And the Finalists Are

Congratulations to Terese Buese, Rob Freyer, Kevin Keating, Michele Saterelli Oncken, and Ted Wilson for making it into the finals on the Hector Heathcoat Awards for Prosecutors. Good luck to you all. Voting ends on Friday at 8 p.m.

The Nominess Are In

The nominees are in for the Hector Heathcoat Award for Prosecutors. Just like for the Defense Bar poll (has anyone told Skip that he won yet?), we are doing the bracket system.

Voting within the bracket system ends Friday at 8:00 p.m.

Reminder

I'm closing the nominees for the Hector Heathcoat Award for Prosecutors at 7 p.m. on Friday, so if you haven't nominated yet, get your votes in.

Remember, the voitng is for nominees at this point, so multiple votes for the same person are unneccessary. One nomination will take a candidate into the bracket system (except for Michael Pham, whom, although his nomination was pretty funny, isn't really a candidate).

On a side note, since I like this voting system thing, I was also thinking about the next vote being for something outside of our little incestuous world.

POSSIBLE TOPICS:

Best Police Officer (other than Walker, Texas Ranger)
Best Expert Witness
Best Judge
Best Court Coordinator (these folks never get the recognition they deserve)

I'm open to suggestion for other categories. I know this is cheesy, but I think it's a nice idea to let folks know that they are appreciated.

On that note, does anyone know if Skip Cornelius ever found out he was the Defense Bar winner? I've been dying to find out his reaction (or lack thereof) to this highly prestigious honor.

The Hector Heathcoat Prosecutor Awards

Alright, I stated when I did the Hector Heathcoat Awards the first time that I would do the Defense Bar first, and then the Prosecutors. I'm sure that the mere fact that I'm opening up nominations for the best prosecutors is enough to illicit a ton of backlash from some of the regular commentators who think that the entire staff of the Office needs to be taken out and shot.

But I think that the people who work in the CJC know that there are some excellent prosecutors there.

Nominate them here, if you can deal with the backlash. Every name nominated will go into the bracket system, like I did for the Defense Bar. Nominations close next Friday.

And Kelly Siegler isn't an option, since we are looking for the "unsung" prosecutors.

Here are my three nominees: Ted Wilson, Lyn McClellan, Denise (Nassar) Bradley

And the Winner Is . . .

Congratulations to Skip Cornelius for winning the first annual Hector Heathcoat Award for the best unsung defense attorney.

I feel comfortable in stating that, knowing Skip, he would probably give an acceptance speech that went something along the lines of "I could give a rat's ass."

That being said, I think Skip was a great choice from a field of great choices.

And the Finalists are . . .

After a week of voting, the four finalists for the Hector Heathcoat Award are in.

Congratulations to Skip Cornelius, Danny Easterling, Pete Justin, and Jim Leitner for making the final round. I think everyone would agree that these are all excellent choices out of four separate fields of excellent choices.

Voting closes in a week, so make sure to vote for who you think is the best unsung hero of the Defense Bar.

And yes, I know I may be committing copyright infringement based on the fact that the HCCLA already has a similar award, but this one even lets those damn prosecutors vote.

Bracket System It Is

Okay, we're going to the bracket system. Please vote in all four brackets for the HHA. The winner of each bracket will go into the final poll. They are arranged by alphabetical order.

Voting deadline is January 25th at 7 p.m.

Well crap

We are experiencing technical difficulties again with the Hector Heathcoat Awards. Although the portion of the blog that let's me create a poll let's me plug in all 18 of the nominees names, for some reason, when I publish it, only the first four names pop up.

I'm trying to figure out how to handle this terrible crisis at the moment. I may just do four different polls and create a playoff system.

Unless somebody can come up with a better idea before I do that.

More after the Green Bay game.

The Hector Heathcoat Primaries

The nominees for the Hector Heathcoat Award for the Defense Attorney are rolling in, and I'm glad to see a lot of the names on the list. I threw it to an open nomination process, because God knows that I would inadvertently leave someone off the list if I didn't.

Mark Bennett mentioned the Awards ceremony on website. He pointed out that the HCCLA also gives an Award to their criminal defense attorney of the year. And trust me, as the creator of the Hector Heathcoat Awards, I'll be the first to tell you that the HCCLA Award is a helluva lot more meaningful than the HHA. Congratulations to Vivian, by the way!

Consider the Hector Heathcoat Awards the same as the "People's Choice Awards" in comparison to the Academy Awards. They are here for fun, and anybody can vote on them (even the dreaded prosecutors).

Mark also threw down the gauntlet by posting: "But still, AHCL, don't leave the decision up to the fickleness of internet democracy. Have some backbone. Accept nominations and then make the decision yourself."

Now, where's the fun in that? I'll let the fickle public speak, and I will do a little commentary on the side, as a commentary. I'm all about making everybody happy -- even Mark.

Keep the nominees coming in. The deadline is seven o'clock on Sunday night. Or whenever I get around to it.

The Hector Heathcoat Awards

Okay, you've got to reach back into some serious nostalgia to recognize the name Hector Heathcoat. If you know the name, then you are a true cartoon addicts from the 1960s and 1970s. For those of you who don't recognize the name, Hector was the "unsung hero" of all of American history according to the cartoons. The one that sticks out in mind was him being the guy under George Washington's boat when the original G.W. was crossing the Delaware. Poor Hector was plugging a leak in the boat with his thumb, while under the boat.

But I digress.

The Hector Heathcoat Award is dedicated to the "Unsung Heroes" of the CJC. We are starting out with two categories - the unsung defense attorney and the unsung prosecutor. Sure, Rusty Hardin and Dick DeGuerin and Kelly Siegler all get a lot of attention as being great attorneys, but who are the ones the we know are also great attorneys that don't get near the recognition in the media that they deserve.

Here's the drill. I'm asking each of you to post your top three "unsung" attorneys. We are going to do DEFENSE attorneys this week, so I'm asking you to name your top three "unsung" defense attorneys. Dick and Rusty are disqualified, because they are both, um, "well-sung". I know that there are some great appellate/writ attorneys out there, but what I'm looking for here are the trial attorneys. If y'all want to suggest some other categories down the road, I'm all for it.

Nominate your peers. Nominate your adversaries. Just nominate. Every name that is listed is going to be placed in the poll on Sunday evening, and the voting will then begin. My plan is to let it run for a week (next week, we'll nominate prosecutors).

I know that there are a lot of people who post under "Anonymous", and that's cool. Nominate as much as you want to.

I'm going to throw out my three nominees (in alphabetical order):

Don Becker. Brian Coyne. Pete Justin.

Let the nominations begin . . .