Rebels of the Bar

<v announcer>This program was produced with support from the Florida Department of Education. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Courtrooms like this are the legal battlegrounds of our judicial system. <v narrator: Keith Miles>It's where cases are won or lost every day. <v narrator: Keith Miles>It's also where two South Florida legal mavericks are fighting for their reputations and <v narrator: Keith Miles>the values they believe in. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Alcee Hastings is a federal district judge acquitted of bribery charges in 1983 <v narrator: Keith Miles>and faces possible impeachment in Congress. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Miami lawyer Ellis Rubin spent a month in jail for disobeying a court order, while both <v narrator: Keith Miles>are members of the judicial fraternity. Each marches to the beat of his own drum. <v Speaker>[intro music playing] <v Ted Klein>Ellis is basically a good lawyer with a lot of ability, but he's <v Ted Klein>a grandstander. <v David Waksman>He's up there. You see his face on TV quite often.

<v David Waksman>He's in the newspapers quite a bit. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Lawyers David Waksman and Ted Klein talking about one of the most controversial legal <v narrator: Keith Miles>personalities in South Florida. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Ellis Rubin, Esquire, who the critics call a legal showboat. <v Ellis Rubin>Let those who say that spend one hour in the Dade County jail, <v Ellis Rubin>let them eat spaghetti with a spoon for thirty seven days, let them <v Ellis Rubin>get their fingerprints taken in strip searches and catch pneumonia and <v Ellis Rubin>wash out toilet bowls, and make hospital corners and mop floors <v Ellis Rubin>and be threatened. <v Ellis Rubin>Let them go through that being paraded in handcuffs in the very courthouse that you <v Ellis Rubin>practice law in. <v Ellis Rubin>Let the critics try that for 20 minutes and then there won't be any more critics. <v Ellis Rubin>To hell with the critics. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Ellis Rubin is regarded by most of his peers as atypical because of his high profile <v narrator: Keith Miles>cases. He welcomes the spotlight, even invites the media to his fashionable <v narrator: Keith Miles>Jockey Club, home to document a daily exercise regimen capped off by swimming <v narrator: Keith Miles>a few laps and a few moments of meditation, a quiet and relaxing start

<v narrator: Keith Miles>to a day that can be and usually is, anything but. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Ellis Rubin is one of Florida's most flamboyant lawyers. <v narrator: Keith Miles>But he sees himself differently. <v Ellis Rubin>I don't have time to answer the critics. <v Ellis Rubin>I'm too busy practicing law, representing people. <v narrator: Keith Miles>And that's how the 62 year old attorney earns his living and the labels. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Ellis Rubin grew up in Syracuse, New York, studied engineering at Holy Cross College <v narrator: Keith Miles>during World War Two, graduated from the University of Miami Law School after <v narrator: Keith Miles>coming south to a warmer climate, and was sworn in as a member of the Florida Bar <v narrator: Keith Miles>in 1951. <v Ellis Rubin>And I knew from my 21st birthday that I was going to be the best trial lawyer <v Ellis Rubin>that I could possibly be and I was going to be a maverick. <v narrator: Keith Miles>There are fond memories of his New York childhood during an era that Rubin calls old <v narrator: Keith Miles>fashioned America. An era when principles meant something. <v narrator: Keith Miles>He says he's tried to instill those traditional values in his children. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Both of his sons followed his legal footsteps, and are lawyers.

<v narrator: Keith Miles>Daughter, Peri Newman, is the office manager of his Rubin Law Center. <v Peri Rubin-Newman>There's never a dull moment. <v Peri Rubin-Newman>Even though it is working for my father, we get along very, very well. <v Peri Rubin-Newman>We have some management differences. <v Peri Rubin-Newman>But he's he's the boss. <v Peri Rubin-Newman>He's not necessarily the manager. <v Peri Rubin-Newman>He leaves it up to me. And it's very exciting and it's <v Peri Rubin-Newman>very unusual because of the clientele that, that do make inquiries into the <v Peri Rubin-Newman>office. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Rubin's fame is only partially self-generating. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Much of his notoriety comes from the people he defends and his courtroom tactics. <v narrator: Keith Miles>In 1977, he represented Ronnie Zamora, a Miami teenager <v narrator: Keith Miles>who murdered a neighbor. Rubin contends the youth was intoxicated by violent <v narrator: Keith Miles>television programs. Rubin defended Watergate burglar Bernard Barker in <v narrator: Keith Miles>South Florida's version of a vigilante and even a man who describes himself <v narrator: Keith Miles>as the son of God. <v Yahweh Ben Yahweh>My good works. Being loved by the masses of the people <v Yahweh Ben Yahweh>becomes the news.

