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.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

3rd DCA ROUNDUP

Heat index update: 46% of respondents say coats and ties should be optional in the summer time. In court today, saw 7 more male judges sans tie on the bench. Come on guys, what's sauce for the goose...

SUPER UPDATE: WE'VE MADE THE BIG TIME!!! Herewith is an excerpt from Judge Gold's exceptionally well reasoned opinion in Ranck v Rundle:

On May 5, 2008, Plaintiff made public the Memo by posting it on a blog he created and sending a link to his posting to the Justice Building blog, a well known public forum 

used by lawyers practicing criminal law in Dade County.  [DE 1, ¶ 44].



Ahem....."well known"...."superbly written" was probably mistakenly edited out by a clerk at the last minute.

BREAKING BLOG NEWS: As you wander the hallways of the REGJB today (Thursday) don't be surprised when someone says "It's a bird! It's a plane!! NO- It's SUPER LAWYER DAVID MARKUS!!!"  Yes dear readers, the hallways of our humble courthouse will be blessed and honored today as a true superstar of the legal profession comes over here to show us how it's done. 

(you did ask us to say "hello" David.)


If it's sometime after Wednesday, it's time for.....

Ward v. State: After bouncing between the 3rd DCA and the Supremes, the court's of Florida have reached this startling decision: in order to sentence a person as a prison release reoffender, the state must introduce something more than " a department of corrections letter" (whatever that is). 

State v. Waters. Guy steals almost a million bucks from a bank. Guy's lawyer (David Rothman) does a great job negotiating with the bank for restitution and then convinces  former Judge Perez  to go below the state's plea offer of 6 years and gets 6 months CTS, probation, and restitution. NB: The guidelines are 108 years!!!!
Enter Judge Rothenberg, who rarely sees a downward departure she likes. And this was like shooting fish in the barrel for her. Imagine a scheme to defraud a bank that involves setting up shell corporations in Mississippi with a name similar to a law firm in Miami, and then appropriating an escrow check made out to the law firm and putting it in the Mississippi corporation. And now imagine a judge issuing a downward departure based on the "unsophisticated manner" in which the scheme was deployed. Now imagine Judge Rothenberg's opinion reversing the downward departure. Ouch. Plus the case is returned for trial with one pissed off prosecutor and the guidelines are 108 years. Double ouch!!


Rivero v. State. Judge Schlessinger joins the wall of FAME for doing his job and issuing a ruling in denying a motion for post conviction relief that was supported by the record. 
Tapanes v. State. Ditto for Judge Reemberto Diaz. 

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ups to my main man walter harvey for being selected as school board attorney.

Anonymous said...

The Rothenberg opinion is prescient. Take a look at footnote 3 and apply it to the Dante Stallworth abomination. Very interesting.

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the Big Time, Rumpy.

Ranck can still suck it, though.

Anonymous said...

Just had my first foray into the world of criminal defense this morning. Wow was that fun! Now I know why you people do it. Civil litigation blows (I already knew that by the way, just didn't realize that criminal work might actually be fun).

South Florida Lawyers said...

Congrats Rump!!

Anonymous said...

Maybe someone charged with fraud in state court in dade county will go to prsison instead of getting a Withhold 30 years probation and pay back 10 bucks a month which seems to be what most Judges will offer a guy so that they wont have to try a paper case that may take a few days.

Nice job Rothenberg. Would love to see the look on David Rothmans face when he read this opinion.

Anonymous said...

It's your afternoon sports update:

If NBC wasn't already broke, they will surely be now. Banking on some seriously high ratings over the next four days for the US Open, instead, it is raining cats and dogs at BethPage Black and they have called play for the day.

Last year's epic battle between Tiger and Rocco and the rest of the field did so well that they went into prime time and beat the Celtics v. Lakers in audience.

Great weekend for sports with the Yankees in town to face our hometown Marlins. Every single starting player on the Yankees is making more money then the Marlins collective starting salary (exclusing Hanley).

Anonymous said...

Why would my doc proscribe me clonopin AND adderol???

fake comic said...

My girlfriend wanted to go see "Drag me to Hell". I told her I had just gotten back from a motion to compel before Judge Adrien and why did I need to go through it again?

