Our friend and boss, Broward State Attorney Mike Satz, is the longest-serving state attorney in Florida and one of the longest-serving elected prosecutors in U.S. history. After 44 years, he is about to end his historic run as Broward County’s top prosecutor. And yet, many residents probably have only a vague knowledge of this man. We, his only three Chief Assistants during his tenure, have this privilege to tell you about this man and the job he has done.
Mike was born and raised in Philadelphia and graduated from Temple University. Mike then moved to South Florida, where he graduated from the University of Miami School of Law. After graduating in 1968, Mike became an attorney in the Broward County Solicitor’s Office (as it was then called) and an assistant state attorney in the Broward County State Attorney’s Office. He quickly rose through the office and became chief of the homicide unit for four years before being elected state attorney in 1976.
Mike has been a trial prosecutor throughout his career, personally handling some of Broward’s most demanding cases. During his career, he has tried almost every person accused of killing a Broward police officer. It is very unusual for the elected state attorney to try cases in large state prosecuting offices. But Mike believed that it was his responsibility to take on the most severe cases in his office.
Mike never stopped taking cases. In the summer of 2018, he concluded the grueling 22-month trial of three men convicted of murdering Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Tephford. All three were sentenced to life in prison. This case is the longest criminal case ever tried in Broward’s history. Later in 2018, Mike handled the case of Gerhard Hojan, who was sentenced to death for the 2002 murders of two employees of a Davie Waffle House restaurant. Hojan forced the two murder victims, and a third victim who survived, into a walk-in freezer at the restaurant. Hojan shot them inside the freezer to eliminate them as witnesses to a robbery.
On February 15, the day after the 2018 Valentine’s Day shooting massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Mike and his team of prosecutors and investigators walked the halls of the 1200 building where the assailant murdered 14 students and three adult staff members. The shooter was indicted for 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder for the surviving victims. Mike decided that he would personally prosecute this mass shooting.
As well as prosecuting capital homicides and other serious cases, Mike leads a staff of 462 employees, including 213 prosecutors. To date, 75 of his former assistant state attorneys have become judges in federal and state courts.
Throughout his tenure, Mike has continued to respond to the county’s crime problems. He has created specialized units to target the community’s challenges and issues as they have evolved over the years. He established the Career Criminal Unit, Sexual Battery/Child Abuse Unit, Domestic Violence Unit, Elderly Abuse Unit, Mental Health Unit, Organized Crime/Gang Unit, Public Corruption/Special Prosecutions Unit, Economic Crime Unit, Drug Trafficking Unit, Identity Theft Unit, Truancy Intervention Program, Traffic Homicide Unit and the Conviction Review Unit. These specialized units enhance the focus and expertise of prosecutors in unique areas of the law, which helped increase Broward County residents’ public safety.
Mike also has spearheaded many initiatives, including more than a dozen grand jury investigations that examined the proliferation of pain pill clinics, synthetic drugs, Broward school construction, youth gangs, foster care, organized crime, the building construction and inspection industries, the Broward County Expressway Authority, mental health services, juvenile detention, child abuse, and adult living facilities. Mike has also reached out to the community by initiating workshops in various locations, several times a year, to seal and expunge criminal records for thousands of people. In 2019, he hired a human trafficking coordinator to work with prosecutors and police agencies to help bring offenders to justice and raise awareness about ways that community members can recognize the signs of human trafficking.
Mike’s expressed and guiding principle to all employees was always to “do the right thing for the right reason.” His priority has been to help keep this community as safe as possible from all crime. At the same time, he has worked to develop and implement diversion and community programs such as Pre-Trial Intervention, Drug Court, Veterans Court, and civil citations for minor marijuana arrests.
As Mike’s chief assistants, we knew every day would present its challenges. Law enforcement agencies presented thousands of criminal cases each year to our office. With the advent of DNA testing and greater understanding of false confessions, questions emerged about some decades-old cases that had been the subject of guilty jury verdicts and extensive appellate review. Mike sought to right those wrongful convictions. He urged all law enforcement agencies to videotape, from start to finish, all statements by people in custody. He also took the initiative in offering DNA testing for all Death Row inmates and agreed to DNA testing in many other cases before Florida adopted a rule allowing for post-conviction DNA testing.
In 2019, Mike established a Conviction Review Unit to continue and formalize the office’s long-standing practice of reviewing cases. That unit recently completed its first exoneration. And this year, Mike approved reduced prison sentences for 24 people who were serving 15 to 30 years for prescription drug-trafficking offenses. Broward prosecutors initiated the reductions after state lawmakers cut minimum mandatory prison sentences for some offenses and increased the weight of pills that triggered trafficking charges. The reduced sentences were more in line with the current legislative intent and most of the inmates were freed.
The integrity of the Broward State Attorney’s Office during Mike’s 44 years was never in doubt.
Mike would be the first to admit that he was blessed with a fantastic staff of attorneys, secretarial and clerical personnel, and investigators. He was especially proud of the racial, ethnic, and gender diversity of his office. His very first hire when he became State Attorney in 1976 was an African-American man, Chuck Morton. Chuck was the first African-American to serve as a Broward assistant state attorney, later serving as Mike’s chief of homicide and his chief assistant.
On behalf of the thousands of employees who have worked at the Broward State Attorney’s Office, Mike, we thank you. We thank you for your dedicated service, professionalism, intelligence, and example of how to be a lawyer, especially for your unwavering efforts over more than four decades to keep Broward County a beautiful and safe place to raise our families. We appreciate everything you have done for our community. It has been our honor and a privilege to work for and with you.
The authors all served as chief assistant state attorney under Broward State Attorney Mike Satz — Ralph Jackson Ray, Jr. between 1976 and 2005, Charles “Chuck” Morton between 2005 and 2012, and Jeff Marcus between 2013 and 2020.
