The biggest courtroom in Pinellas County was crawling with people. Television cameras lined the jury box and spectators filled the gallery to see the Rev. Henry J. Lyons arraigned on charges of grand theft and racketeering in March.

Lyons sat with his four attorneys. Three of them seemed stiff and ill at ease, but the fourth was as comfortable as if he were in his own living room.

He even cracked a joke with the judge.

The other attorneys had greater fame (F. Lee Bailey was part of O.J. Simpson’s defense team) or greater experience (Anthony Battaglia, 70, has handled hundreds of federal cases) or greater rapport with the client (Grady Irvin attended Lyons’ church).

But none of them was more at home in a Pinellas criminal courtroom than Denis de Vlaming, defender of mayors, police chiefs and professionals in trouble.

Look in the Yellow Pages for de Vlaming, and all you’ll find among the big-print ads is a tiny listing. Yet the clients find him – particularly the wealthy and the well-connected. They flock to his Clearwater office because when it comes to criminal defense in Pinellas, they know he’s The Man.

Even his adversaries praise his abilities.

“If I was ever in trouble,” said prosecutor Mary Handsel, “I’d hire de Vlaming as my attorney.”

Lyons’ trial, scheduled to begin Jan. 11, may raise the profile of the 51-year-old de Vlaming, now the senior attorney since Battaglia and Bailey bailed out.

De Vlaming calls the case one of the most challenging of his career. But his main mission – getting someone out of trouble – isn’t much different from what he was doing 30 years ago.

Except now he’s not wearing a bathing suit.

‘Such smarmy people!’

Snapshot of nearly any summer day on Long Island in the late 1960s: New Yorkers have fled the city to crowd Jones Beach. Suddenly someone is too far out, going under. A lean and hawk-nosed lifeguard dives in, fights the current and pulls the swimmer to safety.

De Vlaming spent seven summers as a lifeguard. One Fourth of July weekend he rescued 25 people.

“There was an exhilaration about that – they were being swept out to sea, and you could see them,” de Vlaming said. “I’ve always liked that tremendous excitement where you had to depend on yourself.”

This, he said, is the only hint he would someday make a living getting people out of trouble – the Baywatch Theory of Legal Training.

De Vlaming and his older brother, Douglas, grew up on Long Island, sons of a fuel oil salesman. The family was not well off, but they did live on the water. Swimming became the boys’ obsession. Both competed on the high school swim team. Both went to Ohio State on swimming scholarships. They joined the same fraternity and shared an apartment.

“Denny kind of followed me along as we went,” Douglas de Vlaming said.

They parted over Vietnam. Douglas joined the Air Force and flew fighter jets. His little brother had no taste for war but drew a low draft number.

Hoping for a deferment, de Vlaming applied to a graduate school to study psychology, without success. His father urged him to try law school. He remembers thinking: “I don’t want to go to law school. Lawyers! God! They’re such smarmy people!”

But when the Army told him he had 30 days to get his deferment or report to boot camp, de Vlaming scouted for a law school near the water. Stetson University in Gulfport accepted him.

There he fell in love with the intellectual combat of the courtroom. He became his own man, no longer little “Denny” tagging along after his brother.

After graduation, de Vlaming was hired as a prosecutor. Old opponents such as Clearwater lawyer Pat Doherty say he was as good at putting people in jail as he is now at keeping them out.

Beavis and Butthead defense

He still approaches every case like a prosecutor.

“I try to think how to beat me,” de Vlaming said.

Some lawyers excel at working out plea deals. De Vlaming can do that, too, but “he’s not afraid to tee it up and go to trial,” said former prosecutor Mike Pieri. “And he wins more than he loses.”

His high-wire tactics are not foolproof. He went up against Pieri in a murder case in which police could not find the body. De Vlaming argued that the victim, a cross-dresser, had had a sex-change operation and disappeared voluntarily. The jury didn’t buy it.

But risk-taking has paid off for other clients.

Teacher Larry Allison was accused of exposing himself. De Vlaming discovered police had charged him with the wrong crime. Most attorneys would have quickly pointed out the mistake, giving prosecutors the opportunity to file the right charge.

Not de Vlaming. He waited to play that trump card until after the prosecutor had presented the state’s case to the jury. Despite the prosecutor’s sputtered objections, the judge dismissed the case and ruled Allison could not be charged or tried again.

