Famed attorney Willie Gary hired to sue SkyTel
March 13th, 2009 by The Associated PressHe travels in his own Boeing 737. He won a $240 million verdict against Disney. He “can’t stand to lose.” And he’s on the job for ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
He’s the “giant killer,” attorney Willie E. Gary, who filed a lawsuit for Kilpatrick this week against Skytel over steamy text messages that helped bring the mayor down.
Attorney Willie E. Gary and ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick
Gary’s Web site notes that he’s won more than 150 cases where awards or settlements were more than $1 million each. That’s good news for Kilpatrick. His legal victories have been few.
“He’s a good guy,” Gary said Wednesday. “Sometimes, for whatever reason, you have some storms in your life. It’s going to pass over. People make mistakes. I’m just happy he went in and paid his dues.”
The “in” is jail, where the two conferred on three occasions after Kilpatrick entered pleas in two criminal cases, resigned his office, lost his law license, served 99 days and was ordered to pay $1 million in restitution to the city.
“I have so much respect for all of the lawyers that have been working for the former mayor,” Gary said. “They are at the top of their games in the criminal arena, but this is a whole different court.”
Gary’s law firm has opulent headquarters along the St. Lucie River in Stuart. He has a 50-room mansion in Stuart. His custom jetliner, “Wings of Justice II,” seats 32 and subs as an office in the air.
Gary wouldn’t say how much the plane cost, but said he poured $11 million into refurbishing and decorating the interior. The work includes an 18-karat gold sink, leather seats, carpeting and a $1.2 million sound system.
He’s also the chairman of the Black Family Channel, a 24-hour cable channel billed as being devoted to “family values” programming aimed at urban viewers.
It’s all part of his “American Dream.”
Now a millionaire “many times over,” he says he was raised poor and picked crops in southern migrant farming communities. He got a degree in business administration from Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C., where he was co-captain of the football team, and went on to earn his law degree at North Carolina Central University in Durham, N.C.
Gary says the $100 million demand he made to Skytel “could go up.”
“I can’t stand to lose,” he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “You’ve got to outwork the opponent. I don’t think there is a lawyer in America that is going to outwork Willie Gary.”
Explicit excerpts first published by the Detroit Free Press in January 2008 contradicted testimony Kilpatrick and Beatty gave during a 2007 whistle-blowers’ trial when they denied having a relationship and their roles in the firing of a police official.
A prosecutor later filed perjury and other charges against the two.
Kilpatrick eventually pleaded guilty to a pair of felony obstruction charges and no contest to assaulting a prosecutor’s investigator. Beatty pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and was sentenced to 120 days in jail.
Kilpatrick’s civil suit against Clinton, Miss.-based SkyTel was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Mississippi. The text messages were confidential and SkyTel violated federal law by releasing them following the whistle-blowers’ trial, according to the suit. The suit says the messages were divulged after SkyTel received a subpoena from a lawyer representing police officers in the case.
Prosecutors later also obtained copies of the messages, many of which have now been made public, including a batch earlier this week.
Birmingham, Mich., attorney Thomas Plunkett has represented SkyTel in litigation involving the texts and said Tuesday the company was “compelled” by courts to release the messages. He said Thursday that the company won’t comment further on Kilpatrick’s suit.
Tags: willie gary
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March 13th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
I am not sure at all about this…but someone the other night was saying that one of these guys allegedly was recently involved somehow in sexual harrasment allegatons or maybe rape allegations that were really bizzarre?
….I was also told, but did not confirm, that one of these guys is allegedly married, acts like a pilar of the community because he has bought a lot of stuff but might actually be paying child supprot to 1 or more of his Baby - Mommas…maybe not….but ….where there’s smoke….lot’s a time there is fire….Who knows?……good garsh…this is just tragic.
Some attorneys in this world really, really , really have no shame.
March 13th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Willie Gary is a degenerate shake-down artist and race-baiter. I have ZERO respect for him. I despise him. I have read of many of the meritless “lawsuits” (read: “extortions”) that he has “won.”
Kwame Kilpatrick is a MONSTER–a public figure who is willing to lie pathologically and abuse the public’s trust. He also is a degenerate who has no respect for law or morality. He doesn’t give a turd about what is right–only what will keep him out of trouble.
Who’s paying for Gary to defend Kilpatrick? Surely Kilpatrick can’t afford Gary’s fees on what a mayor is paid. There’s probably some horde of black folk back in Michigan who are being suckered into donating to a legal defense fund in Kilpatrick’s name.
This whole situation is deplorable. I want to see Kilpatrick behind bars for decades.
March 13th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
you got blacks, you got problems.
March 13th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
The phone that the former Mayor sent the text messages from was paid for by the city of Detroit… The city has every right to publish the texts. Has nothing to do with SkyTel…
Same type of issue with people sending e-mails on their work computers.
Kwame was a cancer upon Detroit - time for change - yes we can…
March 13th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Not sure how race-baiter Willie Gary is going to play that angle in Detroit….thats like claiming the city government of Tel Aviv is a bunch of Jewhaters. It’s going to take more than a rickety old 737 with some bling in the toliet to convince people the blacks in Motown were out to get Kilpatrick because he was black.
(By the way, Willie…..your ‘liberal’ cred is done. That smoke spewing crate you fly around in is about as eco-friendly as Chernobyl.)
March 15th, 2009 at 9:54 am
I cant stand this little rich troll. I think he started out good and went evil. Maybe he was always that way– look at the mess his kids are. I hope he starts on a serious losing streak. He needs to come back to the real world.
March 16th, 2009 at 9:17 am
Honestly.. the day will come when Willie will die and he will be forgotten… No one cares about his jet, his house or his home… The reason is, too much about him being an adulterer in the papers have tainted all of that..
Ain’t his Mammy and Pappy proud…
March 16th, 2009 at 10:34 am
To all that commented……. Do you guys really think that Mr. Gary gives a crap about how you feel about him? About 90% of ALL lawyers are scumb, they defend the guilty, get richer and yet they still sleep with no conscience. It has NOTHING to do with being a black, white, jewish, purple or green lawyer. Wake up people !!!!!!!
March 16th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
willie children are very successful.
one is a lawyer
one is chief executive of gary foundation
one is editor of news letter for gary’s laws firm
March 16th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
leave willie alone.
March 17th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Willie is a good man and he was raised by good parents.willie have done more for the kids of florida then any other lawyers i know.if you aint white then you aint right.but stand back this time willie got the floor.
April 28th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
Wow can we say RACIST? Because he’s black he’s a troll? And His kids are the products of good upbringing and good education…. Isnt trumps bentley and planes harsh on the environment ? or US1 … I’m sorry thats black occupied as well! lol well … the man makes changes and I think alot of you dont like it…. Or maybe because your names dont place disgust on anyone ….youre hating ? Take it for what its worth…. and move along! Crackers (they did say trolls) like to blast the irrelevant portions of a persons life to defamate their character since the poor evidence isnt enough to bring a person down! …. Suck it up and STEP!