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.

Saturday, March 14, 2020

SATURDAY MARCH 14 UPDATE

(See Our Watch, Read, and Listen list below. Check back often for updates): 

UPDATE: TRAFFIC COURT NOT CANCELED: Our court leaders have NOT canceled traffic court. Sure we may have several billion dollars in increased health care costs because our community leaders are lacking in common sense, but damn certain we are going to collect those 129 dollars in court costs and send you to traffic school. 
How many more stupid decisions do we have to endure while the decision makers jeopardize our health by requiring hundreds of people to unnecessarily stream into Miami Courthouses?

Not that these people have demonstrated the capacity for deep thinking and reflection, but here's a good article on what SOCIAL DISTANCING REALLY MEANS.

HERE IS THE PROBLEM: For our State Attorney it's "business as usual." Hey! Neville Chamberlin! IT'S NOT F'ing business as usual. Look around you! You can't buy toilet paper. School is canceled. Sports are canceled. Businesses are going under. TRY BEING A LEADER FOR ONCE and get ahead of the curve. 


Dear Judges Soto and Sayfie, State Attorney Fernandez-Rundle, Public Defender Martinez, and RC3 Head Zenobi- LET'S DO THE MATH. 
1. We have a contagious virus. 2. We can help slow the spread of the virus by keeping people away from each other. Here is what you can do:
Judges Soto and Sayfie: Every Judge brings a total of seven people at a minimum to court (JA, Bailiff, two clerks, two corrections officers). Seven floors in the REGJB- one judge and staff per floor per week will handle in court cases. If ten judges stay home, seventy plus people stay away from each other. 

KFR, PD and RC3- Rotate staff under the same principle, Let the others work from home. Start by allowing staff with children to work from home. 

NO DL SUSPENSIONS for any ticket not a DUI, including any case where someone doesn't show up to court. 
NO Misdemeanor bench warrants except in DV cases and we are not sure how that works anyway. 
NO Felony ACs on any third degree felony. 
Inform police they should not arrest anyone on any misdemeanor warrant. PTA everyone. 
Give police discretion to not arrest on felony warrants depending on the case. 

RUMPOLE'S QUARANTINE READ AND WATCH LIST (This will surprise you)

READ:
Report From Engine Co 82: NYC Fireman Dennis Smith's classic real life reporting of working as a firefighter in the Bronx in NYC in the 1970s. Gritty and real life. 
Stephen King's IT: No one writes better about the travails of childhood then King. 
The Exorcist: William Peter Blaty's book is scarier than the movie. 
John Feinstein's A Season on the Brink and a Good Walk Spoiled. Imbedded reporting on the 1995 basketball season with Indiana's legendary coach and tyrant Bob Knight and imbedded reporting of a year on the PGA tour with non-superstar players trying to make the cut. 


WATCH:
Impractical Jokers (Tru TV): Our generation had Candid Camera. This generation has four friends (in real life since childhood) who became comedians and then landed a TV show putting them in real life embarrassing situations. The challenges in the Supermarket are the best. Clipping balloons to unaware people will have you laughing out loud. Several seasons are continually re-run on TruTV. Avoid the movie- it's so-so at best. 

Joe Schmo:The classic reality TV show- and entire show of actors posing as  contestants except for one person who thinks the show is real. The social engineering is fascinating. Hard to find. Season Three is on Netflix. If you find the others, let us know. 

The Dr. Kildare MGM movie series. An aging Lionel Barrymore is as great as ever as the grouchy old doctor who trains young Dr. Kildare. 
The Crown- Netflix:Because we are Anglophiles. 
Hill Street Blues (Hulu). The original gritty TV law and order series. Superbly written and acted, although PD Joyce Davenport and her court scenes are  a little too much of a caricature for our tastes these days.
The Great British Baking Show. Fun and easy and stress reducing.
The Sherlock Holmes series in black and white with Basil Rathbone as Holmes. 
Fawlty Towers (BritBox). The best comedy series period. The number one funniest comedy TV show ever is the Episode "The Germans". You will never ever see a more maniacal comedy performance then John Cleeves as the henpecked owner of a small English hotel. If you take our recommendations on one thing, this is it. 
Shetland (Brit Box): Jimmy Perez is author Ann Cleeves inspector. Well done and worth a watch. 

