Defense lawyer Elliot M. Weinstein has pancreatic cancer

(Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff)

Elliot M. Weinstein spoke to reporters in December 2006 in the Middlesex Superior courthouse in Cambridge.

By Globe Staff

Well-known defense lawyer Elliot M. Weinstein has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and is scheduled to undergo surgery today, according to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

Weinstein has represented the reputed former accountant for the Boston Mafia, Francesco J. Angiulo, and Neil Entwistle, the British man convicted in June of murdering his wife and infant daughter.

The Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers sent a memo to its members saying that Weinstein was scheduled to undergo surgery.

"Obviously this is very concerning, but Elliot appears to be optimistic," wrote Randy S. Chapman, the association president. "Please join me as we extend to him and his family our prayers and wishes for a complete and healthy recovery."

Weinstein is the former president of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He represented Angiulo in the mid-1980s in a case in which he was convicted of racketeering charges in one of the most far-reaching prosecutions of organized crime figures in New England. Weinstein also represented Ismael Vasquez, the gang leader convicted with three other men of killing Io Nachtwey, a 21-year-old homeless woman who panhandled in Harvard Square.

Globe staff writers Kathleen Burge And John R. Ellement wrote a profile of Weinstein that ran in the newspaper on Feb. 16, 2006:

DEFENSE LAWYER NOTED FOR LOW-KEY, METICULOUS STYLE

Elliot M. Weinstein was a law student in his early 20s when he won his first acquittal, successfully defending a man accused of stealing a radio from a Newton drugstore. In the decades since, Weinstein has represented a legion of people accused of a wide range of crimes.

Yesterday, Weinstein, 57, became an instant media celebrity, his pager buzzing all day, relaying phone numbers from reporters around the world. He was appointed as Neil Entwistle's lawyer by the state Committee for Public Counsel Services, beginning possibly the most-watched case of his career. Although other defense lawyers had lobbied to represent the man charged with killing his wife and baby, the low-key Weinstein said he had not.

Weinstein is pure defense lawyer, not a "switch-hitter," the derisive term for defense lawyers who began their careers as prosecutors. He is a Thomas Jefferson-quoting advocate for the protection of individual rights who says he heard no single clarion call to devote his life to defending people accused of often-horrific crimes.

"I've always been concerned with the potential for abuse of power and abuse of power by the government," he said yesterday in federal court, as he waited for a jury to return in a cocaine conspiracy case.

Weinstein is a lanky broomstick of a man whose only flamboyance appears in the cowboy boots he wears in court with fancy suits. "He's the only Boston lawyer I know who wears cowboy boots," said John Swomley, another Boston defense lawyer.

These days Weinstein's gray hair is trimmed short; he had a ponytail until about eight years ago. His only other adornment is a heavy gold ring, engraved with his initials, from his bar mitzvah.

Weinstein spent several months away from the courtroom last year after his son, Zack, broke his neck in an accident in Maine's Saco River. Zack, now 20, was paralyzed from the chest down and spent months in rehabilitation hospitals in Atlanta and Boston. He plans to return to Skidmore College in the fall. Weinstein and his wife also have a daughter in high school.

A former president of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Weinstein is well-respected among defense lawyers. He is meticulous as he prepares cases, they say, self- assured but not combative as he questions witnesses and speaks to judges.

"He doesn't scream and yell," said Stephen Hrones, a fellow Boston defense lawyer. "He's not abrasive."

Weinstein was born and grew up in Brookline, the son of a salesman, and has lived near Boston for most of his life. He graduated from Trinity College in Hartford and Boston College Law School. When he graduated from law school in 1974, he spent five years working with the state's public defender agency, defending indigent clients.

He then spent a few years working with another lawyer, but after a San Francisco case defending Hell's Angels on racketeering charges, the partner remained on the West Coast, and Weinstein has been a solo practitioner ever since. Some lawyers view him as a private, even aloof man.

In the courtroom, Weinstein represented Francesco J. Angiulo, described as the Boston Mafia's accountant, convicted in 1986 on racketeering charges with two of his brothers in one of the most far-reaching prosecutions of organized crime figures in New England. Weinstein also represented Ismael Vasquez, the gang leader convicted last year with three other men of killing Io Nachtwey, a 21-year-old homeless woman who panhandled in Harvard Square.

As Weinstein begins representing Entwistle in the internationally known case, other lawyers say the rewards are mixed. He will automatically win more publicity than any daytime television ad could bring. He may confront novel legal issues, and he will deal with the sorts of constitutional questions that motivate defense lawyers, said Jonathan Shapiro, a Boston defense lawyer.

Weinstein will earn $100 an hour, considerably less that he would make in the private cases that take up much of his time, Shapiro said. And, defense lawyers say, Weinstein is representing a client already portrayed unsympathetically in the news media.

Martin G. Weinberg, a veteran Boston defense attorney, has known Weinstein for 30 years and has been co-counsel with him in numerous criminal trials. Weinstein, who came of age during the turmoil of the 1960s, chose to work as a defense lawyer, rather than joining a large law firm and practicing corporate law.

"I think he's a model criminal defense lawyer," Weinberg said. "He has the heart, the spirit, and the energy to try to level a daunting playing field that has been created by this poisonous pretrial publicity."

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