The Dean of Dade County Prosecutors wrote into to respond to yesterdays post:
Abe Laeser said...
What self-righteous clap trap! One DNA case in Miami-Dade out of literally millions of felony and misdemeanor cases prosecuted over the years, and the prosecutors did all they could to free that one innocent man. Perhaps you should rail against the outrages in Darfur or Afghanistan.In case you had not noticed, prosecutors have too much 'business' going after the guilty and the evil to target the innocent (check the local section of the paper every day). Like all mortals, when we err we are obligated to correct our errors. If you have a case specific complaint, walk on over from the Justice Building and get a hearing with the person capable of making the final decision. This is a public office and you are entitled to your fair resolution.Yapping about the injustices of the world is unlikely to make the Monroe County case disappear. Nor will it teach people to act ethically - or even with professional courtesy. You may never have been a prosecutor, but we all go home hoping that we never make the terrible error of convicting the innocent - and we do all we can to prevent wrongfully ruining another person's life. I must be cruel to be kind - my job is to seek Justice without regard to the final result, yours may be over at getting your client acquitted -- even if that is a not what objective Justice would truly mean. Turn the mirror at yourself and your peers, just in case there is some evil which needs attention there, as well
A “Fan” responds to Mr. Laeser’s post:
Here comes the part when Rumpole kisses Abe's ass and tells him how great he is and wishes all prosecutors were like him.
Rumpole Responds To Mr. Laeser:
We applaud the use of the term “self –righteous” clap trap.
However, our post has apparently invoked a level of ire in you that caused you to see red and not read what we wrote carefully. Did we accuse prosecutors of targeting the innocent? Outside of those stumble bums in Monroe county who have actually targeted that innocent man and sought to have him incarcerated in Krome, there was no accusation that prosecutors in general go after the innocent.
What we did accuse prosecutors in this county of doing, which you have not addressed, is standing pat and allowing the same old identification techniques which are obviously flawed be used. Try reading the “Seven Sins Of Memory” ( go to Amazon and see the reviews) before you jump on the bandwagon of the validity of eyewitness identifications.
What we also wrote, which you have not addressed is to question what is going to happen to all the other wrongfully convicted people who don’t have DNA to help get them out? Does anybody give a damn about them? Are you really ready to defend the proposition that those six men are the only innocent people ever convicted in our fair state, and it just happened that those six men had DNA to set them free?
Nobody believes that you or most prosecutors celebrate the conviction of an innocent man. But we don’t see your office responding to this potential problem beyond (to borrow a phrase) re-iterating the same old “self –righteous clap trap” “that all cases are carefully investigated.” You’re 100% right when you write that a prosecutor’s obligation is justice. What we claim is missing from the performance of that obligation is the work done by your office in making sure the innocent are not prosecuted.
What exactly is your office doing beyond the normal work of the FSU attorneys? Have you demanded the police change their investigative procedures? Or is the State Attorney’s relationship with the police so damaged that there isn’t any meaningful dialogue going on? Are “confessions” being videotaped these days? What exactly have you guys done to update your procedures? Or is the same old way good enough for now?
Our penultimate point: in re-reading your last line, (seeking justice without regard to the final result) it strikes us that in once sense it come dangerously close to saying that prosecutors are just following orders. And where have we heard that before? Because if you re-read our previous post in the comments section a few days ago, is it justice to drag some convict back from prison and make him lose his slot in a prison faith based program just to get a conviction for a third degree felony where (when the prisoner is serving 6 years) and the offer is probation? Is it justice to prosecute a woman for failure to obey the lawful order of a police officer when she would not move a car she could not drive when he husband left her and her infant son in a car illegally parked? Or is it just an amazing lack of common sense?
What we see, on a disturbingly regular basis in the REGJB, is a complete and total lack of common sense that is explained by the ASA’s with the frightening comment: “we’re just following orders” .
And finally, how do you defend the stupid, insensitive, idiotic, and unjust result of incarcerating an INNOCENT MAN who has just lost the last 20 years of his life to an un-just “justice” system, in Krome? It’s a scenario straight out of Soviet Russia.
Common Sense? Justice? Or insensitive stupidity?
See You In Court (not that we have any cases with Mr. Laeser these days, but you never know. He might just pick up a few disorderly conduct cases for fun.)
