'Legendary' Vero Beach lawyer Charles Sullivan Sr., died Wednesday at age 91

VERO BEACH - Longtime city icon Charles A. Sullivan Sr. is being remembered this week as a successful businessman and “legendary” trial lawyer whose courtroom skills were unmatched.

He died Wednesday at age 91 after suffering age-related ailments, according to his son, Charles Sullivan Jr., 69, an attorney who for decades shared a law practice with his father.

“His family was with him,” Sullivan Jr. said. “It was peaceful.”

The elder “Charlie” Sullivan, and his family have been well known in Indian River County for decades.

An accomplished real estate investor, Sullivan Sr. was widely respected in legal and business circles in his adopted home of Vero Beach, where he settled with his wife Henrietta Sullivan in the 1950s. She died in 2020.

The couple moved to Vero Beach after Sullivan Sr. earned a law degree from the University of Miami Law School, his son said.

“He became a very successful trial lawyer,” Sullivan Jr. recalled. “He did everything; he did a lot of criminal cases … eminent domain, family law, divorce law, accident cases. He was very, very successful.”

He said the family is planning a celebration of life service for both of his parents, who were married 68 years and raised four children.

“We weren't able to have a reception for her,” he said. “We're hoping to have it at a well-known large venue like the Vero Beach Country Club, which he was a member at for years; he played golf there.”

‘Silky Sullivan’

A New York native who was raised in Virginia and Miami, Sullivan Sr. joined the Florida Bar in 1958. His first job was writing legal briefs for the Florida Industrial Commission, which was then chaired by James T. Vocelle, one of the founders of Indian River County.

“My grandfather gave him his very first job out of a law school,” recalled Vero Beach lawyer Buck Vocelle, whose legendary local family includes his attorney father, Louis "Buck" Vocelle, who served three terms in the Florida House of Representatives from 1956 to 1962.

Vocelle said Sullivan Sr. will be mourned and remembered as a “legend.”

“He touched so many lives. He did things monetarily and non-monetarily for so many people that nobody even knows about,” said Vocelle. “It's gonna be a long time before he's forgotten.”

Added Vocelle: “He had a natural feel for people. Amazing trial lawyer, good friend and a funny, funny, funny guy.”

According to Charles Sullivan Jr., for many years his father was the go-to lawyer in town if you got in trouble.

“Especially when he was young,” he said,” if you were in real trouble, you called my dad.”

A bench in his honor sits in a prime spot outside the Indian River County Courthouse. From 1958 to 1964 Sullivan Sr. was a local judge, at one time the youngest in the state, according to the 1968 book, “Florida’s Hibiscus City Vero Beach.”

Fort Pierce attorney Bradford L. Jefferson, 74, first met his longtime friend he called “Silky Sullivan,” for his smooth-as-silk demeanor, in the mid-1970s.

“Back in 1975, all of my partners were afraid of him and I got stuck with him. I went to court and he beat me,” Jefferson said. “He beat me so bad my butt still hurts.”

Jefferson recalled his “totally hilarious” sense of humor, in and out of the courtroom.

“I can't think of anyone I've ever met that is as unique and interesting as Charlie,” he said. “He was the best natural trial lawyer I've ever been with. He's a legend.”

Robert Stone, a former State Attorney and longtime Vero Beach resident, called Sullivan Sr. “my oldest and dearest friend.”

“I came here in 1963, right after I got out of law school and in 64’, I was admitted to the (Florida) Bar and started practicing and Charlie was the first person I met. We became friends immediately.”

“He helped get me started and he was a true friend,” Stone said. “He never expected anything out of you and he'd do anything for his friends.”

Sullivan's ‘Midas touch’

For years Vocelle and Sullivan Sr. partnered on a number of successful investments.

“We own liquor licenses together. We formed a little corporation where we flipped houses in (2008) together,” Vocelle said. “He's got tons of properties.”

Sullivan Sr. was active in real estate, developing projects and managing multiple properties, including several local bars, mini-storage facilities and a golf course.

Stone praised his savvy business sense.

“He made some great investments. Over the years, he was an extremely smart businessman,” Stone added. “He had that Midas touch to go into business where somebody else might fail.”

Sullivan Jr agreed.

“He was really successful in real estate development,” he said.

And though the two were longtime partners in a successful law firm, the younger Sullivan said he’s remembering his father as being a “great dad.”

“I got the benefit of working with him for my whole life,” he said. “A lawyer is what he did, but being a dad is who he was to me.”

He also stood by his father in the mid-2010s when the elder Sullivan was charged with sexual assault, which was dismissed by state prosecutors.

His son noted state prosecutors threw out the sexual assault charge and declined to prosecute the case.

Records show in 2016, Sullivan Sr. settled a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him by a female office employee who worked for his son and had accused the elder Sullivan of sexually assaulting her in 2015 at the firm's State Road 60 office in Vero Beach.

In June 2015, Vero Beach police arrested Sullivan Sr. on a charge of sexual battery. Three months later, State Attorney Phil Archer of the 18th Judicial Circuit in Viera declined to prosecute him criminally.

“Once the facts became known, they threw it out,” said Sullivan Jr.

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Melissa E. Holsman is the legal affairs reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers and is writer and co-host of "Uncertain Terms," a true-crime podcast. Reach her at  melissa.holsman@tcpalm.com. If you are a subscriber, thank you. If not, become a subscriber to get the latest local news on the Treasure Coast.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Veteran Vero Beach lawyer Charles Sullivan Sr., 91, died Wednesday