Some say de Vlaming put on his greatest defense for Richard Traylor, a teacher charged with molesting several girls at a Palm Harbor elementary school. During a deposition, de Vlaming’s careful questions led one accuser to recant, casting doubt on the others’ credibility.

At the trial, De Vlaming’s closing argument was studded with pop culture references and steeped in outrage at the downward spiral of American values. At one point, he knelt on the courtroom floor to show how Traylor gave pupils a comforting hug.

“Is that wicked?” he demanded. “Is that lustful?”

Society is so degraded, he said, that shows like Leave It to Beaver are no longer on television, replaced by Beavis and Butthead, where they’re setting fires and talking back to their teachers.”

His client, he said, is as out of place as a dinosaur, “a Jurassic Park character, a throwback to the times when teachers cared. We’ve gone a long way since the days of Ozzie and Harriet. Maybe we deserve Beavis and Butthead. Maybe we don’t deserve men like him. I don’t know. But it’s sad.”

The jury acquitted Traylor, who later got the court to seal his file. De Vlaming did such a good job there is no longer any record of his greatest defense.

The House That Crime Built

Despite his aversion to paid advertising, de Vlaming likes publicity. When a client is cleared, he alerts the media to make sure it is reported.

“Denis is good at promoting Denis,” Handsel said. “People read that and remember Denis representing somebody and representing him well.”

De Vlaming’s help is not cheap: $250 an hour. He jokes that he could not become a judge because he couldn’t stand the pay cut.

When Largo police found trace amounts of cocaine in two cars owned by a Clearwater man, they confiscated them. De Vlaming got both cars back and kept one, an $80,000 Acura NSX, as his fee. He decorated it with a vanity plate that said: ACQUIT 1.

Last year he traded the Acura for a Nissan Pathfinder with more room for him and his wife, Voncele, to ferry their daughters Lacey, 14, and Kali, 10, to soccer and cheerleading practice.

De Vlaming lives in Clearwater’s Island Estates. He runs his boat at full throttle on weekends. He works in a restored 71-year-old house dubbed “The House That Crime Built.”

For five years de Vlaming left the upstairs vacant. When his big brother retired from the Air Force, de Vlaming persuaded him to get a law degree. In 1991, Douglas de Vlaming opened an office upstairs. Now Douglas is in his brother’s shadow.

“It’s a nice shadow to be in,” he said.

The singing jury

One of de Vlaming’s duties on the Lyons case will be picking the jury – a job at which his fellow lawyers say he is an expert.

De Vlaming writes poetry for fun and is usually decked out in double-breasted suits and elegant silk ties. But he has a down-to- earth manner that connects with jurors. Where he leads, they often follow.

Take the case of Robert Merkle, former U.S. attorney and onetime U.S. Senate candidate. In 1993 Merkle was charged with battery for punching George Gusler, an ex-convict who had been involved in several car crash-related lawsuits.

Merkle, who contended Gusler was the aggressor, hired de Vlaming. The jury not only acquitted him but at de Vlaming’s suggestion they also declared Merkle was “fully justified” in punching Gusler.

Afterward all the exhausted Merkle wanted to do was go home and sleep. But before he had a chance to settle in, someone was knocking on his door.

It was de Vlaming, with the jurors. They serenaded Merkle with a song de Vlaming had written: “Ol’ Bob Merkle had a right hook, eee-i, eee-i ooh . . . With a left-right here and a left-right there, here a left, there a right, everywhere a left-right . . .”

Gusler still contends he, not Merkle, was the victim. But he bears no grudge against de Vlaming.

“It’s a shame the people who don’t have the money can’t afford someone like Denis de Vlaming,” Gusler said. “He’s the best I’ve ever seen.”

Andrew Kobak was accused of keeping a woman as a sex slave.

NEW PORT RICHEY — He apparently liked being called “Master Drew,” but his real name is Andrew Michael Kobak. When Pasco deputies arrested Kobak last summer, they say they found a 19-year-old woman who agreed to treat Kobak as her master.

The two had a signed “sex slave contract.” The contract allegedly entitled Kobak to complete control over the woman’s life.

What got the attention of the Pasco vice narcotics unit was that Kobak allegedly used his sex slave for the sexual enjoyment of other men.

