As an aside, Heilberg was an interesting choice for a defence attorney since he's about as popular in the region as a lumpy fart for having defended one of the Beltway Snipers, John Allen Muhammad. Granted, that defence failed and Muhammad deservedly got the hot shot, but just the fact that he was on the team that represented that piece of shit nearly tanked his career. Maybe he saw Chris as his chance at some sort of comeback: he already had a track record of defending sex offenders and perhaps thought that in 2021 the climate was right for being able to check the stunning and brave transwoman incest box to his benefit.
Heilberg's only interactions with Muhammad was for a tax case, it wasn't for the sniper shootings. It was some low level charge regarding taxes or something similar.
I firmly believe that the reason Heilberg stepped up to the plate, and he wasn't assigned to Chris, was that he wanted to create some legacy for "defending poor LGBT+ people", and immediately latched onto Chris's case. People forget, he's a Charlottesville lawyer, and Charlottesville is super heavy into the left wing causes. They have streets named "Black Lives Matter" in that town. Heilberg's legal wranglings for the last decade or longer have been getting druggies and drunks off their charges, and if there's anything lawyers care about more than money is their legacy.
So I think Heilberg definitely stepped it a big pile of tard shit with Chris. He thought he'd represent some trans person unjustly accused of incest, and be a hero of the local LGBT+ community about defending someone who was bullied and downtrodden.
What's funny is you don't see anything related to Chris on his official career history. In fact, his "expert wrangling" only got Chris's charges upgraded to a felony, and that was when he dropped the autism card and got Chris off. That's not exactly something a lawyer would be proud of, or want to be remembered by, but here we are.
I'm wondering what he'd say if he was directly asked about dealing with Chris. Chris himself said that Heilberg barely talked to him towards the end of it, which tells me that he was sick of dealing with Chris's bullshit and just wanted him off his slate as fast as possible.
Chris was facing the most serious charges of his life and didn't even have to plead to anything. Other than having to cool his heels for a few months, he got off completely.
The autism deferral only works if Chris either admitted guilt, or else the court found enough evidence to prove his guilt. Given Chris was looking at a felony grand jury, in addition to his misdemeanor charge being upgraded to a felony proves that Heilberg had no idea what he was doing.
Imagine you have a lawyer defending you, and after two years, your initial misdemeanor charge was upgraded to a felony and was going to a grand jury for potentially more charges. Would you consider this person a "good lawyer"?