THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:
SO, YOU WANT TO BE A JUDGE .......
The JNC for the 11th Judicial Circuit recently interviewed a number of candidates for one new Circuit Court seat and two new County Court seats created by the enactment of SB 2508 during the 2025 legislative session.
The JNC has nominated the following individuals for appointment to the Circuit Court seat. The Governor has 60 days to name our next Circuit Court Judge: (all six are current County Court Judges, meaning the Governor will get a two-fer).
Alicia Garcia Priovolos
Cristina Rivera Correa
Elisabeth Espinosa
Jorge Perez Santiago
Rita Gonzalez Cuervo
Stephanie Silver
The following individuals have been nominated for the two County Court seats. The Governor will name two of the 12 as our next County Court Judges:
Alexander Shear (APD)
Jose Rohaidy (ASA)
Andrew McGinley (Fla. Dept of Children & Families)
Kimberly C. Hillery (Dept. of Homeland Security)
Christian Dunham (Federal APD)
Michelle Roth (pvt. practice, former ASA)
Gabrielle Raemy Charest-Turken (AUSA)
Patricia Salman (CABA Staff Attorney)
Jeffrey Pierce (ICE - Dept. of Homeland Security)
Yaneth Baez (ASA)
Jennifer Trautman Levin (pvt. practice)
Zahara Markoe (pvt. practice, former ADA)
TAKING BETS ON THE THREE WINNERS (name your three in the Comments) .....
IN KEEPING WITH TRADITION .....
Governor DeSantis has been in office for slightly more than 6.5 years. In that time, he has made
326 judicial appointments.
Today alone, he named one new Circuit Court Judge in the 7th Judicial Circuit and two new County Court Judges in St. Johns and Monroe County. Two of the three new judges come directly from the State Attorney’s Office, while the third is a former ASA.
Of the 326 judges he has appointed to date, 208 had ASA/AUSA/AAG on their resume (64%), and 103 of those 208 were current prosecutors at the time of their appointment (32%). Contrast that with the fact that only three of the 326 were APDs (two state and one federal) at the time of their appointment (1%), and only 16 of the 326 had APD on their resume (5%).
Yes, elections do have consequences. (Good luck with your interviews in Tallahassee, Alexander Shear and Christian Dunham, - you have about a 5% chance of getting the call).
Captain4Justice@gmail.com
40 comments:
When I started practicing 46 years ago, judges were all older, experienced former trial lawyers of all legal backgrounds. Now we get 10 year prosecutors with hyphenated last names to show their Latin connection. At least they’re getting higher paying jobs
In light of recent events the first question to potential jurists should be "would you give a defendant a promise to appear who has multiple prior convictions for violent crimes?"
In other violent leftist news Charlie Kirk was shot while speaking about trans shooters, again proving just how violent those on the left are. I know you guys like to virtue signal and play moral high ground but at some point even the slowest of you have to realize you are the problem.
Stephanie Silver should get it but she won’t. Remainder are a crap shoot. Dunham should be a pick but unlikely. I’d say Gabrielle Raemy is probably a shoe in for one spot
Welp, Charlie Kirk has passed away. This is what relentless demonization and calling everyone a Nazi who disagrees with you gets you. The myth of the open, tolerant, accepting left has been exposed. They have continued to spew vitriol where these types of actions were inevitable. Time to accept the reality that we are enemies and not countrymen.
THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:
GOSNEY LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST THE MIAMI HERALD .....
The DBR broke a story today involving former employee of the SAO, Steven N. Gosney. Gosney has filed a lawsuit in the Circuit Court charging "defamation and tortious interference with a business relationship". The defendants named in the lawsuit include MCCLATCHY CO., LLC, d/b/a the Miami Herald, and reporters Brittany Wallman and Sarah Blaskey. He accuses Wallman and Blaskey of destroying his career through false reporting about his 2024 self-published crime novel.
Gosney alleges in his complaint that the Miami Herald "purposefully began pressuring the State Attorney's office to fire Gosney through publications attempting to equate Gosney's personal views and beliefs with villains in his fictional book."
Count I: Defamation – The McClatchy Co. d/b/a/ The Miami Herald
Count II – Defamation – Wallman, Indvidually
Count III – Defamation – Blaskey, Individually
Count IV – Tortious Interference with a Business Relationship –
The McClatchy Co. d/b/a The Miami Herald
Count V - Tortious Interference with a Business Relationship –
Wallman, Individually
Count VI - Tortious Interference with a Business Relationship –
Blaskey, Individually
The basis of the Complaint stems from the stories published on July 3, 2024 and August 2, 2024.
The Case Number is 2025-017511-CA-01 and has been assigned to Judge Robert Watson. Gosney is represented by Fort Myers attorneys Joseph E. Parrish, Robert H. Goodman and Megan E. Shaw of Parrish & Goodman.
CAPTAIN OUT .......
Whoever wears a red MAGA hat to the interview will get the spots. Pretty simple. Maybe Ariana Fajardo can chime in.
Rumpole. I’m very sad about Charlie Kirk.
