Luis Perez, tough Miami federal prosecutor with dry sense of humor, dies at 60

Luis Perez was known as a tough-minded federal prosecutor, but he also disarmed people with his dry sense of humor.

Even when he was battling pancreatic cancer, he would joke about how the chemotherapy treatment allowed him to eat whatever he wanted without having to worry about gaining weight.

Perez, 60, who was born in Cuba and moved with his family to Miami as a young child, died Tuesday after devoting almost his entire legal career to fighting crime for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Florida.

Hundreds of prosecutors, defense attorneys and federal judges praised Perez not only for his public service but also for being a regular guy whose mere presence made those around him smile.

“What a prince of a guy,” U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno said in a post on the Southern District of Florida blog. “In these days of the Coronavirus pandemic, we sometimes forget about those who have valiantly, and believe it or not cheerfully, fought the battle against cancer.”

Said former federal prosecutor Aloyma Sanchez: “I cannot tell you how I am saddened by the passing of a wonderful boss, colleague, teacher, and friend who took me under his wing when I was a young inexperienced prosecutor at the USAO. He had a gift for making people laugh.”

Veteran defense attorney Frank Quintero said Perez’s door was always open because he was willing to listen and be fair. “He didn’t view us as the enemy,” Quintero said. “He viewed us as colleagues.”

Miami defense attorney Henry Bell, who squared off with Perez in the courtroom several times, said he always appreciated his candor and wit.

“Lui was not shy about letting you know if he thought you were wrong,” Bell said on the Southern District of Florida blog. “But, he listened, he was fair, never held a grudge, and he was funny and always smiling when I saw him. Many times I enjoyed laughing it up with Lui over a cafecito on Flagler Street.”

Indeed, Perez was a fixture around the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the federal courthouse and the legal community around downtown Miami.

After graduating from the University of Florida Law School, Perez became an assistant state prosecutor in Miami-Dade for a few years and then joined the federal prosecutor’s office in 1990.

Perez quickly made an impact in the 1993 prosecution of the first capital murder case in the Southern District of Florida. The crack-and-cocaine distribution trial of 14 defendants known as the Boulder Boys involved a drive-by shooting in a Miami neighborhood that killed a woman watching a football game with her boyfriend. The grueling trial lasted months, ending in long prison sentences for most of the defendants, but no death penalty.

Perez’s next big case was the 1998 prosecution of state Sen. Alberto Gutman, a high-profile Miami politician who was accused of running two fraudulent home healthcare companies that created ghost patients and phony documents to bilk Medicare of $2 million. The FBI also caught him on video surveillance tapes tampering with witnesses, and discussing how to impede the federal investigation. Gutman decided to plead guilty midway through his trial, leading to a five-year prison term.

After nearly two decades as a prosecutor, Perez helped the U.S. Attorney’s Office develop a Health Care Fraud Strike Force aimed at cracking down on the epidemic of Medicare corruption in South Florida. Since 2008, the office has led the nation in prosecuting thousands of defendants who have fleeced billions of dollars from the federal health insurance program for the elderly and disabled.

After that stint, Perez turned his focus to the economic crimes sections involving white-collar fraud and related offenses, where he served as a deputy for several years and then chief since 2015.

While he was struggling with the ordeal of cancer, Perez “came to the office every day,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Marlene Rodriguez. “Even during the coronavirus pandemic, he would participate in Zoom meetings and video-conference calls from home.”

Perez is survived by his wife, Maggie; his daughters, Carolina and Cristina. He is also survived by his mother, Carmen Perez, and brother, Alberto Perez. He was predeceased by his older brother, Cesar Perez, and his father, also named Cesar Perez.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church and live-streamed: http://church.stamiami.org/. The church is not allowing open physical attendance because of the coronavirus pandemic. For those interested in making donations, they can be made in Luis Perez’s memory to the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami.