Cathy Parks resigned from Fowler White today. Rumor is that she's going to run against someone.
Rumpole says, who cares? Attorneys resign all the time. Nixon was an attorney and he resigned and look where it got him.
A READER NORTH OF THE BORDER FIRES A SHOT IN OUR DIRECTION
Unlike down south in the banana republic, we like our judges up here and believe in a nice old boy system of keeping them in so that we don’t have a revolving door for judges like you have down there in the Republic
Rumpole responds: You poor unimaginative, beaten up excuse for an attorney. Practicing North of the Border has damaged your brain if the best thing you can call us is a Banana Republic. We have been called worse names by better people than you. Go back to your immigrant hunting, English language only loving (Miami disposed of that issue in the 70’s) tyrants in black robes and beg for top of the guidelines. We may have a revolving door judiciary, but soon, at least all of them will be named Gonzalez or Rodriguez, so there!
MEMO TO JUDGE ISRAEL REYES
Please inform your bailiff 1) This is the United States of America and courtrooms are open to the public 2) If a person is summoned to court they will not have a subpoena, but a “notice of court appearance."
What happens in Judge Reyes' courtroom is that right before calendar, his eager beaver bailiff comes charging in and starts asking everyone to produce their “subpoena for court.” Well, unless they’re a witness, they won’t have a subpoena. But why get technical with a legal genius like the bailiff?
Memo to the bailiff: We know you have a tough job. We know its kinda fun to order people around. But your courtroom is really our courtroom. “Our” being the citizens of Dade County and the United States of America. Yes, those same defendants and their families that you like to order around and toss out own that courtroom and have every right to be in that courtroom despite your best efforts to make them feel they are doing something wrong and need your permission to breathe in that courtroom.
Listen Mr. Bailiff, most people in court are scared to death. Not that they should be scared of your Judge, as he is one of the best and fairest around. But the nature of the business is that people are scared. And if they bring their wife, mother, friend for support, it really does not speak well of you or your Judge to throw them out. Plus, we are not quite certain it is legal.
Just a word to the wise. But then, who are we to tell you what to do?
WHO DA MAN?
YOU DA MAN!
HOW CAN I POSSIBLY BE DA MAN IF YOU DA MAN?
A reader writes in about a judicial candidate:
Don Cohn is the MAN. He's very experienced and is a wonderful trial attorney and a nice person, as well. Demeanor is great, too. He can definitely beat a judge with a name like Rippengill, as in rip your heart out.
A reader looks into a crystal ball and sees trouble in the Hague:
Looking at that list of judges there are a few judges without opposition that look like easy targets. Judge Hague is the next most vulnerable judge. He is at branch court with little visibility. He is pro state oriented. The best reason to go after him is that he is broke. He has no or very little money. he cant run a campaign. Invest 25k and for the next 6 yrs you get 130k not bad. Where else can you get a return like that?
Rumpole says, umm...we don't think Judge Hague will be that much of a pushover and we don't think he is as poor as you think he is.
A reader peruses appellate decisions:
Looks like Bobby Reiff and Mills Francis got spanked on Higgins.The Eleventh Circuit flat out slammed them and pointed to the "inexplicable" fact the written order seemed to reflect little of the actual hearings themselves ("Hi Bobby, motion granted, got an pre-drafted order for me to sign? It will look great in the Florida Law Weekly.").There's no right to refuse roadsides and Fourth Amendment coercion arguments are nonsense.Suffice to say, a ridiculous issue has been put to rest.
Rumpole responds: Who has time to read appellate decisions when you can read the blog? Who do you think you are anyway? David O Markus?
We don’t really do DUI cases, but it has always amazed us that when the police want to talk to a suspect in a murder case, they have to read them Miranda. But when an officer wants a client to do roadsides, he doesn’t have to read them anything. As if the person being asked to perform roadsides is free to leave. Doesn’t really make sense beyond the power of MADD to influence Judges.
MULDOWNY MULDOWNY, OUR KINGDOM FOR A MULDOWNY.
Any DUI hot shots want to give us an update?
YOU LOVE US, YOU HATE US, YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT US:
A reader writes on The Rothenberg Doctrine (TRD)
that TRD (pronounced "terd) thing was long and annoying. Other than that, it was the most truthful and well-written thing I've ever read on this blog.
Rumpole says, thanks…we think.
AND THE ACADEMY AWARD GOES TO…..
Some readers came up with a suggestion on voting for the best ASA. So far Charlie Johnson is the winner, but this is good fodder for a poll. So Charlie gets the poll position on the poll so to speak. But any good poll on the SAO is not worth its weight in salt unless it pokes fun at everyone’s favorites sunny guy, Abe Laser. So Mr. Laser makes the poll as well. Post a couple of more names and we will put the poll up. If this is a serious poll, we also suggest David Gilbert, Reid Ruben should be included.
See You In Court glaring at Judge Reyes's bailiff.
