Lawyer Browne defends himself

In a dramatic turnabout, one of Seattle's best-known criminal defenders took the stand yesterday, accused of incompetence for going to trial in a high-profile murder case instead of taking a plea bargain.

An admittedly "uncomfortable" John Henry Browne spent the entire day in the witness box in King County Superior Court, occasionally engaging in heated exchanges with the attorney representing his former client, Darrell Cloud.

Cloud was convicted of first-degree murder in 1995 for killing a Whitman Middle School teacher who had sexually abused him. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Since then, he's challenged his conviction and sentence, claiming that Browne urged him to reject a plea bargain offered by prosecutors, virtually guaranteeing him an acquittal based on an insanity defense.

Cloud, 31, also says his lawyer never told him or his parents what punishment he faced if convicted of premeditated murder.

He is now asking Judge Michael Hayden to either order prosecutors to reinstate their initial plea offer of second-degree murder -- and a recommended 15-year sentence -- or grant him a new trial.

In a glimpse into the usually secret world of lawyer-client negotiations, Browne said he told Cloud's father soon after prosecutors made their plea offer that if his son went to trial, Cloud had a 95 percent chance of either being acquitted or convicted of a lesser charge.

Browne testified that he made the statement after Bill Cloud angrily stated that a jury would never convict his son, given the decade-long history of abuse he took at the hands of Neal Summers, his former teacher.

Browne said he spun around and told Bill Cloud: "Don't ever say that. It's bad karma. Any case can be lost."

The attorney testified that he did what any competent attorney would do -- give sound, informed advice to his client and then let the client decide his fate.

But Jeff Ellis, Cloud's new attorney, questioned Browne about how carefully he advised his client about the risks of going to trial.

"Our claim, plain and simple, is that Mr. Browne failed to advise Mr. Cloud of the mandatory minimum accompanying a Murder 1 conviction and gave an unreasonable and grossly optimistic prediction regarding what would happen at trial," Ellis wrote in his request for a new trial.

In his Jan. 12 response, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Michael Lang wrote that the "ultimate decision" on whether to accept the plea was up to the client, and that Browne did nothing wrong. The 20-year sentence should hold, he said.

In the well-publicized incident, Cloud, after 10 years of being sexual abused by Summers, took an assault rifle to Whitman Middle School on the morning of Jan. 24, 1994. He waited for Summers to arrive, then shot him in the back from 150 feet away. Cloud was 24 at the time.

Soon after, police discovered that Summers had sexually abused other boys he taught.

Yesterday, during a break in testimony, Browne denied the allegations of incompetence. "I've certainly made mistakes in my career, but this isn't one of them," he said.

As to having his methods and actions questioned, something he's more accustomed to doing than receiving, Browne admitted it was "uncomfortable."

Browne, 53, is one of the region's highest-profile defense attorneys. He has defended a slew of notorious criminals, ranging from serial killer Ted Bundy to International District warehouse arsonist-killer Martin Pang.

Cloud is expected to testify today. The hearing is scheduled to last until early next month.

P-I reporter Sam Skolnik can be reached at 206-467-1039 or samskolnik@seattle-pi.com