LISTEN: A NEW TOPIC 
Radio is our passion. Something we have not spoken about before. If you have Sirius then tune into the Johnny Carson channel. The monologues from the 1970's and 80's are a fascinating flashback to the commentary of the nation at the time. Carson makes fun of Presidents Ford, Carter, and Reagan. Listening to interviews of celebrities like Charles Nelson Riley who always feels obligated to throw in a reference to a woman he had dated because he was obviously gay at time when such topics could not be discussed, is a fascinating window into how our society has evolved. It is at times funny, unintentionally sad, but always interesting. 




16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Easy E Elortegui update- it's true he is an investor in Miami Slice Pizza in Manhattan. But may have retired to a small isolated Cabin off the coast of Maine and is waiting for the CV19 virus to pass.

Anonymous said...

Now this is a problem. My hot yoga class was canceled.

Anonymous said...

Rump props to our PD Carlos Martinez who has given PD employees the option to work from home if they have child care issues without losing pay or using vacation time. Waiting on our State Attorney to do the same …..(crickets)

Anonymous said...

Wait just one.minute.

This Coronavirus stuff is admittedly bad but - CHARLES NELSON REILLY is GAY??

What? Are you fucking kidding me? How could that be.

Anonymous said...

KFR is a moron. An idiot. Stuck in her top floor office. No mingling with the common people who make her office run. BUSINESS AS USUAL??? Sorry Rump, but please post this- ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?
It's not business as usual. The last time it was business as usual was the Spanish Flu a hundred and two years ago you dumbsH&T. Wake up and make some decisions will ya?

Anonymous said...

So if we have a case on calendar for Monday that is a just a regular status report are we expected to be there? Is our client?

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...


THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

WTF - FLORIDA IS STILL HOLDING A PRIMARY ON TUESDAY ???????

As the BLOG's official writer on all things election related, one has to question why Florida Governor DeSantis has not postponed the Florida Primary until a later date. By contract, Louisiana, a much smaller state, with less positive reports of coronavirus, has moved their State's Presidential Primary from April 4 to June 20. Wyoming has also postponed their primary scheduled for April 4th. (There are 9.4 million registered voters in Florida compared to 2.2 million in Louisiana).

In 2016, more than 4 million Floridians voted in the Presidential Primary where Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump swept the state with overwhelming wins. (a percentage of those votes did take place by absentee ballot of course).

Why is DeSantis going to permit million of Floridians to stand in line with each other, certainly in closed indoor spaces, within six feet of each other, and touch voting equipment that thousands of voters will touch over the course of the voting day.

The Centers for Disease Control recently issued guidance targeted to election officials that urges states and counties to encourage mail-in voting and early voting as much as possible, in an effort to “minimize direct contact with other people and reduce crowd size at polling stations.” The CDC also urged poll workers to routinely clean and disinfect polling stations, “limit nonessential visitors” and encourage as much social distancing as possible.

Many Republicans will likely stay home from the polls in Florida as there is really no contest on the Republican side of the ballot. But, Dem voters will choose between Biden and Sanders (many others still appear on the ballot) so Democratic turnout would presumably be much higher.

Question Governor: Are you hoping that Dem voters all get infected, so that their turnout in November for the general election is lower because some of them will eventually die (3.5% based on current numbers)? I ask that question tongue in check, but one has to wonder why DeSantis hasn't exercised his Governor powers to move the date of the Primary?

Move the date and direct all SOEs in each County to send out paper absentee ballots to every voter that has not already requested one previously and/or voted in the early voting. This is NOT rocket science. LEAD.

Cap Out .......

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...


ADDED STAT:

VOTE BY MAIL (VBM)

In the 2016 general election, more than 2.7 million registered voters, some 28.7 percent of the 9.6 million Floridians who turned out to vote, cast their ballot by mail, up from the nearly 2.4 million registrants (or 27.8 percent of the electorate) who voted VBM in 2012. Four years earlier, in the 2008 general
election, more than 1.8 million Florida voters, or 22.2 percent of the electorate, cast a VBM ballot prior to Election Day.

