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, December 22, 2008

WELCOME TO THE GLICK FAMILY BLOG

UPDATED:  First Judge Glick's daughter wrote in, now his wife. That's OK. We'll just be the Glick Family Blog for a few days. They've more than earned it. 

I would like to thank those who have been so kind with your praise for my husband Judge Leonard Glick. I look forward to the years ahead with him. We have been together since we were 18 years old and have literally grown up together. I will share him with you as a Senior judge, however, as much as everyone loves Lenny at the REGJB, I love him more. To each of you, Lenny loved going to work every day. He tried to make that samll change in the world, frustrated many times wondering if he was succeeding. He wanted the community to be one where the average citizen could feel safe. Lenny cared for all the personnel in the building. He spent 36 years there. I know he will be back. He loved being a judge and you will see him again. We are all lucky to have this man of such class, kindness, caring, and quality in "our" lives. I am proud to share him with you. I am proud to be the wife of Lenny Glick for over 43 years. Fondly. Dianne Glick


Rumpole notes, it's a wealthy man indeed who has the respect and love of his family and his community. 


RUMORS:
As we close out 2008 the very best rumor we have so far is a confirmed rumor that attorney  Milt Hirsch (who used to market himself as the "
Dr. Ruth of the 4th Amendment") has committed to run in an open Circuit Court seat in 2009/2010.  
We think he will make a fine Judge and we wish him well. 

Several rumors floating around about lawyers committed to running against seated judges, including one first term judge in particular who had a very rocky relationship in the REGJB and is moving on to civil in the hope he can find some friends there. 

Any comments or additional rumors?  Of course some rumors turn out to be false. Our Judge Blake retires- "Dewey beats Truman" like headline last week left us feeling a bit embarrassed. 

Speaking of being embarrassed, which SAO has THE WORST conviction rate at trial?

If you guessed our cousins north of the border you are correct. 

We have long decried State Attorney Mike Satz's outspoken policy to "let the jury decide" on trials where there is more than substantial evidence to indicate that a defendant is innocent. If you practice law in Broward (something we strongly recommend against) you've invariably come upon that situation where the in court prosecutor sheepishly admits they don't have a case but their supervisors won't let them dismiss it. This is an outrageous violation of the Rules of Ethics and they've been doing it for years in Broward. 

Now the Broward Blog has this article showing that by far Satz and his lawyers lose more jury trials than any other prosecuting office in the State. Click here. 

The Statewide jury acquittal rate is 34%.  The Broward  SAO loses 47% of their jury trials.  In DUI court the Broward SAO loses an astonishing 81% of jury trials. 

These are statistics that we are proud to say we have contributed to. But at what point do Broward voters realize they have a broken and backwards system at their prosecutors' office and when do they decide to make some changes? 

Anybody in trial this week? What a waste of time and resources to keep all these court divisions open when not much is going on. The State has an additional budget shortfall for 2009 and there will be a special session in Tallahassee in January 2009 to close the gap with more budget cuts, but our court system keeps whistling past the graveyard refusing to take emergency pro-active actions to deal with the shortfall before being ordered by Tallahassee to cut back on pencils and paper. 

See Ya in January. 

38 comments:

Anonymous said...

Put down the egg-nog Rumpole! Stop putting up post every 2 hours, put down the drinks now. Rumpole, we are here for you.

Anonymous said...

Yeah Hirsch will be a great judge if you like a judge that lectures everyone from the bench and thinks he is smarter than everyone else.

Anonymous said...

You think Milton will be a fine judge? I think he will be a total pain in the ass. His ego is far to big for the bench. He should stick to being Dr. Ruth.

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

ELECTION UPDATE .....

This should thrill all of you GJB Bloggers out there.

Peter Adrien has an opponent and it is none other than former County Court Judge Jeffrey Swartz.

Cap Out .....

Anonymous said...

Why are people filing for Judge already is there an election in 2009 for Judges? Did I miss something?

Anonymous said...

9:44

It's all about the Benjamins!

Anonymous said...

No one has filed. People have announced their intentions though.

Anonymous said...

Jeffrey Swartz vs. Peter Adrien. Dumb vs. Dumber; lethal injection vs. electric chair; crap vs. vomit; bad vs. bad...

Anonymous said...

Swartz or Adrien?
These are the best we have to choose from?
Come on people.
There's gotta be people out there who can do a better job than these two.
And I'm sure myself, and others, will put our money out there for someone good.

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...

THE CAPTAIN REPORT:

Correction 9:58 am:

Milton Hirsch has formally filed papers with the Secretary of State. He filed to run in Group 41and he is the first person to file for Circuit Court not only in the 11th J.C. but the first one to do so in the entire State of Florida.

Cap Out ...

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

It appears that the Governor has decided to name the next Supreme Court Justice on Wednesday.

