‘Never happened’: State drops charges against defense attorney Hal Uhrig

OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — In October 2021, prominent defense attorney Hal Uhrig was walked out of the Osceola County Courthouse in handcuffs, arrested on perjury and tampering with a witness charges. But now the charges have been dropped.

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The accusations surrounded an alleged rape of a then-9-year-old girl.

The sheriff said that in a meeting between Hal Uhrig and his client, the accused rapist, the victim, and the victim’s father, Uhrig urged the girl to write a letter stating the rape never happened and even said they had Uhrig on a wire.

Sheriff Marcos Lopez held a news conference and said no one was above the law.

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“In my experience from being in law enforcement, this probably wasn’t his first rodeo,” Lopez said.

Uhrig has always maintained his innocence.

Channel 9 spoke to Uhrig on Wednesday.

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“The idea that he had me on a wire committing a crime is absolutely untrue,” Uhrig said. “We never got a copy of that recording, but the state attorney who was assigned to the case listened to it and told my lawyer that he didn’t hear anything unlawful or unethical on there and that it was basically useless to them. And more importantly, I don’t care what the sheriff says he thinks he’s got on a wire; in my entire life, and I’ve been at this for nearly 50 years, I have never, ever either threatened or tried to bribe any witness, in any case, in any county, for any kind of a crime to encourage them to commit perjury and deny something that had happened, or to change their testimony. It’s never happened.”

“And for the sheriff to get on there and say, I don’t think this is his first rodeo…

“He comes along with this. I must have been doing it before. I’ve never done it. I didn’t do it this time. I have never done it before this, and I am not going to do it after this.”

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Uhrig worked on the George Zimmerman case and was the lead defense attorney in the nation’s first four DNA evidence trials and was a police officer before any of that.

There is nothing he can do about what was said in the press conference.

but he is doing what he can to fight to get his reputation back, telling us,

“There’s a great quote. You know, the case is over,” Uhrig said. “Now, where do I go to get my reputation back.? It’s a slow process. And overnight, my reputation went from stellar to. He’s a criminal attorney down here in Orlando trying to get a little girl to deny she’d been raped, and that never happened.”

Uhrig did have to do a 90-day diversion program, which is not unusual when cases are dropped. Agreeing to that allowed the case to be closed.

He is still facing an investigation by the Florida Bar.

As for the case involving the alleged rape suspect, that case is ongoing, but Uhrig is no longer the attorney and is not involved in that anymore.

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