He has frequently been the lone dissenter, particularly in criminal cases
where he writes in
favor of the
defendant, even when the arguments arrayed against his position are so formidable that his colleagues have joined the majority and moved on.
As second chair counsel, Michael participated in Laclede Gas Company v. Park 370 Development, LLC, et al.,
where a St. Louis County Circuit Court jury ruled in
favor of Dowd Bennett client Laclede Gas, finding the
defendant, a land developer, liable for damages resulting from its excavation activity adjacent to a Laclede gas main.
In a case
where the primary evidence against the
defendant is the identification
of an eyewitness, a
defendant should be permitted to present expert testimony on the reliability
of eyewitness identification, whether or not there is additional corroborative evidence that could weigh in
favor of guilt.