News Archive
In Memoriam - Curtis A. Rau
Sep 29, 2007
We lost another wonderful lawyer and friend when Curtis A. Rau, 38, passed away unexpectedly on August 30, 2007.
Curtis came to Arizona from the Bay Area as a licensed California attorney. He clerked at the Maricopa County Public Defender's Office while he waited for his Arizona Bar exam in 2004. At that time, he was already digging deep into several special projects that benefited the defense bar and, of course, our clients. Despite his relative youth and relatively recent arrival to Arizona practice, he made an indelible mark. "Curtis's DNA is all over the defense bar's work product," said Joe St. Louis, former AACJ President.
Curtis authored the proposed Rule 15.1(j) regarding the defendant's right to examine the evidence via an expert of computer child pornography. Immediately thereafter, he drafted the MCPD's Amicus Brief in State v. Derendal. It was through Curtis and a few other dedicated members that many of us learned that the right to a jury trial in all criminal matters was guaranteed under the Arizona Constitution. Although the courts and the legislature have taken a more restrictive approach on the right to a jury trial, Curtis continued to act as post-Derendal guru. He possessed and was ready to share a wealth of information about archived Arizona history.
Steve Barnard, co-chair of AACJ's Annual DUI Seminar, said, "Curtis really had few equals when it came to depth of knowledge and its application. He was also one of the nicest people I've met. We have lost one of our greatest assets." Curtis was deeply involved with AACJ's DUI Committee, and offered to maintain the DUI News page on this website.. His writing skills were put to good use in the DUI Committee's two published white papers: The DUI Case Processing Committee White Paper and the Committee's White Paper entitled Defense Attorneys are Not Fungible.
Curtis made important contributions to the ongoing litigation seeking the source code of the Intoxilyzer machines at a state and national level. To make the technical aspects of the litigation accessible to us mere lawyers, he also provided a clear and concise distillation of the jargon and an explanation of what is actually being sought in the litigation. More recently, Curtis assisted several attorneys during trials, helping to convince jurors that the State's close relationship with Intoxilyzer manufacturer CMI, and its failure to produce the source code, left a reasonable doubt.
Curtis also helped lead the charge against judicial/prosecutorial resistance to designating class 6 open felonies as misdemeanors, even when wholly appropriate. He also led the charge on juror selection it was learned that prospective jurors were being summoned based on suspect criteria. "Curtis was passionate about inmate and prisoner's rights, both before and after conviction, and he was never afraid to put himself in the line of fire to protect or fight for those rights zealously," Charlie Rau, Curtis's father, said.
We will miss Curtis immensely but our clients will benefit for years to come from his dedication to the defense of the accused.
- Matt Green and Kathleen Carey