FEDS FOLD

In the poker game between the Feds and  the Corona Virus, the Virus is winning. The Virus kept betting and raising and re-raising and re-re-raising (what the professional players call three and four bets). The Feds folded this week, announcing that there will be no jury trials until 2021. Now, in the Rumpolian Lexicon, there will be a new story when a case gets set for trial and a client asks if we are sure the case will go? "Well let me tell you about this case a few years ago. Judge so&so set one of our cases for trial in the first week of April and issued a scathing order in which other than acts of God, no further continuances would be considered. Then Covid-19 shut the world down and ...." You get the idea. 

 Friday was the day the great Sy Gaer passed away in 2007. If you do not know who he is, we would almost be inclined to ban you from the blog. But instead you can go to the courthouse, and opposite the elevators on ...never mind you cannot do that either. 

 Sy was an REGJB original. One and only and there will never be another. He was as we say in the law "Sui Generis." He was bombastic; he was at times a caricature of a criminal defense attorney, but he was also very very good. And what many people do not know about him is that he had a heart of gold. He was there for lawyers- young and old- who had slipped and fallen- with a new case to help them get back on their feet, and encouragement and a few bucks if needed. 

It's hard to believe it has been thirteen years. The REGJB still does not seem the same without him and for many of us it never will. Here's the thing- a lawyer could have tried a case every week since the day Sy passed on and s/he would still not have tried 10% of the cases Sy tried in his career. 

There isn't a day that goes by that we do not miss him. Rest in peace old friend. You are missed. 

HOW TO REOPEN THE COURTS

The Courts, and by that we mean those who run them, have been quiet on re-opening. Much like a sealed motion filed by the prosecution, we do not know what is going on. 

Here are some problems our intrepid robe wearers will need to address and settle: 
El Chapo Café- Open?  Social distancing? Let's say we get everything else in place, it's a Monday at lunchtime, people are streaming downstairs to eat. How are the hungry masses accommodated? 

Courtrooms. It is not our current judges' fault that our beloved REGJB was built circa 1960. Some courtrooms are downright tiny germ-spreading factories. Think about the ones in the back hallways. In Corona-world we cannot have people standing in those narrow hallways waiting to come in to court. Even the regular sized courtrooms have bench seats that crowd people together. None of this works 2020 Corona-world. 

SOLUTION#1- Close the small courtrooms in the back hallways and use the courtrooms on the first floor now being used for traffic calendars.  It brings less people deeper into the building. Misdemeanor participants can enter, walk right into the courtroom on the first floor,  and leave without using an elevator or escalator. This one is easy and a no-brainer. We expect it to be implemented immediately. 

We need to innovate, which just happens to be our middle name. 

SOLUTION# 2: The C word. CALENDERING.  
Dear Judges Soto and Sayfie. We have had our differences in the past. You did not like the pressure we exerted to close down the courthouses. We in turn, did not fully grasp the pressures you were under and how hard it was to just shut it down. Let's move beyond our differences. Please listen to us. This is important. THE DAYS OF 9 AM CALENDARS ARE OVER. oVER. over. Over. Anyway you spell it. O..V..E..R. 

Judges need to work from 8:30-5:00. Arraignments from 8:45-9:30. Miscellaneous matters from 10:00-11:00. You need a half hour space to empty the building between calendars. 11:30-1 lunch. You need to give people time to eat off-premises. No jurors in building until 1:30. Jury trials from 2 pm on. Change of pleas on Friday afternoons (which gives lawyers in trials Fridays off and avoids the dreaded Friday verdict-syndrome Rumpole abhors). 

No longer will inconveniencing jurors be the guiding principle in pushing jury trials to quick conclusions. Safety. Space. Efficient use of time to schedule and handle hearings will be the new guiding principles.  


Solution#3: Calendar calls Can Be Done By Zoom. Repeat. Lawyers do NOT need to come to the courthouse to announce ready for trial or not. Two weeks before trial date, a Zoom calendar call is scheduled. Hold them during a Thursday evening cocktail hour and you may see more resolutions than normal. 

Solution#4: Saturdays and Sundays are just days in the week. We have all been home for several years now. Or at least it seems that way. There is no rule that says motions to suppress cannot be handled on Saturdays. We will all need to work more to catch up. Judges will need to use the time available to safely space out hearings. 

Here is the guiding principle- we cannot--- cannot---cannot just schedule everything for 9 am, jam people into our courthouse and then work until it is done. To their credit, the Feds have been scheduling their time efficiently for a long time now. State court needs to catch up. 

Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their court system. Judges need the calendaring tools to be able to schedule matters at 2:30 and 4:00 pm. To the court systems' credit, their tech department stepped up and instituted Zoom quicker than you can say it's safe to open tattoo parlors in Georgia.  Lawyers will be inconvenienced. We all need to change the way we do business

Solution#5: Move Traffic Court.  Dade County has lots of office space. Move traffic court off-premises from the courthouse. Commercial real estate is being crushed. You can rent a storefront office on Coral Way for nothing. Marias- a gathering place for REGJB lawyers ever since Janet Reno would stop off for dinner in the 1980's, has sadly closed. That space can be rented. It has street parking. Set up satellite traffic courts all over Dade County, even Hialeah (Motto: "Where the streets have six names"). Add a dollar user fee to each ticket to pay the rent. In Corona-world 2020 and beyond,  it is all about managing the flow of people. Less people in larger spaces=safety.

There will be no WWII to bring this economy back from the coming depression. But maybe there will be a few trillion dollars invested in infrastructure. And that means new public buildings redesigned to eliminate crowds, and the  infections that come with crowds. The new Miami Sy Gaer Criminal Justice Center that can be built in 2025 will be a giant step towards solving these problems. Until then we need to use all the hours in the day, six days a week, to handle the cases in our criminal court system. 

A well intentioned reader may well email us that we did not discuss the civil court system. "How about civil court Rumpole? 

Oh, that's easy  we respond. 
"Jam them all together. The world can use less civil lawyers."

Solution#6:  "I thank you good people. There shall be no money. All shall eat and drink on my score. ...The first thing we do, let's kill all (the civil) lawyers." 
Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV, scene 2. 

Drop the mike and walk off the stage. 

Coming next: By Any Other Name.  (hmmmm, what could that be  about?)

REMEMBERING AN REGJB LEGEND

He was a US Marine. 
He fought in Korea at the infamous and hellish Chosin Reservoir battle against the Chinese in the brutal korean winter of 1950. 
He was a prolific author of pulp-fiction short stories. 
He knew his way around a bar and a courtroom and he had clients lining up top hire him. No checks please. Just cash. 
Every client was "a poor innocent child" upon which disaster had fallen. 
If he liked you, he added "darling" to your name when he saw you. 
Clients with multiple arrests while on bond were, to him, "a clear pattern of police harassment." 
His arms were often splayed out as he pled his case.
He tried at least a case a week for probably forty years, maybe more.  
He was an REGJB original and his likes will not again be seen in our building. 
He died today, August 7, in 2007 and it doesn't seem like he has been gone ten years. 
Rest in peace old friend Sy Gaer.

Here's the link to the great article about Sy by the former herald ace Susannah Nesmith. It's worth a second read. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SY GAER

Happy Birthday  Sy Gaer.
11/6/1931- 8/7/2007.

Korean War combat veteran.
Trial lawyer.
Justice Building legend and friend and mentor to scores of young prosecutors and criminal defense attorneys.

We miss him every day we walk into the REGJB. The courthouse has never been the same since he left us.

SURVIVOR POOL

Last week saw the end of the comedic duo Colby/Weisman as both went down on the same pick. However those who picked the game that ended in a tie continue on pursuant to rule 3.1 which clearly states that an entrant who picks "a team that loses" is out of the contest. See also, Gowdy ex rel Madison...

This week saw ill advised picks by David O Markus and Rick Freedman, who both bowed out when the Packers were upset by the Colts.

Here are your surviving six:

Lew & Lurvey (Saints);
Real Fake Former Judge (Fins);
De La O & Ireland (Cowpokes);
Clay Kaeiser (Chiefs).

SY AND WHEAT

(Scott Saul posted a legal question so interesting that we are posting it below this post. Scroll down, and read Scott's question, and confine your comments under that post to possible answers.)

We received this email:

Rumpole, I do not know if you were at ceremony for the dedication of Sy's memorial. Stan Blake was his usual ebullient self. He pulled out a bag containing dozens of black books from all his years in private practice, saying he learned to keep track of his cases from Sy just the way Sy did.

Barry Wax, representing FACDL Miami mentioned you; apparently you have been on his case to get the memorial done. Barry was also the driving force behind getting the picture framed along with Sy's famous Black Book and some nice words by Milt Hersch.

Sy's son spoke, and so did David Markus, who noted he shared and office with Sy for more than 20 years, and that was longer than many marriages these days. Also in attendance was Sy's long time secretary Ibis (spelling?). Both David and Ibis seemed near tears.

