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.

Friday, March 18, 2011

FRIDAY NCAA MADNESS

For the record, we have never, ever called anyone "Dude" and have never, ever, filled out an NCAA bracket. Neither of those two states are likely to change although we venture to guess we know more about College Basketball then any other lawyer with +100 jury trials under their belt.


#Struthious could do for our Sesquipedalian Judge what #winning! is doing for Charlie Sheen on Twitter.

Please, enough emails already from those Ostrich lovers among you. We get it, the bird is misunderstood. Enough.

Twitter is monopolizing our time, by the way.

Also, enough with the calls for discipline against ASA Scruggs. He tried a case and lost. Get over it. The case against Michelle Spence-Jones obviously was sufficient enough to justify a finding of probable cause and it even survived a JOA. There is no misconduct here that we see. No case is ever worth a lawyer wrecking their reputation by playing dirty. Right?

As much as we hate to say it, this Japan nuclear crisis proves the point former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld often said: "There are things you know. There are things you don't know. And there are things you don't know you don't know."

However, it seems to us, admittedly in retrospect, that the spent fuel rods, placed in pools out in the open in an earthquake zone should have been seen for the potential disaster that they are turning out to be. It was reasonably foreseeable the plant would be hit by an earthquake. The reactors were designed to withstand an earthquake. But the pools were not, and now they are cracked and suspected of leaking which means even if they can get water on them they can't keep the water in the pool.

Google critical mass if you really want to be scared.

And with that, we bid you adieu. Have a great weekend. The weather is fantastic. And hopefully some good news comes out of Japan soon.

We will be on Twitter all weekend providing you with the information you need. (@justicebuilding).

Coming next week: can you Twitter a closing argument? (ie., under 140 characters?)
Take a DUI case: "No evidence of impairment =Not guilty."

For those of you who are fans of brevity (Judges on the third floor excluded) it's a fun exercise.

Give it a shot and we will post the best ones.

See You In Court.




24 comments:

Anonymous said...

State salary name lookup

http://dev.myflorida.com/salaries

Anonymous said...

Scruggs' prosecution survived a JOA? I thought she did not rule one way or the other.

Sounded like a reservation on JOA. I would hardly call that a survival. NBC Miami reported Rodriguez nearly granted the JOA, but did not rule.

Lots of Questions said...

I'm not really sure that the Rumpole of today, is the same as the Rumpole of years ago. If the Rumpole of years ago saw that the SAO was unmercifully perverting justice, he would call them out on it.

You've spent a lot of time this past week or two bashing Milton Hersch's verboseness, but very little time calling out Scruggs on his poor behavior, and questioning Rundle on her poor management of the office. How does that serve the ends of justice?

Ostrich Fan Club said...

Saturday only!! Bayfront Park 5pm.
The Hy Shapiro look-alike contest, hosted by fake professor Fingerhut.

Come on by and win valuable prizes if you look like Hy Shapiro, Esq.

Special guest appearance - Bobby Reiff and the Shandells singing his new hit single: "I Don't Want To Try That Stinkin DUI!!"

All the Fun starts at 5pm.

#Strithious!

Anonymous said...

6:56 is correct. The motion for JOA was never denied. The court reserved ruling. Everyone knows what that means: Let the jury put a fork in this one and if for some reason they don't , I will after the verdict and let the 3d handle it. This is the politically smart thing to do, especially in this case where the State tried to recuse her. They cannot then attack her bias. The JOA motion was not even a close call. The State's case was sort of the equivalent of jetting off on a 2000 mile flight with 250 miles of fuel in your tank.

Anonymous said...

I like Rosa Rodriguez; contrary to what is the current attitude in the SAO, I think she gives a good trial.
Having said that, the jury instruction that KFR rightly complained of came completely out of left field.
How can the law be that solicitations to charities in exchange for votes on matters before the commission is excused? I haven't researched this, but I have to believe that Richard and Christine did, and that is why they strenuously objected.
What that instruction says is that pay to play is entirely legal as long as it doesn't go into the elected official's pocket. That's a charter for abuse.

Anonymous said...

As far as I’m concerned, most--more than fifty-one percent--of all the practicing attorneys in the state
of Florida, are about as useful, as a roll of wet toilet paper!

As I see it, there are two very distinct types of attorneys, in Florida. First off, there’s a relatively small percentage, of what I call, “real attorneys,”
these are courtroom litigators, who know how to think on their feet and engage in a battle of legal wits,
with attorneys, judges and witnesses.

And then there’s the vast majority, which consists of ambulancechasing, price-gouging, form-filling, paper-pushing legal wimps, who hideout in their law offices, and almost never set foot in a courtroom, to try a case.

Anonymous said...

HR
In the news,EX - ASA Carlos Trujillo, Now a State Rep Wants Red Light Camera Law Repealed.
GO Carlos
DS

Anonymous said...

The judge reserved ruling in the JOA motion. With the jury's verdict of not guilty, the JOA motion became moot and avoided another possible appeal by Scruggs.

Anonymous said...

A man walks into a restaurant with a full-grown ostrich behind him. As he sits, the waitress comes over and asks for their orders.

The man says, "I'll have a hamburger, fries and a coke," and turns to the ostrich, "What's yours?" "I'll have the same," says the ostrich.

A short time later the waitress returns with the order. "That will be $6.40 please," and the man reaches into his pocket and pulls out the exact change for payment.

The next day, the man and the ostrich come again and the man says, "I'll have a hamburger, fries and a coke," and the ostrich says, "I'll have the same."

