Robert Sheahen

Robert Sheahen (born February 14, 1945 in East Cleveland, Ohio) is a Los Angeles criminal defense attorney. He has practiced throughout Southern California for more than thirty years.

Biographical Sketch

Sheahen attended the University of Notre Dame, the Ohio State University and Case Western Reserve University. After receiving his Juris Doctor degree from Case Western Reserve in 1969, Sheahen went on to attend graduate law courses at the University of Southern California.

He ventured into criminal law in California as a federal appellate specialist and in 1974 opened his own Century City office for the practice of criminal law. He has continued to practice criminal law -- both state and federal -- through the present time.

Career

Sheahen is a member of the State Bar of California and is well-known for representing the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. Over the years, he has defended more than 25 Hells Angels in criminal courts in California -- including George Christie, the international president of the Hells Angels and successor to Sonny Barger. These cases are regularly featured in the Los Angeles Times. In 1991, as featured in the Washington Post, Sheahen represented Grammy-winner Rick James who was charged with torturing a girl with a crack pipe. In 2004, Sheahen represented Academy Award winner Jon Voight in a lawsuit threatened by Voight's daughter, Angelina Jolie. In 1982, according to Time Magazine, Sheahen was the lawyer for Cathy Evelyn Smith who was accused of murder in the drug overdose death of John Belushi. The Supreme Court of California has recognized Sheahen as a "veteran criminal lawyer with death penalty experience," People v. Panah, 35 Cal.4th 395 (2005), and the California Court of Appeal has called him "an experienced criminal litigator." People v. Park, 13 Cal.Rptr.2d 572 (1992). Sheahen's cases include the Panah child-murder case, where in 1994 the police found the body of an eight-year-old stuffed inside a suitcase in a closet in Woodland Hills, California. He represented Harry Peak, accused of setting the fire which consumed the Los Angeles city library in 1987. Sheahen also defended Robert Armstrong, a deputy sheriff found guilty of two counts of murder in 1984. Armstrong had stiffed in a fake narcotics call to his own station and then shot and killed an African-American woman and her unborn fetus.

Community Involvement

Sheahen currently serves as President of The Tobie Lee Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting families that have had problems with drug addiction and alcoholism.

Official Links

[http://www.robertsheahen.com Robert Sheahen Official Site]

[http://www.tobielee.org The Tobie Lee Foundation Official Site]

References

* [http://robertsheahen.com/html/bio.html Robert Sheahen Official Biography]
* [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/ca/slip/2005_3.html People v. Panah (2005)]
* [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1081767.html The Rick James Case in The Washington Post]