By Jordana Mishory
Daily Business Review
New York Lawyer
April 1, 2010

MIAMI - Attorney Lawrence "Chris" Roberts received a public reprimand from The Florida Bar for giving former Broward Circuit Court Judge Larry Seidlin "gifts requested by the judge in order to receive special public defender appointments," according to Roberts’ conditional guilty plea.

Roberts came forward in 2007 stating that he purchased Seidlin a shirt the judge wanted and also bought a purse from Neiman Marcus for the judge’s wife, Belinda.

Seidlin, who left the bench in June 2007 after 28 years, was cleared of these charges that he improperly solicited and received gifts from Roberts by the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office in January 2009.

Prosecutors also cleared Seidlin of allegations that he took advantage of an elderly neighbor, who has since sued him for exploitation in an ongoing Broward Circuit Court case.

The judge had gained national notoriety when he sobbed and admonished the parties while presiding over the body custody case of late Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith. He has authored a book about the case. Its release is scheduled this summer.

In an interview, Roberts said he believes a double standard was at play as he faced a Bar ethics complaint for wrongdoing, while no wrongdoing was found on Seidlin’s part.

The Florida Bar closed out a case against Seidlin in February, finding that there was not sufficient evidence to proceed against him as to "whether or not you violated the rule with regard to the gifts received from Lawrence Roberts." The Bar has a pending case against Judge Seidlin concerning potential misconduct in regards to his elderly neighbor, according to Bar counsel Randi Klayman Lazarus.

"It was extortion, it wasn’t bribery," Roberts said. "The plan did not hatch in my mind. It hatched in the mind of Judge Seidlin."

"The judge? Get in trouble? No," Roberts said sarcastically.

Roberts signed a previously unreported conditional guilty plea December 2009. In late January, the Florida Supreme Court approved the uncontested referee’s report in a three-paragraph order, and also required Roberts to pay more than $1,900 in costs.

According to the Dec. 17 report of referee, Palm Beach Circuit Judge Meenu Sasser, Roberts "acknowledged that his actions were improper and that he did not turn down the judge’s requests because he ‘would have lost the favor of Larry Seidlin to do whatever a Circuit Judge could do’ for him and to ‘keep him happy.’"

Sasser wrote that she found Roberts violated four Florida Bar rules regulating attorneys, including a rule that requires a lawyer to report a judge who is acting improperly. He also was found to knowingly assist a judge breach his or her conduct rules.

Seidlin and his wife referred comment to his attorneys, Peter Sachs and Ed Shohat, who represented Seidlin in the criminal probe. Sachs did not return call for comment by deadline.

Shohat declined to comment about Roberts’ Florida Bar case.

The Florida Bar Web site says Seidlin has a clean 10-year disciplinary history.

Roberts was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1972, and was elected county court judge in 1976.

He resigned from the bench in 1981 following an arrest for a D.U.I. After two more D.U.I. arrests, he placed himself on the inactive list until he could prove rehabilitation, according to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s close out memo.

The close-out memo states that Roberts got more than $72,000 in fees from juvenile cases Seidlin appointed him to from April 2001 to July 2003.

According to the close-out memo, Roberts said Seidlin once told him that it was his birthday, and then instructed him how to find the shirt he wanted at a department store.

Seidlin was presiding over a D.U.I. case Roberts was defending that day, and after receiving the shirt, Seidlin stated that he didn’t find the case credible, Roberts alleged.

The close-out memo states the prosecutor’s office found that Seidlin never presided over a D.U.I. trial that Roberts argued.

The Miami-Dade state attorney’s office was assigned the case by the governor.

Roberts said that he didn’t have that much of a choice concerning purchasing the gifts because that’s the way Seidlin was.

Roberts said that he received special public defender appointments without having to bribe Seidlin.

Roberts’ attorney Michael Catalano said the judge placed his client in an uncomfortable position.

"He felt uncomfortable and pressured and so he did it," Catalano said. "In retrospect he wishes he didn’t."

Roberts said despite the reprimand, he would come forward again. He said it was wrong that Seidlin has made it through the ordeal without any action taken against him. The time period for the Judicial Qualifications Commission to act has expired.

"He gets $150,000 [pension] for the rest of his miserable life from the people of Florida for thanks of his miserable service," Roberts said. "I guess that bothers no one."

He said that his punishment would deter other attorneys from coming forward to report judicial misconduct.