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.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

LOTS OF NEW JUDGES
, and more on the way .......

Congratulations to Judge Lisa Walsh. On Monday, Governor Rick Scott elevated her to the Circuit Court to fill the seat left vacant with the death of Judge Pineiro. Judge Walsh has big shoes to fill, but those that know Lisa have all the confidence in the world that she will get the job done and do it fairly and with respect, to the litigants and the attorneys, from both sides, just like Rob would have wanted and expected!!!

Judge Walsh joins Judge Victoria Brennan who last week was appointed by the Governor to replace Judge Kevin Emas. If you were keeping score, the six names that the Governor was choosing from included: Judges Brennan, Figarola, Hague, Walsh and White-Labora, and attorney Michael Hanzman.

Meanwhile, with the passing of Judge Gross, the JNC recently sent up six more names. Those names are: Judges Brennan, Walsh and White-Labora, along with private attorneys Miguel de la O, Michael Hanzman, and Richard Hersch. Keep your scorecards out as that means two of the six names before the Governor have now been eliminated from the short list. So, your next Circuit Court Judge will be either Judge White Labora or one of the three attorneys, de la O, Hanzman or Hersch.

County Court
.....

Last week Governor Scott appointed ASA Fleur Lobree to the open seat of Judge Bloom. On the same date that Lobree was being named a Judge, the JNC sent five more names up to the Governor to replace Judge Gayles’ open County Court seat. Those names are: Tanya Brinkley, Dawn Denaro, John Goran, Steven Lieberman, and Gordon Murray.

And, with the appointments of Brennan and Walsh, the JNC will open the application process one more time. They will conduct interviews and then send up still more names to the Governor and he will need to name two more County Court judges.

Of course, if by chance the Governor chooses Judge White-Labora for that last open Circuit Court seat, that will give Scott still one more County Court judge to name.

Has any Governor in the past ever had as many as eight (three Circuit and five County) judicial appointments in their first six months of office?

CAPTAIN OUT
.......

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good money if you can get it. $700/hour.LOL
DS

Insurance commissioner blasted for hiring attorney
Senate President Mike Haridopolos criticized state Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty for hiring an outside attorney to defend him in a lawsuit.
Insurance commissioner Kevin McCarty has hired a $715-an-hour attorney to defend him in a lawsuit filed by a Texas-based insurance company, an expense that outrages Senate President Mike Haridopolos.


http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/11/2162541/insurance-commissioner-blasted.html#

Anonymous said...

Funny how Walsh has done so little yet gotten so far so fast.

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the date when Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. It had been 39 days since Abraham Lincoln was sworn into office as our 16th President, and the Civil War had officially now begun.

Over the next four years, more than 600,000 would die in The War Between The States. It is the deadliest war in American history.

The war ended in April of 1865 when General Lee surrendered his Army on April 9th at the McLean House in the village of Appomattox Court House.

Five days later, the war would take its final life - Lincoln was shot by Booth at Ford's Theater on April 14th and he died the next day.

Cap Out ....

Anonymous said...

Where do we send our comments regarding the people nominated for the recent county court vacancy?

Anonymous said...

It was not the end of the war that drove Booth to this deed. Three days before the assasination, Linlcon gave a speech in which he advocated the right to vote for all former slaves. Booth was furious and wrote in his diary "That means nigger citizenship. By God, I'll put him through. That is the last speech he will ever give."

What this means is that 100 years before MLK was assasinated, Lincoln acutally lost his life trying to give equal citizenship to Black Americans.

What is little discussed is that after the military tribunal heard the evidence against the remaining conspirators it rendered a verdict of death and the sentence was carried out the very next day.

At the time there were no appeals from military justice and the right of Habea Corpus had been suspended by Lincoln through Presidential Proclamation as is permitted by the US Constitution.

Although the evidence was only circumstantial the Court still found Mary Surratt guilty and hanged her the next day.

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...

to 10:59 am

Please send your comments about pending nominees before the Governor to:

Charles Trippe
General Counsel
Office of the Governor
Tallahassee, FL 32301

FAX 850-488-9810

Cap Out ....

My Two Sons said...

To 8:43 AM. Those of us who have worked with Lisa are not the least surprised at her rapid ascent. She has quite a bit of criminal trial and appellate experience as well as the judicial temperament we so rarely see these days. Congratulations Lisa!

Anonymous said...

To 8:43am .... Your comments about Judge Lisa Walsh are misplaced. In the many years that i have known Judge Walsh, she has proven to be an exceptional assistant public defender with incredible trial skills, a very intelligent and fair County Court Judge - and most importantly she has great integrity and much respect for litigants and attorneys appearing before her. She will make our friend Rob Pineiro proud.

Anonymous said...

Lisa Walsh is a very intelligent judge and she was a very good and effective lawyer. Whoever wrote the comment regarding her "doing so little" must be someone who does not know her very well.

What she has "done" is practice law with integrity (a feat many of our bretheren have a hard time doing) and treating people with respect and dignity.

