Tallahassee, FL – April 25, 2011

Vicki Lopez Lukis, a partner in the firm Sylvester Lukis & Associates LLC, a leading government relations firm in Miami-Dade County, announces the opening of its Tallahassee office.

“We are excited to open another office in Tallahassee to serve the growing number of clients, which have interests in state government affairs,” said Vicki Lopez Lukis, the managing partner of the new office.  “The office will focus on providing strategic consulting and business development services, as well as government relations and public affair at the state level with an emphasis on corrections and criminal and juvenile justice issues.”

Sylvester Lukis & Associates’ extensive experience in both state and federal legislative and executive branches includes criminal and juvenile justice, corrections, appropriations, healthcare and transportation.  In addition, the firm specializes in community outreach, utilities, infrastructure, information technology, international business, law enforcement and federal, state and local government affairs.

The Tallahassee office is located at 403 E. Park Ave and can be reached by phone at 305-216-7794 or email at Vicki@lukisassociates.com.

About Sylvester Lukis & Associates LLC:

Sylvester Lukis & Associates LLC is a well-established government relations and public affairs company.   The firm was established in 1985 in Washington, D.C. to provide federal government relations services on behalf of local governments in Miami-Dade County.  It expanded its practice to Miami-Dade County in 1996, where it has engaged in statewide political consulting and fundraising, external affairs, government relations and public affairs on behalf of national, state and local clients.   In 2006, the firm expanded its practice/focus to include public policy development, consulting and advocacy work in the area of corrections, criminal and juvenile justice reform.

Sylvester Lukis – Partner

Sylvester Lukis has over 30 years of legal and consulting experience in intergovernmental and political affairs at the federal, state and local levels.  In 1980, Mr. Lukis was appointed Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. State Department’s Cuban Haitian Task Force, where he was responsible for coordinating policy development and implementation among several federal, state and local governmental agencies in response to the mass immigration influx of Cubans into Miami from the Port of Mariel, Cuba.  Other appointments include Special Assistant to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, and prior to that, Special Assistant to the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In this capacity, he was primarily responsible for providing legal assistance to the agencies administering health, education and welfare programs at the federal level.  Mr. Lukis holds a law degree from New England School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Western New England College. He has been a member of the District of Columbia Bar since 1975.

Vicki Lopez Lukis – Partner

Vicki Lopez Lukis is a well-respected authority in criminal and juvenile justice issues with a focus on increasing public safety and reducing corrections costs.  She has spoken nationally and internationally numerous times to various organizations and stakeholders.  Her expertise includes prisoner reentry and girls in the juvenile justice system and she consults with local, state and national government officials, policymakers and stakeholders on these issues. She currently serves as a consultant to The Pew Charitable Trusts, specifically their Pew Center on the States Public Safety Performance Project, which helps states advance fiscally sound, data-driven sentencing and corrections policies that protect public safety, hold offenders accountable and control corrections costs. This consulting work is in partnership with Florida TaxWatch and its Center for Smart Justice.  She served as the vice chairman of the Florida Department of Corrections’ Reentry Advisory Council.  She also serves on the Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprises (PRIDE), Inc.’s Board of Directors. In 2005, she was appointed by Governor Jeb Bush as Chairman of the Governor’s Ex-Offender Task Force, which was funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.  She was a consultant to The Rockit Fund regarding employment restrictions for ex-offenders.  She is affiliated with the Florida Juvenile Justice Association through her work with the Girls Advocacy Project.  Ms. Lukis is a former Lee County Commissioner.  She is an alumna of Leadership Florida, Lee County and Miami.  She began her professional career in public accounting and expanded into investment banking before entering public service.  Ms. Lukis is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a major in Accounting.

Marta Orozco and Volunteer, Katya Sotomayor

Riverside House’s Dessert Nights is an ongoing initiative that began some years back and recently surfaced again in July 2010.  This fund raising event is designed to introduce Riverside House graduates to the community that supported them while they were in the program.  Additionally, the introductions serve to create long-term relationships between the graduates and the community.

With three events underway, all have collectively raised monetary donations as well as numerous in-kind donations such as clothing, household goods, and toiletries.  Many of those who attended the events also made commitments to volunteer with Riverside House as chaplains, clerical workers, heads of program activities, etc.

