"Bald, stout and barrel-chested -- The New Yorker once said he resembled Telly Savalas crossed with Jesse Ventura -- Cutler embraced a pit bull approach to jurisprudence that made him a tabloid favorite for years. In "Mob Star," their 1988 book about Gotti, Gene Mustain and Jerry Capeci wrote that Cutler, in his raspy Brooklynese, could "take the prosecution's evidence, spin it, scuff it, twist it and pound it to a pulp, until it was nothing more than a lumpy pile of reasonable doubt.""
"Cutler won acquittals for Gotti in highly publicized trials in 1986, 1987 and 1990, earning his well-dressed client, who was long known as the Dapper Don, a new nickname: the Teflon Don. In the process, Cutler drew national attention and dubious acclaim as a flamboyantly effective counselor. He said immodestly that he excelled at "the crucible of cross-examination." (The tabloids preferred the term "Brucification.")"
Bruce Cutler was a combative New York criminal defense lawyer who won acquittals for mob boss John J. Gotti in 1986, 1987 and 1990. His intimidating cross-examinations became known as a "Brucification" and he described himself as excelling at "the crucible of cross-examination." Cutler's courtroom style helped earn Gotti the nickname the Teflon Don and attracted national attention and tabloids. He was bald, stout and barrel-chested and embraced a pit-bull approach to jurisprudence. He died at 77 of complications of kidney failure late Sunday night or early Monday at a care facility, according to J. Bruce Maffeo.
Read at Miami Herald
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