PS. To that other reader: well, did we kiss his ass?
PSS to Abe: We avoid mirrors, and if you saw us, you would understand why.
When you see something that is not right, not fair, find a way to get in the way and cause trouble. Congressman John Lewis
JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG
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67 comments:
All In!
No, you did not kiss his ass. I'm proud of you. Well done old man. Take a bow.
Videotape "confessions!!" Absolutely. And go back to videotaping DUI stops while you're at it.
Heck, if pursuing justice was your goal, then you would never have stopped videotaping DUI stops. I'm calling BS.
...without arguing the issues or our views any further, it is LAESER, not LASER. We got the spelling after the people at Ellis Island let us depart from the displaced persons camp that my parents lived in after concentration camp and come to the U.S.A.
It should be clear why some accusations such as 'just following orders' are grievously offensive -- it seems intended to remind me of those folks who robbed me of all four grandparents and eleven aunts and uncles, and two older sisters. It is still a sore subject.
If you are upset about an ASA, or their lack of discretion, spend more time until you find someone who can right your wrong -- but do not suggest that murderous immorality can be equated with inexperience or naivete.
Go Abe!
"Murderous immorality" should be punished, no matter the expense, no matter the offender, and no matter how unpopular the process. What many a poster have ineffectually expressed, because their concerns are frequently masked by their prejudices against prosecutors in general, is that it is equally indefensible when a prosecutor lacks the internal fortitude to be guided by his heart and his brain, acting in tandem. Neither inexperience or naivete have any effect whatsoever on any lawyer's ability to conduct himself in accordance with the highest professional, and human, standards. Mr. Laeser, while arguably unimpeachable as an independent entity within the larger SAO machine, is likely unaware of the oft repeated, legitimate complaints of non-whiny defense attorneys who are frustrated by the unassailable and intractable problem of prosecutors who are unwilling to confront their superiors to suggest that a particular case must be abandoned, or that for humanity's sake, and for the sake of preserving the meaning of "perspective," even a guilty defendant doesn't always merit all available and legally defensible punishments. Sometimes the rationale for mercy is not grounded in caselaw or strategy; sometimes the rationale, if nothing more, is rooted by the weakest of roots, that common thread that makes us all human, that acknowledgment that perfection is unattainable, sin is unavoidable, and punishment can take many forms. Legitimate verbal assaults upon the process take form only when the defenders of the accused among us confront an unbending, unsympathetic, detached machine, one designed and implemented for the sole purpose of meting out punishment to the maximum available under the law. The seekers of justice on the government's side can and should do their jobs with more in mind than that.
ready for triiaal.
Abe,
Your words are mesmerizing, if only
you would actually address the issues.
What is your office doing to fight
against false confessions and police misconduct in obtaining confessions?
What is your office doing to fight
against false identifications and
suggestive ID procedures used
by the police?
What is your office doing to fight
against police misconduct and brutality? (besides prosecuting
Fernandez and Losada which fell into your lap)
What is your office doing to fight
against racial profiling by police?
What is your office doing to fight
against the frequent killing of
mentally challenged persons by
shoot first ask questions later
cops?
Talk about the issues hombre.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Enough already Brian!!!
DUI FSEs are not taped because the video distorts the results so that it is impossible to see the small (but very apparent) signs of impairment on a video many feet away from the subject. I base this on my personal experiance of attending a road block and seeing first hand the signs of impairment and odor that are so previlent when you witness them first hand.
Confessions should absolutely be taped. At least in state court they will transcribe them in some cases and tape them in others. In federal cases, you have to rely on the skimply agent summaries and those agent's sometimes colorful memories.
Brian, just leave it alone already.
In the last DUI trial I had against a Pinecrest police officer, the stop and FSE were videotaped. The officer was in the unfortunate position of testifying that she did not consider the driving pattern of my client (on tape as putting on his blinker, pulling into a turning lane, driving across US 1 and into a parking lot and into a properly marked space) when she arrested him. As a former prosecutor from the mid 1980's, I am of the firm opinion that DUI's are not videotaped because they give too much ammunition to the defense.
Phil R.
Enough from those two loudmouths: brian and phil r.
How about that annonying loudmouth who uses the anonymous names? I've had more than enough of him.
