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Lawyer Blasts Government In Lorenzo Brief

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 6, 2008

TAMPA - An appellate attorney in the high-profile drug, sex and torture case against Steven Lorenzo is arguing that the prosecution was illegitimate because the government is "notorious worldwide for subduing, torturing and killing people on a large and systematic scale."

The lawyer, Ellis Rexwood Curry IV, is a Libertarian who has advocated for lawyers to carry guns in court, has a Web site on which he rails against government power and has "adults only" pages dedicated to swastika and flag fetishism.

Curry was appointed by the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to represent Lorenzo, who is serving 200 years in federal prison on nine charges of drug-facilitated crimes of violence and one charge of conspiring with Scott Schweickert, who is serving 40 years in federal prison for one charge of conspiracy and one charge of a drug-facilitated crime of violence.

Lorenzo, 49, was convicted of slipping the date-rape drug GHB into drinks of nine men and then sexually torturing them at his Seminole Heights home. Two of the men died.

Schweickert, 43, was convicted of conspiring with Lorenzo to drug and torture the two who were killed in December 2003. Michael Wachholtz and Jason Galehouse were both 26 when they died.

A federal appeals panel is scheduled to hear arguments in the Lorenzo and Schweickert cases on Monday and Tuesday.

Although Schweickert's appeal brief focuses on evidence issues and other traditional legal arguments, Lorenzo's attorney dedicates a section to subjects such as "the government's betrayal of liberty." The lawyer, Curry, was an unsuccessful Libertarian Party candidate for the state Legislature in 2002.

The Swastikas And Stripes

Curry's Web site, rexcurry .net, prominently displays a body-building picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger and gives what appears to be a Social Security number, but calls it a "socialist slave number." There is a picture of an American flag with swastikas in place of stars.

Curry's Lorenzo brief touches on issues advanced on his Web site, including a description of the history of the Pledge of Allegiance and what he described as the original "stiff-arm salute" children were required to give.

The only requirement for a lawyer to qualify for court appointment is that they be members in good standing of a state Bar, said Stacy Kennon, who helps coordinate the 11th Circuit's program for lawyer appointments, known as CJA, for the Criminal Justice Act, the law governing the court's authority to appoint counsel.

"In our court, each judge makes his or her own CJA appointments using their own personal lists of names of counsel who may be interested in appellate CJA appointments," Kennon said in an e-mail.

Circuit Judge Charles Wilson appointed Curry to represent Lorenzo, according to Karen Redmond, spokeswoman for the courts. Wilson was not available for comment late Friday afternoon.

Redmond said attorneys appointed when Curry was appointed in the Lorenzo case are paid either $94 or $100 an hour by the court, up to a preset maximum. That figure was unavailable for the Lorenzo case on Friday. Redmond said judges also monitor fees and can cut them if they deem that necessary.

Advancing the argument that the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution has been stretched too far to give federal courts jurisdiction in cases it doesn't belong, Curry talks in the brief about "horrid federal socialism" and the "USA's present growing police state."

"I have represented many people charged with murder (unlike here), but I have never represented anyone as sadistic, torture-loving and murderous as government and government officials," he writes. "Governments make the worst homicidal maniac seem angelic in comparison."

'Some Pretty Far Out Stuff'

Curry declined to talk to a reporter on the telephone, but said in an e-mail exchange that he plans in his argument to the court to quote from the book "The Prosecution of President George W. Bush for Murder" by the former prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi.

In response to a description of his brief as "unconventional," Curry wrote, "Thank you for your praise."

Legal experts who were shown Curry's brief said his arguments are unlikely to hold sway before the appeals court.

"That's some pretty far out stuff," said St. Petersburg lawyer Frank Louderback, who was not involved in the Lorenzo case.

"The appeals court will be hard-pressed to find a cogent, rational argument contained within this brief that would indicate that Mr. Lorenzo had effective assistance of counsel at the appellate level," said Charles Rose, professor at Stetson Law School. "This brief reads as a political diatribe and not a cogent argument on issues of sentencing or reasons to overturn the case."

Told by e-mail about the comments by legal experts about his brief, Curry responded, "You can write that I have challenged them to a public debate of their claims and that the next step is to select a time and place for doing so, if they think they are up to it."

Donald Harrison, the attorney Lorenzo hired privately to represent him in his trial, said he agrees politically with much of what Curry says in his brief. He added he doesn't think the Lorenzo case is the proper venue to raise these issues.

Harrison said raising the political issues could diminish the effect of legal arguments Curry advances later in his brief. "Was it more harmful than helpful? Probably so," Harrison said. ""But I think his legal arguments are right on."

Schweickert's attorney, Pedro Amador, called Curry's brief "interesting," but he added, "I don't think it's going to be a successful argument."

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com.

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