Paul Bass Photo
Brent Callaghan took time out before action resumed, ready to race up and down the stairs to move three teammates closer to the goal line.
Three “clients,” to be specific.
Callaghan, 33, was representing two accused intoxicated drivers and a man arrested in connection with a verbal domestic dispute. Their cases were scheduled to be heard in three separate courtrooms at some point Thursday after the morning session began at 10 a.m.
The attorney had been inside talking with prosecutors about the cases; now he was outside on a cigarette break before returning for the next quarter in front of the ref.
Back when he played tight end for Amity High School, Callaghan dreamed of playing pro football like Pittsburgh Steeler Troy Polamalu.
Life had other plans. Callaghan found his way to University of Massachusetts Law School. He graduated in 2020 with a new competitive career path.
“I like it,” he said of criminal law during a conversation on the “Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s “LoveBabz LoveTalk” program. He enjoys the “debate and arguing,” the cases, the people he meets, the different cities he travels to. And “no brain injuries.”
Traveling to compete in courtrooms from Stamford to Meriden to Waterbury to New Haven’s “GA” on Elm Street as a criminal defense attorney for the Shelton-based Ruane firm, Callaghan has picked up moves and strategies they don’t teach in the classroom.
“You learn all the practical stuff on the job: How to get around the courthouse. How to get into the courtroom before they open it to the general public. The side doors you use.”
He huddled with his clients Thursday before meeting with the prosecutor. It was early in all cases. “All I said was I need discovery on this case. They said OK. So they gave me the evidence and another date” to continue the cases.
He told his clients they could go home while he reviewed their files to spot any weaknesses in the opposing team’s evidence and strategize about whether to seek and accept a plea. He said he was skeptical any of the clients would face time behind bars.
“Don’t worry. We’ll handle this,” he reassured a man arrested one recent evening in West Haven for allegedly driving drunk. “Everything will be all right.”
The clock struck 10. Attorneys and arrestees and court employees filed back into the marble courthouse. Callaghan plotted his moves: One case was in Courtroom B, one in Courtroom A, both on the first floor; the other on Courtroom F, on the third. The cases get called in rapid succession during busy morning sessions.
He expected to run up the stairs between cases, he said with a smile, rather than take the elevator.
He wasn’t worried about missing his moment before each judge to obtain continuances for his clients. The prosecutors “will wait for you if they know you’re in multiple courtrooms. When you come back in, when they see you, they’ll call your case.”
Callaghan was asked if criminal justice is a fair contest when played out in busy courtrooms like New Haven’s. Does the system work?
“Usually,” he responded.
Then he added: “It really helps to have a lawyer.” Someone who knows the turf.
Click on the video to watch the conversation with Brent Callaghan on the “Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s “LoveBabz LoveTalk” program.
Meanwhile, the word on Day Street Thursday morning was: Demolition. A crew from Carabetta Companies was in the process of finally smashing the empty Antillean Manor former housing coop into rubble in advance of constructing a new apartment complex. (Read more about that here.)
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Click here and see below for previous“Word on the Street” episodes and write-ups.
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