Mass Shooter Nikolas Cruz's Attorney In Hot Water With Florida Bar After Laughing In Front Of Victims' Families
Tamara Curtis, a lawyer on mass shooter Nikolas Cruz's legal team, is being investigated by the Florida bar for inappropriate conduct after she was caught sticking out her middle finger on camera and laughing with Cruz in front of his victims' families.
The 24-year-old was sentenced to life in prison after he killed 17 people and injured 17 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018.
Parents of the shooting victims were furious at Curtis' display, accusing Cruz's team of "losing their humanity towards the victims last month," with Fred Guttenberg, the father of one of the teenage victims, claiming he will "never, ever forgive that moment" when the attorney laughed with her client, comparing her to "an immature, punk child."
Along with the courtroom giggle, Curtis seemingly noticed a security camera for the first time and casually flipped it off, before pressing the middle finger up against her cheek.
Grieving father Michael Schulman, who lost his son, Scott Beigel, in the Parkland shooting, also found the moment highly offensive to the other heartbroken families.
"This man, this animal, this piece of s--t, this b---- took the lives of 17 people," he said. "You have a right to defend him. You have no right, no right to demean the people who lost somebody. None."
Cruz's chief public defender claimed her lawyers did everything that had been required of them and didn't deserve to be "attacked" for that, but Judge Elizabeth Sherer jumped to the families' defense, calling out Cruz's legal team for their shocking, nonchalant behavior in court.
"When these people are upset about specific things that have gone on from that table, like shooting the middle finger up at this court, and laughing, and joking," she rebuked them. "When these people have sat in this courtroom and watched this behavior from that table and they want to say that they’re not happy about it, what is the problem?"
DailyMail reported the in-court quotes from the families of the victims and Judge Sherer.