<v Yahweh Ben Yahweh>Therefore, I am the news. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Leader of the white robe, self-described tribe of Hebrew, Israelite Yahweh Ben Yaweh, <v narrator: Keith Miles>also known as Hulon Mitchell Junior, has led the religious sect in assembling a five <v narrator: Keith Miles>million dollar real estate portfolio. <v narrator: Keith Miles>It was an apartment acquisition in Opa Locka that brought the Yahwehs and Rubin together. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Rubin has since dropped the case of a sect member charged with two counts of murder, but <v narrator: Keith Miles>still advises the Yahwehs. <v Ellis Rubin>When a Catholic is accused individually of a crime. <v Ellis Rubin>You don't indict Catholicism and you don't indict the pope. <v Ellis Rubin>I think that Yahweh Ben Yahweh is in the same position. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Some say the Yahwehs not only needed a lawyer, but a public relations expert as <v narrator: Keith Miles>well. Yahweh Ben Yahweh says the Sect needed Ellis Rubin. <v Yahweh Ben Yahweh>Oh, he and he and I are divine encounter. <v Yahweh Ben Yahweh>Yahweh chose Ellis Rubin to represent us and <v Yahweh Ben Yahweh>his style fits <v Yahweh Ben Yahweh>my style in terms of what needs to be presented to the public.

<v Yahweh Ben Yahweh>The truth. You see, we were being <v Yahweh Ben Yahweh>presented to the public incorrectly, and <v Yahweh Ben Yahweh>certainly that has been corrected and that's good. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Rubin also came to the aid of a man described as South Florida's version of Bernard <v narrator: Keith Miles>Getz. Prentice Rasheed was thrust into the news after a number of burglaries <v narrator: Keith Miles>to his Liberty City store. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Rashid pleaded unsuccessfully to county officials for more protection until finally <v narrator: Keith Miles>he wired a metal grid to an electrical outlet and electrocuted a burglar. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Today, Rasheed says, Rubin and the publicity he brought the case are responsible <v narrator: Keith Miles>for his freedom. <v Prentice Rasheed>I'm satisfied that the way that he represented my case and <v Prentice Rasheed>I don't have no I don't have anything in my notebook that I say <v Prentice Rasheed>I would have done different. I would encourage him. <v Prentice Rasheed>I wish he had did something different, I don't have anything like that. <v Prentice Rasheed>Publicity is is- if that is part of his method and is <v Prentice Rasheed>uh, is a, is a, as an and as an American, it's not un-American.

<v Prentice Rasheed>So I will say anybody, if you've got anything to say, you'll get all the publicity you <v Prentice Rasheed>can get. I think that's the American way. <v Prentice Rasheed>Why should you get in a hole and become a hermit? <v Prentice Rasheed>When you can go out and become maybe you can become the governor. <v Prentice Rasheed>Some other. Some other kind of way, because he get- we enough for what he has done as far <v Prentice Rasheed>as it's for the good. Maybe some people don't like that. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Ellis Rubin cases often make newspaper headlines and highlight the 6:00 and 11:00 news. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Some lawyers, like Ron Goralnick, think using the media is an individual lawyer's <v narrator: Keith Miles>decision. <v Ron Guralnick>I think that Mr. Rubin uses the media regarding <v Ron Guralnick>the cases that he tries. <v Ron Guralnick>I think he does it in an attempt to be to the advantage <v Ron Guralnick>of his client. Sometimes it may not be. <v Ron Guralnick>And sometimes it is to the advantage of his client. <v Ron Guralnick>But it's an independent judgment call that we all have to make. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Others, like Ted Klein, say involving the media most often hurts the case. <v Ted Klein>And I think he could do a lot better for his client if he would stick to the law