Wednesday, almost a year after being arrested, the State Attorney’s office dropped 15 of the 18 charges against Kobak. He pleaded guilty to charges of deriving proceeds from prostitution, making a place for prostitution, both misdemeanors, and possession of marijuana.

Judge Jack Day was none too happy, but accepted the plea.

“There is nothing masterful about being a pimp. We have robbers, burglars, muggers and gangsters coming through here. There is nothing more contemptible than a pimp,” the judge said.

Kobak could have faced up to 70 years in prison had he been convicted of all 18 original charges. Now he’ll spend just three years on probation.

Kobak’s attorney, Denis DeVlaming said while his client’s sex slave contract may have been odd is was not technically illegal.

“That’s between two consenting adults. She was of age he was of age. He wasn’t prosecuted for that,” DeVlaming said.

MyFox Tampa Bay.

By TYLER KEPNER

TAMPA, Fla., March 28 — George Steinbrenner ate dinner in the cafeteria at Legends Field on Wednesday with his daughter Jessica beside him and her husband, Felix Lopez, next to her. Lopez merrily took out a cellphone and snapped a picture of his wife and his father-in-law. It was one big, happy family.

But all is not right in the Steinbrenner clan. His other daughter, Jennifer, filed for divorce from her husband, Steve Swindal, in the family law division of Hillsborough County Circuit Court on Tuesday. Swindal was arrested last month on suspicion of driving under the influence, and the divorce would end any chance he had of succeeding Steinbrenner in running the Yankees, as Steinbrenner had said he would do in June 2005.

“I’m the boss,” Steinbrenner said through his spokesman, Howard Rubenstein. “I continue to be the boss, I have no intention of retiring, and my family runs the Yankees with me.”

Steinbrenner’s sons, Hank and Hal, are listed as general partners along with Swindal at the top of the Yankees’ hierarchy. Lopez, who has become an increasingly active presence, is listed as a senior vice president.

When Swindal leaves the family, he will effectively leave the Yankees. According to an individual with direct knowledge of the matter, Steinbrenner no longer plans to promote him, and he would seem to have no future with the team. But the situation is complicated because Swindal has a small financial interest in the team — among other things, he is listed as the chairman of Yankee Global Enterprises, the umbrella company for the club and the YES network — and the specifics of that interest will have to be untangled. Rubenstein would not say if Swindal still worked for the Yankees.

Swindal, who has been a member of Major League Baseball’s ownership committee, spent more than five hours in a Largo, Fla., jail on Feb. 15 after his arrest at 2:12 a.m. at 18th Avenue and 31st Street in St. Petersburg. He failed a field sobriety test and refused a Breathalyzer test.

Swindal pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer, Kym Rivellini, said on Wednesday that she had requested and had been granted a continuance, a standard practice. Rivellini said it would take six to eight more weeks to review pretrial material.

Last month, Rivellini said that when Swindal was arrested, he was headed to his boat, where he planned to spend the night. He was arrested about 40 blocks from the marina, near a bail bonds building and a Laundromat.

Swindal spoke with members of the news media on Feb. 19 and said he believed he had Steinbrenner’s support.

“He supports me,” Swindal said then. “I don’t feel anything but a guy who is looking out after me and supports me.”

Swindal did not respond to a telephone message on Wednesday, but he and Jennifer Steinbrenner issued a statement through Rubenstein in which they said they were amicably ending their 23-year marriage. A previous Rubenstein statement had said the divorce papers cited irreconcilable differences.

“Although their marriage is dissolving, they remain friends and maintain a strong mutual respect,” the statement said. “They are devoted to their two children and will make them their shared focus.”

Steinbrenner, 76, would not comment Wednesday when asked who would succeed him in running the Yankees. It is unclear what his will specifies, and though many believe him to be in failing health, Steinbrenner most likely will retain final say on team matters until his death.

Steinbrenner has increasingly delegated responsibility to other executives, especially his top three New York-based executives: Randy Levine, the team president; Lonn Trost, the chief operating officer; and Brian Cashman, the general manager.

Steinbrenner rarely appears in New York, although he plans to attend opening day at Yankee Stadium on Monday, according to Rubenstein. Steinbrenner watches spring training games here from his box behind the Yankees’ dugout, at the top of the seating bowl. He met there briefly with Roger Clemens this month when Clemens, a free agent, attended a game.