36 comments:
david gilbert? i think not.
anybody else wonder why judges who get repremanded and or suspended without pay and almost held in comtempt by the supreme court never get opposition?
david sherman
Is anonymous referring to Judge Pando? It's because she was the only judge in county court with the cojones to stand up to the State and the police; That's why you will not find opposition to her from the defense bar
CANDIDATE FOR JUDGE ???
In 2004, in a contest for an open Circuit Court seat in Group 40, Dade County voters had to choose between four candidates. The race was between William Thomas, Don Cohn, Josie Velis, and Catherine Parks.
In the primary, the voters said:
Thomas - 66,241 - 29.9&
Parks - 66,406 - 29.9%
Velis - 51,284 - 23.1%
Cohn - 37,937 - 17.1%
In the runoff:
Thomas - 312,884 - 54.9%
Parks - 257,405 - 45.1%
Fast forward to 2006, and with Judge William Thomas on the bench, we see that Velis has filed to run against incumbent Judge Dennis Murphy and Don Cohn has filed to run against incumbent Judge Bonnie Rippingille.
So, what say you Catherine Parks, are you next???
Mrs. Parks has been a member of The Florida Bar since 1983. She actually started her career as an R.N. before going to law school at the Univ. of Miami. For the last 23 years she has concentrated her legal degree as a litigator, practicing in the areas of insurance defense, medical malpractice, construction litigation, mass tort claims, product liability, real estate, and appellate matters.
In the 2004 campaign, she raised $42,276 and added $84,000 of her own money to the contest.
We will be watching closely to see if Parks becomes the last of the 2004 Group 40 losers to try once again to convince the voters of Dade County that they have the right stuff to be a Judge.
and the Captain has spoken .....
How 'bout the most useless State Attorney poll. Here is a starter list:
Don "I don't got your back" Horn
Kristy Bettendorf a.k.a. "The puzzlenator"
Howard "got some popcorn and a "movie"" Pohl
Lorna "run around the block" Soloman -- She does marathons
or...
any career criminal division chief a.k.a. "No, we won't waive PRRP unless it is being prosecuted by a CC attorney"
How about Ben Soo-Hoo for best (or worst) ASA. Oh wait, he "resigned". Oops.
Best ASA? I nominate Judge David Miller.
Judge Firtel is a good man
GO GATORS!
So this is what I can gather, either Charlie Johnson is a great ASA because he is good looking or he is a great ASA because he gives away his cases to the opposing side. Why, you ask? Because no one has been able to tell me why he is so good. I guess Kathy has a real winner here.
he's good b/c he's not an asshole, which is apparently all it takes to be a good asa
I mean, how hard is it to say "what happened, and what happened next?"
Do that, and dont be an asshole, and you're golden (not sunny goldin)
Charlie's good because he got brains and common sense and he uses both.
David Gilbert is the best ASA. He is fair, reasonable and a great trial lawyer. He also is one of the few really seasoned attorneys who care about the new ASAs. Every year he conducts evidence workshops for them. He also tries cases wtih them. I wish the office had more like him.
RUMP---re your question on roadside exams:
As you know, Miranda only applies to custodial interrogations. Roadside examinations are non-custodial (they don't rise to the level of formal arrest; if the person performs adequately, they're free to go). Additionally, they are roadside examinations non-testimonial (except, arguably and according to caselaw, the alphabet test). They are not designed to elicit incriminating responses; rather they measure psycho-physical ability/impairment.
that's whay i was gonna say.
So the bar is investigating Adorno, Diaz, Mays and Fernandez over the fire-fee. It should be interesting as the four attorneys interests are dramatically inconsistent. Mays would seem to benefit from bringing down Adorno, and vice-versa.
The question I'd like to hear asked, of many, is why Adorno engaged in a breakfast settlement conference without the presence of the opposing party's attorney(s).
Rumnpole: more from North of the Border.
Read this: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-cpplea04apr04,0,5190279.story
I sent the reporter this email:
I have now read your story three times trying to figure out your opening paragraph:
"Had Daniel Rodriguez Mendoza, a serial unlicensed driver, been an American citizen or in the United States legally, he would have faced 20 years in prison for the crash that killed Kimberly Jo Dahmer." No where in the story do you explain why Mendoza's immigration status resulted in a 6 month sentence, rather than 20 years. You'd have to agree your story is quite inflammatory given the current debate on immigration in the U.S. But, inflammatory is not wrong if the facts warrant it. Maybe your opening paragraph was accurate, but your readers would not know why from reading your story. What I took from the story is that the victim's husband had a better chance of being sentenced to 20 years in prison than Mr. Mendoza. At the end of the day, Mendoza made a mistake by stopping his car in the middle of the road, which had nothing to do with being in this country illegally. Mr. Dahmer, on the other hand, was drunk and on a motorcycle.
So, how did Mendoza's immigration status affect his plea? You should do a follow-up to clarify the story. Maybe an over eager editor edited out the explanation.
She responds:
Thanks for the e-mail Mr. de la O,
Even if Mr. Rodriguez Mendoza had been sentenced to 20 years he would still face immediate deportation, according to the prosecutor. The state felt the case was weak considering that the victim's husband was driving drunk. While the defendant did make a mistake resulting in the crash, he had a history of driving without a license and had been charged five times previously I believe. Hope that helps. Take care.
