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.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

ARTHUR, ED, AND MICHAEL.

Before we begin, an update courtesy of a reader, on the issue of Arthur hearings being held before an information is filed:

Anonymous said...

In Cordarius Benjamin v. State, Case No 10-1801, defendant filed writ of habeas corpus on July 14 to require Judge Fernandez to hold an Arthur hearing immediatly before 21 days had run or an information had been filed. Two days later, the Third District ruled:

The emergency petition for writ of habeas corpus is granted only in that an Arthur hearing shall be conducted whether or not an information has been filed. The petition is otherwise denied. SHEPHERD and SALTER, JJ., and SCHWARTZ, Senior Judge, concur.


Rumpole notes: Not an auspicious start in Circuit Court for young Judge Fernandez. No Judge should hold a defendant in jail without a hearing when the defendant's counsel is vigorously seeking a hearing.


Longtime and careful blog readers know our appreciation for a life well lived and a well written obituary. Here are a few recent ones that have caught our eye:

Ed Newman passed away, BUT NOT OUR ED NEWMAN. The NBC newsman, who was an erudite advocate for the english language, as well as a reporter for over 40 years, died at age 91. The NY Times Obit is here.


Upon reading about the life of our fellow compatriot Michael Burn, it is easy to understand why we are Anglophiles. He socialized with Adolph Hitler before the war, and led a daring British commando raid on the German dry docks at St. Nazaire in occupied France. Captured, he spent the rest of the war as a POW, where a chance viewing on a propaganda film led to a woman of Dutch royalty sending him a Red Cross package. When he returned the favor after the war, Baroness Ella van Heemstra - struggling in post war Netherlands- sold the items to purchase penicillin for her seriously ill daughter. Michael Burn thus saved the life of young Audrey Hepburn.

Burn wrote several books of fiction and non-fiction; he published poetry and grew up in a French Casino owned by his family. And in the middle of it all, he raised a family AND carried on decades long affair with British/Soviet spy Guy Burgess.

He owned a signed copy of Mein Kampf, and organized a mussel farming cooperative.

All in all, a remarkable 97 years on this earth. The NY Times Obit is here.


The Pope's coming to England and judicial rotations are just around the corner. Up for grabs are a coveted spot in ROC court and some civil rotations for judges worried about 2012.



10 comments:

Dominique Levy said...

Rumpole. just a heads up.
The Colby in your suicide pool is NOT the former Judge. It's a fake. I don't know the email address, but I am sure it's not his.

The real former Judge Colby is mixed up in Chechnya and the oil industry there. Spends most of his time in Dagestan and Grozny. He is good friends with President Dzhokhar Dudaev- apparently he dismissed a traffic ticket for the President's nephew many years ago.

Anyway, whomever is sending you emails and picks is a fake.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the info on Ed Newman. I remember him well. RIP

Anonymous said...

Abraham, Martin & John?

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

Monsieur Levy: You may have snagged the Silver Liz, but you will never hold a candle to the likes of Judge Colby.

You see sir, I broke bread with Jon Colby, Jon Colby was a friend of mine and Mr. Levy, you're no Jon Colby.

Oh, yeah, and it wasn't Dudaev's nephew; it was Ahmad Zakaev's son.

Cap Out ....

what's the deal with... said...

rumpole & captain, any info on the 3d dca applicants? can we have a review? given the 3d's turn to the right in all matters, who can try and restore some balance?

Anonymous said...

You mentioned a Mark Vargo in a post. Is that the Mark Vargo that was a prosecutor in the 80's and then left town to work way out west?

The Bar web site says he is back in North Miami but, not eligible to practice in this state.

Is that him?

Anonymous said...

Hey Rump, you need to get ALL the facts. Judge Fernandez gave the defendant PTS with a bracelet pending the arraignment and Joe Klock wanted an Arthur hearing anyway because he objected to the bracelet.

Anonymous said...

What 9:12 meant to say was that Judge Fernandez did that AFTER he was reversed by the Third District and then instead of having the hearing, braceleted him out instead of RORing him. The State, of course, was not the least bit concerned about promptly investigating a ridiculous charge by a consistently "challenged" Miami detective who claimed that this kid, an Honors student at Coral Gables High School who had never even gotten a ticket but who was walking to his own home in his predominatley Latin neighborhood while wearing distinctively non-Latin skin coloration on a Saturday noon two hours after three black kids had supposedly robbed someone in their home two blocks from his house, folks that apaprently bailed on their lease shortly after, no doubt because teh alleged "robbers" had taken teh family crown jewels and cash. Joe Klock

Anonymous said...

He wasn't reversed Klock. It was a writ. After two judges denied your request while Judge Fernandez was out of town you insisted that the hearing be held immediately. Are the State's witnesses entitled to notice? And you did file a subsequent writ after he granted PTS with a bracelet. You're a liar.

Anonymous said...

12:24: A liar, huh. Strong, brave words coming from under the veil of an "Anonymous." If you think that having a writ of prohibition granted is not a reversal, then perhaps you were moved too quickly from County Court or Juvi service to being an ASA in a Circuit Court division. The first of the judges that said NO, Judge Arzola, was because he did not have time that week. the second, Judge Thornton, tried to resolve it in a phone conversation but the State was not available so he set it on Judge Fernandez’s calendar for the first day when he came back.
The State’s inconvenience in bringing in their "flexibly testifying sworn law enforcement officers" pales by comparison to a kid who has never even gotten a ticket being stuck in an adult jail weeks after his 18th birthday for 21 days to accommodate your schedule. As I mentioned before, if the kid had been white and not black, the State would have done something. Shame on you. Have anyone look at the record and decide who is telling the truth. Joe Klock