<v Ted Klein>and just apply his natural ability, which <v Ted Klein>he does have. And just do what needs to be done on behalf of the client <v Ted Klein>rather than to play to the media. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Journalists respond to Ellis Rubin because they say he gives great quotes, according to <v narrator: Keith Miles>Robert Gilmartin of NBC affiliate WSVN in Miami. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Unlike many in the legal profession, Rubin doesn't shy away from a microphone. <v Robert Gilmartin>He's better than a lot of prosecutors, that's for sure. <v Robert Gilmartin>I was just thinking about the advantages of an Ellis Rubin is that you go to <v Robert Gilmartin>a state attorney or a U.S. attorney and you ask him for a comment and it's no comment. <v Robert Gilmartin>You go to Ellis Rubin and he stages a demonstration. <v Robert Gilmartin>He brings you into a Yahweh temple. He gets you a woman who's killed her father to go on <v Robert Gilmartin>camera. I mean, if the choice comes down to it, who are you gonna talk to? <v Robert Gilmartin>The person who says no comment, or Ellis Rubin, who is giving you visuals, great <v Robert Gilmartin>soundbites and anything else he can do for you. <v narrator: Keith Miles>This is the North Dade County Detention Center where Ellis Rubin spent 30 days on a <v narrator: Keith Miles>contempt Senate. Rubin got a criminal record, but as a symbol of hope for some in the

<v narrator: Keith Miles>legal community of a new day in court. <v narrator: Keith Miles>According to Rubin, the case was a matter of principle. <v narrator: Keith Miles>He went to jail for refusing to represent a client accused of murder. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Client Rubin knew, was planning to lie on the witness stand. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Rubin was held in contempt and appealed the case all the way to the United States Supreme <v narrator: Keith Miles>Court. He lost, then called in the press to, in his words, take his case <v narrator: Keith Miles>to the people. <v Ellis Rubin>Yes, I want the press conference at 2:30. <v Ellis Rubin>All right. And here's what you say when you call up. <v Ellis Rubin>I want USA Today. <v Ellis Rubin>I want to UPI. <v Ellis Rubin>AP already has it. <v other speaker>About three months ago. <v Ellis Rubin>All of the regular and local news. <v Peri Rubin-Newman>I'll call 4 and 6. <v Ellis Rubin>And then, Peri. <v Peri Rubin-Newman>What? <v Ellis Rubin>You call Bernie Goldberg at CBS. <v Peri Rubin-Newman>Alright <v Ellis Rubin>He just got back in town. I saw him the other day. <v Ellis Rubin>And also NBC and ABC, the local offices, <v Ellis Rubin>the woman from People magazine who came to interview me at the jail, she wanted

<v Ellis Rubin>to know when anythign happened. <v Ellis Rubin>And I think that's it. <v Ellis Rubin>All right. Now, here's what to tell him. <v Ellis Rubin>We have just been informed that the U.S. <v Ellis Rubin>Supreme Court has denied Mr. Rubin's appeal of his contempt <v Ellis Rubin>since. Mr. Rubin will respond at two thirty today in his office. <v Ellis Rubin>OK, 10000 Supreme Courts backed by 10000 <v Ellis Rubin>lawyers, swearing on 20000 Bibles that court ordered perjury <v Ellis Rubin>is right. We'll never make it right. <v Ellis Rubin>A lie is a lie is a lie. <v Ellis Rubin>Today, the Supreme Court has put its approval on this, that <v Ellis Rubin>a jury trial is no longer a search for the truth. <v Ellis Rubin>Lawyers are no longer required to put the truth on. <v Ellis Rubin>Lawyers can put perjury on, pretend to the jury that it isn't happening <v Ellis Rubin>and they will be considered ethical and honest practitioners.

<v Ellis Rubin>This is so wrong that it is stupid. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and also an attorney, Robert <v narrator: Keith Miles>Dempsey, agrees with Rubin. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Dempsey says more lawyers should take a similar stand. <v Robert Dempsey>Many many years I've been a member of the bar in Florida and New York for over 25 years. <v Robert Dempsey>I've been very, very upset about the amount of perjury that goes on in courtrooms both <v Robert Dempsey>in civil and criminal sides and almost winked at by attorneys and judges and <v Robert Dempsey>everyone. It's almost a given that you will lie in a courtroom. <v Robert Dempsey>To me, that is an outrageous situation and what is supposed to be a system of justice. <v Robert Dempsey>My feeling is in my my own principle has been that an attorney has a responsibility <v Robert Dempsey>to the court and to society to see that only true facts are presented and that and <v Robert Dempsey>justice be done in a courtroom. <v narrator: Keith Miles>But the president of the Florida bar, Ray Ferrero, says Rubin sidestep legal provisions <v narrator: Keith Miles>already in place. <v Ray Ferrero>Allows his client to take the stand, give a <v Ray Ferrero>narrative statement of his story, the lie.

