Judge's order to Brentwood landlord was rare move

Suffolk County Judge James Hudson issued an extraordinary and rare order when he told Brentwood landlord Wilson Milord to either plead guilty to causing the deaths of three people or to act as his own attorney in his trial, several legal experts said Thursday.

However, the judge may have been justified, because Milord - who agreed to serve 1 to 3 years in prison when he pleaded guilty Wednesday to three counts of criminally negligent homicide - appeared to be trying to delay his trial by forcing his defense attorneys to resign, experts said.

When Hudson last week ordered Milord to represent himself at trial, the judge cited what he called a "clear pattern" in which Milord frequently refused to pay his private attorneys, who then quit.

"Maybe he was trying to manipulate the system in that case, by constantly changing attorneys, and if that was the case, the court may have decided that this was not a good-faith effort on his part," said Barbara Barron, a professor at Hofstra University School of Law in Uniondale. "The judge at this point probably had no other recourse but to force his hand."

Milord, 50, of Brentwood, was indicted in October 2008 on charges stemming from the November 2007 carbon monoxide deaths of three people at a home he owned in West Babylon. Prosecutors said the fatal fumes came from a gas-powered generator Milord placed inside the house.

Milord initially was represented by a Legal Aid attorney, but later was deemed ineligible because of his income. During the next 20 months, Milord hired four private lawyers, each of whom resigned.

Hudson delayed jury selection earlier this month for more than two weeks to give Milord time to settle a salary dispute with his then-attorney, Albert Dayan of Kew Gardens, Queens, and after Dayan resigned June 7, to hire a new attorney. Dayan represented Milord at his guilty plea Wednesday but said he would not have stayed on for a trial.

Dayan, who will represent Milord at his Sept. 9 sentencing, said Thursday he could not discuss the case. Of Hudson, Dayan said, "In my opinion, he is most honorable."

Hudson's decision to force Milord to represent himself because his attorneys resigned - as opposed to being fired - is exceedingly rare, legal experts said. "I have never heard of this," said Barron, a former Manhattan prosecutor.

A spokesman for the district attorney's office said Milord waived his right to appeal when he pleaded guilty. "Had he not, we are confident it would withstand judicial scrutiny," spokesman Robert Clifford said.

But Milord still could ask for a trial after he is sentenced, said Richard Klein, a professor at Touro Law School in Central Islip. He called Hudson's order for Milord to be his own attorney "a form of coercion."

"The courts do overturn pleas if they find the defendant did not voluntarily choose to enter a plea," Klein said. "Most of us wouldn't want to go into such a case, with such serious charges, representing ourselves. We wouldn't know what to do."

Milord "still has a chance" for a trial if he can show he pleaded guilty due to "unjustifiable coercion" by Hudson, said former Queens and Brooklyn prosecutor Eugene O'Donnell, a defense attorney and professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan.

But Dayan's appearance in court Wednesday probably hurt Milord's chances because he had an attorney with him when he entered the plea, O'Donnell said. "That's probably the end of the appellate issue," he said.

It didn't help Milord's case that he also pleaded guilty Wednesday to mortgage fraud and forgery, O'Donnell said. Those pleas could suggest to an appeals court that he is "an admitted con man," he said, adding, "He's got an extraordinary, Everest-type hill to climb."