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When W.D. Childers goes to court on charges of breaching the state Sunshine Law, friend and lawyer Fred Levin will be by his side.
©Associated Press
June 23, 2002
PENSACOLA -- W.D. Childers has an old friend by his side as the suspended Escambia County commissioner fights charges of violating Florida's Sunshine Law.
Childers, a former Florida Senate president, and Fred Levin, one of the nation's most successful civil trial lawyers, have faced some serious jams and experienced success together for more than two decades.
Their friendship figured in a power struggle that resulted in a near fistfight on the Senate floor. Years later, they worked to push through a law that led to Florida's $13-billion tobacco settlement.
Levin represented Childers in a grand jury investigation. Childers testified on Levin's behalf when the Florida Bar accused him of illegal gambling.
Now facing the most serious predicament of his political career, Childers again has turned to Levin for help.
The Pensacola Republican goes to trial Monday on charges that he illegally discussed public business in private with other commissioners. He also was indicted last week on two felony counts of bribery and one of money laundering. No trial date has been set on those charges.
After 30 years, term limits forced Childers from the Senate. He was elected to the Escambia County Commission in 2000. Gov. Jeb Bush removed him and three other commissioners from office after they were indicted.
Childers, 68, was effusive about Levin in a 1999 interview.
"As an attorney? Best there is," Childers said. "He brings his lunch with him."
In a recent interview, Levin, 65, was equally enthusiastic in praising Childers.
Levin said Childers did not knowingly violate the Sunshine Law, but acknowledged that Childers' combative style may have contributed to his legal predicament.
"Unfortunately, I think he's getting a little older," Levin said. "Like so many of us, you get a little crotchety."
Former Gov. Reubin Askew was a partner in Levin's law firm when he was elected governor in 1970. That was the same year Childers, then a Democrat, won Askew's old Senate seat.
Neither Askew nor Levin saw eye-to-eye with Childers in those days. Levin's specialty is suing insurance companies on behalf of accident victims and Childers then supported restricting such lawsuits.
A candidate who unsuccessfully tried to unseat Childers in 1976 received only one outside contribution: Levin's.
"I can't even remember the guy's name," Levin said, but Childers didn't forget.
Their relationship took a turn when Levin testified against a bill sought by insurers to limit victim lawsuits before Childers' Senate committee.
Childers, impressed by Levin's presentation, deserted the insurance industry and voted with the majority to defeat the bill. He then asked the lawyer to his office for a chat.
Levin recalled being relieved as he got up to leave because Childers apparently had forgotten the contribution to his opponent. Just then, Childers asked if Levin thought that candidate could have killed the bill for him.
Their friendship was cemented in 1980 when Levin represented Childers, then designated as the Senate's next president, during a grand jury investigation.
Jurors found that Childers had done nothing wrong in trying to get the state to buy park land from a business associate.
Childers rose to the presidency due largely to his friendship with the late Sen. Dempsey Barron, then the Legislature's craftiest power broker.
Barron, an insurance company lawyer from Panama City, once disagreed with a bill being considered and went to Childers and Levin, the new Senate president's $1-a-year legal adviser, to demand that it be killed.
Childers refused.
"There was an explosion," Levin said. "There was screaming and yelling."
The bill passed, but Barron forged a coalition of Republicans and Democrats that stripped Childers of power. Other senators had to restrain the former friends when they confronted one another on the Senate floor.
In 1990, Childers vouched for Levin's integrity at a Florida Bar hearing, but he was unable to prevent the state Supreme Court from reprimanding Levin for gambling.
Four years later, Childers teamed with Levin and Gov. Lawton Chiles to pass a law making it easier for the state to sue tobacco companies to recover the costs of treating sick smokers.
Lawyers on the state's case, including Levin, made millions. Levin donated $10-million of his share to the University of Florida.
Levin denied that Childers had helped him benefit from the state's tobacco suit. Levin said Childers had instead persuaded Chiles to remove him from the case, arguing that he had a conflict due to his involvement in passing the law.
"I never dreamed that there was ever going to be any benefit to this thing," Levin said, adding that he thought the suit would be costly, with little chance of success.
Instead, he recruited the of lawyers that represented the state.
"Later, I got back in," he said, "but it had nothing to do with W.D."