Three years earlier, he had shot his grandparents, Joe and Joy Pittman, with a pump-action shotgun as they slept, then set fire to their home in Chester County.

His attorneys argued unsuccessfully at trial that he was involuntarily intoxicated by the antidepressant Zoloft and didn't know right from wrong.

Pfizer Inc., the manufacturer of Zoloft, has said the drug "didn't cause his problems, nor did the medication drive him to commit murder."

Zoloft is the most widely prescribed antidepressant in the United States, with 32.7 million prescriptions written in 2003. In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration ordered Zoloft and other antidepressants to carry "black box" warnings — the government's strongest warning short of a ban — about an increased risk of suicidal behavior in children.

Christopher Pittman, now 6-foot-2, has attracted attention worldwide. He turned 18 in April and is in an adult prison, where supporters visit him regularly.

The case generated outrage that Pittman was held so long before his trial. In October, dozens of supporters and relatives gathered in Columbia as defense attorney Andy Vickery argued before the state Supreme Court that his client's confession was influenced by Zoloft and his youth.

A law firm believes a conflict of interest may cost the school district money.

Two law firms represent the school district in trying to recover millions of dollars lost through fraud and abuse over several years. One, Saul Ewing LLP, a Princeton law firm, believes the other firm, Schenck, Price, Smith & King LLP of Morristown, has a conflict because it represents one of the parties the district might sue.

 
From 1998 to 2003, several contractors allegedly defrauded the district by padding bills, charging for incomplete work, receiving double payments and using other tactics.

Three former school district employees have so far been prosecuted for their roles in the case and the investigation is ongoing. Schenck Price has filed five lawsuits on behalf of the district since 2004 and recovered about $1.5 million thus far, said Sidney Sayovitz, an attorney for the firm.

But Schenck Price also represents Epic Construction Management, Sayovitz confirmed. John Pribish, a Saul Ewing lawyer, sent a letter obtained by the Herald News to the district on Sept. 14, 2006, expressing his concerns.

Pribish described Epic Construction as the construction manager during the time when the contractors sued by Schenck Price conducted their work. The Saul Ewing law firm was retained by the district to pursue litigation against Epic.

Now Pribish is saying that Schenck Price's representation of either the school district or Epic Construction compromises the law firm's ability to "maintain its duty of loyalty and confidentiality to both clients where the clients' interests are adverse."

Michael Glascoe, schools superintendent, was unavailable for comment Friday. Officials from the state Education Department would not comment on the matter.

Pribish said the matter is privileged between the attorney and his client, the school district, and would not comment.

In his September letter to Glascoe, Saul Ewing attorney Pribish asked to meet with school officials and Board of Education members to discuss the matter further.

No one confirmed whether a meeting has been set or ever took place.

Sayovitz, the Schenck Price lawyer, believes that his firm is not jeopardizing the district's ability to recoup money.

"Everyone understood from the beginning that we could not be involved with Epic. This was all very openly discussed," Sayovitz said Thursday. "Saul Ewing is free to sue Epic. That's why they were retained."

Sayovitz said the district informed his law firm to go ahead with its litigation against everybody but Epic. There is no record of any lawsuit being filed in Superior Court in Passaic County against Epic.

Mike Azzara, the district's former assistant superintendent for operations in 2002-2005, when both law firms were retained, said Schenck Price notified the district that they could not represent Paterson in anything related to Epic Construction. Azzara is the chief operations officer/treasurer in the Tredyffrin/Easttown school district in Pennsylvania.

"So I called around to find out who I could hire for a potential fraud investigation," of Epic, Azzara said Thursday, adding that Saul Ewing was recommended to him. "They knew I was hiring them because there was a conflict with our regular solicitor."

Saul Ewing lawyer Pribish wrote that Epic Construction may use the fact that it was not originally named in any lawsuits as a basis to argue that any further suit should be disallowed. The contractors currently being sued could also say that Epic is really culpable, and so the contractors themselves could not be held responsible.

Sayovitz said his firm has acted professionally and legally in all matters involving the school district.

