Tim Zerillo was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers on August 3rd. Tim is only the second Maine lawyer to ever serve on the NACDL Board. The last Maine lawyer on the NACDL Board of Directors served over 25 years ago.
Director (First Term), Class of 2022
Tim Zerillo is the Managing Partner of Zerillo Law Firm, LLC in Portland, Maine. His practice includes federal and state criminal defense, complex personal injury, civil rights, and marijuana regulatory matters.
Tim is a Past President of the Maine Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, where he remains the Chair of the MACDL Continuing Legal Education Committee. Tim is a recipient of the Maine Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers "President's Award," which is awarded annually to a lawyer who best exemplifies the goals of the association and the legal profession. He has been elected to New England Super Lawyers for the years 2010-2017. Tim was elected to the National Trial Lawyers Top 100 in 2014 and 2017.
Tim is the author of the book “Defending Specific Crimes,” which is set to be published by James Publishing in 2019. He writes on criminal defense topics regularly for the Maine Lawyer's Review and elsewhere. Tim is a frequent lecturer on criminal defense and medical marijuana topics. Tim has recently lectured or written articles on the following topics: "How To Deal With the DEA," “Identifying and Evaluating Fifth Amendment Assertions In Civil Cases," "Attacking the Medical Evidence in Child Sex Abuse Cases" and “United States of America vs. You: Inside the Federal Crackdown on Marijuana Caregivers.”
Tim has won numerous not guilty verdicts and dismissals in all manner of criminal cases throughout his career, including felony assaults, federal and state drug trafficking matters and sexual assault cases. Some of his recent case results include the following:
In July 2018, Tim Zerillo won a dismissal of a manslaughter case for a boating accident that occurred on Mousam Lake in York County, Maine. There, the Defendant's identical twin brother was killed in the tragic accident in which drinking was involved. Attorney Zerillo filed, litigated and won a Motion to Suppress the evidence in that case, and the prosecution later dismissed all charges against his client.
In April of 2018, Tim Zerillo won a Motion to Dismiss based on Speedy Trial violations in a felony child pornography possession case. This dismissal was earned after years of litigating discovery motions seeking to source code for the State of Maine computer surveillance software, along with a partially successful Motion to Suppress Evidence. Tim Zerillo attempted to pick a jury for this matter on two occasions. The jury pool was simply not large enough to survive the jury questionnaire, in which an average of 81 percent of the juror pool was struck for cause, given the pernicious nature of the charges. Attorney Zerillo then filed, litigated and won a Motion to Dismiss all charges.
In 2017, Tim Zerillo was asked to join the case of State v. Anthony Sanborn. This involved a post-conviction review of a 70-year murder sentence for a death in 1989. Attorney Zerillo and his co-counsel litigated the case against the Maine Attorney General's Office in a five-week trial. The State ultimately agreed that Mr. Sanborn's sentence was cruel and unusual, and Mr. Sanborn was released from his sentence. Mr. Sanborn maintains his innocence to this day.
