Bruce Lehr of Lehr, Levi & Mendez in Miami. Courtesy photo.

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.

But, still early in his career, Lehr didn't have a plan B when he walked away.

"It wasn't brave. It was stupid," he said.

'Be here Monday at 9′

But luckily for Lehr, it worked out, as someone influential heard he was leaving and gave him a call.

It was Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Ellen Morphonios—remembered as one of America's toughest sentencing judges and for an incident in which she showed a rapist her thigh, describing it as the last one he'd see.

"I'm going to make your career," Lehr said Morphonios told him before giving him a murder case.

"I said, 'I haven't done defense. This would be my first defense case.' And she said, 'You didn't hear me. I said be here Monday at 9 o'clock,' " Lehr said.

Lehr caught the trial bug from the prosecutor's office, where Reno used a big stamp to brand countless cases with the words: " Bruce Lehr will prosecute."

"That's how now I estimate my jury trials at around 360 to 380," Lehr said. "Because every time she stamped, 'Bruce Lehr will prosecute,' I did."

2-by-4 to the head

That first defense case had an "everlasting impact" on Lehr, beginning with the father of a young murdered girl whispering in his ear, "Don't you have children?" That interaction unearthed an empathy for victims that Lehr's not sure he experienced as a prosecutor.

"Of course I felt for all victims, but that really was like a two-by-four to the head," Lehr said.

It was the first of about 70 court appointments that enabled him to establish a practice and pay rent. More than 30 years on, Lehr, Levi & Mendez handles state and federal cases across the country.

In the late 1990s, Lehr represented Ludwig Fainberg, the alleged head of the Russian mob in Miami, accused of selling a submarine to bring 40 tons of cocaine up the U.S. West Coast to an alleged member of the Colombian cartel. Fainberg faced life in prison but was released for time served.

Lehr also landed countless unlikely acquittals, including one for former South Miami Mayor Horace Feliu, who faced election fraud charges after being caught accepting a bribe on tape.

And in another case, Lehr's work was so compelling that jurors hugged and kissed his client, Deputy U.S. Marshal Angel Echevarria, after acquitting the law enforcement officer of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and shooting into an occupied vehicle. Echevarria had said he'd he felt threatened by a driver in an alleged road-rage incident.

Lehr catches details that flip a case on its head.

In one case, he noticed glass shards that showed a sliding door was smashed from the inside, not the outside in an alleged break-in. In another, he highlighted that evidence from a steak knife used to stab a victim had become tainted, because the alleged attacker's father had later picked it up and put it in the kitchen sink.

And thanks to an uncanny ability to read people, Lehr may get a hostile witness to open up by guessing a personal and important detail that wins their trust. In one case: intuitively knowing that a witness had been working on a master's degree in their spare time.

'The guy at the diner counter'

There are four kinds of defense attorneys, the way Lehr sees it.

The scorched earth type "throws everybody under the bus," while the wolf from the Three Little Pigs "huffs and puffs and says, 'I'm going to do this and that,' then pleads guilty," while the professor type "just wants to quote Shakespeare."

"Then there's the kind that I think I am, or I hope I am, which is the guy at the diner counter having my apple pie with a cup of coffee, where I'm just telling the person next to me a story of what happened, and not using big words to make myself sound important," Lehr said. "Just telling the guy or the woman next to me, 'Hey, I got this case, let me tell you about it.' "

That approach has led two jurors after different trials to say, "You did a really good job for your friend," when Lehr's clients were total strangers.

'Not scared'

Third District Court of Appeal Judge and longtime friend Eric Hendon has enjoyed a front row seat to that connection Lehr strikes with jurors.

"I always enjoyed opportunities for him to appear in front of me, because I was up there thinking, 'These other attorneys have no idea what they're up against,' " Hendon said. " He doesn't run from controversy or controversial clients. He will take a case and he will give a vigorous defense. And nine out of 10 times, a successful defense."

Hendon started at the state attorney's office with Lehr, who he said has had several opportunities to become a judge but simply "loves being in trial too much."

Lehr even got results for gangster Al Capone in a present-day reenactment of the gangster's famous 1930s perjury trial, which the Miami-Dade courthouse stages to commemorate the event, complete with real defense attorneys and prosecutors.

"Had Bruce been around when the real Al Capone went on trial, he would have won," Hendon said.

Stuart Rosenfeldt, former law partner of convicted Ponzi-schemer Scott Rothstein, also knows that "guy from the diner," after Lehr represented him in a case that drew national headlines.

Accused of being involved in the $1.25 billion ploy, Rosenfeldt got a 14-month prison sentence, which paled in comparison to ex-partner Rothstein's 50 years, thanks to Lehr's empathy and confidence.

"What he was very good at was keeping me calm and giving extremely good advice," Rosenfeldt said. "He's also not scared of trying a case. He was perfectly prepared to go to trial, even when he was recommending I accept a plea after we saw some evidence that would have made me look unlikable to a jury."

Lehr's subtly is his strength, the way Rosenfeldt tells it.

"He's not out there looking to build a name," Rosenfeldt said. "He's not doing the ego stuff. He's just a good lawyer."

Lehr has represented people accused of horrific crimes, including pedophilia, murder and rape. He admits he's wrestled with how to explain that to his 5-year-old grandson.

"What will I tell him? Do I represent bad guys? Do I represent people falsely accused?" Lehr said. "I can't describe it at my age. How do I put that into the head of a 5-year-old?"

That said, Lehr stresses that criminal defense attorneys are a force for good, "if you just do your job and point out the flaws in the state's case."

 

'He just gets results, after results'

Retired U.S. Magistrate Judge William Turnoff described Lehr as a "workhorse."

"I think the phone is part of his ear," Turnoff said. "He's low key; he's not a publicity hound. He just gets results, after results, after results."

Turnoff says Lehr appears to be credible because—well—he is.

"He's authentic," Turnoff said. "He'll bring to the court's attention something that might not be favorable to him just because he's honorable."

Lehr said his affinity for the dark horse stems from his childhood in Brooklyn.

"When a little guy was being beaten I intervened—and got beaten up. Not the way it was supposed to end, but I like helping the underdog."

The most satisfying cases, Lehr says, are those where police haven't played fair.

"Be the underdog, because there are limitless monies and expertise and labs and everything for the state to prove that someone did a crime," Lehr said. "But don't be the underdog because they're lying."

Lehr shrinks away from singing his own praises, but not when it comes to his wife, Associate Administrative Judge Myriam Lehr of the Miami-Dade County Court Civil Division.

"My wife has a caseload in the thousands, and is able to listen to every one beginning to end, and then when she gets home to me she still has limitless patience," Lehr said. "I can be arrogant about having her."

 

Bruce H. Lehr

Born: Brooklyn, New York

Spouse: Myriam Lehr

Children: Jonathan and Joseph

Education: University of Miami, J.D., 1980; B.A., 1976

Experience: Founding partner, Lehr, Levi & Mendez, 1983-present; Chief county court prosecutor/Senior narcotics trial attorney, Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office, 1979-1983

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