BY DAVID KIDWELL

 U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore is viewed by South Florida lawyers as a
 low-key jurist who is solid on the law, rules with little fanfare, and seldom says
 much from the bench.

 Sometimes, they say, he's too quiet.

 The only really controversial decision he has made in his eight years on the
 bench came in his rookie year when he opted to preside over the trials of 23
 criminal defendants without disclosing that he himself was under the cloud of a
 federal investigation.

 While he directed the U.S. Marshals Service in 1990, Moore took Broadway
 tickets, limo rides and charter yacht cruises from a friend who was partner in a
 firm that contracted with his agency. The FBI later cleared him in the bribery and
 bid rigging probe.

 That came as little consolation to the lawyers of 23 defendants convicted in
 Moore's courtroom in the 10 months before the investigation was made public.
 They argued that Moore -- a career federal prosecutor before taking the Marshals
 Service job -- may have unfairly ruled with prosecutors in hopes it would affect his
 case.

 ``Judge Moore consistently ruled against defendants,'' the attorneys wrote in an
 appeal.

 Moore argued he didn't disclose the FBI investigation because he was told he was
 its ``subject'' and not its ``target.'' Moore recused himself from criminal cases after
 the investigation became public.

 After four years of legal warfare, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the
 convictions.

 Moore, 48, is a Florida State University graduate with a 1976 law degree from
 Fordham University. He became a federal prosecutor in South Florida the same
 year. He was appointed U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Florida by former
 President Ronald Reagan in 1987.

 He became director of the U.S. Marshals Service in 1989, where he remained
 until his appointment to the bench in 1992.

 Moore sent infamous Opa-locka drug lord Rickey Brownlee to prison for life and
 refused to delay the money laundering trial of his co-defendant -- Dolphins wide
 receiver Tony Martin -- in favor of the 1999 football schedule. Martin was
 acquitted.

 He also sentenced former Miami City Manager Cesar Odio to one year in prison
 for trying to block an FBI investigation of corruption at City Hall.

 Some of Moore's rulings belie his perception as a pro-government conservative.
 Some decisions of note include:

 Ruling that Haitian refugees deserve to consult lawyers as soon as possible after
 they hit American soil.

 Sentencing of former U.S. Public Defender James Gailey to the most lenient
 punishment allowable -- six months of house arrest -- after Gailey was convicted
 of accepting some $372,200 in outside referral fees while he was in office.

 Urging a compromise that lifted the oppressive post-Hurricane Andrew curfew in
 South Miami-Dade.

 Ordering Miami to delay the evictions of some 100 poor tenants of an Overtown
 apartment complex who faced homelessness because the city said their building
 was a den of drugs and prostitution.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald