Convicted killer Jodi Arias sues former defense attorney over tell-all book
Michael Kiefer
Convicted killer Jodi Arias, whose obsessed trial groupies clogged tabloid TV and social media with tales of salacious intrigue and courthouse snark, filed a civil lawsuit Tuesday in Maricopa County Superior Court against her former defense attorney, L. Kirk Nurmi.
The lawsuit claims that Nurmi, who headed Arias' legal team during her 2013 and 2015 murder trials, violated attorney-client privilege and unjustly enriched himself by publishing a tell-all book about the case before Arias has been able to appeal her conviction and life sentence for the 2008 murder of her lover, Travis Alexander.
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Asked to comment on the suit, Nurmi responded in an emailed statement that when Arias failed at controlling the case, she tried to ruin his career and his reputation.
"Standing up to the abuse Ms. Arias imparted upon me over the years was an important part of my personal transformation and I will continue to fight this battle with vigor as I defend against this lawsuit which is best viewed as a continuation of Ms. Arias’ pattern of attacking men whom she feels have wronged her," he wrote in his statement.
"Of course, no one person has suffered at the hands of Ms. Arias (more) than Mr. Alexander and I look forward to clearing the air on all the derogatory assertions that Ms. Arias made about him as I defend against the outrageous claims made in this lawsuit."
Nurmi's book, which he titled "Trapped with Ms. Arias" in part because Arias hated being called "Ms. Arias," has already led to Nurmi's disbarment.
Last November, Nurmi surrendered his license to practice law after a Bar complaint was filed by attorney Karen Clark on Arias' behalf because of the book.
Clark also has filed a complaint for Arias against the case prosecutor, Juan Martinez, in which she alleges Martinez fed information about the Arias trial and a holdout juror to a blogger with whom he was rumored to have a romantic entanglement. That complaint is still pending with the State Bar of Arizona.
Martinez has fended off five Bar complaints since the Arias trials, the last as recently as last month. One of the dismissed complaints related to a book Martinez published about the case.
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The current lawsuit against Nurmi was filed by Clark and Ralph Adams, Clark's husband and law partner.
It claims Nurmi violated attorney-client privilege by revealing details about Arias and her trial against her wishes. It also pinpoints passages in the book that it claims are personally disparaging to Arias or in violation of the rules of ethical conduct for attorneys.
The suit also claims that Nurmi was obsessed with the sexual aspects of the case.
Jodi Arias trial
Arias killed Alexander, her sometime boyfriend, during a tryst at his Mesa house in June 2008. The nude photos they took of each other and a steamy recorded telephone conversation between them became evidence in the trial and were widely dispersed through live-streaming and social media.
Clark and Adams write in the lawsuit that Arias was embarrassed by the sexual content of the trial, and that Nurmi would taunt her about it, telling her he had made blowups of the photographs. The lawsuit also claims that Nurmi used one of the photos as the screen saver on his office computer, and that it could be plainly seen by visitors to his office.
As a consequence, the lawsuit asks that Nurmi pay Arias all of the money he received for the book, whether through book sales or appearance fees.
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In a joint statement sent via email, Clark and Adams said, "Mr. Nurmi's self-published book about his representation of Ms. Arias revealed confidential and privileged information, and violated his most basic ethical and fiduciary duties to Ms. Arias. What he did was knowingly and intentionally wrong. His book violated his duty to protect confidential information and also contained false statements about Ms. Arias and gross misstatements about her case. He wrote the book in a selfish attempt to 'redeem' his public image and enrich himself to the extreme detriment of Ms. Arias.
"Mr. Nurmi is now disbarred for ethical violations concerning his misconduct involving Ms. Arias," the statement said. "The civil suit requests compensation for the damage done to Ms. Arias and that Mr. Nurmi disgorge all profits he received from the public media promotion and sale of his outrageous and self-serving book about Ms. Arias and her case."
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