"If they had filed suit against Epic," Sayovitz said of Saul Ewing, "and said they were intertwined with the other suits, then we would've done what we are required under the rules of professional conduct. We would've walked away."

The judge ordered Jefferson to surrender his passport and post a $100,000 bond. Ellis said he would allow Jefferson unrestricted travel between the Washington area and Louisiana, but he must get the judge's approval for other trips.

Jefferson was accused of soliciting millions of dollars in bribes from nearly a dozen companies.

The business ventures included telecommunications deals in Nigeria and Ghana, oil concessions in Equatorial Guinea, satellite transmission contracts in Botswana, Equatorial Guinea and the Republic of Congo, and a Nigerian sugar plant.

According to the indictment, an FBI witness gave Jefferson $100,000 in cash intended as a bribe for an unnamed Nigerian official in 2005.

It said Jefferson put in his home freezer $90,000 of the cash, which was separated into amounts of $10,000, wrapped in aluminum foil and concealed inside various frozen food containers.

Representative Jefferson has not responded directly to the indictment, but his lawyer, Robert Trout, stated that his client was innocent and would "fight this indictment and clear his name." Acknowledging the comprehensive investigation carried out against his client, as detailed in the 94-page indictment, Trout pointed out that legislative action was not involved. "There is no suggestion that he promised anyone any appropriations," said Trout. "There were no earmarks. There were no government contracts."

Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi expressed some concern over the allegations. "The charges in the indictment against Congressman Jefferson are extremely serious," said Pelosi. "While Mr. Jefferson, just as any other citizen, must be considered innocent until proven guilty, if these charges are proven true, they constitute an egregious and unacceptable abuse of public trust and power."

If found guilty of the charges ultimately, Representative Jefferson faces a maximum sentence of 235 years.

Gerberding's recommendations follow an ongoing investigation of US citizen Andrew Speaker who traveled from Italy back into the United States by the way of the Czech Republic and Canada despite being instructed to cancel all his flight plans following a diagnosis of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB). Speaker also testified at the hearing by phone. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the CDC had requested that the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detain the patient upon his re-entry into the US, but according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a Border Patrol agent ignored the flag and allowed Speaker to reenter the US. He remains in quarantine under the authority of the Denver County health officials.

There is truth in all their allegations. That this bill was imperfect is without dispute. Only a few politicians - Bush and McCain among them - were strongly vocal in urging passage, but they, too, had reservations about the compromise. House Democratic leaders were tepid in their support, demanding Republicans bring at least 60 votes for the measure in order to offer their freshman members from marginal districts the cover to vote "no."

Reid warned Thursday hours before the bill collapsed that he would not seek to revive the issue. Later, he pledged to work hard "in the next few weeks" to resurrect a deal. Perhaps, once people step back from what happened, they will try again. Perhaps they will succeed on their third try.

Loss of nerve

No one ever believed passing a comprehensive immigration reform bill would be easy. As McCain said in Tuesday's Republican debate in New Hampshire, "It's our job to do the hard things, not the easy things." But for a long time, Washington politicians have flinched at hard things, preferring to engage in political combat aimed at gaining partisan advantage first.

There is little time for progress on difficult issues before Bush's lame-duck status reduces his power even more and before the 2008 presidential and congressional campaigns turn the country into a partisan battlefield. Immigration provides one clear test for the system before that reality locks in. So far the system is losing.

If there is no attempt to revive the immigration bill, the issue will become fodder throughout the long campaign ahead. Already it is shaping the Republican presidential debate, with McCain on one side and his leading opponents all on the other.

Public opinion suggests an electorate open to, but by no means wildly enthusiastic about, comprehensive reform that provides the 12 million illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, but only if there is an effective border security plan already in place.

Republicans are clearly divided, but not perhaps as the heated rhetoric of the campaign trail suggests. The most recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found that, on the question of a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, the public narrowly approves: 52 percent to 44 percent. Democrats back such a plan by 57 percent to 38 percent and independents by 51 percent to 45 percent. Republicans are opposed, by 53 percent to 43 percent - significant but not overwhelming.