A Miami litigator expressed skepticism about the #MeToo movement during a bond hearing in the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building on Saturday.

Kristi Kassebaum, a personal injury and criminal law attorney with the Kassebaum and Basile firm, made her remarks while speaking on behalf of her client Alejandro Perez. Perez, a fifth-grade teacher with Charles R. Hadley Elementary School, was arrested on Friday and charged with 12 counts of sexual assault against a minor.

Appearing before Judge Marcia Caballero, Kassebaum suggested her client was innocent and had been victimized by the #MeToo movement.

“Apparently there were five kids that have some sort of video,” she said of the evidence against Perez. Kassebaum cited conversations with representatives of the teachers union when expressing her skepticism about the tape.

“They tell me all the time there's a video and it never purports to show what it says,” Kassebaum said. “He's teaching … and this whole 'Me Too' movement has just … I feel like it's gone too far. I feel like people like this client are being caught up. They're innocent.”

The Miami-Dade County Public Schools Office of Communications did not return requests for comment by press time.

Watch the bond hearing here: 

According to CBSMiami, which aired Kassebaum's comments, officials with Miami-Dade Public Schools said Perez never had a complaint filed against him during his more than three decades with the school district.

According to her Florida Bar profile, Kassebaum earned her J.D. from the Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America and was admitted to the Florida Bar in September 1990. In 2015, WPLG Local 10 reported on her defense of a 14 year-old boy accused of shooting his friend in Miami-Dade County.

More recently, Kassebaum was quoted in the Miami Herald denying allegations of racism against her client, former Biscayne Park Capt. Lawrence Churchman. Churchman was named in an investigation into charges of systemic racism and document falsification against Raimundo Atesiano, the former Biscayne Park police chief.

Kassebaum did not respond to emailed requests for comment. Her law partner, Paul Basile of Kassebaum and Basile, told the DBR, “We're not making a comment.”

Reacting to Kassebaum's remarks, the Florida Association for Women Lawyers provided a statement stressing the organization's belief “in the strength of the Me Too Movement in empowering survivors of sexual harassment to make their collective voices heard.”

“We are confident that the Rules of Evidence are more than adequate to address any issues raised with regard to similar conduct when the alleged abuser is criminally charged,” the statement said. “The defendant and the prosecution will have an opportunity to fully explore how probative other alleged incidents may be as well how prejudicial they could be.”

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