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Sparks Fly As Fitzgibbons Tries To Quit Explosives Case

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 9, 2008

Updated: 01/09/2008 05:55 pm

TAMPA - A former University of South Florida student charged with trying to help terrorists accused his high-profile attorney Wednesday of charging $750,000 for his services and then trying to coerce him into pleading guilty.

The attorney, John Fitzgibbons, accused his client, Ahmed Mohamed, of engaging in "pure fantasy," and told a federal magistrate, "It's an absolute, total, complete falsehood from this man. It's despicable what he just said."

The magistrate, Mark Pizzo, didn't make any decisions about Fitzgibbon's status in the case at today's hearing, but ordered the parties to return to court Monday afternoon after he decides whether Mohamed will be able to hire another lawyer.

Fitzgibbons said he doesn't want to represent Mohamed anymore. "There is not a force on this planet that can keep me on this case if I have a choice," the attorney said. "There's no way I can work with him. The estrangement is so significant, there's no way to mend this."

Fitzgibbons said Mohamed "has been the most difficult client I have ever had in 20 years of practicing case law, the most difficult."

Fitzgibbons, who was hired by the Egyptian embassy to represent Mohamed, said he quoted a fee of $500,000 to take the case to trial, with an additional $200,000 for expenses. He said he has received just $50,000 toward those expenses. "I think it's entirely appropriate to give a portion back."

Mohamed, who sometimes spoke through an interpreter, but mostly spoke for himself, said the embassy had paid Fitzgibbons the $750,000 and was unwilling to hire another attorney unless a significant portion was refunded. Whether he could hire another attorney, he said, depended on how much money Fitzgibbons was willing to return.

"I feel he is deceiving me," Mohamed said. "I can't trust him no more." He said he feared if he fired Fitzgibbons, the lawyer would be able to keep all the money and he would have no ability to hire someone else.

Fitzgibbons said he has visited Mohamed 20 times in the Hillsborough County Jail in the past three months and has never suggested Mohamed should plead guilty. Fitzgibbons said he has never met with another client so frequently in such a short time and doesn't know of any other attorney who would do that.

Mohamed was arrested Aug. 4 with fellow student Youssef Megahed. The two were charged with illegally transporting explosives after deputies in South Carolina discovered explosive materials in the trunk of their car, authorities said.

Mohamed also was charged with trying to help terrorists by teaching or demonstrating the use of explosives via a video that officials said he made and posted to the Web site YouTube.

"It's a monstrous case," Fitzgibbons said. The attorney said he was faced with trying to keep evidence out of court that investigators found after Mohamed had given them permission to search. In addition, he had to deal with "damaging statements, in the eyes of the government, he made to investigators," Fitzgibbon said.

Megahed and Mohamed are scheduled to go on trial in March. Federal judges usually frown on attorneys withdrawing from cases, especially if their withdrawal could contribute to a delay in a trial.

Pizzo defended Fitzgibbons, telling Mohamed, "I know him to be an excellent lawyer who has represented you diligently in this case and who would continue to represent you diligently." The judge warned the defendant that if he hires another attorney and has a dispute with that attorney, "That will be your problem."

Mohamed tried to retreat a little, saying Fitzgibbons "never used the words, 'plead guilty.' He has used the words 'compromisation, time served,' words leading toward pleading guilty, 'compromisation, settling and time served..' "

"Compromisation is not a word I can conceive Mr. Fitzgibbons using in this context," the judge said. "Nor the words 'time served,' " given the potential penalties Mohamed faces if convicted.
Fitzgibbons had asked Pizzo to hold the hearing in his chambers out of the view of the media. Mohamed, though, insisted on keeping the hearing open.

Pizzo told the defendant Fitzgibbons' request was "to protect your interests."

In the meantime, the prosecution is defending the traffic stop in South Carolina that led to the arrest of the two men. Megahed's attorneys are asking that all the evidence gained in the traffic stop and statements made by the students to investigators be barred from evidence because they claim the detention and arrests of the men were illegal.

In a response filed late Tuesday, the government maintains deputies had sufficient reason to be concerned about the actions of the two men.

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