FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The attorney of a 66-year-old Deerfield Beach woman charged with attempted murder after authorities accused her of trying to choke her 88-year-old father — a hospice patient — to death says he’s confident his client will prevail in court.
Lawyer Ken Padowitz told Local 10 News that Lori Lee Brucker is set to be released from jail Thursday on a $10,000 bond after initially being held without bond. He said the “very low bond” shows that the case against his client is “very flimsy.”
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Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Brucker Friday after they said a nurse at Broward Health North caught her trying to choke her father to death in his hospice bed; Padowitz said the terminally-ill man has since died.
“She loved her father very much. She cared for him and visited him and loved him, and never in a million years would she harm her dad,” he said in a phone interview Thursday morning.
Padowitz, a former Broward homicide prosecutor, said law enforcement officials were too quick to arrest the disabled woman and could have waited for more evidence to emerge.
“I cannot believe that this lady in a wheelchair was arrested based on this very flimsy evidence,” he said. “There’s no reason why this older lady in a wheelchair had to be immediately arrested rather than wait for a medical examiner’s report.”
Padowitz added, “I think they (law enforcement) made a very grave error.”
“We have a witness in the room...who will testify that none of these things occurred and this is just not true,” he said.
Brucker remains charged with attempted murder, domestic battery by strangulation and battery on a person over 65 and will have to wear an ankle monitor. But Padowitz said he’s sure that his client will be vindicated.
“If this case has to go to trial next week, I am very confident I will have a quick not guilty verdict,” he said.
Local 10 News contacted BSO and the Broward State Attorney’s Office seeking comment on the case.
“This is an ongoing investigation,” SAO spokesperson Paula McMahon said. “When it is completed, prosecutors will review all of the facts, evidence and circumstances before making any decision about how to proceed.”
In a separate statement, BSO spokesperson Veda Coleman-Wright said, “Based on the information, statements and evidence gathered thus far in this ongoing investigation, the Broward Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit had probable cause to make an arrest.”
She said anyone with additional information is asked to call BSO Detective Nelson Mendez at 954-321-4460.