As I mentioned, there are some wonderful words by Milt Hirsch, memorializing Sy, hands outstretched, pleading his defense on behalf of his client. Milt's written words and David's small speech both refer to the fact that Sy was the lawyer of the people. He gave people pride in the fact that they hired someone who would be going to court fighting just for them.

Sy worked in our building for over 45 years. He started his criminal defense practice sometime around 1962!! When you think of all the giants who have worked in our building: From Judges like Ed Cowart to lawyers like Ed Carhart, the fact that Sy and only Sy has earned a special memorial and a place in our hearts and memories is something special.

I'm glad the memorial of Sy is up, and I know, as Stan and Barry mentioned, that when I'm having a tough day, I can always walk by and take a look at Sy's picture, and smile, and that will help get me through the day.

Rumpole says: Well said.

WHEAT:

There has been some discussion on the order signed by the Judge, linked in yesterday's post, ordering an attorney to take a case he did not want to handle.

We have many thoughts on the subject, but for now we will say this:
There is nothing surprising in the Judge's order. It is just the chickens coming home to roost. We live in a society whose laws are built around altruistic collectivist ethics. You are not entitled to the fruit of your labours when measured against the need of the collective good. Don't believe us? We leave you with these two items:

1) The Florida Bar Oath, states in part:

"I will never reject, from any consideration personal to myself, the cause of the defenseless or oppressed, or delay anyone's cause for lucre or malice. So help me God."


2) The decision in Wickard v. Filburn 317 U.S. 111 (1942);
The Wikipedia explanation is HERE

What the case holds is that Congress, through the Commerce Clause has the power to stop a farmer from eating the wheat he had grown. And if the Government can do that, what makes us think the Judicial Branch of Government doesn't have the power to force a lawyer to take a case?

From the Supreme Court decision:
Appellee says that this is a regulation of production and consumption of wheat. Such activities are, he urges, beyond the reach of Congressional power under the Commerce Clause, since they are local in character, and their effects upon interstate commerce are at most "indirect." ...

The maintenance by government regulation of a price for wheat undoubtedly can be accomplished as effectively by sustaining or increasing the demand as by limiting the supply. The effect of the statute before us is to restrict the amount which may be produced for market and the extent as well to which one may forestall resort to the market by producing to meet his own needs. That appellee's own contribution to the demand for wheat may be trivial by itself is not enough to remove him from the scope of federal regulation where, as here, his contribution,taken together with that of many others similarly situated, is far from trivial...
It is said, however, that this Act, forcing some farmers into the market to buy what they could provide for themselves, is an unfair promotion of the markets and prices of specializing wheat growers. It is of the essence of regulation that it lays a restraining hand on the self-interest of the regulated and that advantages from the regulation commonly fall to others. The conflicts of economic interest between the regulated and those who advantage by it are wisely left under our system to resolution by the Congress under its more flexible and responsible legislative process.

Rumpole explains the philosophy behind the last paragraph that is highlighted:

Some people produce things that other people need. The needs of those that need it outweigh the rights of those that produce it. Need is the standard. Congress has the power to decide who needs what. And when Congress decides someone needs something, the person who produces it must give it to the person who needs it.

In Florida, a Judge has decided someone needs representation. That person's needs outweigh the rights of the Lawyer to his or her own work. The Lawyer must subject their own personal welfare to the needs of the collective. To the greater good. The lawyer must take the case. This is called altruist collectivist ethics. And as a side note, we mention that just about every proclamation in Nazi Germany was justified on need, and for the public good.

When you see someone championing the rights of the needy, and demanding the sacrifice of someone's skill, talent, or money, you can be sure of two things: 1) The person making the demand is not the person with the skill or talent; 2) The person making the demand usually has their own self interest in obtaining power (elected office) or expanding their power. More people need than produce, so the people expand the power of those that give them what the producers make. Vox Populi.

See You In Court with our well worn copy of
AtlasShrugged

SY GAER MEMORIAL

FACDL-Miami Invites you to theDedication of the Sy Gaer Memorial

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

12 NoonRichard E. Gerstein Justice Building

2nd Floor

Rumpole: Finally.

GOODBYE OLD FRIEND

Today we say goodbye to a friend.

You will not soon be forgotten. Your kindness, humor and humanity have touched each one of us in a special way. We laughed at your jokes, marveled at your ability, celebrated your wins, and commiserated with you on your losses. Now we have lost you, and we must rely on each other to ease our pain. If we listen closely we can almost hear that familiar voice: "Hang in there kid. It will get better."

