Results and Successful Outcomes

When it comes to histories of impressive case results and successful outcomes, few are more noteworthy than Boston Criminal Defense Attorney Brad Bailey’s. He has become a common name among the people of the Commonwealth not only for his popular private practice that achieves great results regularly but also for the work he completed as an Assistant District Attorney in both New York County (Manhattan) and Middlesex County. While in New York, he handled thousands of cases during his tenure with a 94% conviction rate; in Massachusetts, he was taking on more than one case a month with an ultimate conviction rate of 96%.

Now that he has turned his attention to the other side of the courtroom, Mr. Bailey’s clients can directly benefit from his 35 years of experience as a D.A. and prosecutor. For his achievements and skill, Super Lawyers® – a nationwide organization that recognizes the top 5% of all attorneys in a particular state – selected Attorney Brad Bailey in 2004, 2006, 2007, 2014, and 2015. He has also been chosen as a New England Super Lawyer, received the best rating from Martindale-Hubbell® (AV® Preeminent™), was rated “Superb” by Avvo, and was voted a National Top 100 Trial Lawyer. To crown his achievements, he was rated “Outstanding Prosecutor” while working as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Boston, where he never lost a case, and has been profiled by Dan Rather for “Eyes On America” (CBS).

A History of Success

Brad Bailey, a Massachusetts native, graduated cum laude from Harvard College in 1980. He received his J.D. in 1983 from the University of Virginia, one of America’s premier (top 10) law schools. He began his legal career working for the New York County (Manhattan) D.A. as an Assistant District Attorney in the Nation’s largest and busiest D.A.’s Office. While there, he prosecuted serious street level felonies, including armed robberies, burglaries, attempted murders, felony weapons charges and felonious assaults. He achieved a conviction rate of 94% and handled thousands of cases during his tenure. From there, he returned home to Massachusetts and joined the Middlesex County D.A.’s Office, where he resumed his career as an Assistant District Attorney. A Senior Trial Attorney assigned to Superior Court in both Cambridge and Lowell, Brad prosecuted some of the most serious cases in the D.A.’s Office including murders, rapes, attempted murders, armed robberies, child sexual assaults, and cocaine and heroin trafficking. In a mere 22 months, he tried 26 felony cases to verdict in the Superior Court (an Office record at the time). Losing only twice, Brad achieved an overall conviction rate of over 96%.

Brad Bailey was a District Attorney

Brad began his legal career working for the New York County (Manhattan) D.A. as an Assistant District Attorney in the Nation’s largest and busiest D.A.’s Office. While there, he prosecuted serious street level felonies, including armed robberies, burglaries, attempted murders, felony weapons charges and felonious assaults. He achieved a conviction rate of 94% and handled thousands of cases during his tenure. From there, he returned home to Massachusetts and joined the Middlesex County D.A.’s Office,where he resumed his career as an Assistant District Attorney. A Senior Trial Attorney assigned to Superior Court in both Cambridge and Lowell, Brad prosecuted some of the most serious cases in the D.A.’s Office including murders, rapes, attempted murders, armed robberies, child sexual assaults, and cocaine and heroin trafficking. In a mere 22 months, he tried 26 felony cases to verdict in the Superior Court (an Office record at the time). Losing only twice, Brad achieved an overall conviction rate of over 96%.

Brad Bailey was a Federal Prosecutor

Brad moved on from the Middlesex D.A.’s Office to the prestigious United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, where he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Boston, first with the Organized Crime Strike Force and later with the Drug Task Force (OCDETF). While in the Strike Force, Brad directly participated in the prosecution of a number of members and factions of the Patriaca Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra (LCN) including reputed Underboss Charles Quintina, Capos Biagio DiGiacomo and Sonny-Boy Rizzo, and Soldiers Spucky Spagnuolo, Vincent “Dee Dee” Giachinni, Pryce Quintana and Freddy Chiampa. He also authored and oversaw numerous court authorized wire-taps. When in the Drug Task Force, Brad prosecuted numerous local, regional, national and international drug conspiracies, principally involving Columbian and Dominican distribution cells and Syrian and Lebanese drug traffickers. Also the co-lead prosecutor in a case involving the then largest marijuana smuggling ring in New England history, Brad never lost a trial as a federal prosecutor and achieved the Office’s highest ranking: “Outstanding Prosecutor”.

Brad Bailey was a Middlesex Sheriff

Brad served as Sheriff of Middlesex County, directing 750 employees and a $20 Million annual budget and is best remembered for vowing to go to jail personally, before releasing inmates early due to overcrowding. The “High Sheriff of Middlesex County” – is a constitutional office and chief public safety official. Middlesex is also the largest county in Massachusetts with 1.5 million citizens living in 54 cities and towns.

