U.S. Magistrate Klein died of a mysterious lung ailment

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Posted on Thu, Sep. 28, 2006

THEODORE KLEIN, 66

U.S. Magistrate Klein, veteran defense attorney, diesTed Klein, a

South Florida legal giant, died of a mysterious lung ailment that

cut short his career as a federal magistrate judge.

BY JAY WEAVER

jweaver@...

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15625289.htm

U.S. Magistrate Theodore Klein, recognized as one of the sharpest

legal minds in South Florida during a storied career as a federal

prosecutor, defense attorney and judge, died Wednesday afternoon of

a lung disease.

Klein, 66, died at South Miami Hospital after battling a mysterious

lung ailment that family members say may have been caused by mold

spores in his home. Klein, appointed as a magistrate nearly three

years ago, fell ill last December and had been hospitalized since

June.

His brother, Hank Klein, said the illness was a shock because Ted

exercised regularly, ate healthy foods and never smoked.

''We don't know what caused this disease,'' said Klein, vice

chairman of Codina Realty Services. ``He skied several times during

the winter. He hiked during the summer. He jogged all the time. He

was in excellent shape for a man of 66.''

Ted Klein was born in Czechoslovakia in 1940 during the Nazi

occupation. His father, Rabbi Maurice Klein, and mother, Sara, fled

their homeland with young Klein, then 9 months old, and his sister,

Miriam, 4, eventually making their way to Lisbon. On May 15, 1941,

the Kleins emigrated to the United States, settling with friends in

the Cleveland area.

The family moved to Miami in 1957. At the University of Miami, Ted

Klein was known as a bookworm. He graduated from the UM law school,

where he was associate editor of the Law Review.

''He got the top grades in his class,'' said Bierman, a UM

law alumnus. He added that Klein was a ``compulsive preparer.''

Klein went on to earn a master's degree in law at Yale University.

Then he returned to Miami and began to make his mark in the legal

community.

In the late 1960s, Klein became a prosecutor with the U.S.

attorney's office, working with Bierman and another friend from

college, U.S. District Judge ez.

ez said they would regularly go for lunch and talk about their

cases -- and whatever struck their interest.

''One time, we were talking about mosquitoes, of all things,''

ez said. ``Ted went to the library and memorized the names of

about 650 mosquitoes.''

During that period, Klein and his wife, , had two children --

, a Yale history professor, and , a Miami

psychologist. The couple later divorced.

''I've always been so proud of him and what he's done,''

Klein said. ``I've always looked up to him for everything. He had

such a great sense of humor and was always able to give the support

and guidance I needed to find my own direction.''

He said his father had that kind of impact on many people, including

countless students he taught as a UM adjunct law professor for

nearly 30 years.

UPHOLDING PRINCIPLE

Klein praised both of her parents in her recent book, For

All These Rights: Business, Labor, and the Shaping of America's

Public-Private Welfare State.

''I always saw my father as a person who stood up for what was

right,'' she said.

She said he resigned from the Dade Heritage Trust because it met at

Miami Beach's long-restrictive Bath Club. She also said he devoted

much of his career to representing defendants because he viewed

their right to counsel as vital to a democracy.

''He was committed to the notion that a democratic society had to

have a strong defense bar,'' she said, citing her father's 1983 U.S.

Supreme Court victory in a case of unreasonable search and seizure

that dealt with police profiling of drug suspects at airports.

Klein spent most of his career at a prestigious Miami law firm, Fine

son Schwartz Nash Block & England. He earned a reputation as a

formidable defense lawyer in white-collar, healthcare and financial-

fraud cases over more than two decades.

Klein almost became a federal judge after President Clinton

nominated him in 1993. But his appointment was stalled by Congress.

When Fine son dissolved, Klein teamed up with Bierman and

another longtime colleague, Ed Shohat, in their own firm.

In one of Klein's more memorable criminal cases, he and Bierman

defended former Miami-Dade seaport director Carmen Lunetta, who was

indicted along with two port businessmen on charges of stealing up

to $1.5 million in public money.

After government prosecutors rested at trial, U.S. District Judge

Middlebrooks expressed dismay over ''substantial evidence of

greed and public corruption.'' But he directed a verdict of

acquittal, saying the three defendants couldn't have stolen public

money because it belonged to the private firm that ran the port's

cranes.

In 2003, when there was an opening for a magistrate in Miami,

Klein's name was at the top of the list. Sworn in that fall, Klein

presided over arraignments, bond hearings and pretrial motions.

Klein was respected by both prosecutors and defense lawyers, who

remembered him as a fair judge with a quick wit.

`WITH A SMILE'

''As a defense lawyer and magistrate, he was always a pleasure to

deal with, and he did it with a smile,'' said veteran prosecutor

Dick Gregorie.

In addition to his son, daughter, mother, brother and former wife,

Klein is survived by his fiancée, Donna Syrop, and a sister, Miriam

Klein Kassenoff, a Holocaust educator in the Miami-Dade school

system.

A funeral service is planned for 10 a.m. Friday at Temple Beth Am,

5950 N. Kendall Dr.

A scholarship has been established in Klein's name at the UM law

school. Donations may be made to the University of Miami School of

Law, Alumni and Development Office, P.O. Box 248087, Coral Gables,

FL 33124.