Mayer Morganroth, attorney of former mayoral chief of staff Christine Beatty, has reacted to an article in last week’s edition of the Michigan Chronicle that suggested cracks in his client’s defense. The article was written after 36th District Court Chief Magistrate Steve Lockhart ordered Beatty to wear a tether for making travel plans outside the state.

Beatty, together with Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, are facing 12 felony counts of misconduct, perjury and obstruction of justice emanating from a whistle-blower trial involving former Detroit police officers Harold Nelthrope and Gary Brown.

In the Chronicle article titled “Cracks in Beatty’s defense?” Detroit attorney Ray Paige said he was not impressed with Morganroth’s representation of the once powerful Detroit chief of staff.

“I’m not impressed with the lawyer’s work. It appears that something is wrong. She is charged with perjury. She is not charged with murder,” said Paige, who also asked why Morganroth let magistrate Lockhart berated Beatty in court, questioning her employability.

In response, Morganroth said in an interview that there are no cracks in his defense of Beatty. He said Beatty did notify the court of her travel plans by calling Pre-Trial Services who said Lockhart wanted more information from his client about her travel to Atlanta and Mobile, Ala.

“There was nothing that fell through the cracks. She had requested the permission of the court. They wanted the telephone numbers of the two lawyers in Atlanta and Alabama who were going to get her a job,” Morganroth said.

Morganroth said he called Lockhart who told him he would call him the following day at 11 a.m. Instead, what he received was a 10:38 a.m. call Lockhart made to him demanding an appearance of him and his client in his court at 1 p.m.

“The prosecutor did not know what it was about. We got there and he (magistrate Lockhart) went into a tirade,” Morganroth said. “After that we went up to see the chief judge who requested a reconsideration of the motion. The chief judge looked at the tape and said there was no reason for the tether.”

Morganroth said he made it clear to Lockhart that Beatty never breached any of her requirements.

“The fact of the matter is I responded to all that he said. I represented Coleman Young for 20 years. I never had anything said that I don’t speak up for my clients,” Morganroth said. “For him (Ray Paige) to make that comment he probably did not read the transcript.”

Asked what he did when Lockhart was berating Beatty, Morganroth said in the law business, one always learned to respond to such tirades with dignity.

“When a judge is screaming at you, all you do is respond in a dignifying manner,” he said. “What you do is you answer dignified. If not, it looks like a screaming match.”

Morganroth said Lockhart was even questioning if Beatty’s children were hers or “play children.”

“I told him they are her real children,” he said.

On Paige’s criticism of his strategy, Morganroth said, “I would not at any time comment on another lawyer’s strategy.

Morganroth said he’s been practicing law for decades representing high profile clients, including federally indicted Southfield lawyer Geoffrey Fieger. He said he found it surprising someone else would be telling him how to do his job.

Paige is also the respected Detroit attorney who most recently represented African American Devin Plummer, who was falsely accused by Taylor police in the murder of a White woman in Taylor. After a vigorous defense of his client’s innocence, contrary to prosecutor Kym Worthy’s public statements that there was enough evidence to proceed with murder charges, Plummer was acquitted.