Lone defender savors high-profile case
Lawyer enjoys the public stage as Rockefeller saga grips the nation
A week after he began defending one of the most vilified criminal suspects in the country, Stephen B. Hrones sat in his cluttered law office on the Boston waterfront yesterday and characterized himself as Clark Rockefeller's lone voice of support.
"The press is crucifying him," he said, raising his voice in a room decorated with newspaper and magazine clippings about his cases. "He has no one to stand up for him at all. He has no friends now. No one wants to get involved. Someone has to stand up for him."
Hrones has been standing. And standing. And standing. In the past week, he has made rounds on network and cable news shows in New York and held repeated news conferences outside the Suffolk County Jail on Nashua Street minutes after visiting his client.
Some lawyers say they refuse to try cases in the court of public opinion. But Hrones says that to remain silent in this case would be crazy.
"They're not waiting for the trial," he said, referring to law enforcement authorities. "They're trying it in the press, and if you don't fight back, your client's convicted before you even have the trial."
At 66, Hrones is among Boston's best known and most flamboyant criminal lawyers. He has jokingly introduced himself as Mr. Innocence, a reference to his success in getting the convictions of four prisoners found guilty of murder or rape tossed on the basis of newly discovered evidence. Others call him "the Mad Czech" for his sometimes abrasive, confrontational style and blustery demeanor.
But Hrones says he has never encountered a case like that of Rockefeller, who was arrested Aug. 2 in Baltimore after police say he kidnapped his 7-year-old daughter on a Back Bay street six days earlier. Rockefeller has been declared "a person of interest" in a presumed slaying in California more than two decades ago and has left a trail of aliases.
The FBI and the Suffolk district attorney's office have yet to positively identify him, but his family in Germany say he was born in Bavaria with the name Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter and immigrated to the United States in 1978 at age 17. Los Angeles County authorities said Monday they have confirmed that Rockefeller is Gerhartsreiter.
The story of the defendant who, according to Hrones, cannot remember growing up in Germany and other chunks of his past, has captivated the public.
Hrones is the first to admit he savors the attention the case has brought him. He was put up at the Ritz-Carlton overlooking Central Park in New York for two nights last week by ABC because of an appearance on "Good Morning America." He boasts that someone at one TV station told him the bizarre Rockefeller saga is the hottest crime story since the Scott Peterson murder case.
"I'm going to enjoy the ride as long as it goes," said Hrones, who characterizes the case as the climax of his career. "But I'm protecting my client. He goes first."
But whether Hrones is helping his client or hurting him through news interviews is a matter of debate in Boston legal circles.
Damon Scarano, a lawyer who has known Hrones for years, said Hrones has humanized his client by sharing what Rockefeller says he remembers about his past. Hrones has told reporters that Rockefeller speaks German but does not remember growing up in Germany. Rockefeller also remembers "bits and pieces" of his childhood, a Scottish nanny and a visit to Mount Rushmore in a station wagon, for example, Hrones said.
"I think he's handling it very well," Scarano said of Hrones. "He's been very low-key on this. Usually, he's very hyper."
But other lawyers say privately that Hrones may have hurt his client by telling reporters Monday that Rockefeller recalls living in a guesthouse in San Marino, Calif., that he rented from John and Linda Sohus, a young couple, and John's mother, Didi, in the early 1980s. Hrones said Rockefeller also recalls when John and Linda Sohus went missing in 1985. The remains of a man believed to be John Sohus were found on the couple's property in 1994, and his wife has never been found. Both are presumed dead, authorities say.
The alleged admission by Hrones, said some lawyers, may have put his client at the scene of a homicide.
Hrones has also confirmed Rockefeller's use of aliases, saying there is nothing wrong with using another name if one does not commit fraud. "You members of the press, you could call yourselves Joe Blow or anything, and it'd be no crime," he told reporters Monday evening.
As it happens, Hrones said, he met Rockefeller several weeks ago, before the alleged kidnapping. A mutual friend whom Hrones declined to identify introduced the lawyer to Rockefeller in Boston. After Rockefeller was arrested Aug. 2 in Baltimore and his daughter, Reigh Storrow Mills Boss, was found unharmed, Rockefeller called his friend and asked him to get in touch with Hrones.
Hrones, a Harvard-educated son of an MIT professor, has long had a deep distrust of authority and sympathy for people in trouble. In the 1960s, he protested the Vietnam War outside the Pentagon. In recent years, he has denounced the Boston Police Department for several wrongful convictions.
His successes included a 2004 ruling that erased the conviction of Angel S. Toro, who was sentenced to life in prison for killing a Howard Johnson's clerk in Dorchester during a 1981 holdup. Toro is still serving a sentence of three years to life for an unrelated murder conviction in Florida.
"I had about 14 attorneys since he was arrested, and without a doubt, he was the most effective," said Toro's wife, Debra, of Melrose.
Robert A. George, another defense lawyer, said that "when the world seems to be crashing down all around a defendant, there is not a better person to be fighting for your life."
Michael Levenson of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com. 