A Miami lawyer’s pants caught on fire during an arson trial. He’s about to be suspended

The Florida Supreme Court wants to suspend the Miami lawyer who drew worldwide notoriety after his pants burst into flames during an arson trial.

Justices gave Stephen Gutierrez until Tuesday to explain why he shouldn’t be booted from practicing law for one year, and put on probation for two years. But as of Friday morning, three days later, he hadn’t responded, according to the online court docket.

Gutierrez didn’t return calls seeking comment.

In March 2017, Gutierrez was representing a Miami man accused of torching his own car for insurance money. In a story first reported by the Miami Herald, Gutierrez was arguing to jurors that the blaze might have been caused by spontaneous combustion when flames and smoke began billowing from his pants.

Gutierrez went running out of the courtroom, as bewildered jurors and spectators watched. He blamed a faulty battery for his electronic cigarette that ignited in his pocket, at a coincidental time.

A Miami-Dade jury immediately convicted his client, Claudy Charles, of arson — a conviction that was overturned when Gutierrez was replaced as the attorney. The case drew mocking headlines across the world, mostly variations of “Lawyer, lawyer, pants on fire.”

“I think this is all being blown out of monumental proportions,” Gutierrez told reporters at the time.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and the Florida Bar didn’t think so.

Prosecutors launched a criminal investigation. In a memo on the case, Assistant State Attorney Michael Filteau said “it seems obvious” the fire was a “a stunt or demonstration ... meant to illustrate the feasibility of his spontaneous combustion theory of defense.”

But under Florida law, prosecutors said they could not prove Gutierrez acted with “criminal intent” — such a demonstration, while misleading and unethical, could technically be legal.

The Florida Bar too launched a probe. The investigation found that Gutierrez, after the guilty verdict, filed a bogus insurance claim with GEICO, which had insured the car. For his handling of the case, a referee ruled that Gutierrez should be found guilty of ethical breaches involving dishonesty and sham claims.

He pleaded guilty to the violations. In September, a referee recommended he be suspended for 91 days, plus two years of rehabilitation. Gutierrez, in court filings, argued that he had been undergoing intense personal problems and was relatively new to the legal profession.

But then the Florida Supreme Court ordered him to explain why he shouldn’t be punished with the “more severe sanction.”

This story was originally published November 15, 2019 at 9:17 AM.