{"id":1985,"date":"2020-02-23T19:09:47","date_gmt":"2020-02-23T19:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=1985"},"modified":"2023-03-27T15:52:09","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T15:52:09","slug":"tenacious-and-compassionate-how-bishop-attorney-allyn-sharp-defends-her-clients-and-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2020\/02\/23\/tenacious-and-compassionate-how-bishop-attorney-allyn-sharp-defends-her-clients-and-wins\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Tenacious and compassionate\u2019: How Bishop attorney Allyn Sharp defends her clients \u2013 and wins"},"content":{"rendered":"
At a hearing in September 2019, Allyn Sharp took down Tony Huelsman with ease.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Huelsman, the lead investigator in the case against Alexander Bishop, a Durham teenager accused of killing his father, Bill Bishop, couldn\u2019t help but stutter when Sharp grilled him about his search warrants. Prosecutors had suggested Alexander plotted to kill his wealthy father, a real estate developer with a $5.5 million estate to which Alexander was one of two heirs, after Alexander said he found him in a chair with a dog leash wrapped around his neck.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n His face often flushed red, matching his American flag tie. Sharp, with a smile and piercing blue eyes, just kept grilling him, breaking Huelsman down bit by bit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Huelsman had sworn in search warrants based on a purchase order that he believed $462,773 of gold bars were missing from Bill\u2019s safe, suggesting Alexander may have had a financial motive for killing his father. But the gold was never actually missing. The purchase order shows Bill had <\/span>sold<\/span><\/i> the gold, not purchased it, in August 2016.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sharp didn\u2019t let Huelsman\u2019s sloppy investigating go unpunished in cross-examination at the Sept. 16 <\/span>hearing<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s your testimony that you didn\u2019t remember noticing the date?\u201d Sharp asked.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s correct,\u201d Huelsman said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnd that you didn\u2019t find the date relevant at the time?\u201d Sharp asked.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI did not,\u201d Huelsman said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sharp’s interrogation worked. Judge Orlando F. Hudson Jr. <\/span>tossed<\/span><\/a> swaths of evidence, ruling Huelsman was either “untruthful or showed a reckless disregard for the truth” in his search warrants.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s just how the case against Alexander fell apart. Allyn Sharp broke it down. Prosecutors <\/span>acknowledged<\/span><\/a> as much when they dropped murder charges against Alexander earlier this month, citing insufficient evidence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Durham County District Attorney Satana Deberry, Huelsman, and another prosecutor had been facing the prospect of a hearing when Sharp charged them with failing to share evidence in the case. Sharp <\/span>accused<\/span><\/a> Deberry of destroying evidence and Huelsman and\/or Deberry of \u201cdeliberately withholding evidence which they know undermines\u201d the case against Alexander.<\/span><\/p>\n She also accused prosecutor Beth Hopkins Thomas of failing to alert the court that Huelsman allegedly perjured himself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Three days before prosecutors dropped the charges, Sharp had demanded a hearing on the contempt charges in a Feb. 3 letter after filing the motion in December.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sharp wasn\u2019t eager to take credit for her victory, though.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAll I did was my job, which was to protect a young innocent man from being wrongly convicted, which was made easy here by the fact the State’s case was based on falsities,\u201d Sharp told the 9th Street Journal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Through the District Attorney\u2019s office spokesperson Sarah Willets, Deberry and prosecutor Beth Hopkins Thomas declined to elaborate on why the charges were dropped, saying the office doesn\u2019t comment on specific cases after they are dismissed.<\/span><\/p>\n Sharp\u2019s nontraditional path to law\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Sharp didn\u2019t exactly take a traditional path to becoming a criminal defense attorney.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n She received her undergraduate degree from the University of California San Diego in 1998 but didn\u2019t know what she wanted to do with her life. So she went to South Africa, moved in with a Zulu family, and volunteered at a hospice facility for patients with AIDS.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n