No Brief for Serra

The recent article about Tony Serra, the defense attorney who smokes marijuana, served time in federal prison and abandons cars rather than pay parking tickets into the thousands of dollars, certainly adds new meaning to the term criminal lawyer (“Counterculture’s Warrior Lawyer” by Robert Chow, May 3).

This outstanding example of the California Bar was quoted as saying, “I’ll try any case that comes along. If you kill a cop, I’ll pay to take the case.” Serra also “respects drug dealers because the heart of what they’re trying to do is better their condition. They’re trying in their fashion the only way they have of getting out of the ghetto.”

Somehow, he overlooks those individuals of all colors and races who get an education and take ordinary jobs nowhere near as lucrative as selling drugs. I wonder if Serra’s glib attitude would change if any of his five children became addicted as the result of contact with a pusher liberated by their father’s efforts.

ROBERT S. ELLYN

Calabasas