For Whom the Bell Tolls

I am all for dressing up and role playing, but once that stuff starts interfering with your professional life, you have hard choices to make.

Just ask St. Pete attorney Frank Louderback who is defending Jerry Alan Bottorff in a federal criminal murder-for-hire case. A self-described "perennial contestant in the Ernest Hemingway Look-alike contest," Louderback moved Judge Merryday to recess the specially set federal death penalty case in Tampa so he could make it on time to Sloppy Joe's Bar in Key West.

Come on, kids! Lighten up! I understand a person's life is in the balance, but who wants to miss all this fun?



Let's see what Judge Merryday had to say.

"At his most robust, Hemingway exemplified the intrepid defense lawyer:

'He works like hell, and through it... He has the most profound bravery...He has had pain[] and the kind of poverty that you don't believe[;] he has had about eight times the normal allotment of responsibilities. And he has never once compromised. He has never once turned off on an easier path than the one he staked himself.'

Perhaps a lawyer who evokes Hemingway can resist relaxing frolic in favor of solemn duty.

Or at least, 'Isn't it pretty to think so?'

Good luck in next year's contest. DENIED."

Spanky, spanky.

Order Denying Louderback Time Off

N.B. I'd much rather see a Margaux, Mariel, or Dree contest