Just because 20-year incumbent State Attorney Kirk Zuelch was booted out of office by Monroe County voters earlier this month, he will still be sued personally for malicious prosecution, Gainesville Attorney Gloria Fletcher said this week.
Fletcher is the attorney for Key West jeweler Manuel Marcial, who was wrongly accused of grand theft and fraud by Zuelch's office last year.
At Marcial's trial last August, Judge Mark Jones threw out all but one of the charges against Marcial even before any of Marcial's witnesses were called. The jury took only 35 minutes to acquit him on the remaining charge.
Courtroom observers reported that Zuelch's case was so bad that his star witness testified for the defense.
Immediately after the trial, Fletcher sent letters to Zuelch and Paul Meyers, one of Zuelch's investigators, notifying them that they would sued both personally and in their capacities in the State Attorney's Office.
"As a result of the malicious prosecution of Manuel Marcial by your office, Mr. Marcial has suffered extreme financial and emotional harm," Fletcher told Zuelch and Meyers.
Florida Statutes require that State officials be given six months' notice that they are to be sued. "The six months will be up during the first week of March 2001," Fletcher said. "It is our intention to bring the suit immediately at that time. Since Mr. Marcial's trial, we have received volumes of information regarding the actions of Mr. Zuelch and Mr. Meyers. This newly-discovered information has only strengthened Mr. Marcial's position."
Although Marcial's lawyers won't talk about the specifics of the dollar damages they will be demanding, it is likely that the total will be in the millions.
"And a huge judgment in this case is probably likely," said a local attorney familiar with wrongful prosecution lawsuits. "This one seems like a no-brainer. Zuelch really stepped in it this time."
Marcial was arrested in May of 1999 after one of his customers complained to Zuelch's office that Marcial would not give a full refund on a five-year-old ring that had been damaged by the customer. Marcial and his family have owned and operated Emeralds International on Duval Street for 20 years.
During the trial, one of Marcial's expert witnesses suggested that it may have been the customer who was attempting to defraud Marcial, not the other way around.
Neither Zuelch nor Meyers responded to a request for comment.
Stay tuned.