Steven Louis Devito

I was charged with a DUI in Amityville when I was going to school in Nassau county. I was appointed representation, as I was only a student and working part-time, and couldn't afford a private attorney. I knew the charge I was facing was very serious, and I knew that I was taking a risk using a pub...lic defender, but neither I nor my parents could afford a private attorney. Mr. Devito fought for me TOOTH. AND. NAIL. The entire process took almost two years, because he simply would not give up on me, and would not stop fighting on my behalf with the DA's office. Finally, after driving over 5 hours every other month (I transferred to a school closer to home after this incident), he was able to get the district attorney to agree to a reduction on the charge. The DA initially had said "no way" several times, so he went AROUND THEM, and made a case directly to the DA supervisor. He pushed for over a year with the DA's office. He left no stone unturned - he had me get letters from employers and professors regarding my character, he had me send my academic transcript from the semester in which I was charged to the DA office, the whole works. I've heard time and time again that public defenders will always just advise that you plea, but Mr. Devito didn't do that. He did absolutely everything he could possibly do for me. Perhaps most importantly, I felt like he genuinely cared about me and the disaster I was going through. He was extremely transparent about what our options were in contesting the charge, and he seemed so genuinely invested in helping me through this. This case went on for a long time, and after a few meetings he gave me his working email to make correspondence easier (I can't guarantee he'll do this for you though; this came only after a few court sessions, and after he'd determined that I wasn't some delinquent with a long history of breaking the law). After one particular court session, he was with me in the elevator ride down to the parking lot, and after reviewing with me what his game plan was, he said "you're a young man. I don't want you to have this on your record." If I'd been assigned another attorney that wasn't prepared to fight as hard for me as Mr. Devito did, I could very well be in a very different place today. I was studying to be a music educator, and having a criminal record would have made continuing with that path effectively impossible. I'm don't know if I'll ever truly be able to pay him back - he quite literally single-handedly saved my future and kept my life from being ruined. Public defenders like this are egregiously underpaid and overworked. I really lucked out in having this attorney assigned to my case. Mr. Devito was an absolute saint.