Phil, you are right that tapes give evidence to the defense, but the problem is that it is not "real" evidence. In testifying about FSEs, the officers are talking about very small movements or unsteadyness that they witness, those types of things just don't show up on tape unless the person is pulling a Jim Carey. And, for those of you who will say 'well see, it is not on the tape because it is not there', remember that the majority of people who are arrested based on FSEs and who do blow, blow over the legal limit. Don't aruge that intoxilizers are worthless either, save that for the dumb jurors.
How quick would you be to argue in a bank robbery that "you can't see a gun in my client's hand...if that is my client...the camera is too far away. That could be a brush in his hand and that guy could be any one of us."?
brian t. from now on, your delta tal name is suga t.
i wanted to puke when i read the tripe from the asa why duis are not videotaped.
make note ye of no knowledge of history that a massive en banc hearing took place when the cops stopped taping. cops hid behind the bullshit that it was too time consuming to tape a DUI suspect and that they didnt have money to maintain the videotape equipment, not anything to do with quality of the tape.
defense attorneys at the time, myself included, offered to pay for tapes and the mantainance of the equipment. no surprise that the cops declined.
granted that most dui tapes were done at the stations where the guy normally did better than on the road. but they also had batmobiles with videotape capabilities that roamed all over town...the same one that you may have been at during the roadblock.
in the marginal cases (refusal+good tape performance) the guy often got his reckless which was the right result based on lack of evidence. now, cops can emebllish the dui test report (dont think they dont) with impunity. gimme a week to pull my .04s with neg urine and the dui test report that has them falling down.
oh, btw, out of the large counties, its just miami-dade that doesnt tape. broward seems to muddle along with a much higher conviction rate on duis than dade even with taping.
you offered to pay for the tapes? your what they commonly refer to on this humble blog as a TURD BURGLAR.
yeah we offered to pay for the tapes. you wanna step outside?
DUI FSEs are not taped because the video distorts the results and make it is impossible to see the glance, the twitch, the bead of sweat and stench of insolence which, uncaught by video, (but oh so apparent), allow the trained officer to judge a person's BA to within +/- .002
I've been doing it for twenty years, and I don't need a camera to make my case, and if you don't believe me in court then too bad, go cry yourself to sleep.
What is a clap trap? Is that what happens when KFR walks in the room and all her slaves make nicey nice?
I always hated him, that's why he shot me
I remember when Diane Ward got a not guilty on a DUI by cross-examining the cop with his own videotape. She played the tape and contrasted every move narrated by the cop on direct with the actual moves recorded on the tape, proving that the cop had grossly distorted the truth.
1, Only Pinecrest videotapes DUIs. The chief made that decision and was yelled at by other chiefs. DUI video tapes were stopped about ten years ago so, now it is your word against officer friendly... except when it is Davenport or Closius as they are not friendly.
2. When cops get in trouble they MUST have a union rep and/or lawyer and must have their statement tape recorded per the statute. (Officers bill of rights). Not so for average joes.
3. I too have been around 20 years plus. The Dade SAO is far more interested in justice than just about any other sao. Monroe is good but, is such a small office. Broward sucks. They care less about prosecuting innocent people.
4. Abe has a rep for being hard nosed but, when he thinks someone is innocent, he dumps the case.
5. What the hell are prosecutors supposed to do when they are not sure or when they are being lied to? I was a prosecutor. It is not easy.
6. Abe is also knons as Darth Vader. Listen to him talk and you will know why.
7. Ask Abe about the incident many years ago when he told a yong PD female to watch this and pulled down his zipper. The word at the SAO is that Abe has lots of "personality" down there.
Enough of me....
Dear Mr. Laeser: Please know that our use of the "just following orders" argument was not intended in any manner to offend you personally or make light of the Holocaust. Rather, because we find that excuse in the name of genocide so offensive and frightening, we mentioned it because we unfortunately find that mentality among some prosecutors and many police officers, all of whom, as Americans, should know better. We respect your views and understand that this type of discussion could easily devolve into a never ending series of accusations and none of us has the time for that (actually the sad fact is that we do have the time for that, but we are ever hopeful of a paying client walking through the doors.)
All unfortunate spelling errors associated with your name have been corrected.
Good Day Sir.
