The government has dropped all conspiracy and money-laundering charges against Miami defense attorney Benedict Kuehne.

Kuehne was indicted two years ago for writing letters to another attorney, Roy Black, saying Black’s fees from a convicted Colombian drug trafficker were clean money. The government alleges Kuehne knew the money was dirty.

But the U.S. Department of Justice entered an order Wednesday dismissing the case.

The order refers to the fact that count one of the third amended indictment had been dismissed already.

Kuehne enjoyed support from much of the legal community during his legal fight. In a prepared statement Wednesday, he thanked the DOJ for withdrawing the case.

“I want to, once again, thank the many members of our community who have, over the past two years, so consistently expressed their confidence in my innocence,” Kuehne said in the press release.

Kuehne originally was charged with money-laundering conspiracy and concealment in connection with the legal defense of convicted Colombian drug trafficker Fabio Ochoa Vasquez.

In December 2002, Ochoa Vasquez’ s criminal defense team hired Kuehne to conduct an independent investigation into the source of funds used to pay for millions of dollars in legal fees. Kuehne wrote six letters to the defense team and Black, saying he had conducted a thorough investigation. But the government charges that Kuehne “knew that the funds used by Vasquez Ochoa consisted of, or at least were commingled with, proceeds of drug trafficking.”

Click here to read the dismissal order.

Chicago, IL. Nov. 13 –Chicago oolice officer Richard Fiorito is now facing 37 lawsuits alleging he intentionally targeted gay and lesbian drivers to issue false DUI arrests.

The lawsuits claim Fiorito was looking to capitalize on overtime pay issued to police officers when they appear in court to testify in a DUI case. Fiorito made 313 DUI arrests between January of 2007 and June of 2008; the officer was even honored by MADD for his efforts. Most of these arrests were against gay and lesbian suspects. He supposedly targeted these individuals when they left gay and lesbian bars or frequented gay and lesbian areas.

New dash cam evidence is pointing to the fact these arrest reports may have been exaggerated if not totally falsified…

Fiorito has been placed on desk duty since the charges were first issued in early October. 16 more plaintiffs recently joined the case with the original 21, leading the total to 37 lawsuits against the officer. All testimony from Fiorito in any of these pending DUI cases will be on hold until internal investigations from the Cook County State Attorney’s Office and Independent Police Review Authority are complete.

Fiorito is not the only Chicago officer accused of these types of arrests in the previous few years. Officer John Haleas was suspected to be guilty of perjury last year, having about 50 cases dismissed, but was exonerated of criminal charges.