May 7, 2008

Local Court Case Tried By A Cooley Visiting Faculty Member And Student To Be Featured On NBC’s Dateline

A Macomb County court case that has grabbed local headlines will now be featured around the country as part of a two-hour special edition of NBC’s magazine program Dateline on May 9 from 9 p.m. until 11 p.m.

Commonly referred to as the case of the comic book killer, the prosecution was led by Steven Kaplan, a Macomb County prosecutor and Cooley Law School visiting professor. 

"In addition to being a great story for television, this case is a living example for the students at Cooley,” said Kaplan.  “To take a case that has languished for 17 years to court involved a great effort by our entire legal team.  It certainly isn’t something that is done everyday.  Now, I think that this experience will be a excellent case study for my students."

Cooley Law School student Jack Panosian, as part of his externship program, served as second chair for the prosecutor’s office in the trial of this case.

The case featured a defendant who was convicted of shooting his wife 17 years ago in the back room of a comic book store that they owned together.  The defendant, Michael George, was accused of shooting his wife, Barbara, in the head on July 13, 1990, and making the crime look like a robbery. The jury found George guilty of first-degree murder, felony firearm, insurance fraud and obtaining money from an insurance agency under false pretenses.

Celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, Cooley Law School is the largest law school in the country.  Founded in 1972, it operates J.D. programs across Michigan in downtown Lansing, Auburn Hills and downtown Grand Rapids.  Today, Cooley Law School has more than 12,000 graduates across the nation and worldwide and also offers joint degree and master of laws programs. Cooley offers enrollment three times a year; in January, May and September. Additional information about Cooley can be found at www.cooley.edu.