Ron Kuby facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ron Kuby
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Kuby in 2014
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| Born | July 31, 1956 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
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| Education | University of Kansas (BA) Cornell University (JD) |
| Occupation | Trial attorney, radio talk show host, television commentator |
| Spouse(s) | Marilyn Vasta (m. 2006) |
Ronald L. Kuby (born July 31, 1956) is an American lawyer who works on criminal defense and civil rights cases. He is also a popular radio talk show host and a television commentator. He has hosted radio shows on WABC (AM) in New York City and Air America radio.
Kuby has handled many important legal cases. He started his career working with the famous activist lawyer William Kunstler. Today, Kuby leads his own law firm, the Law Office of Ronald L. Kuby, in Manhattan.
Contents
Early Life and School
Kuby was born in Cleveland, Ohio. His mother was a secretary, and his father was a salesman. When he was 13, he joined a group called the Jewish Defense League. As a teenager, he moved to Israel but came back to the U.S. He said he was disappointed by "anti-Arab racism" there.
He returned to Cleveland and lived in a shared house for several years. After high school, he went to Cleveland State University for one year.
In 1974, Kuby left college and moved to St. Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. There, he worked on a tugboat and became interested in plants used for medicine. He later moved to Kansas in 1975. He finished his degrees in cultural anthropology and history at the University of Kansas. While at KU, Kuby was an activist for free speech and against apartheid (a system of racial separation). He graduated with top honors. Kuby claimed that police broke his arm during an anti-apartheid protest at the university. Protesters wanted the university to stop investing in companies that did business in South Africa.
Kuby earned his law degree (Juris Doctor) from Cornell Law School in 1983. He says he could have joined the important Cornell Law Review but chose not to. He also claims to have been one of the best students in his class.
Personal Life
On January 23, 2006, Ron Kuby married Marilyn Vasta. She is a therapist and works to protect the environment. They got married on the 20th anniversary of their first date. They have one daughter, Emma Vasta-Kuby, who is also a lawyer.
Working with William Kunstler
While in college, Kuby worked as an intern for William Kunstler. Kunstler was a very experienced lawyer known for many big cases, like defending the Chicago Seven. From 1983 until Kunstler passed away in 1995, Kuby worked as a partner in Kunstler's law firm. Both lawyers fought for "the poor, the oppressed, and the downtrodden." They said they were not just co-workers but also best friends.
Kunstler and Kuby never signed a formal partnership agreement. Even though their letterhead said "Kunstler and Kuby," Kuby was paid as an employee. He did not share in the firm's profits or losses. Because of this, after Kunstler died, Kuby was not allowed to own the firm's case files or use its name. Kunstler's widow, Margaret Ratner, kept her late husband's records locked away. Kuby tried to challenge this, but a court decided in December 1996 that he had no rights to the Kunstler firm.
Important Cases
Kuby was a lawyer who could charm a jury and make witnesses look bad. He was also good at making police officers seem like they were lying. He was a tough opponent for prosecutors.
- Cases with Kunstler
Kuby and Kunstler worked together on several well-known cases:
- Gregory Lee Johnson: A protester who burned a U.S. Flag at a political meeting in 1984.
- Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman: A religious leader accused of planning terrorist attacks.
- Nico Minardos: A Hollywood actor accused of trying to ship weapons to Iran.
- Qubilah Shabazz: The daughter of Malcolm X, accused of planning to murder Louis Farrakhan.
- Darrell Cabey: A young man who sued Bernard Goetz for shooting him and won.
- Yu Kikumura: A member of a Japanese group, and people connected to the Gambino Crime Family.
During the Gulf War, they also represented American soldiers who wanted to be considered conscientious objectors (people who refuse to fight in wars for moral or religious reasons).
- Cases After Kunstler's Death
After Kunstler died, Kuby continued his work.
- In 1996, he won $43 million for Darrell Cabey in the case against Bernhard Goetz.
- He also won almost a million dollars for members of the Hells Angels motorcycle club. They had been wrongly arrested by the New York City Police Department.
- In 2001, he helped two men get released from prison after 13 years. They had been wrongly jailed for a murder they did not commit. He won $3.3 million for them.
- He helped overturn a murder conviction for a homeless man. The man's candle accidentally caused a fire that killed a firefighter.
- In 2005, Kuby won nearly a million dollars for another man who was wrongly convicted and spent eight years in prison.
In 2006, Kuby was asked to testify in the trial of John A. Gotti. Gotti was the son of a crime family leader. The charges included the kidnapping and attempted murder of Curtis Sliwa, who was Kuby's radio co-host at the time. Kuby testified that Gotti told him in 1998 that he wanted to leave organized crime. Sliwa was angry that Kuby testified for the defense, calling him a "Judas." But Kuby said he was just following the law by answering a subpoena (a legal order to appear in court).
In April 2009, Kuby talked about the capture of Abduwali Muse. Muse was a Somali teenager caught during the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips. Phillips was the captain of the MV Maersk Alabama, a ship briefly taken by Somali pirates. Kuby said he was thinking about defending Muse.
In September 2009, Kuby represented Ahmad Wais Afzali. Afzali was a religious leader accused of lying to authorities in a terrorism case. Kuby helped Afzali get out on bail. He also worked out a deal for Afzali to plead guilty to a lesser charge of lying to agents. Afzali was deported instead of going to prison.
Kuby also defended Raphael Golb. Golb was accused of sending emails where he pretended to be critics of his father. He falsely said he had done things like academic fraud. Golb was convicted but appealed. Some of his convictions were dismissed by the highest court in New York City. However, others, like criminal impersonation and forgery, were upheld.
Radio and TV Work
From 1999 to 2007, Kuby and Curtis Sliwa hosted a daily radio show called Curtis and Kuby in the Morning on WABC (AM) in New York City. After eight years, WABC replaced their show. Kuby and Sliwa then had a short-lived TV show on MSNBC. Kuby started broadcasting on Air America Radio in 2008. He first filled in for another host, then got his own show called Doing Time with Ron Kuby. His show was later removed from Air America's schedule.
On January 2, 2014, Curtis and Kuby returned to WABC. Kuby left WABC in May 2017 due to budget reasons.
Kuby often appears as a commentator and fills in as an anchor on Court TV. He has also been on the Discovery Channel show Oddities several times, giving legal advice.
On May 16, 2008, he was interviewed on the WBGO program Conversations with Allan Wolper. Kuby discussed how the media sometimes makes people seem guilty in public opinion before they are proven guilty in court.
In 2012, Kuby was featured in the New York Times "Sunday Routine" photo report. This report shows the daily lives of well-known New Yorkers.
Kuby was also part of a 2019 podcast called The Ballad of Billy Balls. This podcast was about the murder of William Heitzman by the police in 1982.
