Reversals....Old School...Political Putz

It’s time to give our “beloved” (hack hack) local Robed Readers a break:

It's Week Four of:"THE REVERSAL OF THE WEEK”©
By everyone’s favorite Captain.

Although we normally focus on a local robed Judge for this weekly feature, instead, with the judicial campaigns moving into the summer swing and with the possibility that Miami-Dade County could have as many as 18 newly elected judges come this September, (YES I did say 18), I thought that it would be nice to shift our focus to what some of the other fine jurists of our State are up to:

INQUIRY CONCERNING A JUDGE, RE: JUDGE JOHN RENKE III, 31 FLW S337, May 25, 2006; the Florida Supreme Court has decided to hand down the ultimate sanction against this Pinellas-Pasco 6th Circuit Court Judge. What is interesting about this case, is the fact that Judge Renke is being removed, not for anything he did on the bench, but for numerous campaign violations that got him elected to the bench in 2002. Also interesting is the fact that the Supreme Court rejected the Judicial Qualifications Commission's original recommended sanctions for fines and reprimands.
The Court found that Renke made flagrant misrepresentations about his qualifications in his 2002 campaign. 1] He misrepresented in a campaign brochure the fact that he was an incumbent judge, when he wasn’t; 2] He misrepresented in the same brochure that he was Chair of the Southwest Florida Water Management District, when he wasn’t; 3] He misrepresented in the same brochure that he was being endorsed by the Clearwater firefighters, when he wasn’t; 4] He misrepresented his judicial experience, when he actually had none; 5] He misrepresented endorsements from two supposed public officials, when they were actually members of the Pinellas County Republican Party; 6] He misrepresented his experience as a practicing attorney, claiming that he had eight years of experience handling complex civil trials, when in fact he had never tried a jury trial, never sat first chair in a trial, and his only trial was a small claims case; 7] He misrepresented his opponent’s experience, claiming to have more trial experience than his opponent, when in fact his opponent had much more trial experience; and 8] He also was found to have funded his campaign race with an illegal $95,800 contribution - more than 90 percent of the campaign's financing - from his father, former state Rep. John Renke II, who enlisted the Republican Party's help in the nonpartisan campaign.

The Court stated, "In essence, Judge Renke and his cohorts created a fictitious candidate, funded his candidacy in violation of Florida's election laws and successfully perpetrated a fraud on the electorate in securing the candidate's election.

INQUIRY CONCERNING A JUDGE, RE: JAMES R. ADAMS, 31 FLW S317, May 18, 2006; here the Supreme Court went much lighter on the Administrative Judge of the Lee County Court and only handed down a public reprimand.The JQC charged that during 2004 Judge Adams violated three canons of the Code of Judicial Conduct by having a romantic relationship with an attorney who appeared before him in a considerable number of cases. The allegations specified that Judge Adams granted numerous continuances requested by the attorney in five cases, and that Judge Adams dismissed the charges in four traffic cases in which the attorney represented the defendant.

The Supreme Court stated, “Judges must do all that is reasonably necessary to minimize the appearance of impropriety. They must remain cognizant of the fact that even in situations where they personally believe that their judgment would not be colored, public perception may differ.
CAPTAIN OUT ........................

Rumpole notes that former Judge Renke would fit right in here in Dade County, and could probably weasel a part time 100K job out of BB until the next election cycle.
(<---daily gratuitous cheap shot at our favorite local PD)
As to the Judicial Lothario Judge Adams, our advice would have been to deny a few of those motions for continuance and spend a few extra bucks at dinner. But remembering that Judge Adams does wear the black robes, we realize he has forgotten what it means to pick up a check, so granting the motion was probably his way of saying "your place or mine?"
Query: Which mean spirited ASA turned the two lovebirds in?


An old time reader echoes our sentiments completely:

rump i do miss the old days on the blog. we used to talk alot about rory steins ghost employee job and his danish/donut/bael eating habits. it was all in fun as i am sure mr stein took it that way.now the blog has denigrated into really nasty name calling and slander. calling one candidate gay and saying another sucked her way to judgeship is really unbecoming.this blog used to be a great place for practitioners to discuss the bench in the hope that when they were discussed maybe they would modify their behavior. you know they read this site religiously.i vote for censorship as too many of the contributors are baby lawyers in PDo and SAO who just love calling each other names.

Rumpole agrees. We really can do without the name calling. Of course we could also do without half the judiciary and 90% of the candidates running for judge, and what chance do we have of that happening?

D’Arce strikes again?

We received two anonymous emails (not posts) within the last week on this subject:

Rumpole: have you heard whether it is true or not that your friend D’Arce marched the candidate who is opposing Judge Slom into the filing room in Tallahassee to help her file her papers?

Rumpole replies: We have not heard that rumor and would like anyone who knows anything about it to post or email us. If true, we sincerely hope that the young woman running against Judge Slom gets the full benefit of the wisdom and experience of a political putz like D’Dopey. If that occurs, then come November you can count on her saying this: “would you like to super size your order sir?”


Ahh…it stinks to be back at work listening to the phones not ringing.

See You In Court.