New London County's chief public defender Bruce A. Sturman has been pulling all manner of memorabilia out of desk drawers in his office at the Huntington Street courthouse as he prepares to retire Tuesday after 37 years on the job.

One day last week, he unearthed a letter from an appreciative client with an elaborate drawing of The Grinch on the prison-issued envelope. He saved it. Next came a baseball schedule from the 1980s that Sturman briefly considered taking home to his son before tossing in the recycling pile. He added a stack of interoffice memoranda that once seemed important.  

Sturman has been handing off his cases to the remaining two public defenders at the Huntington Street courthouse and he and attorney Kevin C. Barrs, who will replace him as the district's chief public defender, carried out the oak bishop's chair that occupied the corner of his third-floor office  for three decades. Going to Hartford to sign his retirement papers made it official.

"To paraphrase the Grateful Dead, what a long, great trip it's been," he said.

Sturman, who has represented men and women charged with the most serious crimes, said his immediate plan is to relax. He and his wife, Lynda, also retired, have serious vacation plans. His three children, all young adults, will be back in the family home in Killingworth this summer, and Sturman said he's looking forward to spending time with them.

Attorney Peter E. Scillieri, who worked out of the same office, beat Sturman to retirement by a few weeks and has crafted all kinds of plans. He said he still loved the job he held for 37 years. That was evident as he argued passionately for his clients on his last day in court.

But Scillieri, known for his impeccable appearance, has traded in his tailored suits for blue jeans and is getting used to the idea that this is not just a vacation.  

"I thought it was time to step away, mostly because I heard that clock," Scillieri who will soon turn 65, said during an interview at the Mystic home that he and his wife, social worker Miriam Wholean, bought six years ago and set about renovating.

Rather than case files, he'll be working with woodworking tools. In October, he will be taking a two-week guitar building course in Brattleboro, Vt. Cabinets and coffee tables he's made over the years are artfully placed throughout his 100-year-old home, but now he wants to try something that requires a different skillset. And he'll get to keep his work.

"I am sure Miriam will say it's beautiful, like when you brought home something you made in elementary school and your mom told you how fabulous it was," he said in an email.

Barrs, who takes over as chief public defender on Wednesday, said Sturman and Scillieri "are the reason I do what I do." He interned in the New London office in 1992 while attending law school and decided he, too, wanted to defend clients who could not afford an attorney but needed expert legal representation.

"Bruce has an encyclopedic mind for case law," Barrs said. "If you say, 'I have a question about search and seizure law,' he'll give you the volume and page and tell you (the information you need) is halfway down."

Scillieri is gifted at "talking on his feet," Barrs said.

"He is the best public speaker I've ever seen," he said.

Visitors to the Huntington Street courthouse often remark on the civility with which criminal cases are handled, even with an adversarial legal system that pits public defenders against prosecutors in high stakes cases. State's Attorney Michael L. Regan said the two senior public defenders helped set that tone over more than three decades. Scillieri and Sturman resolved the vast majority of their cases with plea agreements but went to trial when necessary.

"They're true believers in what they do," said prosecutor Theresa Anne Ferryman. "Yet they're practical enough to know who to take a chance on."

Sturman and public defender M. Fred DeCaprio represented Allen James, who was charged with killing his son and carrying his remains in a suitcase for years. James wanted a trial, and in 2009, a jury found him not guilty of capital felony and murder but guilty of the lesser offense of first-degree manslaughter. The defense considered it a major victory. 

The case of DaShawn J. Revels still haunts Sturman. Revels was convicted of the 2009 shooting death of Bryan Davila in New London and sentenced to 55 years. Sturman maintained that Revels, out with others that night, was incorrectly identified by a witness who saw the shooter from the distance of a football field. He maintained Revels' innocence throughout the trial and appeals processes and continued to visit Revels in prison. He said the Innocence Project is now handling the case.

"It's a little freaky," he said of retirement. "This is what I've done for four decades, and now I have to go on with the next chapter of the rest of my life."

Scillieri, asked about cases that still resonate, said there is "Ross and then everything else." He and DeCaprio represented serial killer Michael Ross, who eventually was executed at his own request, for more than a decade starting in 1987.

"He was the most intelligent, courteous, thoughtful, patient, hopeful person I represented in almost forty years at this, and he was the perpetrator of monstrous, pitiless atrocities that extinguished the lives of eight young people and destroyed any sense of joy or contentment in the lives of all those who knew and loved them," Scillieri wrote in an email. "A trail of unequaled devastation. A Heart of Darkness experience for me and DeCaprio."

More satisfying was the case of a teenage girl accused of slashing the face of another teen. She had good family support and "just enough money to pay a bondsman," Scillieri said, and while her charges were pending his office was able to get her back into school, set her up with services and have psychological testing done. He argued, at sentencing, that "something other than jail" was appropriate, and Judge Susan B. Handy gave her a fully suspended sentence. She went on to get two college degrees "and has never been back in court, needless to say," Scillieri said. 

The two retiring public defenders won't immediately be replaced due to budgetary concerns, and presiding criminal Judge Hillary B. Strackbein said their absence will leave a tremendous void in the public defender's office. She said both men had distinguished careers and added she will never forget Scillieri, who made a wooden doorstop for her chambers.

Susan O. Storey, Connecticut's chief public defender, said Sturman and Scillieri have consistently been two of the best lawyers in the Division of Public Defender Services.

"They never lost their passion for protecting the constitutional rights of their clients, many of whom were charged with some really awful crimes," Storey wrote in an email. "They both made a lot of personal sacrifices to take on any case, no matter the difficulty. They have conducted themselves as true professionals in every sense of the word, and appreciated and augmented the civility of the New London Courthouse."  

Defense attorney Linda Sullivan, who was a public defender herself, said it's a tough job that involves a lot of losses.

"In that court, you get the worst of the worst and it's hard to go in there every day and keep your head above water and pull off these legal feats," she said.

Judge Patrick J. Clifford was working as a prosecutor in New Haven when Sturman had his first public defender assignment in the 1980s. Sturman won a case against him, and Clifford jokes that he still hasn't come to grips with the loss. Clifford has had several stints as the presiding judge in New London's Part A court.

Sturman was great to work with and was a consummate professional who fought hard for his clients, Clifford said in an email.

"He cared deeply for his clients and it showed in his tireless commitment to them," Clifford wrote. "He also had a very likeable and appealing style that jurors could relate to. In spite of his great replacement, Kevin Barrs, Bruce's retirement is a tremendous loss to New London county."

Scillieri had a great a ability to negotiate favorable dispositions for his clients and is a natural and excellent cross examiner of witnesses, Clifford wrote.

"Bruce and Pete were an institution in New London and I will miss working with both of them," Clifford wrote.

k.florin@theday.com