JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG

WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RICHARD E GERSTEIN JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO JUSTICE BUILDING RUMOR, HUMOR, AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT AND BETWEEN THE JUDGES, LAWYERS AND THE DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, CLERKS, COURT REPORTERS, AND CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS WHO LABOR IN THE WORLD OF MIAMI'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE. POST YOUR COMMENTS, OR SEND RUMPOLE A PRIVATE EMAIL AT HOWARDROARK21@GMAIL.COM. Winner of the prestigious Cushing Left Anterior Descending Artery Award.

Sunday, December 18, 2005

CANT PLEASE EVERYONE

We’ve lost a reader. It saddens us. We like readers. We need readers and contributors for this blog to lead a purposeful life.

Anonymous complains:


Rumpy: You should be ashamed. You claim to be promoting some type of thoughtful discussion regarding people and events around the Justice Building. The fact is, your blog has turned into a vehicle for the sore losers who backed the "Gabe" campaign and wish to circulate the same specious garbage that they used and failed to sway the electorate with. They lost because the public (but not Rumpole) is able to determine that an item is BS when they hear it. You guys LOST THE ELECTION. Get over it already. I'm a former PD who worked for several years in the office. It's irrelevant whether you like BHB. Whether you like him or not, you have to respect his body of work. He has given more than 30 years of his life to public service and has worked to establish a PD's Office that has a national reputation for excellence. That didn't happen by itself. Somebody has to establish the policies and get the money to make that happen. Do you think that their opponents across the street have the same high quality rep? More importantly, it was the absolute height of arrogance and ego mania for Martin and his supporters to have thought that a 4-year lawyer who tried a few second and third degree felonies could manage an office with 400 employees and a multi-million dollar budget without any previous tangible management experience. I'm sure that they don't know what the PDO funding formula is, and I'm certain that some of them can't spell it. Rumpy, does experience count? The voters figured it did.Lastly, I thought you were a criminal defense lawyer? Most of us presume the charged to be innocent and wait for matters to get a full hearing before coming to conclusions. Most everything that the "Gabers" have alleged has turned out to be BS. The Koch thing will likely be another. Keep it up. Your blog makes the National Enquirer look like the NY Times. This is my first and last post. There has to be better things to do with our time. Have fun.


Rumpole Replies: Maybe you don’t get it. We do not have any agenda other than promoting a thoughtful discussion of the REGJB, the events, and the people and colorful characters who inhabit it.

If we used this forum to prostylize our personal beliefs without allowing other thoughts, the blog would turn into a little read, boring ego trip. (Wow, that’s a phrase from the 60’s you don’t see much these days).

Of course we have an opinion. So do others. All are welcome, and we will moderate the discussion.

One thing is for sure. We are surprised of the course and turn of events. The PD’s this week have taken over from Bobby Reiff and his band of admirers and detractors. If we were to have taken bets, we would have thought the assistant state attorneys would have been more active. From our (admittedly limited) perspective the prosecutors are the ones usually complaining about morale, lack of authority, inability to do very much without obtaining a string of permissions from a congo line of chiefs and supervisors.

Instead the contributors were PDs. So be it. We will not censor a post because we don’t like it. Your post has points that were well made. We don’t like everything you say, but we have no problem printing it. We have been called worse (just ask any Judge or former client)

By the way, have you actually read what we have written about Mr. Brummer? We have consistently said he must be doing something right because he runs what appears from the outside to be a good office with very committed public service attorneys. This is not a “Bash Bennett” site by any means. He put himself in a bit of a sticky wicket and we took the time to comment on it, and things took off from there.

Finally, you are invited to stay. Want to change the subject? How about our posts on the death penalty, or wrongful convictions based on junk eyewitness identifications and sloppy detective work? How about the posts on prosecutors who try and intimidate judges, or the issue of sentencing? Those are topics we are personally interested in and have had little response to. Create a post on a legal issue or a Judge who has acted up in court or the issue of the upcoming judicial races and we will cast it upon the waters of public opinion and see if you get a bite.

President Bush just took the Fourth Amendment and snapped it over his knee like a cheap flimsly twig. Anyone care about that? Are his actions in the best traditions of Lincoln (suspension of habeus corpus) or Nixon (and the enemies list)?

Join us in thoughful and fun discussion of the topics of the day, or you can just be cranky, complain, and criticize. Of course we get enough of that at home and we don’t really like it here (just kidding to our significant other who may peruse this at some latter time. )

PS: See the next post- the commenter called you a liar.


Anonymous quips:

I'll bet that is not his last post

Rumpole replies: Mr. Brummer posts more often then even he would admit. (It’s a joke. Calm down. We CANNNOT tell who posts anonymously).

People are reading this according to our site meter:

Total
1,924
Average Per Day
122
Average Visit Length
4:40
This Week
854


On the Chavez case and the PD’s office, Anonymous writes:

Andrew Stanton(a.p.d.), is one of the best criminal appeals lawyers in miami. he sat through the chavez case in order preserve the record. after chavez was convicted, the case was taken from stanton and farmed out to some private atty with $ from the pd budget. 30k to be exact. if you see andy, ask him if he in fact ghost wrote the appeal after he read the first draft which was garbage. brummer for life....


Rumpole Replies: The foregoing was a paid political advertisement for “Andrew Stanton” – best appeals lawyer in Miami. Punch 676 on November 5, 2006 for Andrew Stanton- Best Appeals Lawyer.

