Criminal defense attorney Bruce H. Lehr of Lehr, Levi & Mendez in Miami cringes when he remembers how he left the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office under Janet Reno in 1983 as she shouted, “I had plans for you! You really blew it! You’ll be back!”

After four years as chief county court prosecutor and then senior narcotics trial attorney, Lehr was frustrated with “getting a bunch of college students 15 years for carrying a suitcase for $500,” and was looking for meatier cases—preferably in the sexual battery division.