On Wednesday, Steinbrenner watched with a grandson whose father, Joe Molloy, was married to Jessica Steinbrenner. Molloy, who is now an assistant middle school principal in Tampa, was an influential Yankees general partner in the 1990s before he and Jessica Steinbrenner divorced.

Steinbrenner’s sons, Hank, 49, and Hal, 38, have been far less active than Swindal in team matters and are said to have little interest in taking over. Hank Steinbrenner was not listed as a general partner in 2006.

Less is known about Lopez, who is beginning his third season with the Yankees. Officially, Lopez is responsible for overseeing the daily operations of Legends Field and the Yankees’ minor league complex across the street. He is far more visible here than either of Steinbrenner’s sons.

Swindal was responsible for negotiating Manager Joe Torre’s current contract, in 2004, and he represented the team in January at the announcement that the 2008 All-Star Game would be played at Yankee Stadium. He also had become more comfortable speaking in public, granting interviews about team matters at a time when Steinbrenner was shunning the news media.

Steinbrenner’s appearances in public are less frequent than ever. He has answered questions from reporters only once this spring, on the first day of camp, when he appeared unsteady as he walked slowly through a tunnel to see Torre.

“When I’m ready to say something, I’ll say something,” Steinbrenner said through Rubenstein on Wednesday. “I don’t really appreciate being mobbed and people screaming at me.”

Andy Pettitte said he had seen Steinbrenner once since re-signing with the Yankees. Pettitte spotted Steinbrenner in the cafeteria one day and gave him a hug. “He said it was good to see me and, ‘Thanks for coming back,’ ” Pettitte said.

Torre said he had not seen Steinbrenner since the first-day meeting, although they have spoken on the telephone once a week.

“He still has that feistiness, where I’ll say, ‘How you doing, George?’ and he’ll say, ‘Well, I didn’t like yesterday’s game,’ ” Torre said. “But it’s not like years past where he’s been down here on a regular basis.”

INSIDE PITCH

Andy Pettitte (back spasms) threw 31 pitches in the bullpen Wednesday, and Joe Torre said he would go north with the team on Saturday. Pettitte will face hitters at the minor league complex Friday, and Torre said he would start sometime during the first homestand of the season. … Roger Clemens told The Associated Press that he planned to be in New York to see Pettitte pitch in the coming weeks. Clemens said he would know in about a month whether he would continue his career. “My arm’s not too far off, my body is not too far off,” he said. “My mind’s just not there yet.” … Torre has not announced it, but first baseman Josh Phelps has won a spot on the Yankees’ roster. When asked if Phelps had won the job over Andy Phillips, Torre said, “I can’t do that, because there are other people involved.” Phelps is batting .424; Phillips (.190) did not play Wednesday. … Reliever J. Brent Cox, one of the Yankees’ top pitching prospects, had elbow surgery Monday and probably will not pitch this season. … The left-hander Ron Villone allowed a walk, a single and a triple in the Yankees’ 12-2 loss to the Astros on Wednesday. But Villone still has Torre’s trust, and he might make the team over Sean Henn. “If he wasn’t here last year, it would be tough to even consider him,” Torre said of Villone. “But with what we know about him, and what we know about his makeup, you have to make the decision with that being a part of it.” Said Villone, whose earned run average is 14.40: “Ugly night. Unfortunately, there’s been a few of them.” … Fifth-starter candidate Darrell Rasner allowed seven runs. … While Torre is hopeful that Jeff Karstens (elbow stiffness) will be ready for the opening day roster, Karstens has not been cleared to throw off a mound.

Michael S. Schmidt and Richard Sandomir contributed reporting.

Correction: March 31, 2007

A sports article on Thursday, about the impact of a pending divorce in the Steinbrenner family on the future of the Yankees’ ownership, misspelled the surname of a club executive who parted ways with the organization after his divorce. (The error was repeated in the Sports of The Times column yesterday.) He is Joseph Molloy, not Malloy.

NY Times.

A Largo teacher accused of sexual abuse has faced allegations before. One father says it should have ended then.

Several parents were angry Thursday after learning a Largo teacher arrested on charges of sexually abusing two young students was allowed to remain in the classroom after several other students had previously accused him of inappropriate touching.

“I feel like if something had been done then, these two little girls wouldn’t have to suffer this year,” said the father of one of two girls who spoke with police last year about inappropriate touching.

“It’s making me sick,” he said. “Something should have been done then.”

