THE MICHAEL HOLLAND FILE

Job: Assistant public defender, Hennepin County, since 1993.

Family: Married fellow public defender Kelly Madden five years ago on the Caribbean island of CuraÇao. They have a daughter, Lexi, 2, and a second child due in August. They live in northeast Minneapolis.

Hometown: Milwaukee suburb of Glendale.

Education: Bachelor's and law degrees from the University of Minnesota.

Four things few know: Holland bungee-jumped in Zambia off a bridge near Victoria Falls (his wife went first); worked in college as a roller-blading waiter at St. Paul's now-defunct Heartthrob Cafe; served as a high school basketball public address announcer, and was a finalist for homecoming king at the university.

Recommended reading: "Indefensible," David Feige's account of a day in the life of a public defender in New York City.

Favorite movie role: Susan Sarandon's Sister Helen in "Dead Man Walking." "She felt compassion not only for the alleged victims, but for the accused. It's a special privilege to get to hear people's stories and try to understand why they are this way and in this spot. Not everyone gets to do that, and that's part of the passion."

Upcoming case: Defending Rommal Bennett in an April cold-case murder trial after DNA allegedly linked his client to a 1996 killing of a man hog-tied and suffocated after leaving a bar.

Others on Holland: "He's a great lawyer with a tremendous personality and a smile that says: 'What? You don't believe me?' I mean, he can sell a piece of cat dung in Godiva chocolate paper to a jury" -- fellow public defender Cliff Poehler.

Holland on Holland: "You have to have the ability to see the best in people, even though they may have done something heinous and horrible."

CURT BROWN