Ron Kuby

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Ronald L. Kuby (born in 1956 in Cleveland, Ohio) is a criminal defense and left-leaning civil rights lawyer, former radio talk show host and TV commentator.

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[edit] Beginnings

Kuby was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1956. After his parents divorced when he was five years old, Kuby lived with his mother, although he briefly flirted with the politics of his father, who was an admirer of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, by joining the Jewish Defense League at the age of thirteen. He would later go on to successfully defend El Sayyid Nosair. (Nosair was later convicted of Kahane's murder as part of his conviction for conspiracy for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing).

Expelled from his junior high school for publishing an underground newspaper critical of the school administration, Kuby embarked upon a peripatetic life that would lead him to travel to and live in many different parts of the globe. As a teenager, he emigrated to Israel, but returned to the United States shortly thereafter due to what he has described as "anti-Arab racism".

After dropping out of college, Kuby briefly worked on a tug boat in the U.S. Virgin Islands, after which he moved to New England, and then to Kansas where he enrolled in courses at the University of Kansas, eventually completing the degree that he had abandoned several years before. [1]

[edit] Partnership with William Kunstler

While working on his degree, Kuby interned with William Kunstler, a famed radical attorney known for his successful defense of the Chicago Seven. Kuby earned his Juris Doctor from Cornell Law School in 1983.

From 1983 until Kunstler's death in 1995, the two worked together on a number of highly controversial, well-publicized civil rights and criminal cases. They represented Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman (head of the Egyptian-based militant group Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya), Colin Ferguson (the man responsible for the LIRR shootings, who would later choose to represent himself at trial), Qubilah Shabazz (daughter of Malcolm X, accused of plotting to murder Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam), Glenn Harris (a New York public school teacher who absconded with a fifteen year-old girl for two months), Darrell Cabey (one of the victims of the Bernard Goetz shooting), Yu Kikumura, and perhaps most controversially, associates of the Gambino Crime Family. During the Gulf War, they represented dozens of American soldiers who refused to fight claiming "conscientious objector" status. They also represented El Sayyid Nosair, assassin of the late extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane.

Although they worked together, Mr. Kunstler had never formalized a partnership with a contract or tax filings. Despite a letterhead that read "Kunstler and Kuby", Mr. Kuby was paid as an employee and had never shared in the firm's meager profits and losses. On this basis Kuby was denied ownership rights to the firm's case files, accounts, and name. When Kunstler's widow, a radical lawyer in her own right, put her late husband's (deceased, September 4, 1995) archives under lock and key, Kuby had filed a complaint against her with the attorney disciplinary committee. The committee dismissed the complaint in August of 1996. In December 1996 a court case brought by the widow, Margaret Ratner, resulted in Kuby being denied any partnership rights in the Kunstler firm.[2]

[edit] Post-Kunstler Career

After Kunstler's death, Kuby continued the work-- and the cases-- of his late mentor. In 1996, he won a judgment of 43 million dollars against Bernhard Goetz. He also won nearly a million dollars for members of the Hells Angels motorcycle club, who were wrongfully arrested by the New York City Police Department. He won the 2001 release of two men imprisoned 13 years for a murder they did not commit, winning a judgment of 3.3 million dollars for the pair. He secured a reversal of a murder conviction for a mentally-ill homeless man whose candle accidentally caused the death of a firefighter. In 2005, Kuby won close to a million dollars for another wrongfully convicted man who spent eight years in prison. Kuby now leads the Law Office of Ronald L. Kuby, one of the premiere criminal defense and civil rights firms in New York City.[3]

[edit] Radio and television personality

 This article or section is missing citations or needs footnotes.
Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (October 2007)

Until November 1, 2007, Kuby co-hosted (with Curtis Sliwa) the popular Curtis and Kuby in the Morning program aired on weekdays from 5 to 10 am on WABC-AM 770 in New York City.[4] In addition to commentary and debate on current issues, the show featured a Court of Kuby segment on notable legal cases and periodic "Shout Outs" to current and former clients.

He is also a frequent pundit and substitute anchor on Court TV. He and Sliwa previously shared a short-lived midday television program on MSNBC. (Kuby jokes that he has "a face meant for radio.")

Kuby has often claimed to be a Communist. However, Kuby's political beliefs moderated considerably after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Of Jewish heritage, Kuby has also said he is an atheist, a point he often makes in sarcastic remarks on the airwaves with Sliwa, a Roman Catholic. One of his favorite sardonic quotes includes, "Thank God I'm an atheist".

He is interviewed in Kevin Keating's documentary Giuliani Time (which is concerned with Rudy Giuliani's career).

Kuby was fired by WABC on November 1, 2007 when he received a telephone call and was told 'not to come to work on Friday -- or ever.' His firing was part of a plan to bring back Don Imus to morning radio, in place of the station's Curtis and Kuby in the Morning show. WABC program director Phil Boyce publicly stated that he did not intend to keep Kuby.

Kuby was surprised that he was the first casualty of Imus -- "Imus makes a racist comment, they fire a civil rights lawyer, and Imus gets my job," Kuby said.[5]

On June 3, 2008, Ron Kuby returned to the air with his own show. He was hired by Air America Radio to replace Randi Rhodes on weekday afternoons.

[edit] Testimony/Controversy during John Gotti Jr. retrial

In 2006, Kuby was subpoenaed by the defense to testify at the second John Gotti Junior trial (which included an allegation of a plot to kidnap Kuby's radio co-host Sliwa) regarding a failed plea bargain Kuby handled for Gotti in 1998. In March of 2006, Kuby testified that he had engaged in a conversation with Junior Gotti, who told him "that he was sick of this life", and "he wanted this to be over." [6]

[edit] Personal life

 This article or section is missing citations or needs footnotes.
Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (October 2007)

Since 1986, Kuby has been in a long-term relationship with Marilyn Vasta, whom he refers to on air as "the "beloved Marilyn". They have one daughter named Emma Vasta Kuby. On January 24, 2006, Ron Kuby married Vasta. The date was chosen because it was the 20th anniversary of their first date. Kuby made the marriage announcement on his radio program.

[edit] Pop Culture References

  • In the film The Big Lebowski, Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski (played by Jeff Bridges) demands representation either by Mr. Kuby or Bill Kunstler during the Malibu Police Station scene.

[edit] References

  1. ^ William Kunstler's legacy - "Crispy Fries and Radical Causes" - New York Times, 6/7/95
  2. ^ Source: Hoffman, Jan (Dec. 15, 1996). "A Bitter Fight Rages Over Files and a Famous Name." New York Times Online Archive
  3. ^ Law Office of Ronald L. Kuby website
  4. ^ Curtis & Kuby in the Morning 77-WABC page
  5. ^ http://kubylaw.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/20071102084005.30570425.pdf
  6. ^ Junior Gotti was 'Sick of This Life,' Radio Show Host Kuby says - Newsday, 3/6/06

[edit] External links