"The Accused" beats the rap.
In the most high profile Dade County Judicial Battery case since, well, has there ever been a sitting Judge who complained s/he was battered by a colleague?, The Dade County State Attorneys Office has declined to prosecute Circuit Court Judge David "O.J." Miller for an accusation that he battered Circuit Court Judge Maria Dennis.
Joe Centorino, chief of the Public Corruption Unit, who has been (we've been reliably informed) working on this earth shattering case night and day ever since the shocking allegations became public, wrote a close out memo in which his office declined to file charges against Judge Miller, whom colleagues have taken to calling "The Teflon Judge" in reference to his "John Gotti" like ability to escape criminal prosecution.
Centorino noted that the "Faux Fax Fight Fiasco" was better suited for a Judicial Qualifications Complaint.
Anybody know if the victim, Judge Maria Dennis, has filed a JQC Complaint? Anybody care?
Chief Judge Farina, (who was recently overheard to say "I'm not gonna miss dealing with those two ^%$#&&((!! Judges when I'm gone") in one of his last acts as Chief Judge, banished the Jousting Jurists to separate floors of the (un)civil court house, and in a Solomon like decision, gave each of them their very own Fax machine.
No confirmation yet of the rumors that both TV Judges Marilyn Milian and David Young were battling for the rights to bring the litigants into their own private courts.
See You In Court, defending battery charges every bit as ridiculous as this one, but charges which for some reason, aren't screened as carefully as Mr. Centorino screened this one.
PS. You know there are dozens of ideas that flow from this little contretemps. (French for "a little fight in which the French end up surrendering". Benefits of a classical education I guess.)
"Fighting Judges" an ABC reality show that could air after Dancing with the Stars. The TV Cameras follow two Judges who don't like each for weeks as they train and spar and get ready for a fight. The final episode would be a ratings block buster.
CSI Miami - special Miami Civil Courthouse edition. Where the CSI Miami group pours into the civil courthouse and closely inspects the crime scene to see if charges can be filed.
Post your ideas in the comments section. These two are a blogger's dream.
33 comments:
ROFL!!
Was that ROLF an acronym, or the sound you made when you heard Miller was coming back to Criminal?
ROFL (pronounced raw-full) =rolling on floor laughing.
rolf (pronounced "roalph") is a sound associated with vomiting, as is want to occur when your criminal case is assigned to a particular judge.
Great post.
They used to file these cases based on who got to the SAO first.
I used to rush to file before the other idiot in the fight filed.
JQC will give a private repimand to both.
Courthouse 360 on A & E with 3D graphics and biomechanical reenactments of the fight
Miller got the call. He leaned back in his chair. He reached into his desk and pulled out a big one (cigar) and a bottle of Red and a few glasses, and said "Boys, it's Shumie time. WHo wants a shot?"
The Q's grubby little fingers are all over this close out memo. Sheesh.
I think Maria has much more to lose in the JQC probe that does Miller. Miami-Dade Police and SAO look at the black and white criminal side of the alegation only.JQC looks at a wider variety of issues. I think it's pretty well accepted by most that Maria has a wide variety of issues both personally and professionally.
Look, this whole ridiculous episode started with Maria's previous JQC investigation and her belief that Miller was one of the three complainants. I think that this will end with the demise of Maria's professional Judicial career with the upcoming JQC investigation. The opinions around the water fountain are pretty strong and very much in favor of Judge Miller. Maria's friends and confidants have betrayed her by exposing her emotional issues and statements clearly showing revenge was a motive. The Miami-Dade State Attorneys document shows that the responding Miami-Dade Police officers did not believe her, the public corruption unit detectives did not believe her, and the SAO did not believe her. It specifically states that she ordered her staff to lie about the fax machine being broken. A JQC probe will likely uncover a pretty clear picture of a setup and retaliation.
Absolutely amazing story
Thanks for reading Louie.
9:24, not to diminish the seriousness of your comment but... Don't drink from the water fountains at the courthouse!
EEwww.
It's all ridiculous. What's worse, this or Chumbley trolling in bathrooms?
Come on, guys, give it a rest. Miller doesn't need this crap and Dennis can't take it.
Word on the street is that the Fed's may look at the violation of Maria's Civil rights. FBI released a statement: "She works at the civil court and has civil [court] rights".
Why are you allowing the Foster post to remain up? I clicked on it.........it's nothing more than an advertisement.
"The opinions around the water fountain"
Here I have been hanging out in the chambers of Judge's for the lastest scoop, when I should have been down the hall at the fountain.
THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:
1. Controversial finalist headed to Crist .....
In what can only be descibed as an unusual meeting of the Florida Supreme Court's JNC late last night, the Commission buckled to the presuure of the Governor and sent him the "hispanic" name he wanted.
Frank Jimenez, who served as Gov. Bush's general counsel, was not on the orginal list sent out by the JNC last week. There were five names on it and one was hispanic Judge Jorge Labarga from Palm Beach County. But when Crist chose him for an open 4th DCA seat, the Governor decided to ask the Sup. Ct. JNC for more names - and he wanted diversity.
The St. Pete times is calling last night's meeting ugly and many who attended by telephone conference agree.
We will see what the Governor does now that he has his hispanic name as one of the finalists.