Thanks. I'll be at the Hardrock all week. Remember to tip those waitresses.

Anonymous said...

Rump
Hey if the victim, the clients girlfriend wants the case dropped and the client took care of her. up front, does that mean the SAO will drop the case?
D. Sisselman
lol, all the way to trial

SleepyB said...

Lyons walked me and I was asleep at the wheel...

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

North of the Border,
Election 2010 .....

In case you have not been following what's going on up there, it appears that there will be many contested elections next year for Judge. Several Assistant Public Defender's have already announced that they intend to run for judge.

In one of the newest contests, Group 42, APD Robert Jakovich has filed and has opposition from Rhoda Sokoloff.

APD Sandra Perlman has already filed to run in a separate race, Group 51. Incumbent Judge Cheryl Aleman, assuming she files, will face her second contested race. Last time she beat former APD Robert Malove.

Back in ole Miami-Dade County, big soiree at The Banker's Club last night for outgoing El Jefe Joseph P. Farina. Farina served 14 years as the Chief Judge. No reports in yet as to whether the Chief got out on the dance floor to do the tango with his lovely wife. (El Capitan had other places to be).

Incoming CJ Joel Brown takes over on July 1st.

On the JNC front, two days of interviews are currently taking place for the open seat vacated by County Judge Ada Pozo Revilla. Six names expected to be on Charlie's desk by Monday.

Next month the same JNC will be at it again as they narrow the list to replace outgoing Circuit Court Judge Tam Wilson.

Also in July, interviews for US Attorney & US District Court Judge. But that's done by some other swanky high-falutent committee.

On the State level, big convention next week in Orlando as The Florida Bar meets. Say goodbye to outgoing Prez Jay White and hello to incoming President Jesse H. Diner.

CAPTAIN OUT ....

Anonymous said...

"The NFL suspended indefinitely Cleveland Browns star receiver Donte' Stallworth, who killed a pedestrian while driving drunk."

read : Malpractice or, "I can't believe I paid you 100k for this !"

Chris Lyons: attorney extraordinairre. Did he even bother contacting the league?

Ouchie.

You get what you pay for. And sometime, you don't.

Anonymous said...

Lots of defense attorneys running for judge up there in an attempt to lessen the impact of the regime of the Broward SAO. Maybe first time cocaine possesion defendant will be offerred something better than an adjudication and 18 months probation.

Anonymous said...

Hey Joel - I didn't know Walter Harvey was your main man.

Anonymous said...

this needs to be said, the outrage related to the stallworth matter has screwed me up. i have a dui mans case which i have been trying to get a decent plea on. i was working the sttae down time-wise and now all the outrage has made the DC in the case completely unwilling to bend. the downside of the stallworth gift is having real consequences to all of us. this is really unfair.

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

You say faluttin and I say falutent - TGIF

Scot Saul said...

6/18/09 @ 7:36 p.m., your comment is inaccurate and indicative of just being jealous.

No matter what he got paid, Lyons did a great job. I do not know what he did or what role he had in the negotiations or if he just "went along for the ride" but he was the lawyer, the only lawyer for the most dramatically lenient resolution that I have ever seen on a case that I am assuming was pretty strong (blood, collision, impairment).

Since when will an attorney, on a DUI manslaughter case, have any impact on the NFL?

How ironic that a criminal defense attorney would say that when the situation is so compareable to the usual frustrating immigration quandries that is always thrown in our faces.

Chris's job was to get his client FREEDOM not insure a football career.

It must suck being envious of somebody else. Ouchie!

Anonymous said...

What is the over-under on Donte's first community control violation?

Anonymous said...

Will Drew see to it that Donte's community control officer(s) be comped at all major sporting events and SoBe clubs?

Anonymous said...

Does this SA prosecute community control violations against people who may be in a position to contribute large sums to her next campaign?

Anonymous said...

How long will it take for Donte to end up qualifying for the services of the PD?

Anonymous said...

scott saul - here's a clue: he who talks loudest , is a buffone.

other than that, hit the treadmill , bro.

Anonymous said...

saul you loser - an attorney's job is to make sure all bases are covered. you hack.

Anonymous said...

I really think that would be Stallworth's agent's job...

Anonymous said...

At least Scott Saul is man enough to post his name you VJ's.