In the coming days and months and years ahead we will stand where you stood and will say "As Sy might have said Judge....." There will be smiles in court and knowing nods of the head.

Time will pass and those who follow us will hear about you. Stories will be told and re-told. Eventually time will move on and all of us who knew you will be in different places. Our names and yours will fade into the fast moving waters of history and time. Such is the nature of life.

But for now, we will gather tonight and laugh and cry and remember.

And for many years to come, it will often be said that in this place and time there was a man who was unique. He made us laugh and earned our friendship and respect. He did his job which was really his calling to the very best of his remarkable ability. And along the way he touched more lives than he could ever know.

Rest in peace Sy Gaer. You have earned a special place in our hearts.

The memorial service for Sy is this evening at the Mahi Shrine Temple at 7:00 PM. Viewing begins at 3:00 PM.

The Herald Article on Sy last year.

It was great that the Herald and our own little legal community banded together last December and honored Sy on his 75th Birthday, with a wonderful article written by Susannah Nesmith and a party at Tobacco Road, where Judge Stan Blake made a presentation to Sy on behalf of the 11th Judicial Circuit. This was all about the best of our legal world honoring one of our own who truly deserved it.

Since that time, Sy was named one of the original eleven Legal Legends of Dade County by the 11th Circuit Historical Society. The award will be presented in November, but according to David Markus, Sy did receive the letter and was very proud.

It is all together fitting that we re-run the wonderful article written by Ms. Nesmith:

By SUSANNAH NESMITH

Attorney: I'm here on a mission of mercy for this poor innocent child, your honor.
Judge: How old is this 'poor child'?
Attorney: He's 23 years old, your honor . . . a babe in the woods.
Judge: If I recall, once you reach 18, you're not a child anymore.
Attorney: I have suits that are older, your honor.
Judge: You have speeches that are older. I've heard them all Mr. Gaer. Motion denied.

Ladies and gentleman, Sy Gaer, a little old man who is something of a giant in courthouse circles. Here is a lawyer who turns routine hearings into comedy theater, but also regularly wins trials, even though he refuses to prepare.

His lines are legendary in the Justice Building.
To Gaer, every case is a potential "miscarriage of justice, " all prosecutors are "persecutors" and every client a "poor innocent child" no matter how old, or how heinous the alleged crime.

He's been known to comment that a certain prosecutor had "his diaper wrapped too tightly." Gaer, 75, even has a favorite line for judges: "Just once before I die, I'd like to hear the word 'granted' in this courtroom."

"He's a throwback, almost a caricature. He practices law as it was practiced four decades ago, " said Circuit Judge Stanford Blake.

All humor aside, young prosecutors quickly learn not to underestimate the Korean War veteran from Queens.

"They see this bumbling Barney Fife type guy, and then he does a brilliant cross examination and they're shocked because they thought he was just a court jester, " said Circuit Judge Diane Ward.

For all his bombast in the courtroom, Gaer is humble in the hallway.
"I'm just a crippled, bent-over old man who can barely catch his breath, " Gaer said on a recent day.

He has the breathlessness of emphysema, the slow shuffle of a herniated disk and the paper-thin, liver-spotted skin of a man who has lived a long time. His suits hang crookedly on his thin, stooped frame.

Last year, he fought off colon cancer. But while he may be slowing down, Gaer shows no signs of giving up.

He'll do 15 hearings in a morning - a dozen more than most lawyers handling major crimes would ever schedule in one day. Gaer calls it "volume business." He charges less than most and handles more cases.
Gaer says he can do it because he doesn't prepare for trial like other lawyers do.

DIFFERENT APPROACH
"I don't take depositions. I don't visit them in the jails. I don't take collect calls."
Instead, he goes to court armed only with a little black book, where he scribbles his case information in tiny, left-handed script.
"If he takes depositions, he has to tell us his angle, " explained veteran prosecutor Susan Dannelly. "What better way to spring a witness on us. Of course, not everybody can pull that off."

"Trial by ambush, " says Circuit Judge Leonard Glick. "He will find a little hole and expand it a little larger, then find another one and expand that one and before you know it, the entire thread of the case has come unraveled."

Prosecutors Tama Koss and Carolina Corona were ambushed by Sy this month. The charge was attempted murder of an 83-year-old man. Gaer's client was arrested driving the man's car hours after the beating.
Gaer entangled the lead detective in his own department policies, asking him why he didn't tape the victim picking his client out of a photo lineup.
The cop said that's not normal procedure. Gaer had him get the police department policy. It says photo lineups should be recorded.

