Novel idea: Federal prosecutor takes first book project to heart

By Kurt Anthony Krug Legal News The only thing author Allison Leotta has in common with Anna Curtis, the protagonist she created for her first novel "Law of Attraction," is that they're both sex crimes prosecutors. "Anna started out as a much more functional, happy person with a tame childhood similar to me. But I realized for the character to work for the book needed a darker background, a darker history (Anna grew up in a dysfunctional family and had an abusive father)... That's when she started to evolve into this person who had some of the same experiences as the victims she was working with in her job," explained Leotta, 37. The author grew up in Farmington Hills and now lives in Tacoma Park, Md. with her husband Michael, a fellow lawyer, and their two children. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Leotta followed in the footsteps of her father, Alan Harnisch of Bloomfield Hills, and became a lawyer. "My dad was a lawyer and he was a prosecutor also," Leotta said. "He always had incredible stories. To me, he was a super-hero fighting crime and putting the bad guys in jail. I think that inspired me. There's no other career where you feel like what you're doing on a daily basis is helping the world as much. I think it's the best legal job in America. It's an incredibly satisfying feeling to put a sex offender in jail and get him off the streets." It was Leotta's work as a sex crimes prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia that inspired her to write "Law of Attraction." In it, prosecutor Anna Curtis defends a battered woman named Laprea Johnson, whose boyfriend D'marco Davis brutally beats her the day after Valentine's Day. Laprea lies under oath and D'marco is exonerated, much to Anna's consternation. "There's a name for this: it's the cycle of violence," Leotta said. "It isn't like a street crime where some stranger comes up and hurts you--this is a person you love very, very much... a person who've often trusted with the most important parts of your life, someone you've had children with. You want to believe they can do better. After a violent incident, a lot of times the man is most repentant and nice to the woman as he's ever been. She wants to believe he'll do better, so she takes him back because he's nice and asking for forgiveness and is eventually taken back. But the tension builds and builds and builds until the next violent incident and the cycle starts all over again. I think it's a matter of hope always triumphing over experience." Laprea perjuring herself to protect D'marco is nothing new to a seasoned sex crimes prosecutor like Leotta. In fact, it's an occupational hazard she and her peers struggle with on a daily basis. "You try to balance off trying to protect someone vs. not wanting to be paternalistic--that's something Anna deals with... I grapple with it on a case-to-case basis," said Leotta. "You just see some of the most heartbreaking things--the worst things people do to each other. I was thinking all about it all the time. You also see moments of great courage and love, and it just seemed like it would be a good book. I think I just started processing this very intense world by writing about it." Not long after, Laprea is found murdered and D'Marco is the prime suspect. To up the stakes, Anna's boyfriend, a public defender named Nick Wagner, takes D'marco on as a client, creating all sorts of personal, professional, and ethical dilemmas for her. So far, "Law of Attraction" has been receiving critical acclaim. Leotta, who is currently on leave from the U.S. Attorney's Office, is hard at work on the second Anna Curtis novel (she's contracted for three). Tentatively titled "Discretion," it's slated to be out some time in 2012. Before her book could be published, it had to be approved by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. "It's impressive that Ms. Leotta had the creative talent, energy, and discipline to write a novel while performing the challenging job of a prosecutor," said Kelly Higashi, chief of the Sex Offense and Domestic Violence Section of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. "We wish her well." Published: Thu, Jun 16, 2011

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