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Bagdade's Legal Journey from page 15
was happening. [Bagdade] always took the
time to explain everything to me. When
we were in court and the prosecutor would
cut me down, he was the only one who
would stand up and fight for me."
The trial started off on a fast track,
but, much to Bagdade's chagrin, quickly
got derailed. Prosecutors said the boy
had confessed to what amounted to pre-
meditated murder.
Nathaniel
Psychological tests
Abraham and
showed he was both
his attorney,
emotionally impaired
Daniel Bagdade
and had attention defi-
cit disorder.
Bagdade made a motion ahead of the
trial to have the boy's confession and
statements to police excluded. At a hear-
ing held specifically to decide whether the
confession was voluntary and whether the
defendant understood what was going on,
Bagdade had Abraham take the stand.
"It was the only time he took the wit-
ness stand," the attorney says. "I always
kept him under wraps. His responses were
gibberish, and Judge Moore deemed it an
illegal confession."
Shifting Tide
Bagdade was in shock when the judge
allowed the prosecution to take his rul-
ing deeming the confession illegal to the
Michigan Court of Appeals. The court
eventually decided 2-1 that the confession
could be admitted. That took time. And
two years elapsed before the trial began.
Those were crucial years to Bagdade's case.
Now Abraham was 13.
"It took so long that Nathaniel's appear-
ance changed," Bagdade says. "He looked
completely different than that little boy
look we were banking on. He had become
a teen with a hardened look on him."
At the same time, Bagdade said, "a
spate of major juvenile crimes" rippled
across the country. "The public was saying,
`Something has to be done.' The perspec-
tive of jurors had changed. And he was
convicted."
The jury convicted Abraham of second-
degree murder. "Thankfully, I was able to
argue for him to serve time as a juvenile."
Judge Moore sentenced Abraham to juve-
nile custody until he turned 21.
For the two years Abraham was await-
ing trial in Children's Village in Waterford,
Bagdade visited him two or three times a
week. "I felt very sorry for him, but I never
became a father figure, nor did I want
to be. The hours of visits turned into a
friendship."
At Maxey
After his sentencing, Bagdade continued
High-profile, low-key attorney
Judith Doner Berne
Special to the Jewish News
H
e was shoveling snow in front of his house
on a street in one of West Bloomfield's
older subdivisions.
He led his interviewer in through the garage, then
answered questions at the kitchen table.
Making judicial history by representing the young-
est person ever to be charged with first-degree mur-
der has changed Daniel Bagdade's life, he says.
But it doesn't seem to have changed Daniel
Bagdade.
"Dan is always professional, very unassuming. He's
a person without ego or arrogance," says Oakland
Chief Deputy Prosecutor Deborah Carley, who rep-
resented the state against Bagdade's young client,
Nathaniel Abraham. "It's a relief when Dan comes in.
There's no games, no politics."
Oakland County Circuit Judge Edward Sosnick
agrees. "He's a very quiet guy. In this 'once-in-a-life-
time' case, he put himself on the line. He felt that this
11-year-old had potential. He went above and beyond
to advocate for him. To be a caring counselor is what
16
February 15 • 2007
it's all about."
Judge Kimberly Small of the 48th District Court
in Bloomfield Township says, "Dan is what my grand-
father [a lawyer] used to call 'a gentlemen's lawyer.'
Dan's what I call the real standard.
"He cares very much about what he does," she
says. "He's in the profession to impact this commu-
nity and even the world. His word is his
stock in trade. He's the quintessential
mentsh."
Lawyerly Start
tion a bit to represent more and more children who
were in trouble.
"I love both that challenge and the opportunity to
work with young people and their families and to try
and help them."
Although he had been involved in high-profile cases
before and since, the magnitude of the Abraham case
"Dan's what I call the real standard.
His word is his stock and trade. He's the
quintessential mentsh."
Bagdade and his wife, Sarita, were
high school sweethearts. He took her
to their Detroit Mumford High School
prom. He earned both his undergradu-
ate and law degrees at Wayne State
University in Detroit.
"I've always wanted to be an attorney," he says.
"Law school doesn't prepare anyone for a case like
this. I know of no other criminal case that had the
staying power of this one.
"Professionally, it changed my life because I learned
so much," Bagdade says. "My practice changed direc-
- 48th District Court Judge Kimberly Small
didn't really hit until the first full court hearing.
As Bagdade arrived at Children's Village in
Waterford, he saw a number of television trucks out
front. "I was stunned to see that one or two were
national — CNN and Fox News. The reporters were
waiting for me and I realized I wasn't in Kansas any-
more. It just exploded from there."