<v Ray Ferrero>Do not use that in final argument and bring that matter to the attention of the court. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Ferrero says the trial judge and the appellate courts have said Rubin was wrong <v narrator: Keith Miles>and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to listen to the arguments because the Florida courts <v narrator: Keith Miles>have acted properly. Still, Rubin contends he's right. <v Ellis Rubin>And it defeats the purpose of a jury trial to have a judge tell a lawyer you deceived <v Ellis Rubin>that jury or you're going to jail. <v Ellis Rubin>I said, no, I'm not going to deceive the jury. <v Ellis Rubin>So I went to jail. And the Supreme Court says that's the way it should be. <v Ellis Rubin>It stands. I can't believe it. <v Ellis Rubin>I can't believe it. My own profession, my own country going down <v Ellis Rubin>the tubes on this moral decay and absolute bankruptcy <v Ellis Rubin>of integrity. <v Ellis Rubin>Somebody has got to stand up and say, enough, enough. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Another lawyer who sees merit in the perjury issue and lawyers like Ellis Rubin <v narrator: Keith Miles>is Eugene Stearns. He says the issue is right.

<v narrator: Keith Miles>But Rubin strategy for addressing it was wrong. <v Eugene Stearns>I think every community needs an Ellis Rubin. <v Eugene Stearns>It serves a function in terms of not only the amusement value. <v Eugene Stearns>I shouldn't perhaps say that, but I think it certainly does have that value. <v Eugene Stearns>But also from the standpoint of making sure that we don't take ourselves so seriously in <v Eugene Stearns>this particular instance, he is taking on a cause. <v Eugene Stearns>And I think all of us to try cases have to deal with. <v Eugene Stearns>I personally don't try criminal cases. <v Eugene Stearns>I try civil cases. And so nothing compels me to show up for trial for any of my <v Eugene Stearns>clients. But I would never try a case for a client who tells me he's going to <v Eugene Stearns>lie on the stand. I would simply tell him to find another lawyer. <v Eugene Stearns>And I have on occasion been compelled to do that. <v Eugene Stearns>So I sympathize with his position. <v Eugene Stearns>I agree with his position philosophically. <v Eugene Stearns>And I think it's something. The bar must address. <v Eugene Stearns>But I don't think we should take law on our own hands in doing so. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Rubin says the public will ultimately vindicate him on the perjury issue. <v narrator: Keith Miles>He says he'll wear his beard as a badge of honor until he is cleared and plans to <v narrator: Keith Miles>ask the governor for a pardon to remove his criminal record.

<v narrator: Keith Miles>His son Mark, who practices in the Rubin Law Center, says he's learned to believe in his <v narrator: Keith Miles>father even when it seems others don't. <v I. Mark Rubin>He is a maverick. He's been for the better part of his life, a <v I. Mark Rubin>voice for those that have no other voice. <v I. Mark Rubin>Someone who has been there to speak <v I. Mark Rubin>at a time when it was crucial. When a time when people could face no other way. <v I. Mark Rubin>They had no way out. And he's had a lot of success that way because he's kept <v I. Mark Rubin>his nose down and plowed ahead because he knew that a cause was right. <v I. Mark Rubin>We're going to continue to do that. And that's one of the things that I've taken, tried, <v I. Mark Rubin>at least tried to take from him as a lesson to if you believe you're right, stick <v I. Mark Rubin>to your guns and move forward and all will come out in the end. <v narrator: Keith Miles>To Ellis Rubin, The search for the truth is the job of the courts. <v narrator: Keith Miles>The job of justice. It is the crusade he works and lives for and hopes <v narrator: Keith Miles>someday be remembered for. <v Ellis Rubin>I would like to see on my marker, on my grave.

