Sunday, March 29, 2009

ABE LAESER RETIRES

From Abe Laeser
Shalom


I was sworn in as an Assistant State Attorney on May 2nd, 1973. It was the day after I had become a member of the Florida Bar. No other job ever seriously tempted me to leave. What I am can be found in the immortal words of Paul Simon, when he sang of the One Trick Pony: "He's just a one trick pony (that's all he is),
But he turns that trick with pride."

Prosecution has been by vocation, my avocation, and my true love for nearly 36 years. I leave this, my home, with the greatest of regret - even sorrow. As Thomas Carlyle once wrote, as if he were writing only for me: "Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness." My friends, my colleagues, my compatriots in battles too numerous to mention -- all these will forever have a place in my heart.

Many have asked me about a most memorable moment. There have been many extremely similar moments that I have taken most to heart. I have had one single request - one that mercifully I have never had to carry out; yet it meant the world to me, because it spoke truth in its loudest possible voice. Fellow prosecutors, officers, defense attorneys, and even judges had made one request. The gist of it was: "If my family member should ever be murdered, could you personally prosecute the case?" This is perhaps the only legacy that will stay in my mind forever. It means too much for me to ever forget.

G-d bless you all with wisdom and courage in this special calling, as prosecutors.

SHALOM.

Rumpole says: The above missive was an email Mr. Laeser sent to all the prosecutors at the SAO as he leaves after 36 years of dedicated service to this community. We reprint it with his permission. 

Mr. Laeser, (Abe to many) needs no introduction to the majority of people who read this blog. Chief of Major crimes when the SAO had a Major Crimes unit, he was THE prosecutor that the community turned to when the worst of tragedies struck- when a law enforcement officer was killed in the line of duty.  Along the way, as many have written, Mr. Laeser trained hundreds of prosecutors in how to investigate and prepare a case; how to do it exceptionally well; and how to do it ethically and honestly.  We really are not the one to recount all that Mr. Laeser has meant to the SAO and Miami.  Already one judge has posted a comment and we encourage all lawyers and Judges to do the same. 

We leave you with this link to a blog post The Case That Made Miami Burn, and Roy Black's recollections of doing battle with the best the Miami SAO had. 

Roy ended his comment with this:

"You know if you have tried a case against Abe Laeser you have met their best lawyer."

Rumpole says: It's worth reading what Abe Laeser had to say about trying the Alvarez case against Roy Black. Because he called it "my best case and worst loss."

And what does that mean? To us it means there is value in trying your best, no matter what the odds, and accepting the results. As we teach lawyers from time to time, rather than being bitter about the loss (blaming the judge or the jury or the client or a witness) embrace the loss and learn everything you can from it.  By doing that you will realize that losing a case is the most valuable lesson a trial lawyer can have, and it will- as Mr. Laeser has shown- make losses in the future extremely rare events. 

G-dspeed Mr. Laeser. 

38 comments:

  1. The loss of Abe Laeser is a big loss for the office and for all of us in Miami-Dade County. i hope he is in good health and moving to activities that will reward him for everything he has done for our community. Joe Klock

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  2. Go with G-d. You are truly one of a kind. Enjoy the rest, you have earned it.

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  3. He makes it look so easy
    He looks so clean
    He moves like God's
    Immaculate machine
    He makes me think about
    All of these extra movements I make
    And all of this herky-jerky motion
    And the bag of tricks it takes
    To get me through my working day
    One-trick pony

    Thanks Abe

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  4. Abe,

    You and I had our disagreements, but I will always respect your devotion to the job and honesty. You are irreplaceable. Your retirement is a huge loss for the office and the community.

    Good luck in whatever you choose to do.

    BTDT

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  5. THE CAPTAIN COMMENTS:

    "I leave this, my home, with the greatest of regret - even sorrow"

    Abe, do not leave with any regrets or sorrow, as you can rest assured that youR style, grace, dedication, and never-ending yearning to always seek justice will live on in many of the younger attorneys who have had an opportunity to watch and learn.

    I hope you enjoy your next chapter in life, whatever that may be.

