John Jefferson
Salvatore Strazzullo, a New York City attorney best known for a string of salacious cases that caused local papers to nickname him the “Night-Life Lawyer,” was found dead in his car early Saturday in Brooklyn, according to police.
The 52-year-old Manhattan resident had more recently been facing a number of legal battles after allegedly bilking his own clients for millions, using the money for his own debts and luxurious lifestyle, according to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
Police found him unresponsive and unconscious in his car around 3:30 a.m. Saturday, parked near the intersection of 16th and Cropsey Avenues, an NYPD spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
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Medics pronounced him dead at the scene, but there were no immediate signs of criminality, police said. The investigation is ongoing.
The New York Times dubbed Strazzullo the Big Apple’s “Night-Life Lawyer” in a 2012 profile, outlining some of his “after-midnight” cases in the City that Never Sleeps, reporting that he’d been a nightclub manager in the 1990s before becoming a lawyer.
Over the years he represented strippers, nightclub workers and celebrities involved in mischief after dark, including a former fling of the boxer Oscar De La Hoya, who claimed she had pictures of him wearing women’s lingerie.
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Milana Dravnel, a former exotic dancer, sued De La Hoya for $100 million in 2007. Fox News reported at the time that one of the images showed the boxing legend wearing a black fishnet bodysuit and black heels. In another, he was said to be wearing a “white tutu.”
De La Hoya claimed the photos had been doctored.
According to the New York Post, the legal battle between the two surfaced allegations that the former champion known as boxing’s “Golden Boy” liked to be called “Goldie” while dressing in women’s undergarments. The parties eventually settled out of court, and both discussed the incident in an HBO documentary, “The Golden Boy,” years later.
Strazzullo’s firm’s website was down Tuesday. The Brooklyn native had an office in Bensonhurst, according to Gonzalez.
A spokesperson for the Brooklyn DA’s office declined to comment on Strazzullo’s demise Tuesday, pointing to past press releases about the allegations against him instead.
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The late lawyer was due back in a Brooklyn criminal court later this month on two separate cases involving felony charges of grand larceny and fraud in an alleged multimillion-dollar scheme that funded fancy cars, a luxe apartment in Battery Park City, fancy meals and custom suits, according to prosecutors.
He had pleaded not guilty.
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