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Loss Unlikely To Hurt Ober's Reputation

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 13, 2007

TAMPA - Friday's boot camp verdict represented a defeat for Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober's office in a case that has drawn national attention.

Putting tough questions in front of juries, however, is what prosecutors do every day, local lawyers say. Those interviewed agree the loss won't blemish Ober's standing in Hillsborough County.

Ober sent some of his best assistants north to prosecute the seven drill instructors and one nurse charged in the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson at a Bay County boot camp. Jurors, though, acquitted all eight defendants on every charge.

Still, even the lawyer who ran against Ober in the last election for state attorney found no fault in the prosecutor's pursuit of the case.

'I don't see how it could hurt him,' said Robin F. Fuson, who ran a vigorous campaign against Ober in 2004. 'I think the prosecutors presented the case they were dealt, and it wasn't a very good case. ... Sometimes you have to take a case, like that, present the facts and let a neutral jury make a decision. And that's what happened.'

He added: 'Everybody looks to try to make political hay out of wins and losses. But this was a case where the system was put in motion, and it did what it was supposed to do.'

Ober was asked in February 2006 by then-Gov. Jeb Bush to step in and prosecute the boot camp staff members who were present when Anderson died during exercise at the boot camp.

Ober took heat once before from people seeking justice for Anderson when his investigation dragged on nine months. Then he was praised the following November when the indictments were handed up.

'In spite of, admittedly, my frustrations with the delays of this, I'm pleased that he did his job well,' Bush said at the time.

Local defense lawyer Grady Irvin Jr., whose clients have included Elijah Dukes of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, agreed the loss won't hurt Ober in Hillsborough County.

'He's a very good prosecutor,' Irvin said. 'People in his office, his assistant prosecutors, are very fair and reasonable people. This was a tough assignment for him to take on.'

Irvin said the prosecution may have been hurt by cultural issues: prosecutors from urban Hillsborough County trying a case in a more rural part of the state.

'I have great respect for Mark, and his office and the attorneys who tried the case, but the rural Panhandle is a horse of a different breed,' he said.

'The only person who would be able to take on that assignment would be someone from Polk County, ... someone who speaks the language and isn't as urban influenced.'

Irvin added, 'If anyone's gearing up to run against Mark Ober, they're foolish.'

One attorney who didn't go over well in the region, Irvin said, was Benjamin Crump, who represented the Anderson family and was in the same fraternity as Irvin.

'We talk to each other on the phone, but he had no business being in the Panhandle,' Irvin said. 'And his comments - he obviously never has ridden a Panhandle horse before. ... He didn't understand that audience up there. He just never should have been there. ... He became a part of the prosecution team.'

Darryl Rouson, a St. Petersburg lawyer who was the first black prosecutor in Pinellas County, said he was disappointed with the verdict but supported the system of justice that rendered the decision. He had words of encouragement for Pam Bondi, a member of the prosecution team.

'I sent a text message to Pam Bondi telling her no matter what happened, she should walk proudly and with confidence that she has done all that God had appointed her to do,' Rouson said.

Daniel Castillo, another Tampa defense lawyer, said Ober 'took the assignment and he sent some of his best prosecutors to try the case, and the jury spoke. I don't think its going to affect him one way or the other.'

It was a difficult case, Castillo said.

'The unfortunate thing is you have a dead individual, but there was conflicting evidence as to how he died, and that creates reasonable doubt. It was just a tough set of facts.'

Reporter Keith Morelli contributed to this report. Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini @tampatrib.com.

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