    On behalf of a community of lawyers at the MJB/GJB, thanks.

    CAPTAIN OUT .....

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  6. Thank you for your service to the community.

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  7. Abe,

    I worked with you years ago. Sine then, we were against each other a few times.

    You did your job with honor and for that we respect you.

    Enjoy your retirement.

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  8. I think that Abe Laeser is an amazing lawyer. As a Judge, I have witnessed thousands of lawyers over many years. Abe, you are clearly among the very best ever. Your legacy will include the fact that you always acted with integrity, dedication and with honor. you taught so many young lawyers what a real trial lawyer does. I am grateful to you my friend for so many wonderful years of service to your community. God bless you Abe.

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  9. Shalom and g-d bless
    Debra Cohen

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  10. In the words of Albert Einstein:

    "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile."

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  11. I have no doubt that had Abe Laeser chosen to go into private practice, he would be pulling down a paycheck much greater than that he made as an ASA. In fact, right now he could be a senior partner at a large firm drawing a high six figure, if not a seven figure, salary.

    Instead, he chose to be a career prosecutor, and in the process established himself as the finest trial attorney at the SAO. His commitment to doing justice was unparalleled and he always displayed the utmost integrity and ethics. Nearly every attorney who has roamed the halls of the REGJB over the past quarter-century has learned a thing or two--of often many more--from Abe.

    As Captain said, don't leave with sorrow and regret. Leave with the knowledge that you have set the highest bar--the gold standard--for what any prosecutor, in any office, may become.

    Thank you for your service the the SAO, the community, the REGJB and the legal community for the last 36years. And may G-d bless you in your retirement and wherever your future endeavors take you.

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  12. roy has lost 5 trials ina arow. the last he won , the fix was in. his ship has sailed.

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  13. i like all the gold chains abe wears.

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  14. you sign your name with attribution for the story about Sigler and the pds office and i will print it. my rule is that people need to come forward and sign their names when they make those kind of attacks against other people.

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  15. When the state's fiscal crisis ends, and it will, won't they just hire abe back? How about the feds?

    How about working a few cases for the innocence project along with Janet Reno, who volunteers her time for the innocence project? One could imagine a prosecutor hard pressed to say "no" if Abe examined the case and felt a defendant was wrongfully convicted.

    And I'm sure he can get on any law school faculty he so desires.

    The point is we haven't see the last of Abe Laeser if he wants to stay around. If he wants to go sit on a beach, bless him, he's earned it. But i think he will keep his fingers in the stew for a while longer.

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  16. Abe...we met many years ago when I was a young police officer and then after law school as I was an ASA in Broward we worked together on a related case. It was a shame you got racked over the coals for nothing as a result of getting tired of the defense in depo. Over the years you certainly helped all us good guys and gals. It was good to see you a couple years back when I had to return to Dade a case from up here.
    The best to you and your family.....go with God

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  17. The lawyers have left their offices. Shumie time has been declared on Flager!

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  18. Twitter yea right... But on the plus side, it’s like talking to yourself, out loud, on the bus.

    So I played with it for a while. Cracked jokes. Followed famous people. Followed not-so-famous people. Geolocated myself. Posted pictures via twitpic or douchetweet or fuckchirp or whatever lamprey-like fly-by-night jackass service reared up to add the moronic and superfluous features that the folks at Twitter were smart enough to originally eschew.

    And my verdict is: It’s retarded. It’s AOL keywords.

    It’s the CB radio of the 2000’s.

    For all the connectivity Twitter supposedly offers, it offers no genuine connections at all. Everything is passive. You send out a “tweet”1 into the universe with no idea or clue that anyone will answer. You have no idea if anyone heard you. You have no indication that anyone cares. It’s just a firehose of the pointless flotsam and jetsam of cultural minutia and lifestyle effluvium, delivered in a lightly distracting, OM NOM NOM-style all-you-can-eat infotainment/ego-casting stream to whatever millennial-enabled wireless device you’re willing to hook into it2.

    It’s like talking to yourself, out loud, on the bus. And it offers just about the same amount of useful feedback.

