More than four years after former White House lawyer J. Michael Farren brutally beat his then-wife with a flashlight and his hands in their Darien home, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Thursday, Sept. 11, after having been found guilty of attempted murder earlier this summer.
Recounting the “hell” her husband exposed she and her children to, Mary Margaret Farren read a statement to the court, listing a litany of episodes of mental and emotional abuse leading up to the Jan. 6, 2010 assault. “The horrific night is replayed,” said Mary Margaret Farren, a former attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom who has been unable to return to work since a brain injury sustained in the beating. “Hearing the sound of the metal flashlight crushing my bones, feeling the blood pouring down my face. … When I see a man of similar stature, I fear that’s him.”
