to meet with Abraham every couple of
months at the William J. Maxey Boys
Detention Facility in. Whitmore Lake.
Their time together didn't have much to
do with the case, Bagdade said. "We talked
about sports a lot. I'd bring him up to date
on what was going on in the world. He was
interested. He didn't always understand.
"He loves jokes. He has a great sense of
humor. As he matured, we kind of talked
about life in general, about how he was
doing at school and in therapy."
Bagdade wasn't allowed to bring him
gifts. So he'd donate magazines such
as Sports Illustrated and Time to the
Maxey facility, hoping that Abraham
would have access to them.
"Nate was leading a life unlike any other
young man in the United States:' Bagdade
says. "His life was spent being told what to
do and when to do it.
"It's just unthinkable that he would
come through this with such flying colors,"
Bagdade said. "Since he's such a smart kid,
it didn't take long for him to catch up to
his age level."
Abraham earned his high school diplo-
ma and began college classes at Maxey.
"He became a leader," Bagdade says.
Bagdade gives full credit to the teachers,
social workers and therapists who worked
with Nathaniel daily. And, he says, "his

mother is tremendously involved in his
life" as well as his older sister and adopted
grandparents.
It has resulted in Abraham becom-
ing "a bright, articulate, curious, aware,
hard-working, funny, interesting friend,"
Bagdade says.
For the last six months, Abraham has
been at a Bay City halfway house on a
work-release program. "He socked away a
good deal of money," Bagdade says.
Abraham used some of it to buy the
much-maligned outfit he wore on Jan.
18, when he was released from state
supervision. It was the day before his 21st
birthday. The white suit, pink shoes, rabbit
coat and jaunty hat took even Bagdade by
surprise.
Ever in his corner, Bagdade says, "This
was his big day in court. He was going to
make an impression, and he wanted to
look good. This was his orientation. In no
way was he trying to make a disrespectful
statement to the family [of Ronnie Green
Jr.] or to the court.
"He spent his entire life growing up
behind bars. He thought he was being
cool. Everyone in the [legal] system under-
stood what the outfit was all about."
Bagdade waited a day to call Abraham.
"I didn't want someone from the justice
system calling him his first night of true

The Caseload

Other highly charged cases include his 2002 repre-
sentation of a 7-year-old girl in a suit to terminate the
parental rights of her mother. The mother, a devil wor-
shiper, had locked her daughter in a closet for extend-
ed periods of time, convinced that the child was evil.
In 2003, Bagdade represented a 3-year-old girl,
also in a parental rights termination suit, who wit-
nessed her father stab his ex-wife and her daughters
in their Pontiac apartment.
He is currently defending one of the youths charged
with letting the air out of the tires last month in the
Farmington Hills school bus case. The case has gener-
ated a lot of press because it is one in a series of sub-
urban school bus vandalisms.
Sarita tries to monitor the news media requests
when she's not teaching first grade at West
Bloomfield's Ealy Elementary. "It's a little surreal to
answer the phone and have 60 Minutes, or Geraldo, or
Fox News or CNN on the other end," she says.
In the wake of Abraham's release, Bagdade has
been on the Mitch Albom and Frank Beckmann radio
shows on Detroit's WJR, has been quoted in the press
and interviewed by television reporters.

freedom," he says. When the young man
realized the furor his outfit had caused,
"he was so upset and saddened," Bagdade
says.
"He called me a day later. He said, `Guess
what, Dan? I went out and bought a new
suit. It's a gray pinstripe.'"
. That was the suit he wore when he
made a tearful apology to the Greene fam-
ily in the Chicago office of television talk
show host Oprah Winfrey two weeks ago,
Bagdade said.
At Bagdade's insistence, "they changed
the format to do the apology in Oprah's
office instead of on television," the attor-
ney says. "It brought closure to the Greene
family and to Nathaniel."

again, on-again message from the state. "I
disagreed with what they wanted to do,"
Carley says. "But to promise him one thing
and then back off on it isn't fair. I'm sure
he relied on it."
Still, Bagdade is optimistic about
Abraham's future. He said the 21-year-old
has been writing poetry and song lyrics
for a long time. "He'd like to get into the
music business."
Asked whether that is a realistic goal,
Bagdade says, "If you put a lot of talent
together with a tremendous amount of
passion and he gets a break ... There are
people out there who are interested in
helping him and want to give this boy a
chance to succeed. No one wants him to

State Support
Promises made by the state Department of
Human Services to Abraham about a par-
tial subsidy were retracted, then at least
partially reinstated.
"It took me going straight to the direc-
tor of DHS," Bagdade says. He's going to
try to get more than the $1,200 for initial
housing expenses, in accordance with
what had been promised. At the same
time, he says, "There's no justification for
Nathaniel to get a free ride."
Even prosecutor Carley, who spoke out
against state support, was upset by the off-

As for Bagdade, he hopes to remain
Abraham's friend. A lack of friends, "that's
one of the real holes in his life," he says.
"I never really had any friends either
in Children's Village or Maxey," Abraham
confirms. "Dan was the one person outside
of my family I could always depend on
being there!'
"We are joined at the hip forever,"
Bagdade says. I I

"I never watch myself on TV," Bagdade says. "I
never read the newspapers to see what they're say-
ing. I never listen to myself on radio. I have a voice
like Minnie Mouse. I'm my own worst critic."
And, Sarita adds, "It's not the most important part
of our lives."
Bagdade says, "The gratifying thing, of course, is
being able to help Nathaniel.
"Part of what I've told him is that becoming
involved in church life is the best thing he could do for
himself. I've told him how much temple means in my
life."

Family Life

Dan and Sarita are active at Temple Israel in West
Bloomfield, where they regularly attend Friday night
services and Sarita has served on the board.
Both were excited to become grandparents on
Feb. 2 with the birth of Ruby Bagdade, daughter of
son Jeffrey, 30, an engineer, and his wife, Franki, a
middle-school resource room teacher at Hillel Day
School of Metropolitan Detroit in Farmington Hills.
They live in Berkley.
Other son, Michael, 27, is getting married in May.

Statements by Nathaniel Abraham were

transcribed and relayed by his attorney

for this story.

He was director of the second largest Jewish federa-
tion camp in the country (behind Michigan-based
Tamarack Camps). He recently left that position in
New York to move to Chicago.
Bagdade tries to exercise every day, but only, he
says, "to get ready for the summer golf season. Golf
is my passion."
He was persuaded to reveal his upstairs den, which
is lined with golf books and paraphernalia. "My friends
call it The Shrine,' " he says. An entire wall of framed
photographs show him playing at top-rated courses
such as St. Andrews in Scotland and Pebble Beach in
California.
He belongs to Twin Beach Country Club in West
Bloomfield. In his 20s, he says, he had a 3 handicap.
It's now at 8.
It's a sport that he shared with his father, his sons
and would like to share with Abraham.
"I've tried to get Nate interested in golf and he's
beginning to come over," Bagdade says. "I told him
a few years ago, 'I want you to come to my club and
play golf with me.' " ii

JI4

February 15 2007

17