School districts handle such matters in different ways.

Pinellas County school administrators defer to local law enforcement when an employee is accused of inappropriately touching a student. After an investigation, the teacher is either arrested or advised to be more cautious.

But school districts in Hillsborough and Pasco counties sometimes take administrative action before a police investigation is completed. In some cases, even when no criminal charges are brought, the employee is not allowed to return to the classroom.

“We will take a look at what they’ve gathered and what we’ve gathered and reach an independent determination about what our recommendation about that employee would be,” said Hillsborough schools spokesman Mark Hart.

Mark C. Fronczak, a Southern Oak Elementary music teacher, was arraigned Thursday on charges he sexually abused two students at the school.

Fronczak wore a blue jumpsuit and did not speak during his appearance via closed circuit television from the jail.

His ex-wife, the mother of his two children, said despite their divorce two years ago, Fronczak is a good teacher. But parents of both children who accused Fronczak last week said the children were terrified by their experiences.

“This man has taken something away from my 7-year-old daughter that can’t be replaced,” said one mother.

Douglas de Vlaming, attorney for Fronczak, said at the arraignment that the new accusations are “beyond belief.”

“An element of fear has been created at that elementary school based on the prior allegations,” he said.

Fronczak was being held Thursday evening in lieu of a $420,000 bail.

School districts don’t have to wait until teachers are charged to remove them from the classroom.

In Pasco, administrators would place a teacher on paid leave if he or she were accused of behavior that, if true, could be dangerous to students, said Terry Rhum, director of employee relations.

The same goes for Hillsborough.

“For the safety of the students and given the nature of the accusation we can place someone on administrative leave,” said Hart.

Hart cited the example of Jennifer Porter, the elementary dance teacher involved in a fatal hit-and-run who was placed on administrative leave before she was charged with leaving the scene of an accident involving death.

In Pinellas, the school district waits until law enforcement completes an investigation and then conducts its own.

District officials say it is inappropriate to ask about actions a teacher may have to testify about in court, said Michael Bessette, an administrator in Pinellas’ Office of Professional Standards, which investigates complaints against teachers.

The Sheriff’s Office findings don’t preclude the district from taking further action, but in two previous cases Fronczak was not removed from his classroom after girls alleged he pulled them close to him, put his hand around their waists and touched their abdomens.

“If there is no corroboration that ABC happened, there’s no action we can take at that point,” Bessette said.

Jade Moore, executive director of the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association, said teachers are told of exact complaints against them until after an police investigation.

The district does this to protect teachers so they don’t become hysterical about false accusations. Moore said if the accusations are proved true, the district also doesn’t want to tip off the teacher, who could flee.

Judge Richard Luce on Thursday prohibited Fronczak from having unsupervised contact with children younger than 18 and to stay at least 1,000 feet away from schools or places where children congregate. He must also stay in Pinellas County.

Fronczak, who has no prior criminal record, faces life in prison without parole if convicted.

He has custody of his two sons, ages 13 and 15, de Vlaming said at the hearing. De Vlaming later provided the Times with nine letters from Southern Oak teachers vouching for his client’s reputation.

“I have never witnessed any inappropriate behavior,” wrote Mindy McConchie, a second-grade teacher at Southern Oak who said she has known Fronczak for 10 years. “My students love to go to music and often remind me when it is time.”

Assistant State Attorney Tim Hessinger had asked the judge to keep Fronczak in jail with no bail, but after Fronczak’s ex-wife and her father spoke on his behalf, Luce set the bail amount.

“There is no proof offered here today,” said the judge. “Just argument.”

A day after the allegations were made public, Heather Rutherford, 31, and other parents at Southern Oak Elementary were struggling to reconcile what they know about the friendly man who taught their children.

They had mixed reactions to accusations that Fronczak sexually assaulted two of their children’s classmates.

“It’s hard to be a loving teacher,” said Rutherford, of Largo. “I don’t know. He’s so flamboyant. He might not have thought about it, the way he hugged one of them.”

Her friend, Renee Riviera, said she was disappointed by the allegations and worried that trouble is possible, even in the best schools.

“You can’t escape evil,” said Riviera, 33, of Largo. “You just have to keep your eyes on God and let him get you through the tough times.”

- Staff Writers Chris Tisch and Jennifer Farrell contributed to this report.

St Pete Times.