LOL. Love the DUI videotape thread. In the other counties and throughout the country, police agencies videotape DUIs to facilitate the PROSECUTION (they spend tens of thousands of dollars on the equipment and tapes because they believe it makes the cases EASIER to prove). Love how people distort things down here.
Calvin Mapp, Alfonso Sepe and Harvey Baxter said:
If we were still on the bench, you can damn well bet that they would still be videotaping those DUI's.
Marshall Ader said:
Are you nuts, Mapp - Sepe - Baxter; if it were still up to me there would be no videotapes, no juries, and certainly no PD's office.
MADD donates video camcorders to police departments because they do make DUI's easy to prove.
However, the videotapes do make questionable or overtime-motivated DUI's harder to prove. That's why every police department in Dade County (except Pinecrest) refuse to videotape DUI's.
Back when Dade County videotaped, good DUI's were quickly plead out and bad DUI's resulted in break-downs and nolle prosses, as it should be. It is still that way in the rest of Florida.
Brian enough already...get back to work....
The old county judges had balls and didn't take shit from anybody (state, defense, defendants, cops or witnesses). They were real judges who knew their jobs well and cared about law, justice, common sense and the Constitution. They did not care about political correctness, the Herald, or special interest groups like many of those on the bench today. Maybe that's why they never picked up opposition.
I certainly didnt care about political correctness or the Herald
The 2:06:35 post was incredible.
The SAO should start by putting people with reason, common sense, and human experience in leadership positions and create an office culture modeled on those qualities. For example, why is a robotic individual like the Kommissar running a division like County Court where the common folk are seriously and permanently adversely affected by her rules and decisions which bear no proportion to the seriousness of their misdemeanors?
How many times have defense attorneys heard prosecutors in both circuit and county courts hear the ASA's tell us that they can do no better because "they are just following orders from the division chief".
Why does the SAO force out common-sensical prosecutors for using their brains instead of "just following orders".
Abe, you need to take a look at the current rigid and bureaucratic office culture at the SAO. Go to the different divisions and courtrooms and you'll see what's wrong and what we not-whiners complain about. Maybe your seniority will allow you to do something about it for the betterment of the SAO, the community, and the criminal justice system in Miami-Dade County. Acoording to some with first-hand knowledge, you have the necessary equipment to accomplish it.
Right On. Abe, when I am elected State Attorney, I will make you my right-hand man. You will be the new Don Horn. Don Horn and his three blind mice (Jose Arrojo, Kathleen Houge and the "hefty one") will be immediately transferred to C slots with 250 + case loads and zero authority to plea without my specific approval. Lorna Soloman will be in charge of ethics in the workplace training and Kristy Bettendorf will be in charge of an entire division in County Court.
Also Abe, if you choose, you may continue to handle a very small caseload.
s/ The Next State Attorney
Abe is right on the money with all of his comments. Rump why dont you just say that the asa's "final soloution" is to offer every burglar who steals mangoes forty years.
This whole Idea that it is so wrong when an asa has cant offer a better plea because of their DC. rump you talk out of both sides of your mouth. These same ASA's who you and your pals call stupid lazy incompetant versions of Sergeant Shultz should be trusted with unfettered discretion to make whatever plea they want? there needs to be some consistency in sao plea offers and the problem is not that pit asa's dont have discretion, but rather that those that do have discretion refuse to excercise it intelligently because they dont have the experience needed to make tough calls. This is function of the fact that at this point a DC has three years of experience and has tried 10-20 felonies. How can someone who has tried that few cases make good decisions and advise younger less experienced lawyer while handling all the silly rule 3's and a caseload of 10-15 homicide cases?
you defense attorneys who whine about the lack of discretion in Dade SAO lack credibilty when everyone who is intellectually honest(admittedly that does not include you rumpole) realizes that Dade does a much better job than broward at "seeing the other side".
Train pit prosecutors the same way the APD's are trained (to be lawyers, not to follow rules) and they'll be able to use discretion effectively. Many ASA's are smart, commonsensical and could exercise discretion very well but the bosses won't let them.
We didn't call ASA's stupid incompetent and lazy. There are many many fine ASA's. But what is the training that's going on?
Repeat after me: "Judge I need to call my supervisor...Judge my supervisor said no."
Repeat after me "the officer wants the max....the victim wants the max"
Repeat after me: "The offer is jail..the offer is prison...we must adjudicate...we must adjudicate."