Once again the man reaches into his pocket and pays with exact change.
This becomes a routine until late one evening, the two enter again.

"The usual?" asks the waitress. "No, this is Friday night, so I will have a steak, baked potato and salad," says the man, "Same for me," says the ostrich.

A short time later the waitress comes with the order and says, "That will be $12.62."
Once again the man pulls exact change out of his pocket and places it on the table. The waitress can't hold back her curiosity any longer.

"Excuse me, sir. How do you manage to always come up with the exact change out of your pocket every time?"

"Well," says the man, "several years ago I was cleaning the attic and I found an old lamp. When I rubbed it a Genie appeared and offered me two wishes. My first wish was that if I ever had to pay for anything, I would just put my hand in my pocket and the right amount of money would always be there."

That's brilliant!" says the waitress. "Most people would wish for a million dollars or something, but you'll always be as rich as you want for as long as you live!"

"That's right. Whether it's a gallon of milk or a Rolls Royce, the exact money is always there," says the man.

The waitress asks, "One other thing, sir, what's with the ostrich?"
The man sighs, pauses, and answers, "My second wish was for a tall chick with long legs who agrees with everything I say."

Dumb as a box of rocks. said...

Anonymous said...
Judge Gladys Perez is one of the brightest county court judges. She will win re-election by a landslide.

Friday, March 18, 2011 7:21:00 PM

Thank's for the update Judge Perez.

Landslide, really. A Republican hack, who has no clue about the law even if it's spelled out before her in bright flashing lights.

Does not protect the community from dangerous individuals who threaten harm with a firearm.

She is just completely clueless.

I need to know the address to send my $500 check to support her opposition on the 2012 election.

I'd rather vote for a box of rocks.

File now, lets get this party started.

Anonymous said...

Remember folks, special jury instructions, theory of defense obstructions are tailored to the facts of the case, the theory of prosecution, and the theory of defense. In the sp-jones case the instruct was appropriate. State's position was NOT that she solicited for a charity, rather that she did not--charity was a sham. State conceded in opening if charity was legit she did nothing wrong. State changed it's position when it's case went down the tube. Too late. Def already put on it's def. BTW, no special instruction given to the jury on Count 2, only the standards.
Jury still acquitted. Was that the judge's fault too??

Anonymous said...

The language in the bribery instruction is a direct quote from the Miami Dade County Ordinance. It is not an "interpretation" of the law as the state attorney suggests.

Moreover, The State had more than 4 MONTHS to submit alternative language for the instruction or suggest revisions. The State did nothing but object without suggesting alternatives. This was simply poor, lazy lawyering. They really threw away the opportunity to participate in the drafting of the instruction because they are lazy and arrogant.

Anonymous said...

Honestly, Howard Blumberg is raking in the dough! Who knew a career at the PD's office could be so lucrative???

The Straw Buyer said...

RIGHT???!!!

Anonymous said...

DS,

Stop kissing Trujillo's ass. He is also trying to get rid of some depositions in juvenile cases under HB 1015.

Anonymous said...

I can't say I saw or heard the instruction read.

If the instruction said that you have to acquit because a solicitation was authorized by law, I can't see anything wrong with that, because that's part of the element of the bribery charge.

If the instruction said that a solicitation was not illegal, because the political official never abused his or her position and never benefited from the charity, I could see that too. The burden is on the state to prove the illegal nature of the solicitation, not to presume that the solicitation is inherently illegal with the jury to guess what is legal or illegal.

But without having seen the instruction, I can't say one way or the other.

The Straw Buyer said...

12:37, here you go...

http://www.scribd.com/doc/50992533/Michelle-Spence-Jones-Bribery-Trial-Jury-Instructions

Anonymous said...

12:14
a. Carlos deserves a pat on the back on the Camara's issue.
b. Didnt hear about the Juvy depos , so Carlos gets a 'come on dude that sucks' on that issue
c. Why is saying I like or respect someone or what they are doing ass kissing
d. What the F are you doing bloggibf at 12:14 on a Sat night/ Sun morn? get a life
DS

Anonymous said...

The Pension argument is just More lies to screw public employees.
DS
The Florida Department of Management Services calculates that the average FRS employee earns a salary of $34,651, retires with 21 years of service, and collects an average annual benefit of $11.642, or $970 a month. Of the 304,337 beneficiaries in the state retirement system, fewer than two in 1,000 – .17 percent – draw more than $100,000 a year.

Rep. Scott Clemens, D-Lake Worth, said that the cost to each taxpayer to fund the retirement of all 655,000 current employees and 304,000 retirees is $138 per year. “That is a pittance,’’ he said

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/19/2124262_p2/pension-battle-overlooks-the-deeper.html#ixzz1HA3ChDx7

Anonymous said...

The question is: Who was behind this political prosecution of Michelle Spence-Jones and got KFR and Scruggs to file the "emergency" indictment right when it was apparent that a judge was going to reinstate her to the city of Miami commission?

Anonymous said...

they should get rid of depos in juvenile cases. that whole system is for low level lawyers like tamara gray whose name keep getting sent to the governor by the ass clowns who are on the JNC

Anonymous said...

540
good point about the jnc.
good point about depos in juvi.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone else had the same problems I have had with Andy Hague?

He makes people sit around for hours. He's rude to defense attorneys and he has all kinds of stupid rules about how he handles his calendar.

This guy wants to be a circuit judge so, maybe he could be a bit more kind to the people who might help him get there.