<v Ellis Rubin>This, above all, to thine own self be true and it must follow as the night today <v Ellis Rubin>falcons not then be false to any man. <v Ellis Rubin>I think that that's what I try to do. <v narrator: Keith Miles>For the past six years, many have thought of federal judge, Alcee Hastings, as a troubled <v narrator: Keith Miles>man. But Hastings is confident he'll soon be finally free of the bribery charges <v narrator: Keith Miles>that have haunted him since 1981. <v Alcee L. Hastings>But I've learned to make this thing my joy and my pain. <v Alcee L. Hastings>And once you do that, uh you can live comfortably within yourself. <v Alcee L. Hastings>I feel that I'm legally, spiritually and morally correct in this situation. <v Alcee L. Hastings>And so for that reason, I'm able to obliterate the notion that it's trouble. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Judge Alcee Lamar Hastings was indicted in 1981 on federal bribery <v narrator: Keith Miles>and conspiracy charges in 1982. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Washington lawyer William Borders was tried and convicted of soliciting a one hundred <v narrator: Keith Miles>fifty thousand dollar bribe from defendants in Hastings court.

<v narrator: Keith Miles>Hastings also underwent a jury trial but was acquitted. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Borders has served his sentence and is free. <v narrator: Keith Miles>The black cloud still hovers over the judge. <v Alcee L. Hastings>It doesn't bother me personally that all it is still going on. <v Alcee L. Hastings>What bothers me is that it's unconstitutional, unwarranted and unnecessary <v Alcee L. Hastings>and is an extraordinary expense to the American taxpayer and to yours truly. <v Alcee L. Hastings>Now, that bothers me. But insofar as the matter is concerned, I found <v Alcee L. Hastings>when there is a tenacious disagreement between our adversaries <v Alcee L. Hastings>and the law that you can reasonably expect uh that, uh some blood <v Alcee L. Hastings>is going to be left on the floor when it's all over. <v Alcee L. Hastings>My job is to make sure that it's not mine. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Fighting is not new to Alcee Hastings, even though this time he's perhaps in the biggest <v narrator: Keith Miles>bout of his life. Those who know the Altamont Spring tonight say he's always fought <v narrator: Keith Miles>and spoken out for the principles he believes in. <v Jesse McCrary>Well, we met when we were both law students. <v Jesse McCrary>I was a freshman and he was a senior. And our law school was so small that you knew <v Jesse McCrary>everybody in the whole school. So I met him the first day I went to school.

<v narrator: Keith Miles>Attorney and former Secretary of State Jesse McCrary has known Alcee Hastings for 25 <v narrator: Keith Miles>years. They both attended the Florida A&M University Law School. <v narrator: Keith Miles>The school trained many of the state's black lawyers of that era. <v narrator: Keith Miles>McCreary remembers his pal Al as being vocal and flamboyant even then. <v Jesse McCrary>I think he's calmed down a bit. I mean, he was flamboyant then has always been, <v Jesse McCrary>has always been the kind of take charge guy that he that he is now. <v George Knox>He still has a sense of humor, as always. <v George Knox>He still takes very strong positions, as always, and he still renders <v George Knox>pretty judicious and well thought out decisions from the bench as always. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Another Miami attorney, George Knox, has been practicing law for 14 years. <v narrator: Keith Miles>He handles basic corporate and land use cases and follows legal issues as well. <v narrator: Keith Miles>He says Hastings' jury acquittal is the reason the case still lingers. <v George Knox>Well, I think that the fact that he was acquitted <v George Knox>disturbed some of his colleagues on the bench.

<v George Knox>To tell you the truth, I think that what has emerged is a profound <v George Knox>constitutional question, because the position taken by the judges who <v George Knox>have sought to have him removed essentially establishes a sort <v George Knox>of a double standard. The fact is that a citizen of the United States was <v George Knox>tried before a jury of his peers and acquitted of the charges. <v George Knox>And the effect of the action by the other judges has been <v George Knox>to invite an opportunity to retry an individual for <v George Knox>the same offenses for which they had already been acquitted. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Knox compares Hastings to another nationally publicized case. <v George Knox>By the response to the acquittal of Governor Edwards in Louisiana, for example. <v George Knox>He is going back to attend to his duties without further interference from <v George Knox>the government in this case. <v George Knox>It was not the government so much that that picked up <v George Knox>the challenge. But members of the judiciary who were simply dissatisfied <v George Knox>with the outcome of a trial.

