Last Monday, a Key West jury took only 35 minutes to return a verdict of "not guilty" in the trial of Manuel Marcial. Marcial, who, with his family, has owned and operated Emeralds International on Duval Street for 20 years, is a respected merchant and a jewelry designer with a national reputation.
But in May of last year, State Attorney Kirk Zuelch falsely accused Marcial of grand theft, alleging that he had misrepresented the value of a $6900 emerald ring he had sold back in 1993. In 1998, almost five years after the purchase, the customer had returned to Emeralds International and demanded a full refund on the ring— although the stone had been shattered and part of it was missing. When Marcial refused to pay, the customer went to the State Attorney.
At the trial, however, testimony clearly showed that the charges against Marcial were patently absurd and, in fact, suggested that it may have been the customer who was attempting to defraud Emeralds International— and that the State Attorney's Office may have been a willing conspirator in such a scheme.
Zuelch will have an opportunity to dispute that allegation in court. Marcial says that he will now sue both Zuelch and Paul Meyers, Zuelch's investigator in this case— personally— for millions of dollars for wrongful prosecution and for smearing his reputation.
Following the verdict Monday afternoon, four of the seven jurors who heard the case spoke to Key West The Newspaper. Their conclusions were unanimous: "The state simply didn't have a case!"
We told you so. Back on July 23, 1999, our page one story was headlined "State Attorney's Case Against Marcial Collapsing." And it was. In our page one reports over the last few weeks ("Zuelch Again Limps To Trial Without A Case," July 21, and "State Attorney's Witnesses Wilt Under Fire," last week, August. 18), we even suggested to you that Zuelch knew he didn't have a case against Marcial— but that he just didn't care! Why should he? It isn't his money he spends when he prosecutes innocent people!
Let's say it another way. Any competent prosecutor would have or should have known, before going to trial in this case, that he didn't have the evidence to convict. And he would have dropped the charges. But Zuelch didn't do that. He bulled ahead anyway.
Even when his star witness, Miami jewelry appraiser Joseph Tenhagen, recanted his appraisal— the appraisal that had been used as the basis to arrest Marcial— Zuelch continued to press his wrongful prosecution.
In Tenhagen's sworn deposition before the trial, he said that Investigator Meyers had misrepresented the purpose of the appraisal to him. He called it an "appraisal by ambush."
In an interview published in a national jewelry trade magazine, Tenhagen said, "Marcial is no criminal"— and when he told Meyers and Assistant State Attorney Tom Slaton that he intended to say that on the witness stand, Meyers and Slaton flew up to Miami in a panic to try to convince Tenhagen to help them nail Marcial, guilty or not.
Tenhagen refused.
During a break in his testimony, he was overheard telling Assistant State Attorney Slaton, "This is wrong! I want no part of it!" Following his testimony, he said it again to Key West The Newspaper.
"Mr. Tenhagen was one of the best witnesses we had," smiled Marcial's lead counsel, Gainesville Attorney Gloria Fletcher.
On the other side of the courtroom, Slaton seemed embarrassed to be there. But he appeared to be trying to do his best to carry out Zuelch's orders— even to the point of characterizing the grandfatherly defendant as a thief in front of three generations of Marcial's horrified family.
But in her closing argument, Attorney Fletcher virtually cut Slaton's "case" to pieces. It wasn't even close. Imagine the Green Bay Packers playing the Key West High School junior varsity. It was that bad.
"But I had an advantage," Ms. Fletcher said. "Zuelch apparently sent Mr. Slaton into the courtroom without a case."
We agree. And we think Zuelch and Meyers should accept full responsibility for this debacle. It is because of their incompetence that Manuel Marcial was forced to spend more than $100,000 in legal expenses to defend himself against those bogus charges.
And what about the thousands and thousands of dollars in taxpayer money Zuelch spent in his hapless effort to, somehow, get a conviction? And you should also know that it will be the taxpayers who will foot the bill for the multi-million-dollar judgment that a jury will probably award to Marcial in the near future.
We're told by attorneys who know about wrongful prosecution lawsuits that this one is a no-brainer. Zuelch really stepped in it this time.
But we've been telling you for years about this bad boy's history of selective prosecution and abuse of power.
• Most recently, you will recall that Zuelch falsely accused Nick and Carrie Nowatney of child abuse, took their two little babies (one was still breastfeeding) and held them hostage for 200 days to try to coerce the parents into pleading guilty. Once the case finally got to court, however, a judge threw it out without even bothering to hear all the testimony. Zuelch never had a case. But he bulled ahead anyway.
• A couple of years ago, Zuelch put Duck Tours Safari out of business by falsely accusing owner John Murphy of conducting sightseeing tours on land without a license. That's a criminal offense in Key West. A jury took only 15 minutes to return a "not guilty verdict." Zuelch never had a case. But he bulled forward anyway.
• When two newly-elected Mosquito Control Commissioners helped unfix a job that had been illegally fixed for the mayor of Key West, Zuelch tried to punish them by falsely accusing them of violating the State Government-In-the-Sunshine Law. That effort failed because Zuelch didn't have a case. But he was successful in smearing the officials' reputations.
• Last year, when Pat Lloyd, a divorced mother of three, asked the State Dept. of Children & Families for help with her unruly 15-year-old son, State Attorney Zuelch falsely accused her of child abuse and threatened to take her two younger children unless she pleaded guilty. She refused. And Zuelch backed down. He didn't have a case.
• In 1996, Coral Shores High School teacher John Donnelly was arrested in front of his students for allegedly violating election laws by failing to report that he had spent more than $100 to support a candidate for school superintendent. Although Zuelch didn't have a case, he tried to get an easy conviction by offering Donnelly pre-trial intervention— virtually probation. Donnelly refused and asked for a jury trial. Zuelch backed down.
And now, the Marcial case is just another example of wrongful prosecution on the part of State Attorney Kirk Zuelch.
Investigator Meyers was a major player in this most recent fiasco. His investigation was inept and incomplete. And his testimony at the trial was almost dunce-like. It was obvious that he just didn't understand what he was trying to investigate.
You've read about Paul Meyers before on these pages. Last November, we editorially chided Meyers ("Cowardice In the State Attorney's Office") for apparently hiding under his desk when we asked him for a followup interview after his fawning Zuelch-is-wonderful comments appeared in another newspaper. We did preface our criticism, however, by recognizing that it was probably dangerous to call a guy who carries a gun a coward.
When is enough enough? This coming November, we think most voters in Monroe County will agree with us that it's time for a change in the State Attorney's Office.
In just 12 days— on Tuesday, September. 5, the day after Labor Day— Republicans will vote in the primary election to determine whether Key West Attorney Michael "Mick" Barnes or Tavernier Attorney Mark Kohl will face Zuelch in the general election in November.
This newspaper has already endorsed Mick Barnes because we think he can beat Zuelch in November. He already does that routinely in the courtroom.
• He was the attorney for Nick and Carrie Nowatney.
• He was John Murphy's attorney in the Ducks case.
• He was Mosquito Control Commissioner Bill Shaw's attorney in the job-fix case.
• He was Pat Lloyd's attorney.
• And he was co-counsel in the just-concluded Marcial trial.
Nuff said?
See Manuel Marcial's letter to the community on page 10.