Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty Images, Reuters and @markeiglarsh/Instagram
As Broward County Assistant State Attorney Steven Klinger made his way from the prosecution table last week to start his opening statement to a packed courtroom, his opponent suddenly grabbed him by the forearm.
Mark Eiglarsh, the defense attorney for Scot Peterson—a former career law enforcement officer on trial for allegedly failing to confront the teenage gunman at the 2018 Parkland school shooting—got very close to Klinger to utter a few surprising words.
“I said, ‘Take a deep breath, you’ve got this. You’re going to do a great job. Don’t worry. Don’t you fear,’” Eiglarsh told The Daily Beast, explaining that he stopped his legal opponent because Klinger “was stressed out.”