Lawyer criticizes Lerner

Personal injury lawyer Glen "Heavy Hitter" Lerner is still taking a judicial beating.

Lerner will be ordered to District Court to explain why he didn't cross-examine witnesses during a court hearing for Mario Lino, a former client who is facing murder charges.

Deputy Public Defender Tim O'Brien said Tuesday that he will issue a subpoena to Lerner ordering him to appear in court on March 25. O'Brien, who now represents Lino, said Lerner provided inadequate representation during the July 2007 hearing by not cross-examining prosecution witnesses.

O'Brien is asking District Judge Michelle Leavitt for a new preliminary hearing.

"Counsel's performance here was ineffectual," he said during a Tuesday hearing.

Lerner and another attorney, Carl Arnold, represented Lino at the July 30 evidentiary hearing. According to court documents, Lerner was a substitute for another attorney but neither he nor Arnold asked any questions of Kelly Lino, Lino's wife, and Las Vegas police Detective Michael Wallace, court documents state.

This was a violation of Lino's constitutional right to have effective attorneys and was "fundamentally unfair," O'Brien stated in court documents.

Arnold did not return a phone call seeking comment.

The Lino case has landed Lerner in hot water. In January, Lerner drew the ire of Leavitt when he missed the first day of Lino's murder trial. Leavitt ordered Lerner to appear in court Friday to justify why he didn't show up to the Jan. 22 trial.

Lerner declined to comment in depth on Tuesday except to say that he wasn't the attorney of record in Lino's case.

Lerner said previously that he didn't attend the murder trial because he was on "sabbatical" in Pennsylvania. Lerner also said he wasn't prepared to go to trial and didn't want that to affect Lino.

He added that he was re-examining his life because he'd been living the "rock star" life too long.

Lerner could be disbarred and even faces possible jail time for missing the first day of Lino's trial. The Nevada Bar Association also received a complaint against Lerner in connection with his failure to show up to the trial.

Lino, 41, has been in jail since May. He is accused of killing a man in April suspected of having an affair with his wife. He is facing charges of murder with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and assault.

Lerner, well known for his colorful television ads, took the murder case because Lino worked on his pool.

During Tuesday's hearing, Leavitt confirmed that Lerner would be appearing this week to explain why he missed the first day of the trial. She then asked if O'Brien wanted that information so he would know where to serve Lerner with the subpoena.

"It's hard to track down a rock star," O'Brien said.