Commonwealth v. Agbanyo

On the morning of his jury-waived trial, the defendant, Charles Agbanyo, learned for the first time that his trial counsel1 had accepted an offer of future employment with the same district attorney’s office that was prosecuting the de*842fendant’s case. In this appeal from the order denying his motion for a new trial,2 the defendant claims that his right to the effective assistance of counsel was impaired by his attorney’s conflict of interest. Although we disagree with the trial judge’s rationale for denying the motion, i.e., that the defendant consented to his attorney’s continuing…