http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/love-her-or-hate-her-all-sides-agree-ellen-roberts/nPMdf/
Updated: 11:25 p.m. Saturday, June 2, 2012 | Posted: 11:17 p.m. Saturday, June 2, 2012
Love her or hate her, all sides agree: Ellen Roberts had an impact
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
WEST PALM BEACH —
Just as veteran prosecutor Ellen Roberts headed to a courthouse elevator
Wednesday afternoon, a woman pushing a cart dropped her hands from the
handles, rushed over and threw her arms around her.
Tears welled in the woman's eyes as she hugged the 66-year-old assistant state
attorney. She would miss her, the younger woman said. She called Roberts "mom."
"Don't cry!" Roberts said with a laugh, patting her co-worker on the
shoulder. "I'm not dying. I'm just retiring."
Roberts closed the door on a 26-year career as a Palm Beach County prosecutor
last week, still in the spotlight for her successful prosecution of
International Polo Club Palm Beach founder John Goodman for DUI manslaughter.
She leaves behind adoring fans as well as critics who have called her
overzealous. But people in both those camps say her contributions to traffic
homicide investigation will long outlast her.
Roberts developed a widely used investigation manual and helped craft a law
that applies DUI manslaughter charges in cases of viable fetuses. She also
started a program locally that allows some younger drivers convicted of DUI
manslaughter to work off their sentences by speaking to high school students
about the perils of drinking and driving.
Though she'll no longer be a prosecutor, Roberts said she still plans to teach
traffic investigators and prosecutors about the law. She also will be
working part-time for the civil firm Lytal, Reiter, Smith, Ivey &
Fronrath, where a partner recently represented the father of Goodman's
victim, Scott Wilson.
To those who branded the divorced mother of two as an aggressive, intimidating
bulldozer, Roberts just laughs.
"I'm the biggest chicken there is, " she said in her office
Wednesday, waving her hand as she leaned back in her chair. If she comes on
strong, she said, it's her style and she doesn't apologize for it.
All around her were boxes of case files photos and small gifts and memento s
she's received over the years from colleagues, crime victims and friends -
including an eraser with a middle finger sticking up.
She punctuated her sentences with the loud, hearty chuckle that has echoed
through the state attorney's office and courthouse hallways for nearly three
decades.
It has been laughter, she said, that has kept her going after years of
prosecuting heartbreaking traffic fatalities.
"I've put a lot of young people in prison - too many," she said.
Controversial remarks
Speaking plainly, Roberts said that although she's enjoyed her career, it's
time to move on.
"I'm getting old," said Roberts, who will turn 67 this month. "I've
got arthritis, my knees are bad, and I've been carrying a pretty hefty load
for some time now. I'm tired."
The blessings from her work have come from long-lasting connections with
victims. This year, she got to walk Vassilia Binensztok down the aisle at
her wedding. Binensztok was 17 when she was injured and her parents killed
in a 2002 wreck involving drunken driver George Krikorian, who eventually
was sentenced to life in prison.
While her way with words has won convictions, it also has gotten her in
trouble. The 1997 conviction and 15-year prison sentence for Nicholas
Copertino in a DUI manslaughter crash that killed five teens was
controversial for Roberts' description of Copertino to jurors as "young
Mr. Hitler."
In a news conference during another case, a reporter asked her why a defendant
committed his crime. She answered that she didn't know, but then used a
coarse anatomical phrase.
The next day, her supervisors told her, as they did several times over the
years, that she was on "press probation" and would no longer be
able to comment to reporters.
Sitting in her half-packed office, she showed no regret. She's made
controversial comments all her life, Roberts said. When she was a little
girl, her mother called her a "mess."
Law school struggles
Recalling more of her past, Roberts revealed a fact that many people don't
know about her: She had to repeat her first year of law school.
Not only did she have a 140-mile commute to school each day, she had little
time to study by the time she got home, cooked for her two young children,
helped them with homework and got them to bed. Her grades were poor enough
that school officials told her she would either have to repeat or call it
quits. She thought about giving up, she said, until her then-10-year-old son
said something at the dinner table that reignited her passion.
"I remember he told me, 'Don't let them get you down, Mama. You go right back in there and try again,' " she said.
She eventually did, making sure this time to hire someone to help her with the
kids. She ended her first year with straight A's, and eventually graduated
from Nova Southeastern University.
After law school, her friend Aleathea McRoberts, now a veteran homicide
prosecutor, persuaded her to intern at the Palm Beach County State
Attorney's Office. Roberts was 41 by the time she was hired as a prosecutor
- her first job since she worked as a teacher for the U.S. Army in
Nuremberg, Germany.
In 1991, Roberts landed one of the biggest cases in Palm Beach County history,
sitting alongside prosecutor Moira Lasch in the rape trial against Kennedy
family member William Kennedy Smith. It was her first courtroom clash with
Miami attorney Roy Black, whom she would later face in the Goodman case. Two
years after the Smith case ended in an acquittal, fellow prosecutor Paul
Zacks approached Roberts about heading up the office's new Traffic Homicide
Unit.
"I was the chief, and back then I was the only Indian, too," Roberts
said.
When she started, she had prosecuted few traffic homicides, so she said she
spent hours preparing for each case. She developed a habit of always writing
down her questions for witnesses so she would never have to shoot off the
hip, a practice she says kept her rate of overturned convictions relatively
low.
It's about hard work
She's been called many things by both critics and fans, but Roberts said the
title most important to her is "Yaya," the name her 4- and
6-year-old grandsons call her.
"It's the most wonderful thing in the world," Roberts said of being
a grandmother. "There's nothing like it."
Roberts said she'll miss her fellow prosecutors and support staff, but said
she hopes she leaves behind a legacy of passion and hard work.
"One thing my dad always told me: 'Whatever you do, do the absolute best
you can,' " Roberts said. Speaking of her colleagues, she added: "And
that's what I told all of them."
daphne_duret@pbpost.com
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/love-her-or-hate-her-all-sides-agree-ellen-roberts/nPMdf/
THE CAREER OF ELLEN ROBERTS
A look at some of the cases prosecuted by Ellen Roberts in her 26-year career
with the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office:
1991: William Kennedy Smith
Jurors acquitted him of rape in 1991 after 77 minutes of deliberation.
Roberts, who had been working in the office for five years, prosecuted the
case along with Assistant State Attorney Moira Lasch.
1997: Nicholas Copertino
Sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1997 after five teenagers in his car were
killed. Driving at speeds approaching 90 mph in suburban Boca Raton, he lost
control and collided with another car.
1999: Eriberto Vargas
Sentenced to life in prison in 1999 for a drunken driving crash that claimed
the lives of four people, including a 5-month-old baby, in suburban Delray
Beach. After the crash, Vargas went to a brother’s home and slept.
2004: George Krikorian
Sentenced to life in prison in 2004 for a drunken driving crash that injured
Vassilia Binensztok and killed her parents. A passenger in his truck also
died. His blood-alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit.
2011: Beruch Zegeye
Sentenced to six years in prison in 2011 after plowing into the back of a car,
killing Paul Krommendyk. He had ingested Xanax and beer. His friends had
taken his keys, but he recovered them and drove off.
2012: John Goodman
International Polo Club Palm Beach founder sentenced to 16 years in prison for
a crash that pushed Scott Wilson’s car into a canal, where he drowned.
Goodman’s blood-alcohol level was more than two times the legal limit.
