Letters

More on Moskal

In your recent article about David Moskal, the question of why he would end his own life was mostly left unanswered. There is one additional fact that may shed light on this. It is my understanding that David was denied permission by his parole officer to come to Minnesota for his youngest daughter’s wedding last summer. The suicide occurred when his daughter was on her honeymoon. The loss of his employment as a lawyer and his continuing legal problems, when combined with being cut off from his own daughter in this way, probably was too much for him to bear. In spite of David’s crimes and misdeeds, he loved his children. I am not trying to blame anyone else for what happened, but I think this at least partially explains this tragic ending to the story of David’s life.

Paul Baertschi

Attorney at Law

A friend of the Moskal family

Irish Eyes Are Smiling

As I read “Hearsay” in the June/July issue of Law & Politics, your reference to Irish playwright Brian Friel caught my attention.

It was July 1970, the day before I was to embark with my family on a three-week driving tour in the family station wagon to the Southwest and California.

Sometime in the afternoon between trips to load the station wagon I answered the telephone. The caller, in a deep Irish brogue, asked if I was “Bernard P. Friel.” I acknowledged that I was and he proceeded to tell me that he, too, was “Bernard P. Friel,” and then he asked what the “P” stood for. When I responded “Preston,” he expressed disappointment and said in his case it was “Patrick.”

We talked briefly. He indicated he was in the Twin Cities studying at the Guthrie Theater. He asked if we could get together, and explaining we were leaving on a three-week vacation the next morning, I said I would call him when we returned.

When we returned, I did try to reach him and learned that he had left the Cities. I was disappointed but I didn’t make any further effort to reach him.

In 2002 I was listening to a Garrison Keillor replay on my car radio when he announced that he was having the prominent Irish playwright Brian Friel, whose given name was “Bernard P. Friel” on his show. Of course I had heard about Brian Friel’s plays on Broadway, but I had not until that moment made any connection to him and that 1970 telephone call, and I decided it was not too late to follow up on that call.

Having no success with the Irish consulates in Chicago and New York in obtaining Brian’s address, I turned to my friend Ultan Duggan, whose brother, a Catholic priest in Dublin, provided it in less than a week.

We have since corresponded several times and have confirmed that it was he with whom I spoke in 1970. We learned that we are about the same age, born less than two years apart, and we have agreed that we will do our best to get together.

Bernie Friel

Our Milavetz Mishap

Thank you for including our case, Milavetz, Gallop & Milavetz v. United States, in your 2009 “Lawsuits of the Year” article.  The “Lawsuits of the Year” article, contains errors that need correction.

First, The case is captioned as “Milavetz v. United States Supreme Court.” The correct caption is “Milavetz v. United States.” The article implies that the Supreme Court is a defendant and is “getting in the way.” The Supreme Court is not a party! The Supreme Court is the final stop on this case’s long legal journey.

Second, the article stated that at “press time, the case was in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.”  In actuality, the Milavetz case was granted certiorari in June 2009, and was argued in the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2009.

Alan Milavetz

editor’s note

In our December/January issue we neglected to credit Ann Procter of Takoma Park, Md., for supplying the excellent photos of Judge Bernard Boland in Afghanistan. Our regrets and acknowledgments here; they really were great shots.