"Here we are in the year 2006 when things are so technologically advanced and you don't have a tape recorder or a video recorder?" Gaer asked.
"No sir, " Det. Magdiel Armenteros responded.
"Wouldn't it be fair to document those sorts of things?" Gaer continued.
"It is documented in my supplemental report, " the officer responded.
"But isn't it true that a police officer can put anything he wants in a report, that he can get cute with the facts if he wants and no one will know?" Gaer asked.
"No sir, there's nothing cute about my job, " the officer replied petulantly.
After questioning why there was no DNA or fingerprint evidence, Gaer had given the jury reasonable doubt.
His client was acquitted of attempted murder and convicted only of auto theft. He was facing 30 years in prison but got just 10.

"What can I say? Sy's a hero, " Circuit Judge Julio Jimenez said after trial. "I thought this case was a slam dunk."
Jimenez worked in Gaer's office in the early 1980s, a time he recalls as exhausting.

'HE'S SEEN IT ALL'
"Sy's like a professional gambler, " he said. "He knows all the possible combinations that might come up. He's seen it all before."

So why keep doing it?
"I find it mildly amusing, " Gaer said one day, sitting in his office a few blocks from the courthouse. He's been there for years. He redecorated in 1977 and hasn't seen a need to change the orange-and-cream shag carpeting on the wall.
Though he's had several high profile cases over the years, he tends to shun the media. He adamantly refuses to discuss any but the barest details of his personal life.

Born and raised in Queens, where his father was a taxi driver, he went to school on the GI Bill - first Queens College, then the University of Miami Law School.
He's been married but won't say how many times. Circuit Judge Scott Silverman was briefly his stepson, back when Silverman was 4.
"Every judge who's in that building now, the day they walked in, Sy Gaer had already been there 10 years, " Silverman said. "He came with the building."

Gaer was overwhelmed and a bit embarrassed by all the attention he got on his birthday. Three different judges interrupted court to sing Happy Birthday.
The Miami-Dade criminal defense bar put on a party that night at Tobacco Road that drew a few hundred Justice Building regulars.
"I can't believe this turnout, " Gaer said. "It's not like I'm Mother Teresa or something. I just made a good living."

Lawyers and judges traded Sy stories. Like the one about the young prosecutor who carts a box of files into the courtroom, ready for trial. Gaer walks in without even a briefcase. He asks the prosecutor if he can borrow a couple of pieces of paper.
Gaer won.
"After that I used to bring in extra pads for Sy, " Assistant State Attorney Philip Maniatty recalled.

State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle arrived with a big bear hug for Gaer: "He was one of my first teachers. I used to watch him talk to jurors. It was impressive what he could do with them."

Circuit Judge Reemberto Diaz said Gaer "understands the psychology of a jury."
"People think he wings it. He doesn't. He knows the law better than anyone in the building probably, " said defense attorney Phil Reizenstein.

Gaer is the first to point out he doesn't win anywhere near all of his cases. Asked why he didn't seem to have any enemies in a building built on confrontation, he said: "I had one once, but he's dead now. I guess I've outlived all my enemies."

WHAT COLLEAGUES SAY ABOUT SY GAER * Assistant State Attorney Philip Maniatty: "He will go through an entire trial and refer to his client by the wrong name and the jury will acquit anyway." * Defense Attorney Richard Sharpstein: "He kicked my a- as a young prosecutor a couple of times. I thought, 'this guy hasn't taken a single deposition.' " * Circuit Judge Julio Jimenez, who once worked with Gaer : "There are people who can't afford Roy Black, but they want to hire their own attorney. He's told me before, 'People are proud. There's no better feeling for some of these guys than to be able to pay for their own lawyer.' " * Assistant State Attorney Bill Kostrzewski: "There's so many curmudgeons out there that are real curmudgeons and nasty people, but Sy's a really nice guy." * Circuit Judge Diane Ward: "He represents people who no one has ever fought for before. When Sy is fighting for somebody, the whole courtroom is listening. That's a nice thing for somebody who's scared." * Assistant State Attorney Kionne McGhee: "I saw him beat down a colleague of mine. I mean, beat down into the ground." * Circuit Judge Norman Gerstein: "We used to joke at one time that he had as many cases as the Public Defender's Office."

SY GAER

Sy and "Lurvey darling"


SY GAER’S funeral will be this Thursday at the Mahi Shine Temple.
Viewing starting at 3:00 PM, with a service from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM.