2. This surely is not the kind of news budget-weary Florida legislators want to hear:
On Thursday, the Department of Corrections' inmate population hit the 100,000 mark for the first time in the state's history. Inmate No. 100,000 entered the system at 8:17 a.m.
One of every 145 adults in Florida is either an inmate, parolee or under some other form of community supervision.
CAPTAIN OUT ....
Ray Foster from San Dimas? Thats one Excellent Adventure, Dude.
I attended the meeting. I had to put the phone on mute as I wanted to scream out so many times. 5-4 votes all the way down the line. The Nazis all followed in goose step formation starting us down the slippery slop to direct appointments.
This was all orchestrated by Jeb's former Chief of Staff and Jimenez' former boss, who is a member of this JNC. The idea of suspending all the rules in order to make another political payoff of a Supreme Court seat is obscene and disgusting.
Arturo Alvarez and Howard Coker stood fast in defending the JNC process against the extra-constitutionality of the acts they were performing. Say what you will about Cortinas, but he was magnificent.
Jimenez has been hand picked. It will be quick before a law suit is filed or too much adverse reaction comes forward.
Batman:
I think the Governor may surprise us all and appoint someone other than Jimenez.
This appointment may (indirectly) be tied to the fourth seat that is opening up when Justice Wells steps down early next year.
It's going to get very interesting
Cap Out ...
Cap,
He can not do that and get Jimenez on the court. Wells is from the 5th. If he appoints anyone other than one of the 5th DCA judges before him now, he will have to pick someone from the 5th next time. What he wants is Jimenez and then 5 names from the 5th DCA or a Circuit judge or lawyer from some circuit within that District.
THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:
Rump, I thought this was an amazing stat - Sligin Sammy Baugh died today at the age of 94 ...
Baugh was the best all-around player in an era when versatility was essential. In 1943, he led the league in passing, punting and interceptions. In one game, he threw four touchdowns and also intercepted four passes. He threw six touchdowns passes in a game twice. His 51.4-yard punting average in 1940 remains the NFL record.
CAP OUT
THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:
Really North of the Border ...
Have you been following the ridiculous happenings in Palm Beach County?
In 2005, Judge Wennet sent a complaint to the Florida Bar about attorney William Abramson as the result of Abramson's conduct in court before the Judge.
Fast forward to 2008 and Abrmason runs against Wennet, who had served for 24 years on the bench. The election took almost as long to decide as the Minnesota senate race; (they are still counting there). First they declared Abramson the winner. After a recount, the winner was Wennett. Then they found a bunch of missing ballots and after another recount Abramson was declared the winner.
Now the Florida Supreme Court has suspended Abramson's license to practice law. This is as a result of the aformentioned 2005 complaint filed by Wennet.
This issue is novel: can a suspended attorney serve as a judge? The high court may have to answer that question.
Cap Out ...
I know some judges who should not be allowed to practice law, that's for sure.
So if the Supreme Court says a suspended lawyer cannot be a Judge what happens to the seat he won? Does Judge Wennet get it or will another election be held?
How long is he suspended? Perhaps he is sworn in as Judge after the suspension expires. If he got 91 days suspension he will need permission to get reinstated.
Migraine... need to stop thinking...
Today's Daily Biz Review reports big time on the hugely corrupt plan to get Jimenez on the Supremes. 4 of the 5 who voted to corrupt the JNC process by adding Jimenez to a certified list are directly conected to him. Shanahan was his boss under Jeb. Unger's wife managed the Jeb campaign. Grigsby was a key figure in the Jimenez memo to subvert the Jnc process. Hackleman is partners with Crist's former chief of staff, who now runs Gunster. Plus they had the ultra-right community leaders that dont give a rats ass about this town behind him. Wanna guess who they were? Funny how the Jimenez Jnc subversion plan was actually carried out by these thugs. They had the votes and steamrolled this thru. Forget the constitution or the jnc rules-- the 5 voted to suspend them. It was martial law time at the jnc. They destroyed the entire JNC process.
What are you guys so worried about -- Rebekah Poston says he was a good writer and researcher when he worked for her.
Rump,
I know some lawyers who are judges who should not be either!!!
Only 742 more days until Peter Adrien is unemployed.
Cap,
I left one thing out. If the Gov appoints Jiminez, he would become the representative from the 3rd District when Lewis leaves. That would make Lewis' seat "at-large". The web is cast very wide. Think 3-dimensionally.
Speaking of odd events in the election year. Gwen wins a good majority in a 4 way race on Nov 4, but fails to get 51% required to stop a runoff. Now Dec 16, Pedro Garcia wins by about 10,000 votes.
Money spent:
Gwen Margolis $543,091.36
Pedro Garcia, only, $61,000.00
Pedro beat a Half Million Dollar advantage. WOW!
Judge Miller is such a hypocrite. You escaped my wrath this time around, but I got your number for the next election. You will pay your tickets you hypocrite. You are a horrible jurist.
Judge Dennis, please file a judicial complaint with the JQC.
If we are going to oust Judges for lying, we would need to replace 90% of those on the bench today.
Get a grip.
Enough already about the Fax thing. Unless you have been living under a rock, you would know that everyone is already very well aware of the truth in what really happened.
11:15:00 pm "you escaped my wrath this time" sure sounds like someone with direct involvement in the fight.
Have some dignity.
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