I would prefer someone who has "done so little" in your eyes to someone who pads their resume with meaningless crap just to look like they are involved in the community when it is really just smoke and mirrors.

Congratulations Judge Walsh - as I've said, this was long overdue!

Anonymous said...

Dear Governor Scott,

I join you in your cost saving plans to eliminate JA's and create a pool of lets say 1 JA per 5 judges and only pay those in the judicial system that work hard and excel!

Right now every judge has a JA and almost none of them ever answer the fucking phone. Go ahead, call them. Better yet, call all of them at 3: 55 pm on a Friday. I dare you! All you'll get is along rambling message that tells you where and how to gets some clerk or other brain damaged idiot to handle your problem.

When you finally get one of those fucking lazy JA's to actaully answer the phone, they almost always put you on hold and ignore you while they do their nails or makeup.

So, let's throw them all in pool and only pay them if they can prove they actually took phone calls and did their fucking job for once.

(I say this today as I have been calling a JA almost three times a day for 6 days and no answer and no return call).

One other thing, if a JA says you must fax over the motion and we will get back to you, I suggest they only get paid if they actually do get back to you with a hearing date. Otherwise, out they go.

I also suggest that since judges are also your servants, if any judge has a policy that he or she will pick the hearing date even if it's day when you simply cannot be there then, the judge doesn't get paid either.

Let's put all those merit retention/Republican ideas to work in the judiciary.

Anonymous said...

May 9th Tunis to ROC and Vicki Brennan to Tunis' old division, per Judge Tunis today incourt.
DS

Anonymous said...

3:39 If you are truly having that type of problem with a JA, I don't know one judge who would not like to hear about it. They know they are the ones who suffer if the JA is nonresponsive to attorney calls and requests.

Anonymous said...

A bit of trivia: one of the judges on the Military Tribunal on the Booth conspirators was General Lew Wallace. He later wrote the largest selling novel in the USA until Gone With The Wind: Ben Hur.

Anonymous said...

To 8:43 - your comments are on the mark. 1:46, 1:51 and 2:14 are just the loyal and faithful dogs she unleashes in her defense.

Bonnie Riley said...

Dear Wednesday - 8:10 a.m. and Tuesday at 8:43:

I have never been asked by Judge Walsh to defend her or comment on her behalf. I know her to be a very smart woman who treats everyone with respect and who has a lot of class.

How sad it must be for you to exist in such a jealous and nasty state of mind.

I can assure you, she has not "unleashed" me to defend her but I wholeheartedly believe that she will be a great circuit court judge.

You might consider conducting yourself with a little more dignity.

Anonymous said...

Isn't it interesting that the 'good' Judges have good, well qualified JAs, while the Judges who I can't stand being in front of have JAs that match and are the most unhelpful.

Anonymous said...

Dear 2: 48 am.

Go ahead and tell a judge his or her JA is a jerk. Do it. You will regret it for a long time.

I too am tired of JA's not answering the damn phone.

Anonymous said...

Oh boy,

Tunis replaced by Brennan.

It's hard to imagine two meaner people in the same courtroom.

Tunis interrupts everyone with her famous line, "I don't mean to be rude but,..."

Brennan loves to tell you how smart she is an how dumb you are.

Lucky me. I have no cases in that division.

Anonymous said...

10:15: great observation about judges and their JA's! Very true.

Anonymous said...

There will probably be many more judicial appointments for this retarded governor to make if he keeps taking money from the judges and messes with thier pensions.

Anonymous said...

Rump,

Let's to a rant about bad JA's.

Some are great but, most simply do nothing and get by.

Go get em!

Anonymous said...

No one said tell a judge that his/her JA "is a jerk." How retarded can you be to even imply that? Use some diplomacy and speak to the judge quietly and without others overhearing and in a friendly way. You all think it has to be confrontational, and it does not have to be. I promise the judges want to know.

Anonymous said...

What a way to make Judge Tunis look great - to replace her with that miserable nasty human being, Victoria Brennan. She's so smart, just ask her. She is a totally unqualified person to be on the circuit court with NO judicial temperment.

Anonymous said...

Rump, why is it improper to comment on a judge's sexual orientation?

Anonymous said...

Wrong.

Never tell even a good friend that his or her JA is not doing a good job. You will regret it.

I did once. I was nice about it. I did it in private and I was trying to let the judge know his JA was not nice and was making him look bad.

Now, my old friend with a robe is still mad at me and the JA is furious.

Thank God they moved to civil.

Anonymous said...

Asshole,

Why is it appropriate to comment on ANYONE'S sexual orientation?

Anonymous said...

Rump for Judge!

Anonymous said...

It is appropriate to comment on who is getting divorced or who is married to who. For example, someone recently commented that Judge Lagoa was appointed because of her husband. Why wouldn't it be appropriate to comment on a judge's sexual preference? Seems like a double standard. It's okay to comment on a straight judge but everyone freaks out if someone insinuates that a judge is gay?