The next Dessert Night will be held Saturday, April 2, 2011 at 6PM at Riverside House.  For more information and/or if you are interested in hosting a future dessert night, please contact Marta Orozco at (305) 326-9799 x109.

Maria Alonso,Cleve Bell,Gene Schaefer,Thea Goldman

In October Mr. Cleveland Bell III, executive director of Riverside House, was awarded as a recipient of Bank of America’s 2010 Neighborhood Excellence Initiative Awards in the Local Hero category. The awards honored 13 individuals in four different categories. Recipients of the awards are individuals who improve Miami’s community and make the city a better place.

As noted by Brian Moynihan, CEO and President of Bank of America, in the event’s program, “At Bank of America, we combine our resources, expertise and partnerships to strengthen the communities we serve, acting as an economic engine to help set opportunity in motion. By investing in outstanding community leaders through our Neighborhood Excellence Initiative, we are helping make local communities better places to live, work and do business.”

Gene Schaefer,Octavia Kearney,Cleve Bell,Evelys Ubiera,Peggy Gaines

Congratulations on your accomplishments, Mr. Bell!

Join First United Methodist Church of Coral Gables, Florida as it hosts an exciting guest, Mike Slaughter and Discovery Fair event on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. Guest speaker, Mike Slaughter, will be speaking about ways to recapture Jesus’ mission to reach out to the world around us in God’s love.  Attendees will be encouraged to seek volunteerism opportunities from over 18 social service organizations represented, one being Riverside House!  For more information regarding the event’s details, please click here.

Mike Slaughter

Mike Slaughter, lead pastor at Ginghamsburg Church, is the three-decade dreamer of Ginghamsburg and the spiritual entrepreneur of ministry marketplace innovations. His life-long passion to reach the lost and set the oppressed free has now made him a tireless and leading advocate for the children, women and men of Darfur, Sudan, named by the U.N. as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. Mike’s call to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted will challenge attendees to wrestle with God and their God-destinies.

When Mike arrived at Ginghamsburg Church in 1979, worship attendance hovered at 90 with 118 members and an annual budget of $27,000. Now, 4000 attendees on average worship weekly at Ginghamsburg and the multi-million dollar budget helps resource a faith community committed to serving the poor, lost and disenfranchised.

“Rehabilitation with Dignity” was a dream of Roberto Perez, a lay preacher; Reverend O. Dean Martin, Pastor of the Riverside United Methodist Church; and Jack Sandstrom, Director of the Dade Community Correction and Rehabilitation Department. Together, they envisioned a halfway house that offered the means for those with a first-time offense the opportunity to rebuild their lives.

Cleveland Bell III

Cleveland Bell III became Executive Director of Riverside House in July of 1977. As a former ex-offender, Mr. Bell was no stranger to the feelings of frustration, anger, and rebellion often felt by those with similar backgrounds. Through the continuous outpouring of Mr. Bell’s personal life experiences with fellow men and women, and, the dedicated, hard work of staff and Board members, the ministry of Riverside House has reached thousands of ex-offenders through jail groups, out-client participation, prison outreach, and inner-city activities.

Today, Riverside House is a private, non-profit organization that has been successfully operating as a coed community residential reentry facility for over 35 years.

Mr. Cleveland Bell III

On Sunday, March 20, 2011, Mr. Cleveland Bell III, Executive Director of Riverside House will be presenting report information regarding the impact church member contributions have made  to the organization.  This will be a wonderful opportunity to hear about the endeavors set in motion through the generous giving of one of Riverside House’s long-standing donors, Central Presbyterian Church.  Come hear and support Mr. Bell as he speaks at 9 and 11 a.m. respectively.  For the event’s address,  please click here.

Riverside House, established in 1973, is a non-profit, faith based organization assisting ex-offenders to re-enter society successfully, and serving the Miami-Dade county community to reduce crime and make neighborhoods safer for the last 39 years.

Central Presbyterian Church was founded on May 15, 1927, as a mission project of First Presbyterian Church, Miami on Brickell Avenue.  The church is led by the Reverend Jonathan T. Swanson and its vision is to know God; grow in God; go with God.

If you are interested in hosting Mr. Bell as a guest speaker at your next business/fund raising event, business meeting, church service/event, please click here.

