Judge Stephens denied that request, which meant Nurmi had to remain on the defense team.

Finally, in April 2015, Nurmi was released from his servitude by the second conviction and subsequent life sentence for Arias.

Later in 2015, without obtaining permission from Arias, Nurmi wrote “Trapped with Ms. Arias: Part 1 of 3 From Getting the File to Being Ready for Trial”, and self-published it."The book, in its entirety, presents a negative view of Arias and her case," states the State Bar of Arizona's Agreement for Discipline by Consent, dated November 14, 2016.

In the book, Nurmi covers private and confidential discussions with Arias and her family members and makes "disparaging remarks" about her.
He also went on a talk-radio show (House of Mystery heard on KFNX 1100 A.M. Phoenix hosted by Alan R. Warren also the author of this article) in March of 2016 to promote the book, reiterating facts in it that he should not have discussed publicly.

Attorney-client privilege is one of the oldest legal concepts. It protects clients from testimony by their own legal defenders. The book would have been fine if Arias liked it, but Arias filed a complaint against Nurmi earlier this year with the state bar, resulting in the disciplinary case.

"In short, Mr. Nurmi violates numerous ethical rules in his single-minded quest to rehabilitate his public image and line his pocket book at the expense of all others involved — most especially, and egregiously, his client Ms. Arias," writes Karen Clark, the attorney Arias retained for the action, in a letter to the state bar in May.

Nurmi even insulted Arias' cat on page 158 of his book, Clark writes. “He did so knowing this would hurt Ms. Arias, who deeply loves her cat," the letter states.

Nurmi didn't make out badly on the Arias case, Clark writes, noting that he earned an estimated $2.5 million in fees for the case. Following an investigation by the bar, Nurmi agreed to a four-year suspension. Arias filed an objection to the suspension — but before she did that,
Nurmi changed his mind and agreed to disbarment, says Rick DeBruhl, state bar spokesman. DeBruhl says he can't comment on the Nurmi case, but that in general, it's usually acceptable for attorneys to write a book about what happened in their client's case — if the client gives permission
Nurmi claims to have written the book to help people understand when they are found in a toxic relationship, that they need to leave. "I wanted people to read my book, and understand that they needed to separate themselves " he exclaimed.

It's the just latest instance of how Arias, affects Nurmi's life from behind bars. But in typical Jodi Arias style, Kirk Nurmi was not the only person to have had their life affected by her actions.

On the other side of the bench we have Juan Martinez, the deputy Maricopa County Attorney who also gained fame in the Arias case, for his aggressive prosecution of Jodi Arias, published his own book last year: Conviction: The Untold Story of Putting Jodi Arias Behind Bars and possibly moving on to a career in politics. The fiery prosecutor in Jodi Arias' murder trial has made the shock revelation that Arias almost went free - despite stabbing her ex-boyfriend 29 times and shooting him in the face.

Speaking on the Dr. Phil show, Juan Martinez gave fascinating details about how he could prove that the murder was in fact a premeditated attack - not the result of an impulsive 'jealous rage', as her defense had argued.

Martinez said his suspicion about her story had deepened after detectives found that Arias had bought spare gas cans months before her trip to Arizona, that had ended in the bloody murder of ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander.

“With that information, I started to look at some of the receipts that were taken during an execution of a search warrant on her house, and I saw there was a receipt for a five-gallon gas can. So now I knew that I had three five-gallon gas cans, 15 gallons,” Martinez told Dr. Phil.
“And I also knew that in an interview with the police, her mother said, 'Jodi told me that she wasn't anywhere in Mesa and she had the receipts to prove it.” So, it was clear she was planning to keep certain receipts, but she was also planning not to stop in Arizona for gas, because the 15 gallons allowed her to go through the state of Arizona without stopping for gas.'

But what is most astonishing about Martinez' account is that if it hadn't have been for the gas cans she could have gotten away with it. Martinez said they were the key evidence that helped him prove to the jury that Arias had planned the trip to murder Alexander.
Martinez added: 'Even in opening statements, the defense attorney indicated it was a trip she hadn't planned… but the gas cans spoke otherwise.'

He also explained that changing her hair from platinum blonde to drab brown and removing the license plates from the car were both indicators of pre-meditation.

'She went to great lengths to make sure that no one could tell she was there. And, by in large, she was successful,' he said. 'Except for that one mistake, she probably would've gotten away with it.'

The fiery prosecutor made these revelations in his recent tell-all book

So, what could possibly be the downside to having a trial televised? It leads to writing successful books, television appearances, and even a political career!

An as-yet-unrevealed person filed a complaint over that book, (sounds like somebody familiar) resulting in an investigation and the possibility of discipline for Martinez, if the bar finds that he committed an ethics violation. Still pending is Bar charge lodged against Martinez for publishing a book about the Arias case before it has gone to appeal.

Just one year ago in a previous case filed against Martinez where he was suspended for one year. In a document that was released on Thursday September 29, 2016, the Attorney Discipline Probable Cause Committee of the Arizona Supreme Court ordered that Martinez be on probation for one year. The order states that Martinez violated three Supreme Court rules governing the conduct of attorneys:

•Engaging in unprofessional conduct.

•Using means that have no substantial purpose other than to embarrass, delay, or burden any other person, or using methods of obtaining evidence that violate the legal rights of such a person by, among other things, improperly attacking the defendant.

•Engaging in professional misconduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice.

The initial charges were filed last December by Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice, an association of criminal defense attorneys. The 27-page charge detailed Martinez' actions in 11 murder cases — including the Arias case — going back a decade. The charges were vetted by the Bar, then passed to the Supreme Court's Attorney Discipline Probable Cause Committee. The order of admonition did not refer to specific cases Martinez prosecuted, and the Bar does not comment on details.

Instead, a statement from the State Bar said simply that the admonition was issued "for inappropriate statements made by Mr. Martinez during various trials or other legal proceedings. In some instances, these statements were found to be unprofessional or otherwise improper by the Arizona Supreme Court but did not require a reversal of the underlying criminal cases." Martinez had 10 decided to appeal the admonition and the matter will go to a formal hearing. The order wasn’t more specific than that. What did he do? When? How? That sort of thing.

AZ Central reporter Michael Kiefer contacted the state bar, and learned that Martinez is in trouble for making “inappropriate statements” during certain legal proceedings. Nothing bad enough to reverse trial verdicts, but bad enough. However, Kiefer wasn’t really given anything more detailed than that.

I talked with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and the Arizona state bar replied to my request for comment. They can’t talk about this specific case since Martinez is now appealing the decision. However, it was pointed out that lawyers who were admonished in informal hearings like Martinez’s were unlikely to face disbarment when they got a more formal appeal.

Overall, it’s to be said, that these two were just collateral damage of a much larger design of Jodi Arias to manipulate and control all things in her life.

Only these two cases, like the whole trial, and now housing her for the rest of her life, has been paid for by us, the tax payers of America.

Alan R Warren is a True Crime Author for RJ Parker Publishing as well as a contributing writer for True Crime Case Files Magazine with his Master’s Degree in Music, Minor in Criminology from U.W. and Recording & Sound Engineering from Juno award winning Bullfrog Studios in Vancouver