The date was Aug. 26, 1979. The venue was Cobo Hall. And a 17-year-old east-sider named Opolla Brown very much wanted to meet a living legend who once appeared on the FBI's Most Wanted List political activist, author, scholar and academic Angela Davis.
by Allan Lengel
e was a brilliant, naturally gifted attorney. He knew how to read a courtroom. Norman Lippitt, a brilliant lawyer intially known for successfully defending white police accused of beatings and murder at the Algiers Motel during the 1967 riots, died Monday from complications from bladder cancer that turned to bone cancer. The 85-year-old Bloomfield Hills resident died at home under hospice care. For 17 years, until 1984, Lippitt was the lead counsel for the Detroit Police Officers Association, defending cops in high-profile cases, often involving brutality and murder. Before that, he was a Wayne County assistant prosecutor. He did those cases because they were his clients and he was going to win for them, that s what lawyers do, said Brian O Keefe, Lippitt s law partner for 32 years. You don t make a moral judgment when you re trying to win for your client.