Roy Black, a famed Miami defense attorney who helped secure Jeffrey Epstein’s controversial 2008 plea deal with then-U.S. attorney Alex Acosta, has died at 80 years old.
“For more than 30 years, Roy was my teacher, mentor, and friend,” said his law partner, Howard Srebnick, in an email to The Associated Press. “The loss(es) I feel personally and professionally are immeasurable.”
Black represented and won several well-known clients, including Justin Bieber and racing car driver Helio Castroneves. In Miami, Black was regarded in legal circles as the finest of all time, according to fellow defense attorney David O. Markus, who compared his late colleague to NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan.
“He worked harder than any lawyer I know. And he outlawyered every prosecutor who he ever went up against. I will miss him. His impact on criminal defense is beyond measure,” Markus said in an email to the news outlet.
Smith’s 1991 trial garnered national news and was broadcast after he was charged with beating a lady in Palm Beach following a night of drinking. He was cleared of the allegations leveled against him.
Smith is the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, former Attorney General and US Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and former Senator Edward M. Kennedy. He is currently a physician working for an organization committed to the abolition of land mines.
In the Bieber case, the singer was accused of driving a Lamborghini while intoxicated and drag racing. He eventually pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor reckless driving and resisted arrest.
Castroneves, the Indianapolis 500 champion, was cleared of accusations that he attempted to avoid almost $2 million in taxes.
Other clients Black represented included the late conservative political commentator Rush Limbaugh, Amid Khoury, who was found not guilty of bribing a Georgetown University tennis coach to get his daughter admitted to the school, and Miami police officer William Lozano, who was acquitted in the shooting death of Black motorcyclist Clement Lloyd.
The acquittal resulted in rioting in Miami in 1989.
Jeffrey Epstein’s former lawyer, Roy Black, has passed away at 80.
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Earlier this week, former Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz named two former top Democratic officials on Sunday, whom he says appear in the Epstein files.
Speaking to Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream, Dershowitz clarified that there was never an official “client list,” but noted that names can be uncovered through other means and that additional information is available.
Dershowitz previously served on Jeffrey Epstein’s legal team during his 2008 case, in which Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor.
“Are [the names] in the grand jury transcripts, and do you think a judge releases that?” Bream asked the attorney.
“I think the judge should release it, but they’re not in the grand jury transcripts. There are sealed records by two or three federal judges in the New York courts. I’ve seen some of these materials,” Dershowitz responded.
“For example, there is an FBI report of interviews with alleged victims in which at least one of the victims names very important people, and the names have been redacted. I know some of the names from my investigation,” he added.
“George Mitchell, the former senator [from Maine]; Bill Richardson, the former ambassador to the UN; [former Israeli Prime Minister] Ehud Barak … were all accused. Now, whether any of these people actually did anything wrong, we don’t know, because we know there have been many, many false accusations,” Dershowitz noted further.
Mitchell, the 91-year-old former Democratic Senate Majority Leader, retired from public life in 2011, while Richardson—who also served as governor of New Mexico—passed away in 2023.
