Brandon Dinetz proposed to Jennifer Lettman, who was in the courtroom gallery, under the pretense of opening statements

A love of the law has translated into a lifelong love for two Florida attorneys, with the world watching. A video of Brandon Dinetz proposing to Jennifer Lettman, both of Palm Beach county,has captured the hearts of internet viewers. In it, Lettman sat in the gallery of a courtroom under the pretense of watching Dinetz’s opening statements for a DUI case. In the video, the jury of her peers (that is, her family and friends) enters, and Dinetz begins to give an opening statement as Lettman starts to cry, suspecting the plot of the trial is a bit more personal than professional.

“I heard noises behind me of her starting to freak out,” Dinetz said in a phone interview about the special moment. “She started to cry; it was a laugh-cry and then it was all crying. Then she saw all of her friends and colleagues and she knew exactly what was happening at that point. Her reaction was priceless.”

When Dinetz finally asked the big question, Lettman gave an enthusiastic yes – at which point the judge banged his gavel and “sentenced” them to life.

The pair met in 2016 as assistant state attorneys in the Palm Beach county offices. Lettman now practices at a private firm, but the two still occasionally watch each other present cases and ask each other for feedback on their performances.

“The courtroom idea was first thing I thought of doing [for a proposal],” Dinetz says. “It’s not weird for me to say: ‘Hey, come watch part of my trial and check out what I’m doing in court.’ The fact that we both met in this job and we both are attorneys, I thought there was some symbolism behind that. It was more meaningful that we could incorporate our careers into it.”

For five months, the prosecutor planned the proposal, creating a unique ring, coordinating family and friends and even asking a judge and criminal defense attorney to volunteer to make the ruse more convincing.

Video of the proposal, which took place on 7 February, went viral. “The next thing I know is we’re getting texts from friends and family that all of these different sites had it and we were like: ‘Well, this is pretty cool.’”

Dinetz says he didn’t expect the online reaction. Despite the attention, the prosecutor said the video going viral was not at all his primary focus. “It’s cool that it’s getting attention but to me, the proposal itself is what’s most important … I am going to be married to Jen. That’s really what matters to me.”

But he does want everyone to know just one thing: “Not a single taxpayer dollar was spent in the making.”