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Lawyer's diligence topples F. Lee Bailey
By CARY DAVIS
Bailey's client list includes the Boston Strangler, Patricia Hearst and O.J. Simpson. He has been on television more than some news anchors. Ristoff, who now works for a New Port Richey law firm, rarely rates a mention in the local newspaper. Bailey lunches on lobster, wears expensive suits, stays in $550-a-night European hotels and zips around in his own plane, which he flies himself. Ristoff lunches on chicken fingers with barbecue sauce, drives a comfortable but nondescript white Lincoln and wears "whatever's on sale at Dillards." Over the years, Bailey got rich and famous. But last month, David Ristoff got F. Lee Bailey. On Nov. 21, the Florida Supreme Court disbarred Bailey, 68, from practicing law in the state. It was the culmination of a long process spearheaded by the soft-spoken Ristoff, who drew the assignment of managing the Florida Bar's case against Bailey. "I considered it an honor," said Ristoff, 45, who got the Bailey case by virtue of his job as branch counsel for the Florida Bar's Tampa office. Ristoff, who lives in Palm Harbor, spent two years preparing the case. He traveled around the state, from Tallahassee to West Palm Beach, taking depositions and collecting documents. It wasn't unusual, Ristoff told a St. Petersburg Times reporter last week, for Bailey to call and offer a ride in his plane to a deposition or hearing in his own disbarment case. Ever take him up on it? Ristoff was asked. "Oooohhhhh nooooooo," Ristoff said, cringing at the very idea. Bailey's sharp mind and ability to charm -- inside the courtroom and out -- defined his career and spawned a generation of imitators. Ristoff may not be able to match Bailey's charm and ego, colleagues say, but he makes up for it with unswerving integrity and professionalism. "He's honest to a fault," said Debra Davis, a Florida Bar staff attorney who worked on the Bailey case with Ristoff. "If he says something, you can take it to the bank." Honesty, or the lack thereof, brought Bailey down, according to the Florida Supreme Court ruling. The case against Bailey involved his mishandling of stock forfeited by druglord client Claude Duboc. Duboc forfeited $6-million worth of stock in a pharmaceutical company as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. The stock was to be held in a trust controlled by Bailey, who was authorized to sell shares on an as-needed basis to maintain Duboc's considerable land holdings in France, including a $30-million estate in Cannes. But instead of acting as a trustee, Bailey played loose with the stock, wheeling and dealing shares and, eventually, transferring $3.5-million in proceeds into his personal bank account, the Supreme Court found. Bailey also offered false testimony and violated his client's confidences, the justices found. In one letter to a federal judge, Bailey referred to Duboc as a "multimillionaire druggie," the court noted. All of this came out during a one-week trial in Naples last year. For Ristoff, the trial was about proving the transgressions of a fellow lawyer and upholding the honor of the profession. In many ways, Ristoff said, the case was no different from others he had prosecuted. "It's always difficult" prosecuting other lawyers, he said. "But you feel like you're doing something to protect the public." And while Ristoff tried to treat this case like all the others, there was something very different. Ristoff was trying to end the career of his boyhood idol. As a teen in Ohio, Ristoff had read Bailey's The Defense Never Rests. The book, Ristoff said, inspired him to become a lawyer. At the trial, Bailey-the-defendant closely resembled Bailey-the-lawyer, Ristoff said. During breaks in the trial, Bailey held impromptu news conferences on the courthouse steps, "always putting his spin on the evidence," Ristoff said. When the cameras were rolling, "he would scowl at me," Ristoff said. But in private, Ristoff said, Bailey was "very cordial." Don Beverly, a West Palm Beach attorney who defended Bailey at his trial in Naples, could not be reached to comment on Bailey's impression of Ristoff. As a defense lawyer, Bailey was famous for his cross-examinations. He would pin witnesses down to a critical fact and hammer away. But when Bailey took the witness stand, he turned elusive, refusing to commit to anything, Ristoff said. "He never gave you an answer," said Ristoff, who cross-examined Bailey for two days. "He would tell you "No' to everything you asked. You'd show him the evidence and he'd still say "No.' " Bailey's denials didn't work. A circuit judge, acting as a referee, recommended that Bailey be disbarred. At the conclusion of the case, Ristoff left his job with the Florida Bar and joined the New Port Richey firm of Kaltenbach & Williams. Instead of prosecuting lawyers facing disbarment, he began defending them. He also took on personal injury and medical malpractice cases. He thought he was done with F. Lee Bailey. Then the Florida Bar called. Since Ristoff knew the case better than anyone, they wanted him to handle Bailey's appeal in front of the state Supreme Court. Besides the pressures of his new job, there was another matter Ristoff had to consider: He wouldn't get paid to handle the appeal. He talked it over with his wife and two teenage sons. "There was some reluctance," Ristoff said. "But I started the case, and I wanted to finish it. I didn't want to lose." And so he spent his nights this summer reading transcripts from the Naples trial, about 1,500 pages in all. He figures he spent about 100 hours over the summer preparing for a nine-minute argument in August in front of the Florida Supreme Court justices. He didn't even bill the Florida Bar for the motel room or the rental car he drove to Tallahassee. One minute before the arguments began, Ristoff said, Bailey walked into the courtroom, mugging for the cameras before taking a seat in the front row. "He made one of his grand entrances," Ristoff said. Ristoff figures his argument went over pretty well. Not only would he wind up winning the case, he also witnessed what he figures was a first for Bailey. The loquacious lawyer, Ristoff said, was finally reduced to silence. "He got so mad he stormed out of the Supreme Court," Ristoff said. "He ran down the steps and walked as fast as he could down the street so nobody could interview him. I thought it was kind of funny."
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