February 14, 2011

Coral Gables, FL – The 1997 conviction of former Lee County Commissioner Vicki Lukis was vacated in its entirety today by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Judge John E. Steele found that the trial court had acted without legal authority in Lukis’ prosecution under the so-called “honest services fraud” statute.

“This has been a long and painful journey, and I am relieved to finally restore honor and dignity to my good name, to my family and to my friends who always stood with me,” Lukis said.

The original prosecutor joined Lukis in seeking a writ of error coram nobis, an extremely rare legal proceeding which completely nullified Lukis’ conviction and completely clears her record of the conviction.

“Mrs. Lukis has been completely acquitted of all charges that she accepted monetary or other benefits for decisions she made in her official capacity as a county commissioner,” said Thomas Green, her defense attorney.

The U. S. Supreme Court recently ruled in an unrelated case that honest services fraud applies only in cases where bribery or kickbacks are involved, confirming Lukis’ long-argued interpretation. That ruling, in turn, prompted the District Court in Fort Myers to review Lukis’ case, and to conclude that her actions were not a crime under the law and that she was wrongfully accused and convicted for a non-existent crime.

Lukis, then Vicki Lopez Wolfe, was elected to the Lee County Commission in November 1990. During her tenure, she dated Sylvester Lukis, a prominent lobbyist based in Washington, DC, who represented clients before the county board. The commissioner resigned from office in January 1993, and the two wed in August 1994. In March 1995, Vicki and Sylvester Lukis each was charged with one count of honest services mail fraud, one count of bribery and eight counts of using a facility in interstate commerce to commit bribery.

Following a two-week trial in April 1997, jurors cleared Sylvester Lukis of all counts and found Vicki Lukis not guilty of all counts except one: honest services mail fraud. In post-trial interviews, several jurors stated their belief that Vicki Lukis had lied about her relationship with Sylvester Lukis, as the prosecution had argued. Sentenced to 27 months in federal prison, the ex-commissioner served more than 15 months before then-President Clinton commuted her sentence in November 2000.

“Mrs. Lukis’ conviction and her subsequent time in federal prison is the most unfortunate and unfair outcome I have ever experienced in my 44 years of criminal defense work throughout the United States,” said Green, of the Sidley Austin law firm. “Mrs. Lukis was wrongly accused of honest services fraud because she attempted to keep private her personal relationship with a man who later became her husband, but her denials had nothing to do with her official duties. They only had to do with her desire to keep the press away from her personal life.”

Following her release from prison in Central Florida, Lukis returned to her home in Coral Gables and dedicated herself to criminal justice reform. She serves as the vice chairman of the Florida Department of Corrections’ Reentry Advisory Council and is a board member of Florida’s Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprises (PRIDE). She also served as the chairman of then-Governor Jeb Bush’s Ex-Offender Task Force and is the former executive director of Miami-based Girls Advocacy Project (GAP), Inc.

“I am very pleased with the court’s decision today and feel totally vindicated,” Lukis said. “I am grateful to the government for joining me in seeking this deserved relief. It has been a long and winding road to justice, but one that provided the catalyst for the important reform work in which I am engaged.

“It is my fervent hope that the renewed interest in my criminal case because of today’s decision will result in greater attention to the important reform efforts for which I and so many other dedicated volunteers advocate,” Lukis added.

In December 2004, Governor Bush and the Florida Cabinet restored Lukis’ civil rights. Since then, she has emerged as a well-respected authority regarding criminal and juvenile justice issues, with a focus on enhancing public safety and reducing corrections costs. Her expertise includes prisoner reentry and the needs of girls in the juvenile justice system. Lukis consults with local, state and national government officials, policymakers and stakeholders concerned about prisoner rights.

#   30   #

Vicki and Sylvester Lukis live in Coral Gables. She can be contacted at (305) 216-7794 or at vickilukis@mac.com.

The following documents can be found at http://www.mediafire.com/?ukdbgtcyjnoac.

1. Petition for Writ of Error Coram Nobis and Memorandum of Law for Support Thereof  and  Appendices

2. Government Response to Petition for Write of Error Coram Nobis

3. U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida Opinion and Order

4. Vicki Lopez Lukis biography