The candidates were contacted and asked to change their schedules and the Governor has moved the personal interviews from January to Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

Look for an announcement on Wednesday afternoon.

Early prediction: Jorge Labarga. Yes folks you read it right. Labarga is back in the running. Despite the fact that Crist named Labarga to the 4th DCA, Labarga told the Gov. that he wants to remain on the short list for the Supreme Court.

Crist will name Labarga and take the heat off himself for the shenanigans he pulled with the JNC and the Frank Jimenez fiasco.

Cap Out ...

Anonymous said...

may be possible that since Broward Police tape record DUI stops and tests, the jury can actually see more than the police officer's words, leading to more acquittals.I

Anonymous said...

No court on the 26th or Jan 2nd per governors order!!! Maybe someone listened to Rump's post about the stupidity of court being open this time of year.

Anonymous said...

Rumpy,

Pressing financial question:

Maria Bartiromo or Erin Burnett?

South Florida Lawyers said...

Happy Holidays, Rump! Thanks for all you do.

Anonymous said...

Captain, you will be wrong in the prediction. It will not be either of the hispanic names. It will be the lone woman on the list. After all the mud slinging do you think Crist will piss of the remainder of the State and appoint a Cuban who is less QUALIFIED than the woman on the list? He wins with the woman for two reasons, 1. He gets the woman vote and 2. He shows that he did not pick someone because of there race.

Prediction the woman candidate will be the next Supreme Court Justice.

For Justice Wells, seat that will be for the Cuban candidate. It will come soon as he retires next year. Problem solved sooner or later.

Anonymous said...

Of course Swartz wants to go back to the bench, he can't make it in private practice. Although he would be better than Mr. Macho he is no picnic. There is a reason he was defeated....he is that reason. Now he wants to be a Circuit Court Judge....pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazzz! Someone else needs to run, don't walk to file in this seat. We are going from someone who knows nothing to someone who thinks he knows everything. Talk about frying pans and fire!

Anonymous said...

A young reader wonders:

How is it that so many prosecutors go on to become defense attorneys? Doesn't being a defense attorney require a certain perspective or philosophy that your average prosecutor simply lacks or disagrees with? Could anyone imagine Mr. Laeser switching sides? Is it just for the money?

Batman said...

Cap,

I have to admit the possibility. By appointing Labarga he gets what he wanted in the first place. A whole new list from the 4th DCA JNC. If Labarga took his commission then a vacancy would be created and the JNC would have to reconvene and renominate. Cool move, huh?

Anonymous said...

Judge Marcia Cooke threw out the main conspiracy charge against Ben Kuehne.

According to The Miami Herald, "Cooke ruled that a congressional exemption in the money-laundering statute for lawyers' legal fees applied to Kuehne, saying it was critical to a defendant's right to counsel under the Constitution. She called the government's analysis that Kuehne, 54, could be prosecuted because the legal fees were allegedly derived from drug proceeds 'flawed.'

'If I were to construe the statutory exemption as the government suggests, the exemption for such transactions would amount to no exemption at all,' Cooke wrote in her 13-page ruling."

The article is here http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/823083.html and the order is here http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2008/12/22/17/pdf.source.prod_affiliate.56.pdf

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...

THE CAPTAIN RESPONDS:
to 1:32 pm:

Sounds like a throw down to me and I accept. If he names Judge Gill Freeman I donate $100 to the charity of your choice. If he names Labarga, you will donate $100to the charity of my choice.

He will not name Freeman because, as you say, she is a woman. There are already two women on the court. Your reasoning and analysis is flawed. And, the women already love CC. If he were to name Freeman, it would be based on her absolutely superior qualifications. But, he won't.

Now, as for what you say about an Hispanic to replace Wells, then you must assume that there is an Hispanic that is qualified and will place their name into the mix in the 5th DCA. Slim chances there.

That is, unless the following occurs: he names Lawson (already in the 5th DCA area), and then when Wells resigns, that makes Wells' seat an At Large seat and thereby creates more of a likelihood that an Hispanic will be part of the mix.

In any case, you are wrong with predicting Freeman.

Captain Out ....

Anonymous said...

I am rolling on the floor laughing. Jackie boy is beside himself and going nuts on the Herald web site. He is posting like a mad man about Ben getting a christmas gift.

I feel like Santa came early for all of us. Just knowing how JT feels right now is the best gift (no need to wrap).

Thank You Judge Cooke, We Love You.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/823083.html

Anonymous said...

Are the COURTS closed on the 26th and 2nd? Word is that the PD and SAO will be closed as per governor's order on those two dates, but what about the courts themselves?

Grey Tesh said...