That’s hilarious it’s a newspaper expose about who the State Attorneys Office hired to be their Ethics Chair. He wrote death penalty themed smut and sold it on his website. He was giving two bit creepy huckster. That’s kinda the sort of thing newspapers report on. Don’t want it, don’t go work in public office. Lawsuit sounds extremely dumb and apparently Gosney couldn’t get any local lawyers to file it. Go away bro.
The SAO gave in, and fired Gosney because of articles the Herald wrote? I don’t understand the hate for Gosney? He’s a good man. He wrote a fictional book, it had nothing to do with his real life job. The left is a sick group.
Espinosa is not qualified to sit on a park bench much less a judicial one.
Rohaidy and Priovolous are first rate.
Why isn’t the SAO getting sued? Didn’t they fire Gosney?
Let the depositions commence!
A PD lawyer I’m friendly with has a theory that ASAs make more lenient judges than APDs. He cites to a judge just north of me Marlene Alva.
She was an amazing PD, she walked everybody. She handled mass murders with style and grace. Her most notorious client died in prison of natural causes. Some liberal puts her on the bench and we all thought she’d be soft. Boy, were we wrong. She hammered folks, hard. Granted she was kind of easy on non-violent first offenders, like every judge, but a robber? Hammered!
My boy says that ASA’s see thousands of cases to a APD’s hundred. They also see the crap cases that never get filed. They look at criminals objectively. APDs sit in the cell with some pretty loathsome people. They get up close to the worst of society, therefore when they get on the bench, they think of the slimeballs they knew first-hand and are more likely to be harsh. “Being a criminal defense attorney does not mean you like criminals,” is what he says. “We know exactly who they are.”
Captain! Is the SAO immune to law suits?
Excellent law suit. I wish Gosney much luck.
Circuit - either Correa or Perez Santiago, but wouldn’t count out Garcia Priovolos being a surprise pick.
County - Agree that Charest-Turken looks like a shoe-in. Other spot to Markoe (former ADA) Pierce (ICE, former ASA & AUSA), or McGinley (DCF with Tallahassee connections).
But really, who knows, could be anyone.
He will need “much luck.” He will come out of civil litigation even more tainted than he already is. Such a delusional idiot.
It’ll be crickets from this one when it turns out to be a Republican former Marine.
Frivolous lawsuit. Nobody needed the Herald to know about that creepy book. I hope the Herald goes after attorney fees and sanctions. He knew the day he began at the SAO that people in the defense bar already knew about it and had issues with the whole scene.
Kissimmee Kid yes many APDs who have had long term contacts with client’s Defendants do get a jaded view of those accused of violent crimes, even while fighting their hardest to protect the clients rights and prevent government using the Justice system to abuse individual rights.
Margolius was a former PD and lord help a defendant who had a GT Auto in his court
Ahh, I see you are better-informed than the FBI about the identity and political beliefs of Kirk's killer, a young shotgun-toting white man last seen wearing an American flag t-shirt.
You are absolutely correct! I have never heard a MAGAT demonize a democrat, judge, congressperson, mayor, governor, or person of color as a threat to our national security. Only the right has the right to free speech.
Trump: Political violence has no place in….my inner circle.
What is a GT Auto?
Surprised since this blog has become part legal and part political that there are no comments about Kirk’s assassination. He was killed for his ideas and free speech. Sad time in our nation.
Whatever the left is spewing, and they’re entitled to their opinions and free speech, doesn’t come close to what magas said before knowing the real identity of the shooter. Accusing him of being a deranged trans leftist. Many on the left have gone bat sht but the right is equally complicit. The left has hijacked by the brainwashed woke rainbow in the exact same way republicans have been hijacked by the immigrant hating (even if they’re legal) abortion obsessed, Qanon, JFK jr’s still alive MAGA.
Christian Dunham is hands down the most rock solid criminal trial lawyer I have ever encountered in RGB. His legal talent and knowledge is only rivaled by his humble, warm demeanor and genuine smile. He embodies what real lawyers with a true love of the profession strive to become.
I think Yale Sanford will make a great judge in the future. He was a rising star at the SAO.
Dunham is the most qualified to get the nod for county judge. Qualifications do not mean much for political appointments.
Dunham is a rockstar.
SAO should never have fired him.
SAO needs new leadership
So now that it is known the shooter was a too-online right wing nut job, will "even the slowest of you [on the right] realize you are the problem"? Not holding my breath, you'll ignore it and hope the next shooter is a leftist so you can blame the rest of us for his actions while taking no accountability for the hate bubbling and boiling all over the online right. Intellectual consistency was never your side's strong suit.
3:17:18 - It's being reported that Tyler Robinson was an admirer of Nick Fuentes, the white supremacist Groyper who hated Kirk for being insufficiently right-wing. But hey, you do you.
Ridiculous lawsuit. Making his reputation worse.
Book sales must be underperforming.
Seconding 7:06AM, the only way they settle is if their insurance company forces them to do so. This lawsuit’s a joke, maybe spurred on by his success in getting a settlement out of the SAO.
Grand Theft of a Car
Really hope the Herald aggressively defends their reporters. Do not settle. File a motion to dismiss and a motion for sanctions and attorney’s fees for this frivolous bullshit. Gosney, truth is an absolute defense and you of all people should have respect for the First Amendment, considering the filthy garbage you put out there
Post a Comment