How about the old way: ASA's had authority to make good legal decisions based on the facts of the case and supervisors with experience and reason like Lenny Glick and John Hogan were available when an ASA got out of line. Now the entire office is out of control and all you can do is hope and pray you get an ASA who has not had all reason and common sense beaten out of them.
those were the days!!!!!!!!!
It appears from reading this thread that the GORT burglar creates the greatest moral quandry. What do you do with someone who hopped a fence and stole some yard tools? Someone who climbed through an open window and drank some Capri Sun out of the refrigerator? What do you do with this person when, at age 35, he has a three page rap sheet with 7 prior convictions for burglary, 5 for grand theft, 22 for petit theft, 1 robbery, and 29 other miscellaneous misdemeanors?
As a former C prosecutor who tried many such cases (and current DC), after much reflection and thought, it appears to me that a 40 year sentence (with that pesky 30 year min/man) is justified for such an individual.
Do those of you in the defense bar ever stop and think about the costs (social, pyschological, and economic) of crime? What is the cost of a burglary? Obviously, the home-owner's peace of mind is shattered. Usually, a family who has had their home burglarized no longer feels safe in their own home. Have you talked to the victims of a burglary? Have you had a mother tell you she has nightmares, that her kids wake up crying? Have you had a husband tell you he feels powerless to protect his family? What is a family's trauma worth?
What is the cost of the thousands of burglaries that occur in Dade every year? What, more generally, is the cost of crime in Dade? Entire neighborhoods where children can't play in their yards, where people can't walk on their streets during the day, no less at night? How many extra millions of dollars a year do the citizens of Dade County spend a year due to retail theft, fraud, uninsured drivers, and the like? What is the social cost of a community that lives in fear, a community where anything valuable has to be kept under lock and key? No one should have to live this way!
Again, after a lot of thought and reflection, I believe that 40 years is the appropriate sentence for a GORT burglar, no matter how "petty" the burglary. Such a person has proven that he cannot conform his behavior to the law; he will burglarize again. And I believe that the costs such an individual, through his unrestrained lawlessness, imposes upon our community are simply too great.
The defense bar here constantly whines about the GORT burglar scenario, but need I remind you that if your GORT burglar clients where in California or another three strikes state, they would already be in prison for LIFE before they ever got a chance to go out and commit that fourth, GORT-able burglary.
All that being said, I don't defend pit prosecutors who don't carefully review their files, who don't think, who prosecute cases they can't prove. There's no question that such a code of conduct is inconsistent with a prosecutor's obligation to seek justice. But part of seeking justice is seeking justice for an aggrieved community ravaged by crime. Our role as prosecutors must be to protect this community, and if putting a GORT burglar away for 40 years is the only way to stop this person from committing future crimes, then so be it.
I don't know what you heard about me
But I'll get a few of your gardening tools, wait and see...
You may have gotten my latents, prosecutor C
But I'm a certified GORT!
*grins an iced out smile*
This blog never ceases to amaze me. You defense attorneys sit around and talk about how much you love your job because it gives you the chance to defend the innocent and protect the rights of the people. You make it sound like without you, justice would not exist. Yet you are the same defense attorneys who sit in front of a computer and annihilate colleagues with your words, some of whom you may never even have met. You slander people by falsely accusing them of doing drugs, you completely degrade people because of their sexual preference, you obliterate people who are not of the same ethnic background as yours, and you seek to destroy the person who has the audacity to have a different thought than you. If you truly are seekers of justice and defenders of basic rights, then you will fight for all people. It is obvious from the low depths of some of these posts, that many of you are intolerant, ignorant, and an embarrassment to those who truly love the law for the possible results it can bring: equality, fairness, and true justice. You are not the defender of rights. You have no sense of respect. When you cannot argue a point without using profanity, insulting language, or derogatory comments, you are nothing. You should be ashamed. Your profession is ashamed of you.
Along those lines Rumpole, can you please explain your censoring policy? Why is it that a post cannot refer to the size of someone’s nose, but can refer to a judicial candidate’s alleged drug use and sexual proclivities? Perhaps, Sir, it’s because you are completely biased and ignore personal attacks so long as the attack is on a person you don’t like. But, when someone even remotely insinuates something offensive about someone you do like, the post gets deleted. Rump, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Either allow it all, or allow nothing. Your response please. And by the way, an original thought from you would be refreshing. Please try to refrain from your obvious inclination to simply cut and paste from other people’s posts.
yea Rump 10:33 has a point!