First, Milt Hirsch would make a fantastic judge. That guy is smart (smarter than most), funny and has the right demeanor to be a judge. Last time I saw him speak at an FACDL seminar, he got a standing ovation. Milt is the shit. One of the problems with most judges is they think they can stop learning after they get sworn in. Milt is the type of guy who loves learning new things. He’s a sponge. He’ll keep up with the case law. Milt makes more money than most of us, but stop hatin’. We need great criminal defense lawyers on the bench. We especially need them to run against bad judges.

As far as Jorge Labarga, Captain has it right. I’ve tried cases in front of Labarga. He’s a great judge. There’s rarely an issue on appeal if Labarga is the trial judge. It doesn’t matter to me that he’s Hispanic, but it does to Charlie. However, the guy is respectful, fair and sharp - one of the best in Palm Beach county.

Anonymous said...

Swartz is worse than Adrien. There has to be a better choice

Anonymous said...

The reason Broward has so many aquittals for DUI cases even with Video is because of video. In most cases the FSE don't look that bad. The average juror is like " that could have been me." The jurors don't have to speculate. Besides, when asked how much time had elapsed in some cases when taken to the bat- maybe an hour has passed. On tapes on scene- you get to see the road, the lights and the cars passing. Take every DUI to trial in Broward!!!!

Anonymous said...

I practice in the civil courthouse and the attorneys who are there do not understand the venom that has been directed in Jeff Swartz's direction all these years. We saw a lot more of him than you did and although he was a little full of himself, one thing we could never say is that he was dumb or did not know the law. As best as we can recall he has not been in the criminal courthouse for many years.

Since losing his election many of us have litigated with and against him and found him to be a much different person than he was on the bench. He has been the consumate professional and an effective advocate. He has never held out his former position or attempted to claim or assert any influence with those judges who were his friends. He refuses to be called judge and insists on using his first name.

The blogger who said there would be many who would back any other candidate other than Swartz or Adrien needs to know that many have already committed to Swartz and he will raise a lot of money. A three way race may only end up with Adrien back for another term. Think about it.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, your comment about court closure is incorrect.
There is court on the 26th and Jan 2nd. The Gov's order was limited to the executive branch.

Anonymous said...

I am supporting Jeff Schwartz for Judge. I believe he will draw on his previous experience- good and bad- and he will do a fine job.

I admire him for running. He knows he will be subject to criticism- and yet he chooses to run. Perhaps his decision to run is his way of saying that has has learned from some of the things he said or did in the past, and wants to show he can do better. When I spoke with him about running he was very open with his earlier mistakes. He raised the subject, I did not.


I support Jeff Schwartz because of my knowledge of him and my belief he will do a good job. I think there are many examples of Judges coming to criminal court who had to learn on the job. The results are not pretty. Jeff is experienced in both civil and criminal law. This well rounded experience will serve us all well.

I do not believe the rules of ethics allow any attorney to comment on a sitting judge, so I cannot do so. (I believe the rule is wrong, but so be it. I have to follow it..)

However, I am supporting Jeff Schwartz and I will be working to raise money for his campaign and I hope other people will assist and contribute.

Anonymous said...

Alrighty, why should Judge Adrien deserve opposition as the incumbent Judge. (batman please stand silent).

Why would the Herald not support the incumbent. The Herald always supports the incumbent absent a scandal of sorts. So I ask what is the scandal that makes Judge Adrien the target for opposition?

Anonymous said...

Not close: Erin Burnett!!

Anonymous said...

Who cares about the Herald?

Anonymous said...

Rumpole, kudos to your political writer, The Captain. I read an article in today's DBR that The Captain reported on your blog on Monday morning. He was right on with the news about Crist moving up the interviews for supreme court.

Any predictions on who the governor will pick

Anonymous said...

phil RUmp brilliant email--now you are recused from ever handling a case in front of macho again.

well done

Anonymous said...

Tuesday, December 23, 2008 4:09:00 PM

The Voters, dip shit!

Anonymous said...

Adrien vs. Swartz = dumb vs. dumber.

I pick Adrien over Swartz because Adrien is at least pleasant. Wow. I can't believe the bar is so low. The only thing that could make this race even worse would be if Mario Garcia or Manny S. decided to enter it.

I think I need a drink.

Anonymous said...

Judge Adrien joins the debate at 10:21. I am one of the "robed readers".

Adrien, do you really think you are pleasant?? What planet are you on? Geez, you are mean, vindictive, stupid and impossible to talk to. Even your colleagues on the bench can't stand you. Get your head out of your rectal orifice.

As difficult as Swartz was he was at least intelligent enough to make up for some of his shortcomings. You, literally, have no redeeming qualities. The only good part of your being on the bench is you make the rest of us look like geniuses.

Anonymous said...

Adrien is NOT pleasant. He is condescending and short and nasty especially when dealing with attorneys more experienced than he is.