Federal Judge Nixes Lawyer's Plan to Take Day Off from Capital Trial to Attend Hemingway Event
Sloppy Joe’s Bar, Key West, Fla. fotoluminate / Shutterstock.com
Citing a Dorothy Parker profile of Ernest Hemingway published in the New Yorker, a federal judge in Tampa has denied a Florida lawyer’s request to take a day off during a capital murder-for-hire trial in order to compete in an annual Hemingway lookalike contest held at at Sloppy Joe’s Bar in Key West.
The lawyer, referred to in U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday’s order (PDF) as “undersigned counsel,” should follow the course that the famous author himself would have advocated and “resist relaxing frolic in favor of solemn duty,” the judge wrote.
He also wishes counsel, a self-described perennial contestant in the contest, the best of luck in next year’s event.
A tip of the hat to Above the Law and the South Florida Lawyers blog.
