Gore Lawyer Accused of Witness Tampering

By NICOLE STERGHOS BROCHU

Sun-Sentinel Dec. 23, 2000


A Palm Beach landscaper has filed a Florida Bar complaint against celebrated litigator David Boies, accusing the New York lawyer of unprofessional conduct, including attempts to buy off a witness.

A Florida Bar attorney confirmed that the Bar has received a complaint making witness-tampering allegations against Boies but declined to elaborate, citing the Bar's confidentiality rules.

"All I can do is confirm the existence of it," said Ken Marvin, who leads the Bar's Tallahassee office. "This complaint will be treated like any other."

Boies, best known as the man who beat Microsoft and even more recently as the poised defender of Al Gore's court battle for the presidency, did not return calls for comment Thursday and Friday.

Scott Lewis, owner of a landscaping company locked in a bitter and protracted breach-of-contract lawsuit with a Boies client, claims that Boies offered to give Gary Scudiero a sprinkler business in return for his testimony against Lewis and his wife, Carol.
At the time, Scudiero was working as supervisor at Nical of Palm Beach, the landscaping company that sued Lewis over the broken agreement to buy Lewis' business for $800,000.

Scudiero has said in court papers that Boies, whose children are the beneficiaries of a trust that owns 25 percent of Nical, was acting as his boss when he told him Scudiero would receive Nical's irrigation business in return for his testimony.
Scudiero later quit working for Nical and its owner, Amy Habie, and three days later, he was named as a co-defendant in a $10 million federal antitrust lawsuit Boies filed on Habie's behalf after she lost her breach-of-contract lawsuit against Lewis. The federal lawsuit, which accused the Lewises, Scudiero and two others of conspiring to ruin Habie's business, eventually was tossed out of court, as well.
The allegations are similar to those filed in New York regarding an estate case on which Boies served as counsel. In that case, the New York Supreme Court's Departmental Disciplinary Committee is investigating a complaint that names Boies and four other lawyers in connection with an offer to pay a witness to testify.

One of the lawyers named in the New York complaint has said the offer to pay the witness $25,000 for the first 50 hours and up to $1 million in bonuses was compensation for her time, not a payoff for her testimony.
Boies is also facing possible disciplinary action in a third, unrelated complaint, this one dealing with the presidential election. A conservative watchdog group has accused Boies and another lawyer of unprofessional conduct by filing what it called an inaccurate affidavit with two Florida courts.

As for the recent Florida Bar complaint, Scott and Carol Lewis refused to comment on the advice of their attorney.
Their complaint is the latest volley in a four-year battle that has occupied two courts, 10 judges, 27 attorneys, and thousands and thousands of pages of testimony and court filings.

The fight began in 1996, when Habie and Nical bought Scott Lewis Gardening & Trimming Inc., then stopped paying Lewis after accusing him of breaching the contract by opening a competing company.
Boies served as Habie's lead attorney in both the breach-of-contract and federal antitrust cases.
In both cases, judges have ruled that Habie has no case against the Lewises and others, decisions that have been upheld on appeal.
The breach-of-contract lawsuit, though, continues to drag on as Lewis accuses Habie of violating the terms of a settlement. So far, a judge has imposed two contempt-of-court orders against Habie and Nical, as well as several sanctions.
Though Boies does not hold a Florida law license, he has worked on several Florida cases, including Gore's, after getting special permission from the courts.

Marvin said that if the allegations are proved true and discipline is deemed warranted, sanctions could range from public reprimand to suspension of Boies' law license.

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