A Central Florida attorney was arrested Monday by Osceola County Sheriff's deputies for his role in working to cover up a rape case.
Harold "Hal" Uhrig, a member of The Defense Group out of Maitland, was charged with solicitation to commit perjury and tampering with a witness, both third-degree felonies. He was arrested at the Osceola County courthouse, where he was appearing on another matter.
Per Lopez, Uhrig served as counsel for a suspect in rape case of a then 9-year-old girl. In July, he held a meeting with those involved in the case.
"The rapist, the victim and victim's father were all present. The intent was to keep the rapist from going to jail," the sheriff said, noting the family was told to write a declination (a letter saying the rape didn't happen), avoid being served with subpoena, and lie during deposition that the rape didn't happen.
But the victim, now an adult, reported all of that to the State Attorney investigating her case.
"Our sex crimes unit began an investigation. The father did a controlled phone call (recorded it) but Mr. Uhrig said he couldn't talk specifics so he wanted to meet in person," Lopez said.
The father met Uhrig wearing a wire and read a script, what appeared to be his courtroom comments for the defense.
"No one's above the law, we are going to investigate these cases, and once we find probable cause we're going to arrest you and put you in jail," Lopez said. "I suspect, in my experience, this probably wasn't his first rodeo, he was too comfortable through this. The victim didn't buy into what he was selling — she's the hero, it took guts to report this."
On Monday, after being taken into custody at the Courthouse, he was transported to the Sheriff's Office, questioned, arrested and read rights, and taken to the Osceola County Jail. The day's arrested records are not yet available as of Monday evening.
"He lawyer-ed up. A lawyer lawyer-ing up. Go figure," Lopez said.
According to his bio with The Defense Group, Uhrig has been a practicing attorney since 1975, after six years in law enforcement. He was an Assistant Attorney General and Assistant Public Defender, and since 1984 "engaged in the practice of criminal defense" in private practice.