<v narrator: Keith Miles>A complaint was filed against Hasting after his acquittal, requiring investigation by the <v narrator: Keith Miles>Judicial Council and a conference of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. <v narrator: Keith Miles>The judge is bound by law from discussing the case recommended trial and impeachment <v narrator: Keith Miles>in Congress. In fact, Judge Gerald Tjoflat of Jacksonville said he felt it inappropriate <v narrator: Keith Miles>to discuss the Hastings case. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Tjoflat said. If Hastings weren't talking about it, no one would be. <v narrator: Keith Miles>And Hastings is certainly telling his story everywhere he can. <v Alcee L. Hastings>I'm of the mind that what's happening is Congress persons are not really certain about <v Alcee L. Hastings>what they want to do in this situation. <v Alcee L. Hastings>And this is an extraordinarily historic turnabout in this nation. <v Alcee L. Hastings>Its the very first time that anyone, judge or otherwise that has been <v Alcee L. Hastings>acquitted uh, in a jury trial that took the stand <v Alcee L. Hastings>or is being sought to be impeached, is it? <v narrator: Keith Miles>Hastings is a hot commodity on the television talk show and lecture circuit, just <v narrator: Keith Miles>like a politician seeking votes. <v narrator: Keith Miles>He tells his story to the constituents of those who will judge him next many times

<v narrator: Keith Miles>right in their own backyards. <v Alcee L. Hastings>My nature is and always has been to vigorously resist <v Alcee L. Hastings>attacks on me. <v Alcee L. Hastings>My loved ones, my country, my race, <v Alcee L. Hastings>my church, my friends and base inhumane <v Alcee L. Hastings>actions by governments or people. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Some say it's his mouth that gets him in trouble. <v narrator: Keith Miles>The St. Petersburg Times in a June 1983 editorial said he doesn't practice <v narrator: Keith Miles>the self-restraint required of a judge, but also said that is not an impeachable <v narrator: Keith Miles>offense. Hastings says. <v Alcee L. Hastings>That they are looking at a genuine individual who can go and speak to <v Alcee L. Hastings>the NAACP and rule against the NAACP, who can go <v Alcee L. Hastings>and speak to the Anti Defamation League and rule against the Anti Defamation <v Alcee L. Hastings>League, who he is an environmentalist who does believe in peace and <v Alcee L. Hastings>can rule against peace demonstrators if they violate the law and will

<v Alcee L. Hastings>pitch environmentalists out of an area where the law requires that they should not be. <v Alcee L. Hastings>What you see is, is a new animal, that's all. <v Alcee L. Hastings>Called judge. And I was a judge appointed for life, and I will <v Alcee L. Hastings>be a judge for life. And I will also be a human being. <v Alcee L. Hastings>I will be a Christian. I will speak in church. <v Alcee L. Hastings>I will speak anywhere I want to. If I don't like Ronald Reagan or whoever the next <v Alcee L. Hastings>president is, I'm going to say it. <v Alcee L. Hastings>And I'm still going to go in that courtroom and do my job, find the jury that says, I <v Alcee L. Hastings>didn't do my job. Find a litigant that says that I didn't do my job. <v Alcee L. Hastings>Find any lawyer that says that I didn't do my job and I'll quit my job. <v Stephen D'Oliveira>Alcee Hastings is different. He feels as though just because he wears his black robes. <v Stephen D'Oliveira>He hasn't given up his right to exercise his First Amendment. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Fort Lauderdale News and Sun Sentinel reporter Stephen D'Oliveira has covered the Hasting <v narrator: Keith Miles>story from his indictment. In fact, Hastings says D'Oliveira knows more <v narrator: Keith Miles>about his case than any other journalist. <v narrator: Keith Miles>He penned a cover story for his paper's sunshine magazine and feels the political process

