Meet Willie
I've lived in Florida for several decades now, but I was born the third of five boys raised by a single mom in the Salinas Valley of California. My childhood centered around school and playing sports with my friends and brothers. I was thirteen when I landed my first job as a busboy/dishwasher in a family-owned restaurant. I was in student government and played sports in high school.
I got into Harvard College, joining my brother Tom and, a year later, our brother Mike. We were awarded scholarships based on financial need. I worked part-time in the athletic fieldhouse and graduated with honors from the Government Department.
During the summers of my college years, I returned home and worked in the agricultural fields of the Salinas Valley. I worked on crews that thinned lettuce, planted celery, and harvested broccoli and cauliflower. It was grueling work, ten hours a day, six days a week, and I developed a deep respect for the migrant farm workers of my crew, not just for their physical endurance, but for their generosity and devotion to their families.
I attended Washington and Lee Law School in Lexington, Virginia. My favorite courses were in constitutional law, and by the time I graduated, I was determined to become a public defender. During my years at W&L, I studied Civil War history, which led me to a lifelong admiration for Abraham Lincoln.
After law school, I moved to New York City, a place that fascinated me when I visited there during my college years in Boston. I passed the New York bar exam, but due to budget cuts, the Legal Aid Society (the public defender for New York City) was not hiring, so I took a “temporary” job as a broker on Wall Street. Fifteen years later I was still a broker and still planning on a career in law. By that time, I was married and had two children. We decided to move to Florida where my wife had grown up. I passed the Florida bar exam and began working at the Public Defender’s Office of Pinellas and Pasco Counties, from where I retired twenty-four years later.
As a public defender, I represented people accused of crimes ranging from petit theft to premeditated murder. I was lead attorney in over 150 jury trials. I often say that our criminal justice system is not perfect, it is only the best. It is run by humans, and humans make mistakes. The public defender stands as a check on the system, making sure that all members–law enforcement, prosecutors, judges–do their jobs. Representing people who battle with unemployment, poverty, racial bigotry, mental illness, alcohol abuse, and drug addiction, I developed a deep empathy for those less fortunate than I, and a deeper appreciation for my good fortune.
I was lucky to have been raised by a woman who, after eight years as a housewife and mother of five small children, armed only with her high school diploma and rock hard determination, got a job as a bookkeeper for a local farmer, hired a neighbor to take care of us until she got home from work, instilled in us the importance of an education, taught us to appreciate the value of family and friends, and showed us how to treat others with kindness and respect. I owe everything to my mom, and were she alive today, she would be proud to know that I am running for public office.
