Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Federal judge presided over landmark cases in S. Florida
Federal Judge William M. Hoeveler, who presided over a string of landmark cases in South Florida — from the prosecution of a notorious Panamanian dictator to the clean-up of pollution in the Everglades — has died at the age of 95.
Hoeveler was admired for the rigor of his rulings, fierce sense of fairness and courtly demeanor that invited civility, especially when the issues were most contentious.
His longtime assistant once described Hoeveler, who died on Saturday at his Coral Gables home surrounded by family, as the “epitome of what a judge should be.” Even Manuel Noriega, the dictator whom Hoeveler would send to prison, wound up thanking him after his trial.
Margaret Hoeveler, one of the judge’s four children, said it was her father’s aura of kindness that touched so many people in both his personal and professional lives.
“He never wavered in his beliefs in honesty, fairness and love of mankind,” she said. “He had an equal love of the law and God. Every day of his life, he carried these beliefs with him and applied them to anyone he encountered. He was a hero to many.”
The legal community, including lawyers and judges who visited and called him in recent weeks, shared her sentiment.
“Judge Hoeveler was one of the kindest people I ever met,” said prominent Miami defense attorney Robert Josefsberg. “He was not kind just to his peers, but to everyone. Every person in his court, including defendants accused of terrible crimes, was treated with dignity. On many occasions, jurors, defendants, and losing lawyers thanked him for his fairness and courtesy.”
Long before he put down stakes and built a 60-year legal career in Miami, “Bill” Hoeveler seemed destined to make a mark.
Hoeveler was born in Paris to a father who served with the Marines in World War I and a mother who sang French operas. Raised outside of Philadelphia, he won a basketball scholarship to Temple University, then joined the Marines himself during World War II, before returning to finish college at Bucknell University.
At Harvard Law School, Hoeveler was elected copresident of the class of 1950, which included a future U.S. attorney general, Richard G. Kleindienst, two U.S. senators, John Chafee of Rhode Island and Ted Stevens of Alaska, and the chief counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee, Samuel Dash.
At law school, he was known as “The Hunk,” described by a classmate as a “boogie-woogie” piano man.
After Harvard, he moved with his new wife, Mary Griffin Smith, to Miami, where her father was a partner in a law firm that Hoeveler would join. His specialty became defending professionals - attorneys, accountants and architects accused of malpractice. He won over witnesses and juries alike, the late trial attorney J.B. Spence once said.
“I was afraid to be in the courtroom with Bill Hoeveler,” he said. “I mean, he walks in there, tall 6 feet, 4 inches, good-looking, like Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”
But his natural appeal ran deeper than the surface, according to his colleagues. Hoeveler, who in his 50s wanted to become a federal judge “to give something back,” possessed a combination of compassion and wisdom that always endeared him to others.
Even the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary described Hoeveler, who once loaned his sweater to a drug-trafficking defendant for trial, as “Lincolnesque.”
Hoeveler even drew praise from the most infamous defendant ever to appear in his courtroom, the deposed Panamanian General Manuel Noriega, who was captured by U.S. forces that invaded Panama in late 1989, leading to a nationally covered Miami trial that was “the mother of all battles in the war on drugs,” as one prosecutor later described it.
“The one shining light through this legal nightmare has been your honor,” said Noriega, who was convicted of cocaine trafficking and racketeering charges in 1992. “You have acted as honest and fair as anyone can hope for.”
After sentencing him to 40 years - punishment that would later be reduced to 30 years - Hoeveler declared Noriega a prisoner of war under the Geneva Conventions who should be accorded special privileges. Among them: an apartment-like cell with phone, color TV and exercise bike at the low-security Southwest Miami-Dade federal prison.
In early 2000, Hoeveler suffered such a severe stroke during another colossal legal dispute - the immigration case of Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez - that he could not continue as the presiding judge.
The 6-year-old Cuban boy lost his mother on a tragic boat trip from Cuba to Florida, but was rescued off shore and united with his Miami relatives. The relatives sued the U.S. government after immigration authorities said they didn’t have the right to seek asylum on the boy’s behalf, concluding that power belonged to his father, who wanted him returned to Cuba.
Despite his health problems, Hoeveler returned to the bench, handling not only Noriega’s extradition case to France but many others.
After the death of his first wife, Hoeveler married a second time, to Chrstine Davies, who cared for him after his stroke.
Hoeveler even rebounded after a professional setback in the federal government’s environmental case against the state, which resulted in a consent order forcing Florida to clean up the Everglades at cost of billions of dollars.
After presiding over the case for 15 years, the judge was removed because he publicly criticized the Florida Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush in 2003 for backing a bill pushed by Florida’s powerful sugar industry that extended the deadline for restoring the ravaged River of Grass.
In a court order, Hoeveler questioned whether Gov. Bush, who supported the legislative action, was “being misled by persons who do not have the best interests of the Everglades at heart.”
He also ordered hearings to determine whether the new legislation changed the terms of the 1992 Everglades cleanup settlement between the state and federal governments. He called for the appointment of a special master to help scrutinize progress on the daunting restoration project.
Hoeveler is survived by his four children, William H. Hoeveler (Hank), Elizabeth H. Davis (Betsy), Margaret Y. Hoeveler and Mary G. Hoeveler; sister, Yvonne H. Rayher; grandson, Milo Hoeveler-Castano; current wife, Christine Davies Hoeveler; and stepchildren, Stephen C. Davies and Susan C. Davies. The judge is also survived by Hank Hoeveler’s husband, Isak Tykesson.
Memorial services will be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family suggested that donations be made to the Nature Conservancy or the Humane Society of Miami. Judge Hoeveler always had a fondness for dogs.