Brad ran two separate facilities, the Cambridge Jail and the Billerica House of Corrections. Cambridge housed pre-trial detainees accused of all crimes, especially the most serious in the county: murders, rapes, and armed robberies. The House of Corrections, for the most part, housed inmates who had been convicted of misdemeanors and/or light felonies (crimes that could result in either jail or prison sentences). He was also responsible for females serving 2 ½ years or less at the State Prison in Framingham and managed the service of civil process (legal papers, summons, eviction notices) and courthouse security for the Middlesex Superior Court and the 12 district courthouses in Middlesex.

He was also known for donating jail and prison weightlifting equipment to local schools and charities; for creating a prison vegetable garden tended by inmates, the produce from which was donated to local food banks and homeless shelters. He also created a program where inmates converted abandoned construction pallets into park benches and picnic tables, which were donated to cities and towns for public use and for implementing a first of its kind graffiti removal program operated by inmates whose services were donated to cities and towns. He also put inmates to work painting schools, and public buildings, picking up litter, cleaning streets and shoveling snow. Adopted by most Sheriffs now, these were all cutting edge initiatives at the time.

Notable Legal Victories

• Commonwealth v. Urban was an appellate case where Brad successfully argued for, and won, a new trial for his client at both the Appeals Court and Supreme Judicial Court. His client was serving a 6 year prison sentence and was subsequently released from state prison
• N.H. v. Sheila LaBarre, a double murder insanity trial in which he served as co-lead counsel, United States v. David LaFleur, a police corruption case in which he and his partner obtained not guilty verdicts.
• United States v. Michael Vaccaro, where, as lead counsel, he obtained another jury acquittal on a case in which the client was facing a mandatory minimum thirty year prison sentence.
• Commonwealth v. John Doe, in which he won a not guilty verdict in a case of a twenty-one year-old Division I lacrosse player accused of rape.
• Brad also achieved a not guilty jury verdict in Commonwealth v. Heinz, a child rape case.
• He won a not guilty jury verdict of trafficking in cocaine over 28 grams (and possession with intent to distribute) in Commonwealth v. Dell’Isola.
• He also represented a young man accused of killing his grandmother in Commonwealth v. James Clark, where he was successful in reducing the original Murder I indictment via a viable insanity defense.
• Brad also challenged the aggravated sexual assault convictions, and won the immediate release of his client from state prison, as well as the reversal of his guilty verdicts, in State of New Hampshire v. E.K. by demonstrating that trial counsel’s failure to call an expert witness familiar with the complaining witnesses little known cognitive disorder deprived the client of effective assistance of counsel at trial.
• Brad used an overlooked procedural rule to preserve evidence via video-deposition, and new case law pursuant to the SJC’s decision in Commonwealth v. Adjutant, to establish that the deceased was actually the first aggressor in Commonwealth v. Ericson, a western MA murder case, and used the same defense in Commonwealth v. Harris, a shooting case with multiple victims to reduce the charges from Murder I to Manslaughter.
• He was also able to obtain dismissals of indictments alleging kidnapping, assault with a dangerous weapon, and various domestic violence related charges in Commonwealth v. Faccadio, and armed car-jacking charges in Commonwealth v. Miller, in Middlesex County Superior Court.
• In other noteworthy cases, Brad obtained dismissals for two teenagers accused of calling in a false bomb threat to the Nantucket Steamship Authority in Commonwealth v. B.R.and Commonwealth v. B.W.

He also represented clients in:

• United States v. Angela Buckborough, the state’s largest federal private embezzlement prosecution
• Commonwealth v. Lawler, a $3M larceny/embezzlement case involving a public charity
• United States v. James Dorman, a Staples Executive accused of fraud/theft
• United States v. Justin Ficken, a financial advisor accused of participation in large scale market-timing related fraud
• United States v. Carlos Pizarro, a Boston police corruption case
• State of California v. Gerhartsreiter, representing Clark Rockefeller in a California Murder case
• Commonwealth v. Cahill, et al., representing former State Treasurer Timothy Cahill in a fraudulent pretenses/conflict of interest case
• United States v. O’Brien, et al., representing Elizabeth Tavares in a federal racketeering case involving the MA Department of Probation
• NH in United States v. Palazuelos-Soto, one of the largest cocaine cases prosecuted in federal court, involving a 350 kilogram international cocaine distribution case involving a Mexican drug cartel

Sampling of Recent Notable Cases