FLAGS AT HALF STAFF
Thank you to Judge Farina who did the right thing and ordered the flags at the Justice Building to be flown at half staff for the rest of the week.


All the comments have been wonderful. Here are some of our favourites:

Mr. Sissleman starts things off with a fact we did not know: Sy was injured in combat during the Korean War!:

Sy was the the best. Most don't know he was a wounded combat vet, bayanetted (sic) by the chinese in the Korea. A tough guy w/ always a kind word and a how ya doing kid. He was our Perry Mason & Matlock. We Will miss you greatly Sy,
D. Sisselman


Bill Matthewman said...
Sy cross-examined me when I was a young Miami cop. I would have rather had root canal. After I left Court humbled (and pissed), the prosecutor told me, don't worry, that's just Sy. Since then, as a defense attorney, we had cases together and I grew to admire him. We became friends, and I'll miss the old guy. If there are trials in Heaven, he'll announce ready upon entering the Pearly Gates.


This anonymous poster speaks for a lot of us, including yours truly:

Anonymous said...
I'm a better lawyer for having known you, and you didn't even know it.
Thanks Sy.


lurveydarling said...
The reason I became a lawyer was because of Sy. Summer internship from UF in 1983 with Marco Loffredo (another great guy). Saw Sy's show one day and found him everyday that summer and followed him around. He made it look so fun. Many years later I asked him how he did it everyday. He raised his hand slightly above his shoulder, palm to the heavens and said "its all right here, in the hand"

You always expect the legendary to be around forever. I prosecuted cases against Sy, later he appeared before me in court. He never changed, never had a client who wasn't "poor and misunderstood".Most folks didn't know that he was a decorated Marine during the Korean War, or know of his pro bono work for some of the least of our bretheren, or know of his kindness to attorneys just starting private practice. Sy wasn't one to brag.He was truly a good man.Rest in peace, my good friend.Your "sweetheart".Katie Pooler


Here are some snippets collected from some of the comments we received:

His humor, his ability to laugh at himself and the honest appreciation he had for those around him will be missed. Sy,if there is a heaven and you approach the pearly gates, the first words out of G-d's mouth will be "I have this angel who has a problem, can you help him out."

I can safely thank almost every attorney in the building for giving this man the appreciation and respect he deserved in life - here's a case where each of us derived a benefit at no cost, other than stepping back a moment to watch history in the making. Good for you Sy, most people don't succeed without appearing to try too hard, and even fewer gain the praise of competitors while the war is still being waged. You had our gratitude and life, and its safe to say your memory will live on as a kind smile for whenever a hint of your existence passes through the building.
He always brought a smile to my face when he approached the podium in court to talk about his "poor innocent child" of a client. I will also miss how he greeted me with a "how ya doing kid?" every time he saw me.

Always a kind word or a happy greeting. Never an empty glass if Sy was around. A cunning fox in trial, He had incredible passion for this work we do and the passion was real, you cannot fake it, they will know.

The number of lives he impacted can partially be summed up by the fact that children were named after him by the fathers he saved from life in prison for transgressions made attempting to overcome obstacles to success that almost none of us have faced and almost no young prosecutor can fathom which is why so many prosecutors have mourned his passing because he helped teach them compassion for the poor and oppressed and not scorn and he did it through humor


Yes, we all loved Sy and his shtick. But having tried cases against Sy, he was a damn good and tenacious trial attorney. He also knew when his client was getting a good or raw deal and advised accordingly. I was able to resolve a truly tough case due to Sy's honesty and candor both with myself and his client.

To borrow from Kissinger's eulogy of Nelson Rockefeller--To think that Sy Gaer is dead is both shattering and nearly inconceivable. One thought him indestructible. We have lost a giant. Rest in peace--

His black book should be encased in a memorial in the lobby, like the Declaration of Independence.

Informations were "declarations of war," and every client's file was the "tear stained one."

Three weeks ago Sy had been named a “Legal Legend” in the inaugural class of 12 honorees by the 11th Judicial Circuit Historical Society. He was to be presented this honor this fall at a dinner downtown with 11 other "Legends." The committee was made up of civil and criminal practitioners and state and federal judges, all knew or knew of Sy. It was amazing to hear civil lawyers talk about him.


The Herald’s article by Ms. Nesmith is HERE


Please make sure you read all the wonderful comments under the original post about Sy. Every one of them tells a wonderful story. This man was a gem and is really going to be missed. It is often said, but not often true- however in this case it is- the REGJB will just never ever be the same.

HR.