    If Twitter is the future of online communication, or the future of blogging and/or journalism: I’m out. I want the communication I spend my ever-decreasing amount of free time on to be richer, clearer; not constrained by arbitrary limitations based on the maximum length of SMS text messages

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  19. FACDL email system all atwitter with huge not guilty verdicts on reverse sting drug and burglary case before Judge Altanoga in fed ct.

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  20. I have been a member of the Florida Bar since 1969. I can unequivocally say I have never met a more honorable prosecutor than Abe Laeser. His word was always gold. Godspeed, Abe. Roy Gonzalez

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  21. Abe Laeser has served the Miami Dade County Community,and the State of Florida during his tenure as a state attorney.From his very first day as an a.s.a.handling preliminary hearings,to handling capital murder cases and beyond his integrity and professionalism went uncompromised.
    Many a.s.a.'s,many public defenders come and go with little if any impact upon the criminal justice sytaem.This is not and will not be the case with Abraham Laeser.
    Mr.Laeser will be sorely missed by all and I wish him much pleasure in his future.
    S.R.S.

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  22. Twitter my dick!

    I dont care when Rick Freedman takes a crap or Brian T. travels to Sarasota or Rumpole gets blue balls from the Colombian Princess.

    I know I dont have to subscribe the the feeds but all this real time self-aggrandizing info is making me puke.

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  23. Congrats to Paul Fraynd and Dave Pettus for not guilty verdicts on all drug counts in front of Altanoga on a very difficult reverse sting home invasion. Impressive work after a month long trial.

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  24. to 7:22 am

    I am not on Twitter, have no idea what it is, have no time for it, and, oh yeah, since you seem so interested, I am very regular.

    RF

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  25. Rumpole why have you not joined facebook? It is way better than Twitter and Blogspot.

    If you signup post your public link here for people to join you.

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  26. The State Attorney should not be filing so many garbage cases. That will cut down on the wasteful use of the court's time. The police arrest too many people and overstate the facts. The state attorney will take police officers' words as though they were the Gospel of Matthew. If the State was a little more selective with the cases, there would not be such an over load on the PDO.

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  27. This twitter stuff is dumb.

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  28. Crist says cigarette tax should exclude cigars

    Gov. Charlie Crist says he's still opposed to a cigarette tax increase, but he sounds increasingly resigned to one coming from the Legislature. As long as the deal excludes cigars.

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  29. About tomorrow...

    Are planning to hack into your own blog, like you did last year?

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  30. Rump,

    Here are things I can now rely upon to be on the local news:

    1. The Dow is down;
    2. Another athlete is on steroids; and
    3. Judge Jorge Cueto is yelling like a lunatic at some guy at bond hearings.

    We all know he ripped on that girl a few weeks ago. Then the other day, he chastised some DUI guy. Today, the news showed him yelling at some guy who was complaining about the arresting officer. He held the guy in direct contempt and sentenced him to 180 days.

    Seems like we never heard about such incidents when good ole Judge Klein was in charge. I also hear that Judge Alex and Judge David Young are complaining that Cueto gets more air time than they do. He was such a laid back guy when he was with the SAO.

    I also hear the PD's office is telling arrestees that they should plea no contest directly to the arresting officer so that they can avoid a harsh sentence in bond hearing court. Also, the Broward judiciary is sending down scouts to see what all the hype is about and that they may sign Cueto when he becomes a free agent.

    Please do a full investigation and report all findings to me immediately via Twitter.

    And please give me my righful place on the front page of the blog. Not buried in this thread.

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  31. Watch out for the Conficker.c worm.

    Each infected computer will act like a zombie at the control the master computer.

    Each computer hosts a babyficker.

    The controlling computer will be one heck of a motherficker.

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  32. Oh God! Please make them stop!

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  33. When is Dave Pettus going to retire?

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  34. 3:21 - because like, um, omg, I'm not 16.

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  35. Numerous Judges and respected Attorneys (including Roy Black) have a facebook accounts.

    Rumpole, OMG! Perhaps, you are just too old!

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