Anonymous complains:
Enough with bhb. BHB, Stein and Warren Schwartz writing the pd equivalent of "allah u akbar" are getting BORING.Go back to talking about the bench

Rumpole replies:

OK lets move on. Things are beginning to heat up on the judicial election front. Rumors are flying about who’s going to get opposition. Lets see some posts. Who doesn't have opposition but deserves it???

Anonymous writes:

i thought it was only nancy grace who bragged about her perfect trial record. bobby you should get your own t.v. show.


Rumpole replies: Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water….(jaws music) …a Bobby Reiff shot appears.

Folks, Mr. Reiff has never said in our presence, and certainly has never written or implied on these pages that he never lost a case. He is a very successful criminal defense attorney and we do not understand why people are taking shots at him. Personally, if you knew us, we have a much bigger ego than Mr. Reiff. (Bobby, the check cleared Friday, thanks).




8 comments:

Anonymous said...

2006 judicial races handicapping

Langer-- Word on the street is that every criminal defense attorneys worst nightmare/former state attorney candidate Al Milian is putting in for this seat. Poor Langer is one of vics of jewish male judge syndrome in which Dade will no longer be called the 11th JEWDICIAL circuit as it was called for so many years by the fine jurists north of palm beach. Poor Langer has also been in Juvenile not exactly the best place from which to obtain contributions. Milian wins this in a rout although It will be interesting to see if PBA is still going to be behind him. Milian is also a twice tested battle veteran of campaigns and like him or hate him is a very good speaker and will make an impressive candidate with his former ASA creds.
Schwartz V Mendez-- Fascinating race. A well financed campaign, Schwartz, VS a great name. This is not to say Ms Mendez isnt qualified as She was a prosecutor and has been a sucessful criminal defense/Family law attorney for many years. She is also battle tested having gone through the race once before. This will be an interesting test to see if a mega financed Jewish male can beat a Hispanic female. Last year Jeff Swartz lost to AdA Pozo- Revilla But in that race there was no huge financial disparity.If Mendez pulls off this upset, look for sales of antacids to spike amongst the Jewish male judges up in 2008. Schwartz Bar poll ratings may be his undoing. Too close to call, if this was a football game it would be pickem.
Judge Glazer-- kind of surprised that she hasnt drawn any opposition in 2006. Bar poll ratings not so good. Like Langer has spent so much time in Juvie hasn't gotten the chance to pad the campaign coffers.

Please no mas on the Brummer wars they are a bore.

Anonymous said...

Instead of no mas on Brummy - how about this as a new topic -

Although public perception (or at least my pd clients' perception)
is that private attorneys on average do a better job than us -

Do private attorneys handling court-appointed cases do as effective a job on the cases as
the public defenders office?

I will admit this is a vague question and there are many factors which I will leave for later discussions if anyone actually wants to address the issue.

My answer is simply - HELL NO.
For the most part, if I was an indigent client, I would want an
actual PD and not a PCAC.

We've all seen it - PCAC do not want to go to trial. PCAC want to get a quick plea agreement. PCAC want the quick money of a few court appointments, but want to concentrate on there privately retained cases. PCAC will only prepare the case for trial once
the Judge gets on there case a
little.

Any takers on this indigent defense issue?

Anonymous said...

anonymous said - most everything the gabers said has turned out to be false.

Yeah I guess that's 200K worth of BS right?

Anonymous said...

Can you imagine a reality show of Bobby Reiff? Might make Trump look interesting.

trial setting one-- ask for defense continuance first time up.
day two- second continuance. this time get judge to charge it to state for failing to provide you with a piece of paper that you have in ten other cases. Make sure to invoke Brady to scare the witless ASA's who labor in County court.
Day 3-- Whine about mainteance docs. Get another continuance.
day 4 state is ready. Uh oh ask for a continuace to list witnesses you could have listed first time up. Keep Swope/Rose around if State is ever ready again.
Day five-- move for depos on case. Whine about how "complicated" this dui is eventhough it is the same aform davenport has written for fifteen years.
trial setting 7-11-- keep asking for contiunances because officers dont show up.
trial setting 12- state ready list swope get another conntiuance.
Trial setting 12- state not ready. Yipee thunder about how this case should be dismissed. case nol prossed.

This show would make Nancy Grace look really fascinating.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, making justice, much like sausage, is rather ugly when you look at it up close. While I'm sure your motives were pure in creating this blog, it is clear that it has disolved into a haven of petty sniping and the opportunity for people to take anonymous potshots at anyone they feel may have wrong them. So far, it has been other lawyers who have been the primary targets of these shots, but I wonder how long it will be before someone makes truly unseemly and unfounded allegations about those on the bench or makes allegations that have disastorous consequences. Art Teele's wife on T.V. the other night talking about how he took his life because of the allegations of a transvestite prostitute has to give you pause. And I'm sure that outsiders looking in will only come away with a disgust at the sausage that is being made. Perhaps it is time to leave the sniping to the coffee shop for those who choose to stick around this pit that we call the Justice Building and for you to pull the plug on this experiment before it really blows up in everyone's face. Sorry, but I want to avoid making myself a target too so I'm staying anonymous too.

Anonymous said...

an agressive p.d.(one who tries at least 12 jury trials a year), always gets better results then the private atty will. at least thats the way it worked when I worked there.

Anonymous said...

Mindy Glazer? She hasn't drawn opposition because she has a good reputation and is a nice person.

Notice a few who have drawn opposition recently - Postman, Swartz and the 2 Schwartz's, - all with reputations of being nasty, unfair. People don't mind tough judges, they mind arrogance, rudeness, and unfairness.

Why there is not a line out the door to run against David Miller is beyond me.

Anonymous said...

i don't think Rory has anything better to do with his time? therefore, that will not be his last post.