Paul G. Cleary

Aug. 6, 1950 - May 5, 2020

Paul G. Cleary, a feisty defense attorney who handled many high-profile cases, collapsed and died in Amherst during a Tuesday shopping trip with his wife.

Cleary, whose many clients included the infamous Niagara Falls killer William Shrubsall, was 69.

"He was a big Irishman, with a big Irish heart and a big laugh," said one longtime friend, former Erie County Judge Thomas P. Franczyk. "He was a big softy underneath it all, but he was a very tough lawyer in the courtroom."

A Clarence resident, Cleary died of cardiac arrest, said the former Ann Rees, his wife since 1983.

"He felt so cooped up at home. I told him, 'Let's go for a ride, go to some stores,'" Ann Cleary said. "He was standing outside a store in the Sheridan-Harlem plaza, and I saw him just slowly drop to the ground. He was gone."

She said her husband had been in failing health in recent years and had quit practicing law about two years ago.

While he was known for defending some high-profile clients, Cleary "fought tooth and nail for every client, whether it was a murder case or a misdemeanor DWI," recalled a close friend, attorney Michael J. Poretta.

Cleary was especially proud of his work on a 1983 homicide case in Allegany County. Leslie Ann Emick, 22, was charged with killing her common law husband, Marshall Allison, in the trailer they shared with their two young children in the Town of Cuba.

Emick admitted that she killed Allison with a shotgun, but she told police the slaying followed more than three years of beatings, torture and death threats. Cleary and his law partner and cousin, the late Thomas P. Cleary, defended her.

Emick was in fear for her life and felt there was no other way out, the Clearys argued.

"It was one of the first cases in this state, if not the first, in which the 'battered spouse' defense was used," Franczyk said. "The case was covered by the New York Times and many other media."

Emick was convicted of first-degree manslaughter and sentenced to two to six years in prison, but an appeals court overturned the conviction, ordering a new trial. She pleaded guilty in 1985 to second-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to probation.

"Many other defense attorneys have since used that defense," said Franczyk, who is now the director of continuing legal education for the Erie County Assigned Counsel Program.

To his dismay, Cleary was probably best-known as the defender of Shrubsall, a brilliant teenager from Niagara Falls who beat his mother to death with a baseball bat in 1988. After serving just 16 months in prison for the slaying, Shrubsall faked his suicide in 1996 and fled to Canada, where he changed his name and sexually assaulted several women before Canadian police arrested him in 1998.

After serving a prison term in Canada, he was returned to Niagara County last year. He is now serving a seven-year state prison term for another sexual attack.

"Paul worked very hard for Shrubsall, trying to help this young man get his life back," Cleary's widow said this week. "Ultimately, he was very disgusted and disappointed with Shrubsall."

Raised in Niagara Falls, Cleary graduated from the old Bishop Duffy High School, where he excelled on the football team. He received an undergraduate degree from the University at Buffalo before going to Creighton University Law School in Nebraska, where he earned his law degree in 1976.

Poretta and Franczyk recalled Cleary's undying love for rock music. He had the punk rock song "I Want To Be Sedated" as his cellphone ring tone and was a huge fan of Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger and Jimmy Buffett.

Cleary also enjoyed golf and was proud to tell friends that he and his wife attended the 1997 British Open in Troon, Scotland. He also loved rooting for the Buffalo Bisons with his friends.

But his real passion was the law.

Ann Cleary recalled her husband making a scene in the early 1980s while watching a Paul Newman courtroom drama, "The Verdict," in a Buffalo movie theater.

"Paul got mad at something the judge was saying to the defense attorney, and he yelled out 'You can't do that!' so loud that everyone in the theater heard him," Ann Cleary remembered with a laugh. "I said, 'No more movies like that for you.' "

He is also survived by a sister, Kathy, and a brother, Mark.