Peace train take this country, ride on the peace train.
"Smiley? Won't see him no more"
To the 9:37 poster, I have one thing to say...Fuck you. get out of your jaded little suburban world and face reality. Two weeks ago someone broke into my house and took food and $35 from a drawer, and I made a decision not to call the cops. The reason...because I knew that some asshole like you would end up trying to put this guy in jail forever. He obviously needed the stuff a lot more than me. I don't care if he has a 20 page rap sheet...It makes me sick that you find it easier to lock this man in a cage like an animal than to do anything to help him. Where can he work? Where can he get help if he is poor? When people as jaded as you are prosecuting, it leads to gross injustice. 40 years...have you any concept of what that means?
Do you really think you protect this community? What a joke. Protecting this community would mean enabling and educating the poor. Giving people second chances and jobs instead of disenfranchising them and putting the mark of cain on their head. As long as protecting the community continues to mean money for prisons over schools, there will be no amount of people that can be locked up to make the community safe.
That's "Paulie, eh you won't see him no more"
To the 11:33 poster.........what do you think would have happened if you or your spouse would have walked on the burglar? Would you have felt safe? What if he or she broke into a house with a gun?
How many small time burglaries like the one at your home became homicides because someone got home at the wrong time?
Maybe his or her next victim won't be as lucky as you. Bad decision.
Rump: re prosecutor discretion.
One thing you're forgetting. Turnover. It took 5, 6, 7 years for people to make DC in the late 1980's and early 1990's. The office coudl give them discretion because they knew what they were doing. Times are a changin'. Look around. We now deal with DCs with 3 or 4 years of experience. These young attorneys barely had enough time to have a cup of coffee in County Court, let alone learn to handle cases or (even more importantly, gain perspective). I can honestly say that I didn't gain real perspective until I was at the SAO 7-8 years. Even then, every time I was promoted it took me a year or two to get the point where I exercised what I know look back on as good judgment. It's a learning process and the young ASAs aren't staying long enough to pick up what they need to. Thus, the lack of discretion (which becomes a necessary evil).
I gained real perspective after being an intern at the SAO in major crimes for just one semester.
I completely agree... SAO criteria for being a division chief is "have you tried a homicide." Scary that a person can sit second chair on a homicide and sleep through the trial, then walk in to their division chief interview and get promoted over people who have been at the office for a longer period of time. That is why many of the good, thorough, and hard working ASAs leave.
Here is a true (joke) story...
St. Peter came to the Lord and said, "I have to talk to you." We have some Cubans up here who are causing problems. My flute is missing, mojo sauce is all over the place, they are making guayaberas from their (judicial) robes, they have domino tables in the cafeteria, and they're wearing baseball caps instead of halos. They refuse to stop making Cuban
Coffee on the heaven's stairs and some of them are walking around with just one wing."
The Lord said, "Cubans are Cubans, Peter. Heaven is home to all my children.
If you want to know about real problems, ask the Devil.
The Devil answered the phone "Hello? Damn, hold on a minute."
The Devil returned to the phone, "O.K., I'm back. What can I do for you?"
Peter replied, "I just want to know what kind of problems you're
having down there."
The Devil again said "Hold on, Hold On"
The Devil said "I'm back. Now what was the question?"
Peter said "What kind of problems are you having down there?"
The Devil said "Man, I don't believe this...Hold on." This time the Devil was gone 15 minutes. The Devil returned and said, "I'm sorry
Peter, I can't talk right now. Those damn Cubans have put out the fire all over and are now trying to install air conditioning."
Moral, Cubans are obsessed to improve things and really good at it as history shows. Coming to a Court Room near on September 2006.
When I was an ASA, I had a snatch and grab robbery case where the victim was the daughter of a long time APD. Instantaneuously, he went from bleeding heart, true believer to "hang 'em high." The defendant was young and had a prior or two, but nothing serious. The APD father was a pain in my ass and told me there should be no plea offer, I should go to trial and send him away for a million years. Think he would have said that for any other Defendant other than the one accused of robbing his daughter? He got pissed when I offerred the defendant Boot Camp, which was the same thing I did for every other defendant in the same situation. Told me I wimped out for not taking such a solid case to trial.
