"I am very proud to be able to feature Elijah Levitt as our SAO Alumni Profile this month. Elijah handled several high profile cases in our office and I was always impressed by his acumen as a trial lawyer. I was equally impressed by his strength of character and warmth" commented State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. "And as a point of personal privilege, you could say that I played the role of 'fairy godmother' in his personal life."
Elijah grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, a far cry from Miami, Florida. During the summer before 8th grade, Elijah and his family moved to Miami. "My parents thought that Miami would be a good place to raise a family and offered more opportunities for their children to broaden their horizons and succeed in life."
Just before his first year of high school, Hurricane Andrew struck and altered the family's plan to stay in South Florida. "Hurricane Andrew wiped out my parents' business. They did not want to go through another devastating storm, so, two years later, we moved to Atlanta, Georgia," he recounts.
Even though he was born in the Midwest, the future that he envisioned was always on the East Coast. "I idealized the thought of being a politician in Washington, D.C., so I went to undergrad at Georgetown University and obtained a double major in International Relations and Spanish." From 1998 to 1999, he was also an exchange student at La Universidad Complutense de Madrid, where he perfected his fluency in Spanish.
After graduating from Georgetown, Elijah tested the waters of the legal field. "During my first year out of college, I worked as a paralegal for a year in the litigation unit of a large law firm named Shearman & Sterling, which represented clients such as General Electric." It was there that he felt drawn to litigation.
Elijah then attended the University of Miami School of Law and graduated in 2003. "After my second year of law school, I interned as a Certified Legal Intern at the Office of the State Attorney in Miami." He was assigned to the County Court Division. "My supervisor handed me a file in court and told me to do a bench trial approximately thirty minutes later. After the bench trial, I was hooked," he recalls.
The fact that he would be able to try cases is what mainly appealed to Elijah. "His first supervisor at the SAO would become his good friend and was even a groomsman at his wedding. This would not be the only way in which the office positively impacted his personal life.
While at the SAO
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Elijah tried more than 50 State jury trials, 9 Federal jury trials, and 100 State bench trials involving complex economic crimes, violent career criminals, gang cases, and murder cases. He also received the Prosecutor of the Quarter Award in July of 2011 from the Dade County Association of Chiefs of Police for trying 10 cases in one year involving armed robberies with firearms, kidnapping, extortion, threats against law enforcement, and attempted murder, all resulting in guilty verdicts.
From June 2007 to October 2008, he was selected to be a Special Assistant United States Attorney ("SAUSA"), a unique partnership between State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and the United States Attorney which has been in place through numerous presidential administrations and is still going strong today. While he was a SAUSA, he prosecuted federal firearms and narcotics crimes committed by violent felony offenders and gang members. After finishing his term as a SAUSA, from September 2008 through September 2012, he was part of the SAO's Gang Prosecution Unit.
One of the cases that still stands out for him is a homicide that occurred three blocks from a well-known restaurant. A man was gunned down on the street in front of his girlfriend. She was able to identify the defendant, a '68 Street Boys' gang member, from a yearbook picture.
"At a certain point, the defendant found out who identified him and his associates went looking for the girlfriend. The State Attorney, the SAO Victim Witness Unit, and the City of Miami Police Department went into action to protect her from potential retaliation. After a couple years of litigation, she testified in court, and we obtained a guilty verdict. She is doing well now," Elijah recounts.
The SAO's positive impact not only extended to Elijah's legal accomplishments -- the SAO connection also enabled his meeting the love of his life.
"I met my wife at the SAO office holiday party at the Melreese Golf Course. Her twin sister was an ASA at the time, and I was introduced to them at the party. My wife and I started talking, and the rest is history."
"Shortly after the office holiday party, I came upon the State Attorney in the elevator of the Graham Building. Ms. Fernandez Rundle asked me what my plans were for Christmas. I semi-jokingly told her that I was staying home by myself and was going eat leftover meatloaf. Ms. Fernandez Rundle immediately responded to my quip by inviting me to Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) with her family and friends. As a result, my second date with my wife was at the State Attorney's Noche Buena! Her family and friends treated us as if we were family. Their generosity and kindness were memorable."
After eight and one-half years at the SAO, Elijah joined the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida where he litigates both civil asset forfeiture and criminal cases from initial investigation through final disposition in court.
There, he tried a six-week mail fraud trial consisting of a $26 million loss, three defendants and thousands of exhibits. The jury found the defendants guilty of the mail fraud conspiracy in July of 2017.
Elijah has succeeded in securing over $6,000,000 in forfeited assets and presently has over $24,000,000 in illicit assets seized that are pending final disposition. He has also prosecuted an international money laundering ring involving Mexican drug cartels that laundered over $100,000,000 in U.S. dollars over the span of two years. All defendants pled guilty and agreed to forfeit the assets seized to the United States.
And though this is exciting work, Elijah still looks back fondly on his time at the SAO and says that it was probably the best job that he ever had. "It helped me prepare to be a better attorney."
He offers this advice to our current ASA's:
"Our job as prosecutors is to achieve justice for all people. Don't be afraid to keep working hard. If you put in a lot of work and prevail, I do not believe there is any better feeling in our legal profession. Even if you do not prevail, you will know that you did everything possible and gave it all that you had; through doing your job to the fullest, justice will have triumphed. I also take great pride in respecting the legal process. Having the respect of the community, judges, and peers is paramount for us as lawyers."