That still leaves as many as 3 million voters who would be showing up to the polls on Tuesday based on those percentages.

Cap Out .....

Anonymous said...

Rumpole,

May of the things you suggest have been discussed and agreed to by the SAO, PD and RC. Judges will not be issuing warrants for failures to appear and defense counsels can waive client's presence. If opposing parties agree to a reset they can email the court together and no one has to come to court at all.

You jumped to conclusions.

Additionally, there has been criticism of Judge Soto for allegedly not acting quickly enough, yet it was her taking action that led to the Florida Supreme Court issuing its order on Friday. No other circuit was taking action.

Very disappointed in your jumping to conclusions before having all the facts.

Respectfully,

Disappointed in the Rump 2020

Rumpole said...

Sorry- too little too late. This should have been set in motion a month ago. I did a blog post a month ago calling for the suspension of all not in custody jury trials and closing civil court. Nothing. Crickets. LAST WEEK there were at least two MISDEMEANOR JURY TRIALS on charges like resisting without violence. Ridiculous.
And now she still has not scaled back court. EVERY JUDGE WITH A FULL STAFF IS COMING TO COURT. If you know anything about flattening out a pandemic curve it's in the numbers of people you keep apart. Judge Soto bears direct responsibility for still bringing over a thousand people to work when she could reduce that number by 75-85%. If everyone did that in all phases of work we would be out of this issue by April 20. But nope EVEN TRAFFIC COURT IS STILL OPEN. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
And you defend these actions?
Then you go to traffic court and hang out with the hundreds of people traipsing into the courthouse every day. Good luck to you when you get sick and need a respirator and there isn't one to save you.
Be disappointed in me. I'm not killing you. I'm not putting you and your family at risk. Others are.

Anonymous said...

Lesson: don't fu&k with Rumpole. You can't win. He's too sharp.

Anonymous said...

Too sharp? Rumpole is, and always has been, an idiot. Close courts a month ago? Then you’d be bitching that cases are backed up, no justice, where’s my right to be heard?, blah, blah, blah. Soto was on the phone with the chief of the supremes getting things accomplished. She’s the only judge over there who actually does that for the most part. Close courts a month ago.... what a fucking joke. Do you go to publix? How about the movies or the mall. Is your fat ass sitting at Cheesecake Factory or better yet, Joe’s? I bet there is a cigar bar out there somewhere with gold plaques with your names on the chairs that never get cold. Yet, your lazy, complaining, sanctimonious asses can’t go to work....... please.......!

Rumpole said...

The only reason I posted that ridiculous comment is so that people can see the level of ignorance in this community.
YOU MORON. YOU IDIOT. Read the article I posted on social distancing. No restaurants. No public places. My home was fully stocked with six months of food, medicine and supplies in January when Covid 19 became news. I sold the market short in mid February. I was publicly calling for Judge Soto to close civil courts and cancel all non in custody jury trials A MONTH AGO. THEY HAD A FULL JURY POOL LAST WEEK IN BOTH COURTHOUSES AND IN FED COURT. In the REGJB they were trying resisting without violence cases- bringing 30 people into a close contact jury box you simpleton.
Meanwhile Judge Soto who you praise HAS NOT CANCELED TRAFFIC COURT. Oh please don't go to the ER if you're sick BUT GO TO TRAFFIC COURT AND PAY 129 IN COURT COSTS OR OUR WHOLE SOCIETY WILL COLLAPSE.

Do us all a favor- go to Italy and find a public bathhouse and wash up. Then go out to eat. Idiot.




Anonymous said...

I am 8:45 am and all I can do is LAUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Got under your skin huh? Go smoke those cigars and eat your crab legs.

Unknown said...

Sounds like Rumpole is trying to dodge a traffic ticket! Suspend trials a month ago with a Tolling Order from the SCT? Genius- absolutely Genius!!! I’m shocked you weren’t followed on that-

Anonymous said...

So, I know of at least 1 other besides me who has answered your last entry and you won’t post either of them.
So typical....