As the old saying goes...
A conservative is a liberal who has been mugged. A liberal is conservative who has been arrested.
Dear 1:52:07 poster:
You mean like the way they improved Cuba?
oye, don't talk about cubans, all right. I DON'T LIKE IT. no racist jokes on this blog.
Rump while you rail about improper id tecniques the new york times had an article in which an academic studying the problem and found that the new technique of showing the photos one by one was no more effective in cutting down false id's then the six pack lineups used by mdpd.
rump I am a prosecutor who used to think we should use new procedure now i am not so sure. sorry rump facts are often inconvienient to bloviators like you. I know it is much more fun and salves you guilt for accepting blood money from murderers and child molesters by adding it when you repeat your mantra "defense attorneys good guys --asa's mindless lazy dangerous incompetants.
love the story about the anxious pd on his kids robbery case. funny they castigate us as nazis and mindless drones and yet they are mad when an asa excecises good judgment and is fair. what it shows is PD's for all theier rhetoric are posers. they affect their liiberal shtick like dopey college students but in reality they are no different from anyone else just more self self righteous.
PLEASE PLEASE NAME WHO THE PD WAS?
please name the ex pd!
a current APD said:
Please name the ex-pd!
I wanted to send a shout out to The Dean of Dade County Prosecutors for the way he handled the Sean Taylor case. (For those who are interested check out the PDF plea agreeement on miamiherald.com) He is an excelllent example of how ASAs have the power (when motivated to use it) to do the right and just thing. Unfortunately, Mr. Dean ASA is one of the very few with the latitude to make such tough calls. Would Sean Taylor have gotten the same result from a pit prosecutor? Me thinks not. And the few who dare to try are shuffled quietly out the door. Congrats Abe on doing the right thing!!!
Cuando un rayo destruyó el sistema de alarma de incendio de la Biblioteca Pública de West Dade el pasado marzo, el Departamento de Bomberos de Miami-Dade les hizo a los bibliotecarios una oferta que, como las de Vito Corleone, no podÃan rechazar:
Contrátennos o cierren.
La biblioteca fue puesta en ''alerta de incendios'', un programa de seguridad pública que nunca ha salvado a nadie pero que le ha permitido al cuerpo de bomberos embolsarse más de $4.3 millones desde el año 2000.
Algunos lo han comparado a una protección mafiosa.
En este caso, bomberos fuera de servicio patrullaron la biblioteca durante siete meses manteniéndose alertas a posibles peligros de incendios.
Y sólo en el primer mes, el departamento le cobró a la biblioteca --y, por consiguiente, a los contribuyentes del condado-- más de $54,000 por su trabajo.
Los bibliotecarios se apresuraron a preguntar si, en vez de bomberos, a los que tenÃan que pagar hasta $102 la hora, no pudieran vigilar el edificio con sus propios guardias de seguridad.
La respuesta hubiera podido ser que sÃ.
Después de todo, asà es como se hace en Nueva York, en Los Angeles y en el mismo Miami, donde guardias que cobran $10 la hora, vigilan contra la posibilidad de fuegos.
En el condado Miami-Dade la respuesta fue que no. A los bibliotecarios les dijeron que tenÃan que ser los bomberos.
El jefe de bomberos Herminio Lorenzo dijo que sólo sus bomberos podÃan trabajar en alertas de incendios porque es la forma más segura.
''Cuando estamos hablando de la protección a los residentes del condado Miami-Dade, no tratamos de ahorrar, no tratamos de buscar la solución más barata a costa de la seguridad de la vida humana'', le escribió Lorenzo en un correo electrónico al Miami Herald.
Sin embargo, tras las primeras indagaciones del periódico, Lorenzo le pidió a un auditor del condado y al inspector general que examinaran el programa de alerta de incendios.
Muchos dueños de negocios y funcionarios del gobierno que se han visto obligados a pagar por alertas de incendios se han quejado de que los bomberos hacen muy poco, o nada, a cambio de su dinero.
''Se pasan el tiempo durmiendo en sus vehÃculos'', comentó Fernando Salazar, director financiero de Tampa Cargo, un aerolÃnea de carga ubicada en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Miami.