<v narrator: Keith Miles>of impeachment in Congress will add to the story's magnitude. <v Stephen D'Oliveira>Impeachment is a political process. <v Stephen D'Oliveira>There's no doubt about that. And Hastings is gonna be on the stump <v Stephen D'Oliveira>trying to get his point of view across that he was not guilty. <v Stephen D'Oliveira>Therefore, let me go. <v Stephen D'Oliveira>On the other hand, you have the politicians who are going to be supporting the <v Stephen D'Oliveira>report that was issued by the judicial committee saying <v Stephen D'Oliveira>that he is guilty of bribery and should be removed. <v Stephen D'Oliveira>So it's in a political forum, Congress and I think com- polic-. <v Stephen D'Oliveira>Politics can play a big part in what happens. <v Richard Sharpstein>In my experience as as a trial lawyer, I practice mostly criminal law in this city, <v Richard Sharpstein>have for a while. And and I've been in front of a lot of judges and state judges, federal <v Richard Sharpstein>judges. And Alcee Hastings definitely ranks at the top of <v Richard Sharpstein>his profession. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Defense lawyer Richard Sharpstein has handled a dozen or more jury trials before Judge <v narrator: Keith Miles>Hastings. Sharpstein says most of the South Florida legal community supports the

<v narrator: Keith Miles>judge and feels his case has gone too long without being resolved. <v Richard Sharpstein>The fact that now we're coming and coming up with a charge or an allegation five <v Richard Sharpstein>years later is something we talk about in the law. <v Richard Sharpstein>Justice delayed is justice denied. <v Richard Sharpstein>The Supreme Court of our state <v Richard Sharpstein>has spoken those words. The Supreme Court of the United States has spoken those words. <v Richard Sharpstein>That's the cornerstone of our system. <v Richard Sharpstein>You just don't leave people in jail or leave people hanging or leave people with an <v Richard Sharpstein>albatross around their neck without some resolution in this country. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Although Hastings doesn't want it to be an issue, he says race is a factor. <v narrator: Keith Miles>He was the first black federal judge from Florida appointed by Jimmy Carter in 1979 <v narrator: Keith Miles>and would be the first black judge ever impeached. <v narrator: Keith Miles>He would also be the first judge of any race ever acquitted by a jury and then <v narrator: Keith Miles>impeached. University of Miami law professor and Hastings legal counsel Terence <v narrator: Keith Miles>Anderson proclaims it won't happen.

<v Terrence Anderson>I don't think the Congress of the United States has the time or stomach to retry <v Terrence Anderson>a marginal case which has been made more marginal after three and a half years of <v Terrence Anderson>investigation. <v Terrence Anderson>And there is and they know this and should understand what <v Terrence Anderson>needs now to be investigated is how the Justice Department ever decided <v Terrence Anderson>to indict a federal judge when they had arrested borders at a <v Terrence Anderson>time they knew no money had ever gone to Judge Hastings. <v Terrence Anderson>They had no business. They should have let that money go and find out and then we'd know <v Terrence Anderson>for sure. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Hastings is so confident he won't be impeached that he's already contemplating things <v narrator: Keith Miles>he'd like to do when it's all over. <v narrator: Keith Miles>He says he likes kids and wants to teach. <v narrator: Keith Miles>He also plans to write an autobiography detailing his latest adventures. <v Alcee L. Hastings>As a matter of fact, I taught a course that is so reminiscent of the circumstances <v Alcee L. Hastings>pertaining to me. I taught a course on the book, The Trial by <v Alcee L. Hastings>Franz Kafka. And much of what is happening to me and my view is. <v Alcee L. Hastings>Very Kafkaesque in that I'm being tried and

<v Alcee L. Hastings>sentenced is reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland also. <v Alcee L. Hastings>Now, I think that's a good title for my book. Alcee in Wonderland. <v Alcee L. Hastings>I think that's what I'll call it. <v narrator: Keith Miles>Even if his opponents succeed in removing him from the bench, it's guaranteed that <v narrator: Keith Miles>Alcee Lamar Hastings, this new animal called Judge, will not <v narrator: Keith Miles>be silenced. <v Alcee L. Hastings>Everybody, please understand. Martin Luther King articulated a German spokesperson <v Alcee L. Hastings>when he talked in terms of I would rather die standing <v Alcee L. Hastings>up than to die standing on my knees, <v Alcee L. Hastings>knowing what I do about the streets. <v Alcee L. Hastings>And having grown up in Altamont Springs, I determined to translate that <v Alcee L. Hastings>into the vernacular of the brothers and sisters down in Frenchtown. <v Alcee L. Hastings>What they would say for that same phraseology is I would rather <v Alcee L. Hastings>go down throwing down than to go down laying <v Alcee L. Hastings>down. Thank you all very much.

<v Speaker>[ending credits music]