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.

Monday, November 19, 2007

VICK SURRENDERS!

BREAKING BLOG NEWS

Disgraced dog killer and Atlanta Falcon QB Michael Vick has surrendered to federal custody weeks before his scheduled sentencing in federal court.

The NY Times article is
HERE

Query for the Fed experts among us: Smart move or patent pandering?

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

smart move and nothing to do with pandering. the guy wants to start doing his time.

Anonymous said...

Breaking Blog News? It's been all over the net all day.

Anonymous said...

i see u put up a link to yet another legal blog. that's fine but please dont put a link to milt's blog. if u look up the word turd in the english dictionary his face is there with a shit eating grin.

Rumpole said...

7:50- Sorry. I just got home Sometimes, on rare days, I have to do more than just stare at this stupid blog all day putting up comments.

Anonymous said...

ANYONE who needs a good laugh, on court tv this week is a Miami murder trial in front of Judge Blake. It is absolutely hilarious watching gail levine trying to act nice on tv using fake voice intonations and smiling. Its like watching a Nazi try to be charming.

Anonymous said...

did anyone comment on how an ASA was arrested on Miami Beach for DUI???

Anonymous said...

Say WHAT, 8:33? I didn't hear about that.

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

JUDGE IN THE NEWS ...

The Miami Herald reports:
Yet another Miami-Dade jurist may be headed for national TV: Karen Mills-Francis, county judge. Mills-Francis, 47, has taped episodes of a Judge Karen show that Sony Pictures Television is pitching nationwide for fall '08.

Sony says it has sold the show in markets that cover 45 percent of the country, with a commitment from several stations in the CBS group including South Florida's CBS4/My33.

Sony will render a Judge Karen decision by early spring.

Mills-Francis, born in Miami, attended Bowdoin College in Maine and University of Florida's law school. She worked as a Miami-Dade assistant public defender, then went into private practice and served as a traffic magistrate. She was elected in 2000 after beating incumbent Harvey Goldstein.

CAPTAIN OUT ...

Anonymous said...

Sorry RUMP.

Allowing anyone to call a Jew a NAZI is verbotten.

You would NEVER allow anyone to call anyone by the "N" word, would you?

More sensitive screening. please.

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

Judge In The News...

Our own Steve Leifman has been getting major props for his hard work and continued commitment to the mentally ill defendant in the criminal justice system...

"Last week, Florida Chief Justice Fred Lewis brought forward a report by a court committee addressing the very substantial issues of mental illness and the criminal justice system. This impressive report made by Judge Steven Leifman reminded us that the use of jails and prisons to deal with mentally ill citizens is not only morally wrong, it is fiscally stupid.

Read the story here:

http://www.heraldtri
bune.com/article/2007
1117/OPINION/711170818
/1030/NEWS0101

or here:

http://www.sptimes.
com/2007/11/18/Opinion/Use_of_
gas_on_mentall.shtml

CAPTAIN OUT ....

Anonymous said...

We have carefully outlined in more than 20 posts the reasons that we believe Judge Cohen's courtroom was the setting, and the judge herself the instrument, for the greatest custody fraud ever perpetrated in an American courtroom. All the defense witnesses perjured themselves at the urging and with the connivance of their own attorneys, and confessed to it in open court without being held in contempt. Kurzban and Montiel-Davis were shown to make soborned perjury at the very least, and orquestrated a campaign of deception and legerdemain that would have amounted to obstruction of justice in any other courtroom but Judge Cohen's.

One of the judge's favorite mantras — there were several — was that she was not going to do anything that might lead to the reversal of her decision. In other words, she admitted not once but a hundred times that she was playing to the royal boxes. She saw this case as one that would advance her career. She is right insofar as a great number of her constituents can now put a face to her hood and even jurisdictions outside of Florida are now acquainted with Miami-Dade's version of Judge Judy (or is that an oxymoron?). But publicity is not enough for advancement. She must also exhibit judicial probity and the appellate court would be the sole judge of that. Rather than do her best and be judged accordingty, Judge Cohen has strained for the last 6 months to divine the appellate court's wisdom in this matter, hoping that by second-guessing them she won't herself be second-guessed.

Well, she's going to get her long-awaited report card. In fact, she even begged her judges to act quickly and deliberately in rendering what she hopes will be the highest grades. It would not surprise us if she were disappointed in her expectations. Then we would have to add ignorance of the law to all her other judicial shortcomings. It is doubtful whether her career can survive a reversal. It is one thing to act like an ass and quite another to be certified as an ass. She forgets that there is another audience that will be judging her — her constituents. The comings and goings of other politicians are mostly inscrutable. A politician-judge's actions are all a matter of record and open for public view.

Cohen was quoted in the Herald:

Cohen, who has been on the bench since 1992, was forced to defend herself early in the case against allegations that she might not be impartial since she is up for re-election in 2008. “Anyone who thinks I would make a decision based on an election doesn’t know me,” she told the Miami Herald in August.

Rumpole said...

10:55- I'm not sure I follow you. Please repeat what you are trying to say after you sober up a bit.

Anonymous said...

The criticism of Judge Cohen (anonymous at 3:17) for her efforts to rule in a way that will not be reversed is just dumb. A trial judge is supposed to follow the law, not create her own law or do what she thinks is right regardless of established precedent. If a trial judge is affirmed on appeal, it means that she has followed the law.

I once had a very respected federal district court judge (from outside of Florida) tell me that his goal was to never be reversed. He prepared for a trial by trying to anticipate legal issues that would come up, and then trying to figure out how the Court of Appeal would decide the issue, so he could fashion his ruling accordingly. If one of his decisions was affirmed on appeal, that told him he had correctly applied the law during the trial. Isn't that what we should want from all judges? Judge Cohen's efforts to rule in accordance with the law should be applauded, not criticized.