Richard Egbert, right, leaves federal court in Providence with Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. in July 2002, a few days after Cianci’s conviction.

Journal files / SANDOR BODO

Richard M. Egbert, one of the country’s best criminal defense lawyers who, over a law career spanning 36 years, represented some of the most notorious offenders to stand trial in Rhode Island and Boston courtrooms, died suddenly Thursday while on vacation with his family in upstate New York.

His law associate, Patricia DeJuneas, said yesterday that Egbert, 61, collapsed while on a motorboat in the Adirondacks, where he was vacationing with his wife, Shannon McAuliffe, his three children from two previous marriages and three grandchildren.

The cause of death was a heart attack, said Boston lawyer Joseph J. Balliro Sr., Egbert’s close friend. Balliro said that Egbert, his wife and daughters were out waterskiing. “His wife was in the water preparing to ski. He was in the boat and got up and sat down and laid back and that was it. He didn’t say a word and he was gone.”

Balliro said the doctor who performed Egbert’s autopsy said that “his right ventricle was almost completely calcified” but that the problem would not have been detected through normal stress tests. “They wouldn’t have discovered it without invasive surgery,” Balliro said he was told.

Egbert, who defended many notorious Rhode Island criminals, had been a heavy smoker for years but had quit recently. “He was the picture of health. He ate well and worked out almost every day,” DeJuneas said. For years, the diminutive lawyer who was best known for his scathing cross-examinations, started every day throwing punches. He told a reporter that hitting the punching bag he kept in his home workout room was a great form of exercise and got him juiced up for his courtroom battles.

Two days before his death, Egbert and his wife, who is also a Massachusetts criminal defense attorney, biked 10 miles in hilly terrain. “Although she’s 20 years younger than him, he kept up with her,” said Balliro. “He felt that, recently, he was in the best shape of his life.”

Egbert, who was elected in 2003 to the prestigious International Academy of Trial Lawyers, represented criminal defendants ranging from violent mobsters to political powerbrokers accused of being corrupt. In his first big trial in Rhode Island, he represented a man charged in a murder-for-hire ring. His later client list included former Providence Mayor Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci Jr., former Rhode Island Gov. Edward D. DiPrete, former Massachusetts House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran and the late former North Providence Mayor Salvatore Mancini. He also represented the late Rhode Island Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph Bevilacqua in a 1986 House impeachment inquiry. Other Rhode Island clients included former Roger Williams Medical Center president Robert Urciuoli, mobsters Frank “Bobo” Marrapese and Gerard Ouimette and Michael Derderian, the co-owner of The Station nightclub, where 100 people died in a 2003 fire.

DiPrete, who called Egbert “tough as nails,” was saddened yesterday when informed of Egbert’s death. “He was a top professional,” said the former governor, who as a result of a plea bargain in his corruption case, served a one-year prison sentence.

C. Leonard O’Brien, who worked with Egbert on several cases in Rhode Island, including the Operation Plunder Dome trial (O’Brien represented Cianci’s top aide Frank E. Corrente) said Egbert’s strengths were as a cross-examiner. “He was extraordinary in evaluating cases and determining where their weaknesses were and exploiting them.”

Balliro said that Egbert garnered respect not just from fellow criminal defense lawyers but from judges and prosecutors, too. “He was a superstar as far as a trial lawyer was concerned. If you wanted to be a good lawyer, you came to court and watched Richie Egbert work.”

“But I don’t think of him in that way,” said Balliro, himself a renowned Massachusetts criminal defense lawyer who was successfully defended by Egbert 18 years ago in a case in which he was accused of helping a fugitive and reputed mobster evade federal income taxes. “To me, his loyalty as a friend was his finest characteristic. He adored criminal defense lawyers. He was a past president of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and part of their Strike Force, so if a lawyer got in trouble, Richie would drop everything and go out and help them. He represented a number of lawyers who had one problem or another.”

One of the many he represented was Rhode Island criminal defense attorney John M. Cicilline –– the older brother of Providence Mayor David M. Cicilline. John M. Cicilline is facing 18 months in federal prison for shaking down a drug-dealing couple for $150,000. Cicilline, who is still practicing law pending his Sept. 18 sentencing, said as he walked out of the Licht Judicial Complex yesterday that it was reassuring to have Egbert representing you. Egbert, he said, left no stone unturned and was a relentless fighter for his clients.

“As a defendant, it was always comforting to be with him,” said Cicilline, whose case ended with a negotiated plea bargain. “He always had your back. You could be walking to the electric chair and you felt comfortable.”

McAuliffe, Egbert’s wife, said that when he wasn’t on stage in a courtroom, he had a different persona. “He was the gentlest, kindest, most loving, positive, encouraging person … He always wanted to see the good in people, to give people the benefit of the doubt.”

The funeral is scheduled for noon on Monday at Temple Beth Am in Randolph, Mass. Burial will be at Sharon Memorial Park.

With reports from W. Zachary Malinowski, M. Charles Bakst and projo.com reporter Brandie Jefferson

tbreton@projo.com