Los bomberos de Miami Dade se pasaron la mayor parte del pasado verano en alerta de incendio en el almacén de la compañÃa.
''VenÃan aquà y se sentaban a ver American Idol'', dijo Sergio Vasallo, que trabaja en el Radio Shack del centro comercial de la 163 St.
El alerta de incendios le costó $94,000 al centro comercial durante las renovaciones del 2004.
''Siempre estaban viendo TV, leyendo periódicos, jugando billar. Uno de ello siempre salÃa a darle comida a las ardillas'', comentó Paul Levine, un antiguo gerente de edificios en el Towers of Quayside, un complejo de condos en el NE de Miami-Dade que tuvo una cuenta de alerta de incendios de $193,000 en el 2004 y el 2005.
El jefe de bomberos del Condado Manuel Mena reconoció haber recibido quejas por bomberos que estaban jugando billar y viendo TV en el trabajo.
Pero puesto que el deber de un bombero es simplemente servir como ''alarma humana de incendios'', eso no es necesariamente inapropiado, dijo. ``Aunque estén viendo TV o fumando un cigarro, están haciendo su trabajo''.
Acusaciones de que los bomberos duermen durante los alertas de incendios o que abandonan sus puestos son difÃciles de probar, dijo Mena. Las sanciones son raras.
A un bombero le entregaron una reprimenda escrita por un incidente en octubre del 2003 y otro fue suspendido por 24 horas en 1998, según una declaración del jefe Lorenzo.
Los funcionarios del MDFR no pueden dar un ejemplo especÃfico de que los bomberos hayan podido detectar o prevenir algún incendio en un edificio bajo vigilancia.
''El propósito de la vigilancia contra incendios es prevenir situaciones peligrosas'', dice Lorenzo.
La ley requiere el estado de alerta contra incendios cuando un sistema de asperges o de alarmas contra incendios se rompe y no se puede arreglar en cuatro horas o menos. En Miami-Dade, los inspectores de incendios no sólo declaran el alerta contra incendios, sino también deciden cuántos bomberos del MDFR se necesitan.
El estado de alerta termina cuando el inspector aprueba las reparaciones.
Algunos dueños de empresas dicen que se sienten excesivamente presionados.
''Es como la Mafia en el norte'', dice Robert Birke, que fue supervisor de construcción del Turner Austin Airport Team, que hasta el verano pasado fue el contratista principal de la enorme expansión de la Terminal Norte en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Miami.
Cuando los asesores del Departamento de Aviación de Miami-Dade (MDAD) cuestionaron una factura de $54,000 de un alerta de incendios, Scott Mendelsberg, el jefe de finanzas del MDFR y su jefe Lorenzo amenazaron con retirar el alerta en el aeropuerto y cerrar un corredor entero.
''El intento de Mendelsberg de extorsionar dinero del MDAD es inaceptable'', le dijo por escrito el director de proyectos del aeropuerto, John Cosper, a sus superiores el 19 de octubre.
Cerrar el corredor ''habrÃa causado un caos en la terminal. Hubiera sido un desastre'', comentó después Cosper. Finalmente, el aeropuerto pagó.
''No querÃamos recurrir a una medida tan extrema'', le escribió Lorenzo al Herald. ''Consideramos que el aeropuerto habÃa creado un clima que requerÃa firmeza''. Y añadió que el departamento de incendios habÃa hecho ''amplios intentos'' por cobrar anteriormente.
En varias entrevistas, el capitán Van Meter explicó de este modo las prácticas del departamento. ``O nos pagan o tienen que cerrar... Generalmente les sale más barato pagarnos''.
¿Quién paga? Frecuentemente son los dueños de las empresas o las asociaciones de condominios que no han pasado inspecciones. Se les cobra según un programa de costo por hora establecido por la comisión de Miami-Dade en el 2004.
Pero en casos de edificios públicos tales como el aeropuerto o la biblioteca, es el fisco el que paga y todo se considera tiempo extra, sin importar lo que duren los turnos.
Muchas jurisdicciones del sur de la Florida, como las ciudades de Miami y Miami Beach, permiten utilizar guardias privados para las patrullas. Los departamentos de incendios de Nueva York, Filadelfia, Washington, San Francisco y Los Angeles también utilizan civiles para las alertas de incendios.
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