A NEW LOW

Query- If you have a case in Dade County Court criminal division and you run into a serious enough problem that you need to speak to the Judge in charge of the County Criminal Division, whom do you speak with?

Judge Sam Slom of course!

If you run into a similar problem North of the Border, to whom do you speak with?

NOBODY! That's right, courtesy of the JAA (Broward) Blog, nobody is in charge of the Broward Criminal Courts, county court division.

From the JAA Blog:

Meet Judge Nobody - that's right, "nobody" is officially the head of county court criminal. click here for theAdministrative Order memorializing nobody in charge. What's it all about? Can't Chief Judge Victor Tobin find anyone else qualified, after Judge Stacy/Dale Ross said "thanks, but no thanks"? And is Tobin gun shy about picking a new team member, after Judge Joel Lazarus and Judge Ilona Holmes bailed? And why did Lazarus quit in the first place? Was it just about his impending retirement, or does the courthouse rumor mill have it correct that Lazarus felt slighted when Judge Dale Cohen's docket was given to another judge? Can't we all get along?

RUMPOLE NOTES: Isn't this one of those rare circumstances when "nobody" is better than "somebody"?

More tidbits from the place we love to hate (and hate to go to, but love to watch squirming in agony as their decades of bad karma brings their sordid courthouse down on their heads)

True or false: Judge Ian Richards started a trial Tuesday without the ASA present (answer: true)

And finally, Anthony Caravella is now a free man. 26 years ago, then Broward ASA (and Now Broward Circuit Judge) Robert Carney worked with the police to convict an innocent man who was brutalized and threatened into confessing to a crime he didn't commit. The Sun Sentinel has the coverage here.

File this comment by the current ASA under the title "The More Things Change, The More They Remain The Same": (also from the JAA Blog)

(ASA Carolyn) McCann said the Broward State Attorney's Office did the right thing when it agreed to defense requests for two earlier DNA tests, one done by the Broward Sheriff's Office lab in 2001 that did not implicate or clear him, and a second set of tests by a California lab last year that appeared to clear him. The third set of tests -- by a Virginia lab released Wednesday -- was done over the last six months at the prosecution's request.

"The evidence against him was provided by Anthony Caravella himself but we cannot ignore this DNA evidence," McCann said. "I cannot explain why people confess to police about crimes they did not commit." ...

RUMPOLE ROARS: LET ME EXPLAIN IT TO YOU, YOU STUPID SIMPLETON:

CARAVELLA WAS 15 YEARS OLD WITH AN IQ OF 67 WHEN BSO DETECTIVES BEGAN THEIR CAMPAIGN OF TERROR, BEATINGS, AND THREATS AGAINST HIM AND HIS GIRLFRIEND. THAT IS WHY PEOPLE CONFESS TO CRIMES THEY DIDN'T COMMIT. AND AS LONG AS THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM EMPLOYS, AND LET ME COME UP WITH THE PRECISE LEGAL TERM TO DESCRIBE YOUR COMMENT....IDIOTS LIKE YOU, THERE WILL STILL BE INNOCENT PEOPLE WHO CONFESS TO CRIMES AND PROSECUTORS WHO DON'T HAVE ENOUGH SENSE TO FIGURE IT OUT.