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UConn Football Player's Killing Puts Sibling Solos in National Spotlight
The Connecticut Law Tribune
November 11, 2009
Attorneys Deron Freeman (left), his father Donald Freeman (middle), and his brother Justin Freeman (right) are solo attorneys who share office space.
Image: Gary Lewis/The Connecticut Law Tribune
For attorney Deron Freeman, the phone call was like so many others he has fielded. Parents were on the other end of the line, worried about police interrogating their son.
Freeman hung up and called University of Connecticut police, who were questioning John William Lomax III of Bloomfield, Conn. Freeman informed detectives that Lomax, 21, now had an attorney, and Freeman showed up on campus an hour later, around 1 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon.
UConn police were interested in Lomax because several hours before, he was at the scene when Jasper Howard, a UConn football player, was fatally stabbed once in the stomach during an on-campus dance.
But what Freeman didn't know at the time was that the phone call from Lomax's parents would thrust Freeman into the biggest case of his life.
The story of Jasper Howard has become a national phenomenon, with media outlets from all corners taking interest in the Miami native who was killed following the UConn Huskies' victory over the University of Louisville on Oct. 18. And since Lomax's arrest on charges of murder and conspiracy to commit assault in late October, Freeman has been in the thick of it.
During a busy day at Freeman's Hartford law office recently, a woman visiting stopped him in the hall saying, "There's the celebrity lawyer."
"I had no idea the case was going to get this big," Freeman told the Connecticut Law Tribune. "It's been crazy. I've gotten hundreds of calls from different media outlets around the country."
But it's not just Deron, 35, who is involved. Older brother, Justin, 37, got a separate call at 9:20 a.m. on the Monday after the stabbing from the parents of John Hood of Hartford. Hood was arrested on charges of interfering with an officer and breach of peace during the commotion that occurred when party-goers spilled outside when a fire alarm was pulled during a university-sponsored event. Two other men also have been arrested in connection with the incident.
Even though Hood is not facing murder charges, Justin Freeman said the attention from the case has been eye-opening as his and his brother's names are now circulating regularly around the world. "It's certainly been an experience," Justin said. "It's definitely the biggest criminal law matter I've been involved in."
OFFICE WITH DAD
The Freeman brothers have offices next to each other in their suite near the state Capitol, and they're down the hall from the office of their father, Donald E. Freeman, who has been practicing law since the mid-1970s.
Their caseloads all include varying amounts of criminal defense and personal injury work. Deron handles mainly criminal defense; Justin and Donald lean more toward personal injury and medical malpractice cases.
But there's a twist to it. Despite sharing the same office space, the Freemans are technically three separate solo attorneys with their own payrolls and support staff.
The trio practiced as business partners of the Freeman Law Firm for a few years until 2008 when they split off to run their own shows, thereby becoming competitors of sorts.
It seems to fit their personalities.
Donald Freeman launched his solo career in 1985 after a decade working in-house for Aetna. Deron and Justin have a fierce competitive streak honed by years of playing sports against each other and being close in age. Both were multi-sport athletes at Windsor High School before earning college baseball scholarships. "We push for one another, and there's no animosity," Justin said. "It's definitely a friendly competition."
And their path to the law wasn't necessarily laid out for the brothers. "I never encouraged them to go to law school," Donald said. "I told them it's a business and a tough one."
He added, with a laugh, "Obviously, they didn't listen to me."
But there were distinct moments growing up that make sense of their current career choices. Deron remembers long road trips in the car when he and Justin would debate each other over most any topic, and Dad always served as the judge.
Justin recalls an incident when, as a 16-year-old, police tried to force him to leave a Windsor, Conn., fast-food restaurant because some teenagers were involved in an altercation, though Justin was sitting alone eating a hamburger. He refused to leave and police arrested him for breach of peace, a charge that soon was dismissed after his father appeared in court with Justin. "That instilled in me the desire to stand up for what was right," Justin Freeman said. "Dad always told us to stand up for ourselves."
And besides Justin and Deron, there's a younger brother who practices law in Massachusetts and a younger sister in New Jersey who is studying for her doctorate in psychology. "I'm proud of all of them, and I don't tell them enough," Donald Freeman said.
One of his proudest moments was the day he found out Deron and Justin would become members of the bar. Donald was in the middle of a trial and during a recess, he scanned the list of people who passed the bar exam.
His sons' names were listed next to each other. "I was just on cloud nine," Donald said.
Working so closely to each other, Deron and Justin often come to Donald asking legal questions or seeking his opinion. They disagree when it comes to discussing cases with the media.
"I wouldn't criticize them for commenting" on the Jasper Howard case, Donald said. "If you're going to get in front of the camera or be interviewed, you need to be careful with your words."
With so much attention being paid to Jasper Howard, Deron Freeman said it's important to publicly discuss his client's side of the story. He maintains his client did not stab Howard and was instead attempting to break up a fight among some UConn football players and visitors who came to the dance from out of town.
To date, Deron Freeman has been interviewed on Nancy Grace's show on CNN, on Fox News Channel, and on ESPN Radio. He's also been quoted in the Los Angeles Times and New York Times. He said there was a rush to knowing that his words would be heard around the country. "This was definitely different from other cases, and it's exciting," Freeman said.
WORD-OF-MOUTH
Deron Freeman said there are some things that his father's advice can't really address, such as his age. "I'm young and I look young and that has created some roadblocks trying to land big cases," he said.
He hopes that changes through his representation of Lomax. "He could've hired anyone," Deron said. "It means some people respect the work that I've done, and it makes me feel like all of the things I've done to now weren't for nothing."
Deron and Justin do a lot of on-the-ground marketing of their law practices in the community, sponsoring basketball teams in the Hartford Pro-Am summer league and doing pro bono criminal defense work, for example.
Those types of activities led them to represent their current clients in the Jasper Howard case, and their involvement could go a long way toward making them more household names. "We get a lot of word-of-mouth business," Justin Freeman said. "Being a solo practitioner, I don't have a big advertising campaign."
Though no case has generated attention like Jasper Howard's murder, Deron Freeman has represented some defendants in murder cases that have made the local news and also has been retained in cases involving other athletes.
Most recently, he represented New Britain High School student Tebucky Jones Jr., a UConn football recruit and son of the former professional football player, after Jones got into a fight at school this spring. Deron said the case ended "with a good disposition."
But not all cases are so easy to defend.
"It's difficult to see a young black person with a bright future lose his life, and to represent a young black person who's accused of doing it," Deron said. "Sometimes I struggle with that, but in the end I have a duty to represent my client to the fullest."
Deron is due back in court with Lomax on Nov. 13 when the date for the probable cause hearing will be set. He said he'll likely log "a couple of hundred hours" on Lomax's case.
"A case of this nature where a person is facing life in prison with no parole is a serious undertaking," he said.
