(PresidentialWire.com)- After swimming in the surf with his teenage son close to their coastal house, a defense attorney from Georgia and legal contributor for CNN drowned.
Page Pate, 55, passed away on Sunday afternoon after being pulled out into a rip current off the coast of St. Simons Island, Georgia.
The trial attorney, who spent more than 25 years in practice and was also a well-known TV legal pundit, split his time between offices in Atlanta and Brunswick on the coast.
At the time of his passing, he was visiting his wife Elizabeth, two sons, and their $1 million beachfront property.
Just after 2 PM, emergency personnel was summoned to two swimmers at Gould’s Inlet beach who was “in danger.” Acting Glynn County Fire-Rescue Chief Vinnie DiCristofalo confirmed that Pate and his adolescent son were the two swimmers.
While the water rescue squad was en route to the scene, he said that the “adolescent victim reached the shore unharmed.” Pate was rescued from the sea and sent to the hospital, where he was later declared dead.
He leaves behind his 53-year-old wife Elizabeth and his two boys, Chatham and Asher.
Which of his boys encountered issues while swimming with Pate is unknown.
The head of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Jason Sheffield, described Pate as “a larger-than-life guy and attorney.”
A social media post honoring the attorney was made by state senator Jen Jordan, an Atlanta Democrat running this year for attorney general of Georgia.
“Devastated to hear that my friend Pate Page passed away this weekend,” she said. We had been close friends for 30 years and shared a Georgian hometown. He was smart, considerate, and professional and could cross-examine a witness like nobody’s business—what a loss for his loved ones and his family.
Additionally, Pate was a founding member of the Georgia Innocence Project, which expressed its “heartbreak” over his passing.
In a statement, they stated that Page was a visionary founding member of the Georgia Innocence Project twenty years ago. He was a tireless fighter for the criminally accused and unfairly convicted.
Over the years, he stayed involved with our organization, providing case consultation, media strategy guidance, and public awareness-building regarding erroneous convictions and GIP’s activities.
The New York Times, CNN, NPR, and The Associated Press were among the media outlets to which Pate routinely contributed professional commentary and analysis on legal matters.
