Roy Black, lawyer who represented William Kennedy Smith and Jeffrey Epstein, dies at 80

Prominent Miami defense lawyer Roy Black, who gained national attention by winning an acquittal in the 1991 William Kennedy Smith rape trial has died at age 80, his law partner said.

Prominent Miami defense lawyer Roy Black, who gained national attention by winning an acquittal in the 1991 William Kennedy Smith rape trial and was involved in scores of other high-profile cases ranging from Justin Bieber to Jeffrey Epstein, has died at age 80, his law partner said.

Among Black’s other well-known clients were Rush Limbaugh, race car driver Hélio Castroneves and Columbian drug lord Fabio Ochoa.

“For more than 30 years, Roy was my teacher, mentor and friend,” said his law partner, Howard Srebnick, in an email. “The loss(es) I feel personally and professionally are immeasurable.”

Smith’s 1991 trial became a watershed criminal defense moment when most of it was carried live on national television, famously with a blue dot obscuring the identity of the accuser on the witness stand. Smith is a nephew of former president John F. Kennedy, former Attorney General and U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and former Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who was implicated but never charged in the alleged assault of a woman in Palm Beach during a night of heavy drinking.

Kennedy Smith is now a physician involved in an organization dedicated to banning land mines and treating victims of them.