From the Boston Herald:

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McDermott's attorney called `one of the best'

by Dave Wedge

Wednesday, January 3, 2001

Noted Brockton attorney Kevin Reddington has helped cops beat burglary raps and sports stars skirt drunken driving charges, and has defended some of the worst rapists and killers in state history.

But his biggest challenge may lie ahead, as he tries to cull a defense for Michael ``Mucko'' McDermott - the burly software techie accused of gunning down seven co-workers in Wakefield last week.

``He's certainly one of the best defense counsels in the state,'' Taunton criminal attorney Frank O'Boy said of Reddington. ``He's a credit to his profession. Certainly, if I had a family member in trouble, I couldn't do any better than Kevin Reddington.''

In fact, it was Reddington's reputation as an aggressive and savvy attorney that landed the McDermott case in his lap. After their son's arrest, McDermott's parents, retired Marshfield teachers Rosemary and Richard Martinez, hired Reddington on the advice of a state trooper.

A 25-year lawyer who has consistently taken on the South Shore's most heinous cases, he is no stranger to pressure or the media.

He's specialized in defending cops, winning acquittals and getting convictions overturned for officers in Brockton, Holbrook and Plymouth.

He was the defense counsel in the 1995 so-called ``Natural Born Killers'' murder in Avon, and won a highly publicized drunken driving acquittal for former Red Sox slugger Mo Vaughn in 1998. He also defended Mattapoisett rapist John Shockro and Richard Shuman, a Sharon printing company owner who gunned down two business associates in Stoughton in 1997.

Reddington has apparently decided that softening the media glow - as opposed to basking in it - is the smart move in a case the magnitude of the Wakefield massacre. ``Out of respect for the judicial process, this case has to be presented in court, not tried in the press,'' Reddington said last week.

He has turned down repeated interview requests from virtually every American media outlet, in addition to scores of European offers. One French TV station offered to fly Reddington and a guest to Paris for an interview.

The normally flashy and media-friendly attorney has kept a low-profile and said little of how he plans to defend McDermott, other than hinting in court at an insanity defense by mentioning his client's mental illness. Sources have told the Herald McDermott suffers from depression, paranoia and schizophrenia and was on several antidepressants, including Prozac, Paxil and trazedone.

In the Shuman case, Reddington argued that side effects from the prescription drug Zoloft may have triggered the deadly rampage. Shuman was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without chance for parole.

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