Roy Black

Roy Black (died July 21, 2025, in Coral Gables, Florida) was a Miami criminal defense lawyer, a partner of Howard Srebnick, best known for the 1991 acquittal of William Kennedy Smith on a rape charge in Palm Beach. From 2007 he was one of the lawyers representing Jeffrey Epstein in the federal investigation that ended in the Epstein non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, and he received the prosecutors' notices of breach during Epstein's 2008 to 2009 work release. In 2011 he moved to intervene in his own name in Doe v. United States, the victims' suit under the Crime Victims' Rights Act, and in 2012 he was still meeting Epstein in person.¹²³

Practice and Clients

Black defended William Kennedy Smith, a nephew of President John F. Kennedy, Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Senator Edward M. Kennedy, in a nationally televised 1991 trial that ended in acquittal. His other clients included the Miami police officer William Lozano, whose 1989 shooting of Clement Lloyd sparked riots in Miami; the Colombian trafficker Fabio Ochoa; the broadcaster Rush Limbaugh; the racing driver Helio Castroneves, acquitted of tax evasion; the singer Justin Bieber in a 2014 Miami driving case; and Amin Khoury, a defendant in the Varsity Blues college admissions prosecution, who was found not guilty. His partner Srebnick said: "For more than 30 years, Roy was my teacher, mentor and friend." The Miami defense lawyer David Oscar Markus said: "He outlawyered every prosecutor who he ever went up against." Black died at his home in Coral Gables at 80.¹²

The Epstein Defense

Epstein assembled his defense after the Palm Beach Police Department investigation and the 2006 federal referral. On February 20, 2007 Black and Alan Dershowitz met the line prosecutors to present "witness issues." On July 31, 2007 the office presented its term sheet (a state guilty plea, two years' imprisonment, sex offender registration and a damages mechanism for victims) at a meeting with Black, Gerald Lefcourt and Lilly Ann Sanchez; within days Epstein added Kenneth Starr and Jay Lefkowitz of Kirkland & Ellis, the former firm of U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta. A December 11, 2007 letter from the office to Lefkowitz, written over Acosta's name by the line prosecutor, placed Black at a negotiating meeting alongside Lefkowitz. The agreement was signed on September 24, 2007 by Epstein, Lefcourt and Sanchez.³⁴⁵

Acosta later wrote that the defense team, which he said included Dershowitz, Starr and Black, had waged "a year-long assault on the prosecution and the prosecutors," and that "[d]efense counsel investigated individual prosecutors and their families." In May or June 2008 the office discussed a call from Black proposing that Epstein be allowed to plead in state court to 60 days' imprisonment. Epstein pleaded guilty in Palm Beach County on June 30, 2008.⁶⁷

Breach Notices and Work Release

On July 30, 2008, a month after the state plea, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in West Palm Beach asked Black by email whether he was available "to discuss the Epstein matter." Black answered that he was out of town and asked what it concerned; the prosecutor replied: "It relates to the performance of the criminal Non-Prosecution Agreement."⁸

On November 24, 2008 the line prosecutor, A. Marie Villafaña, wrote to Black that Epstein had breached the agreement by "failing to remain incarcerated twenty-four hours a day," after learning that the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office had placed him on work release at the Florida Science Foundation. Black forwarded the notice to First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Sloman, writing that Villafaña "is very concerned about anything Epstein does" and that the defense would "abide by" Sloman's decision. Acosta had by then recused himself from matters involving Kirkland & Ellis because he was discussing employment with the firm, and Sloman was the senior official on the case. No indictment followed.⁹¹⁰

On December 5, 2008 an email addressed "Dear Roy and Jay" reported that "[t]his afternoon Brad Edwards filed the Non-Prosecution Agreement with the Court in the Jane Does I USA case. He filed it under seal and then asked the Court to unseal it. I will fax his papers to you on Monday." Black replied: "It seems like this case will never end." On June 15, 2009 Villafaña wrote to Lefkowitz, Black and Jack Goldberger on the history of Epstein's performance under the agreement.¹¹¹²

Doe v. United States and Later Contact

In March 2011 the petitioners in Doe v. United States moved to use the plea correspondence between prosecutors and defense counsel as evidence and to unseal it. On April 7, 2011 Black, Martin Weinberg and Lefkowitz moved to intervene in their own names; the former prosecutor Bruce Reinhart moved to intervene on May 3, 2011, and Epstein on September 2, 2011.¹³

On February 22, 2012 Epstein's assistant Lesley Groff wrote to Black: "Jeffrey would like to meet with you along with Reid Weingarten on Friday March 2nd in Miami," adding that "Reid is requesting as early as possible because he needs to fly to NY that evening." Black answered: "No problem I can do Friday afternoon." Reid Weingarten later appeared for Epstein at his 2019 detention hearing in New York.¹⁴¹⁵