ORLANDO, Fla. (Court TV) — Sarah Boone‘s sixth, seventh and eighth attorneys appeared before a judge and described the difficult conditions they endured as they asked to be paid for their work.
Attorney Winston Hobson appears virtually during a court hearing regarding fees for Sarah Boone’s murder case. (Court TV)
Like Charles Dickens’ spirits that came to haunt Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, Frank Bankowitz, Winston Hobson and Patricia Cashman all told a judge about the extreme amount of work they did, describing it as “taxing every fiber of our bodies.”
Boone is charged with the second-degree murder of her boyfriend, Jorge Torres Jr., who died after he was zipped into a suitcase inside the couple’s apartment during a night of drinking. Boone is now represented by her ninth attorney, who volunteered to step in after Judge Michael Kraynick ruled that Boone’s behavior meant she had forfeited her right to an attorney.
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Bankowitz, Hobson and Cashman all noted that behavior during a hearing on Tuesday, and told Judge Lisa Munyon that while they had only represented Boone for a portion of her case, they had put in hundreds of hours of work.
FILE – Sarah Boone (Orange County Sheriff’s Office)
Bankowitz, who represented Boone from July 2022 to Sept. 2023, withdrew after Boone referred to him as a “dud” and a “buffoon.” He told Judge Munyon that he worked 175 hours on the case.
Hobson, who replaced Bankowitz and represented Boone until Feb. 2024, said that he had spent a “tremendous amount of time” with an investigator and a proposed expert in the case. Hobson said the expert was never used because Boone did not like her.
“I would say conservatively any lawyer that had this case could tell you easily they spent at least an hour to two hours on the case every single day,” Hobson said. “Gathering information coming in from Ms. Boone, the matters she wanted dealt with, her view on the law versus our theory … it was a constant battle going back and forth. And you had to deal with the gaslighting, and I told Judge Kraynick … it’s just too much.”
Cashman told the judge that her work in the case included monitoring media, including Court TV. She said that the “unusual amount of media attention in this case” required her to stay up-to-date with what potential jurors were seeing. She also noted the defendant’s propensity to communicate with the court directly, citing Boone’s 58-page letter to Judge Kraynick complaining about her attorney and access to evidence.
READ MORE | Eight is Enough: Judge rules Sarah Boone forfeits fight to attorney
Judge Lisa Munyon awarded Cashman and Bankowitz a $15,000 flat fee. Hobson was awarded $15,000 in hourly fees.
Boone’s trial is scheduled to begin on Oct. 7. She has a final pretrial hearing on Sept. 26.
