Al Garcia (pic) is a Minneapolis attorney and if allegations reported in the Minneapolis Star Tribune are true he is a coked-out rapist.
Garcia, 50, who is currently being held in an Anoka County jail showed up for a client meeting with a 30 year old woman at her Minneapolis apartment building. On the elevator up to her apartment attorney Garcia told her, "Girl you fine as hell." The prospective client had asked Garcia to represent her in a consumer banking matter and according to her testimony she was prepared to sign business papers. Instead Garcia pulled out a bag of cocaine and starts snorting and eating it, and then according to her testimony, violently raped her.
There are bad lawyers, then there is Al Garcia. This story makes me sick, because if true, the clear inference arises that this isn't his first victim. This is the first victim who had the courage to come forward and report his criminal conduct.
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This bad seed Garcia was quite a Minneapolis opeartor, according to news accounts. He has already taken a 5 year jacket on a meth count. The rape will cost him beau coup years.
ReplyDeleteThere is a special place in Hell waiting for Al Garcia!!
ReplyDeleteInteresting read, used to run into Al and Misty all the time at my local bar. Don't know how many drinks he bought me when he was intoxicated on power, coke, meth, alcohol or maybe all of the above.
ReplyDeleteHe plead to a lesser on the drug charge, he beat the sex case and the State dismissed the witness tampering. I guess maybe there's a bunch of you who love to think the worst of someone when you don't know what you're talking about. He's no saint but you guys who judge lawyers and put yourself above everyone else seemed to have forgotten about the presumption of innocence. I only hope none of you get smeared with a bunch of allegations which ultimately don't stick.
ReplyDeleteAnon 6:22--
ReplyDeleteIf you had read a little longer in teh blawg you will see that the acquittal of Garcia is reported. But you should not delude yourself, Garcia is a scumbag whether he was a convicted rapist or not. He exploited and coerced clients for sex, his lawyer conceded this because a small platoon of women came into court and testified under oath. Likewise he is a drug addled piece of shit or are you able to report otherwise? If so, feel free to enlighten me? If so, please explain how at least two women describe him pulling bags of coke out, snorting and eating cocaine in their presence. Why did he plead to the meth charges? Seems like those allegations, stuck. Feel free to disabuse me.
BL
OK, let's start with your title. You got his name right.
ReplyDelete1) He's no longer a lawyer so he's not Al Garcia, Esq.
2) He plead guilty to possessing meth not coke, and the woman who testified about his coke use was obviously not believed.
3) He was found not guilty of sexual assault (rape)so apparently he's not a rapist.
But all of that misses my point. I'm not an Al Garcia apologist. I don't think he's a good guy, a noble guy a role model. I wouldn't let him represent me and I've seen him in Court regularly so I make my observations from experience and not what I read in the newspaper. In the list of criminal defense lawyers who regularly practice in Hennepin County and are unethical, incompetent and a danger to the unsuspecting public, Al Garcia may be top ten, but he's not top 5...
I like your blog. I'm not looking for a fight. I just don't like people slandering other people without first hand knowledge just because they can.
Anon. 10:36
ReplyDeleteI take your point, and while I disagree with your interpretation of the legal outcomes in Al Gacia's cases--and I accept you larger point. In part it is the point of this Blawg, but I think you are missing my point. A lawyer who coerces clients into sex and who ingests drugs in their presence is precisely who he is portrayed--that he is not criminally-convicted does not lessen this outcome. You want to quibble over whether it was coke, or meth you are quibbling over details without a difference. If I'm wrong about that, tell me what is the difference that you find significant? But let's talk about the sex with clients. Let's assume as you suggest that the sex with clients was not rape, do you seriously contend that this "sex" was "consensual." Clients in legal peril "consent" to sex with a lawyer they hae just met? I don't see this or believe this, common sense, the rules of ehtics of all professions tell you this is coercive and unethical.
Your contention that the jurors "did not believe" the women who testified at the trial. My friend, you are stretching the truth--your inference is not logical. As I said in the follow-up reporting on the verdict, the jurors did not believe he "raped this accuser," largely because she described a level of violence not reflected by physical evidence. I think you are making an insuperable logical leap when you conclude that jurors did not believe he engaged in this coercive sexual conduct with these clients. Perhaps you can point to some media accounts of interviews with jurors post-acquittal that support your claim and I promise to poublicize your interpretation.
So Al Garcia was a talented lawyer. From what I read about his reputation, apparently he was. In fact he's still a lawyer, he's a trained lawyer, an esqure, an Esq.--but, he has no license. You don't unring the bell, once you lose your license, you still think like a lawyer, you write and read like a lawyer.
Does Al Garcia have the spark of his creator within him, is he capable of rehabilitating himself? I'm guessing he does, but by denying that he is what he is and denying that he did what he did, does him and his reputation no big favor. I know, this personally and professionally because I'm trying to own every dirty act of my own,--but don't confuse lucky, merciful legal outcomes with the actual failures and outrageous conduct that brought him to where he is at.
This blawg is an attempt by a Bad Lawyer to look at the world, good and bad lawyers, good and bad judges, good and bad police, good and bad clients, and good and bad lawsuits--from the perspective of a white trash kid who made it to OurState College and a good law school thanks to the GI Bill, and over 28 years saw and did a lot. This is my prism, and while I appreciate, in fact I am grateful to you for defending Al Garcia--I find his story compelling because I know guys like Al Garcia, and truth be told, he's horseshoes from who I was and am.
I hope for Al Garcia he can transform himself. You know, it's possible--I'm hoping for my own sake that it is true.
BL
He got my money puck got me jail time.glad to see him locked up keep doing what you do Al become someone's b
ReplyDeleteanyone know when his probation is up? He stiffed me on 10K which was used to pay his rent and bills and fines, so he could get out of jail. nice way to pay back a pal that tried to help him out.
ReplyDeleteR.i.p
ReplyDeleteThings one does while in the grip of addiction should not define us. Am was a great father, husband and amazing friend to many. Not to mention an ok golfer. I had the pleasure of knowing Al and called hom a friend. I have a friend who married his daughter who can attest to the good man he was after dealing with the lies put forth by a woman who was at his side for many years. She was mad she didn't have a job after Al got set up by local drug dealers and he got disbarred. They were mad because Al lost a case and their
ReplyDeleteFriend went to prison
DeleteJudge not yest ye be judged first
ReplyDelete