Prominent American Lawyer Murdered Abroad In Kidnapping Attempt Gone Bad

It’ll be terrible if this lawyer's death becomes another one of Venezuela’s unsolved murders.

When Americans think of Venezuela, the first thing that comes to mind for the vast majority of them is the rampant crime that has plagued the country for decades. Venezuela may have the second-highest homicide rate in the world — in fact, 90 percent of all murder cases usually go unsolved — but for others, it seems like a great place to call home and set down permanent roots as an expatriate.

John Ralston Pate, a lawyer who was educated at Brown University and Boston University Law, saw the country for what it was beneath the layers of filth that had accumulated since even before Hugo Chavez’s reign: “a great place” that he considered to be “the land of opportunity.” Pate left the U.S. in the 1970s and settled in Caracas, where he was a founding partner at De Sola Pate & Brown. At the firm, he specialized in representing global companies doing business in Venezuela. After hours, he built up a “once-thriving expat community,” and was active in local schools and industry groups. His family was always worried, but Pate had created a happy life for himself in the crime-ridden country.

Pate was described by friends and colleagues as a “prominent” lawyer with a “calm, patrician demeanor.” For all of its faults, he was truly in love with his new home country.

Things continued to get worse in Venezuela, and in 2007, Pate said he was considering returning to the U.S. He never did, but perhaps he should have, because headlines this week have centered on Pate’s brutal murder. Here’s information from Fox News Latino:

[Venezuela’s] public prosecutor said 70-year-old John R. Pate was found dead in his apartment Sunday night in a well to do eastern Caracas neighborhood. His girlfriend, 67-year-old Sally Elizabeth Evan Oquendo, was found injured.

Local media are reporting that the two were attacked during a kidnapping gone wrong. The victims were reportedly stabbed by two or three men who forced their way into the the home, Venezuelaaldia said.

The criminals reportedly entered his apartment with the intent to kidnap him, but instead killed him with multiple stab wounds.

Police say that although the common areas of the building are difficult to access, Pate’s assailants entered his apartment through a bathroom window. The apartment had a video surveillance system, but the recording device had apparently been stolen.

Pate is survived by Thomas Pate, an associate at White & Case, who said of his father, “He was happy in Venezuela despite everything, and he enjoyed it until the last minute.”

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We here at Above the Law would like to extend our condolences and sympathies to John Ralson Pate’s family, friends, and colleagues. It’ll be terrible if his death becomes yet another one of Venezuela’s many unsolved murders.

American lawyer found murdered in Caracas home and his girlfriend injured after botched kidnapping attempt [Daily Mail]
American lawyer slain, companion wounded in Caracas home [USA Today]
Venezuela: U.S. Lawyer Is Killed [New York Times]

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