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Miami Criminal Defense Group Rallies to Embattled Attorney's Cause
The National Law Journal
May 16, 2008
Miami lawyer Ben Kuehne
Image: Aixa Montero Holt
Ben Kuehne, the prominent Miami defense attorney who is facing federal charges of money laundering in connection with his vetting of legal fees, will receive the highest honor from a Miami criminal defense organization Saturday night.
Also to be honored is the defense team for convicted terrorist Jose Padilla and his co-defendants.
More than 400 lawyers, judges and guests -- including six federal judges, two appellate judges, 37 circuit judges and 19 county court judges -- are planning on attending the annual installation and awards banquet of the Miami chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Kuehne will receive the Daniel S. Pearson-Harry W. Prebish Founder's Award, the group's highest honor, which is given "in recognition of a lifetime commitment to preserve the constitutional rights of all citizens and for manifesting the very best principles for which FACDL-Miami stands -- an openhearted devotion to justice, civility, discretion, courage, respect for human dignity and mercy." Also being honored: the eight lawyers that made up the defense team for Jose Padilla and his four co-defendants, convicted of conspiracy to commit terrorism. Miami attorneys Jeanne Baker, Michael Caruso, Orlando do Campo, Marshall Dore Louis, Anthony Natale, Marjorie Russell and Kenneth Swartz along with Detroit lawyer William Swor will receive the Rodney Thaxton "Against All Odds Award." That award is named after the late Rodney Thaxton and given to a criminal defense lawyer who "having taken on a particularly difficult or unpopular client or cause, represents the heart and spirit of criminal defense, and who epitomizes the courage of the criminal defense lawyer to stand apart (and often alone) as Liberty's Last Champion," according to a statement from the FACL.
The defense lawyers for Padilla and his co-defendants -- several of them assistant federal public defenders -- spent three months in trial and many months preparing for the trial. Some even flew to the Middle East for research.
Rick Freedman, incoming president of the FACDL's Miami chapter, said chapter leaders decided to give Kuehne the top award before his indictment.
Kuehne, a member of the Florida Bar Board of Governors and former president of the Dade County Bar Association, was indicted by a federal grand jury Feb. 7 in connection with his vetting of legal fees for Miami attorney Roy Black. Black received $5 million in fees to represent Colombian drug kingpin Fabio Ochoa after Kuehne declared the legal fees clean.
Kuehne's indictment on money laundering and wire fraud charges, although rumored for years, stunned criminal defense lawyers in Miami and throughout the country. The Miami chapter of the FACDL issued a statement in support of Kuehne, who plead not guilty.