Unbelievable. Has anyone else ever heard of prosecutors giving time served to illegal immigrants because they believe illegal immigrants cannot be sent to jail and must be immediately deported instead?
I responded to Ms. Stoddard's reply:
Thank you for the reply. You might want to check with an immigration and/or criminal defense lawyer, because in my experience that doesn't make sense. Non-citizens do their sentence in the U.S., and THEN they are deported. Sometimes, they are sent to their homeland to finish the sentence handed down by the American court. Illegal aliens do not have immunity from prosecution. Either the State Attorney's Office dropped the ball or they gave the plea because of the particular facts of the case. The slant of the story, however, was that an illegal immigrant killed thus lady and didn't have to pay the price because he was here illegally. If you dig some more, you'll see that is false.
"It's because [Pando] was the only judge in county court with the cojones to stand up to the State and the police; That's why you will not find opposition to her from the defense bar"
LOL. I appeared in front of Pando regularly as a prosecutor. The defense bar likes Pando even though she was late to court on an almost daily basis (often by an hour or more) because she consistently ruled for the defense and badgered us to break down our cases. I can't think of a single ASA who dealt with her on DUI cases who thinks she's fair.
I'd like to see published, peer-reviewed, and blind and controlled studies which establish that roadsides are based upon sound science. That is, roadsides constitute a net... but do we know with any confidence how wide that net sweeps?
Put differently, do we know what percentage of breath tests initiated because of roadsides come back negative for intoxication?
The "mandatory" roadsides issue was based upon the 4th Amendment to the Constitution (you know, that old withered document), not the 5th Amendment.
Simply put, the Constitutional issue is: Can a police officer ORDER a citizen who they merely "suspect" has been drinking alcohol to perform a battery of sobriety exercises (often not even telling the citizen what these exercises are)?
You're right Bobby, but Rump asked about Miranda, which, last I checked, is a 5th Amendment concern. Thanks for the clarification though.
PS---the answer to YOUR question is yes, police can compel someone to perform FSTs. The same caselaw that applies to everyone else's clients applies to yours as well.
Judge Pando was the City of Miami Police legal advisor for many years, so she knows her former clients just as well as we know ours. Because she had first hand knowledge of the perjuries, plantings, crimes and other bullshit of the officers, she could not be taken for a ride by them just as the young ASA's are. Judge Pando has a highly sensitive bullshit detector and a keen sense of the police reality of the streets. These qualities help her dispense real justice from the bench.
Pando for Circuit!!!
Pando---great for defendants and defense lawyers, horrible for vicitms and the community.
It's not her credibility assessments that rankled the State, it's her legal "reasoning" and rulings. Nobody ignored caselaw like she did.
Even in the law enforcement context, the state may interfere with an individual's Fourth Amendment interests with less than probable cause and without a warrant if the intrusion is only minimal and is justified by law enforcement purposes. Michigan State Police Dept v. Sitz, 496 U.S. 444, 450 (1990); Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 20 (1968).
Blood draws in certain circumstances can be done without consent because of a diminished expectation of privacy and when it is reasonable to allow in a special needs context. Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives' Ass'n, 489 U.S. 602 (1989). Therefore it stood to reason that roadsides could be considered minimal enough as to reasonable privacy expectations of DUI suspects. Thus the 4th Amendment argument fails.
$900? Who gives a fuck?
During a recent search on Google I got a hit in the top ten for this Blog. This is a testament to the webcrawler at Google. However, that led me to think whether we really want people in Rochester, Nebraska or even Broward County to read what we the enlightened guardians of justice are up to in our spare time (I might add some of you on County time). Perhaps some of you should realize that your silly musings are only intersting to yourselves, and you should spare the rest of us your dribble.
hear, hear..
if our silly musings are only interesting to ourselves, how did this blog obtain top 10 status on google?
The world is waiting for the d'arce indictment.
as well as Hector Loncaca, Bertie Soto, Ripyourhearthout, etc...
1) Judge Pando is a wonderful judge and always has been.
2) The idea of Rumpole writing a column for the Herald is absurd and delusional. While we who work at the justice building may find this mildly amusing, the public could care less.
3. Rumpole must have one SLOOOOW practice and NO life to have so much time to write this.
Pando? Who cares. You guys are so naive. Another blog site talks about Velis vs. Murphy, and how much $$ they both have. That's so insignificant. What atters at the last second is who enters the ballot box and actually votes for them. Parks knows this and is likely going to enter a race (at least we keep encouraging her to do so) and spend little or nothing to get the job done. Murphy and Rippourheartoutgale should just trade in their cute little black robes. They'll need to get a new job.
You're right. $$ doesn't really matter. Nor does campaigning, putting up little signs, or going to every Bar event. You just need to be on a few lists--and that doesn't necessarily mean the herald.
I wanna thank you for sharing with people such fresh and hepful information.
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