Superlawyer Mike Small joins Mr Wonder defense team

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He's an attorney who is as controversial as some of his clients. Mike Small has defended everyone from former Governor Edwin Edwards during the "Cascade Case," to Amanda Gutweiler for the death of her children in a house fire.

His next client is already making headlines.

Small says he didn't even remember the Frank Szelas (also spelled Selas in some court documents) case from 1979. But, like every single case he's come to encounter in his career, it sort of fell into his lap.

"Highly regarded lawyers in one state know how to locate highly regarded lawyers in another state," he said.

That other highly regarded lawyer is Mark Carlos in California. He'll be joining Small as co-counsel defending Szelas, known to most as Mr. Wonder.

Szelas faces 13 counts for the alleged 1979 sexual assault of a child on a camping trip in Rapides Parish. The former KNOE in Monroe children's TV show host hosted the trip.

As law enforcement zeroed in on him, Szelas fled the country and wasn't captured until this past January. It seems like an open and shut case - unless you ask Mike Small.

"I'm not assuming at all that my client is guilty," he said. "I'm assuming quite the contrary that he's innocent. He's certainly presumed innocent at this point."

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