ELECTION CENTRAL - 2024 - COUNTY COURT RACES

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

CAMPAIGN CENTRAL - ELECTION 2024

Today, as promised, we bring you the County Court races.

COUNTY COURT JUDGE:

There are a total of 19 County Court Groups up for election in 2024. With 11 days to go, we currently have three judges who are retiring. Group 4, where Incumbent Judge Robin Faber is retiring, has drawn only one candidate. Group 12, where Incumbent Judge Steve Leifman is retiring, that Group has also drawn only one candidate.  In Group 29, where Incumbent Judge Myriam Lehr is retiring, that Group has drawn three candidates including one who is a former Judge who was defeated in the last election. 

There is one Incumbent Judge, recently appointed Judge Christopher Green, who has drawn one opponent in Group 31.

The other 15 groups have Incumbent judges currently facing no opposition.

Group 04 (Judge Robin Faber retiring)

Michelle Marie Urbistondo 
Raised $54,150 Loan $100,500

Ms. Urbistondo has been a member of The Florida Bar for 12 years. She is a solo practitioner who practices in the areas of civil litigation, focusing on real estate transactions, and marital and family law matters.

Group 12 (Judge Steve Leifman retiring)

Mariano Ariel Corcilli
Raised $43,801 Loan $120,000

Mr. Corcilli has been a member of The Florida Bar for 14 years. He is a member of the Military & Veteran Affairs Committee. He devotes a substantial amount of time to our vets. He formerly served in the U.S. Marines attaining the rank of Sergeant. He runs his own law firm where he concentrates on criminal defense and personal injury cases. He is a former ASA.

Group 29 (Judge Myriam Lehr retiring)

Christopher Benjamin
Raised $32,078 ($5,745 from State Rep election account)

Christopher Benjamin has been a member of The Florida Bar for 22 years. He is Of Counsel with International Law Partners, LLP. and a panelist with the ADR firm of Salmon & Dulberg. He works in the areas of general litigation and serves as an arbitrator, mediator, and special magistrate. He has been a certified mediator and arbitrator for 15 years and in 2010 he was appointed as a Hearing Officer in the 11th Judicial Circuit’s Traffic Division where he served until 2020. In 2020 (and again in 2022), he was elected to the Florida House of Representatives to represent the people of  District 107.

Scott Janowitz 
Raised $1,250 Loan $500

Former Judge Scott Janowitz has been a member of The Florida Bar for 18 years. He began his career as an ASA in Broward. He then joined a law firm before getting appointed to the bench by Governor DeSantis in 2020. He ran for election in August of 2022 and lost to current Judge Alicia Priovolos by 60% to 40%.

Alina Salcines Restrepo 
Raised $9,510 Loan $40,000

Alina Restrepo has been a member of The Florida Bar for 24 years. She has worked in a law firm with her brother who is also a lawyer and she has been a solo practitioner as well. She concentrates her practice in the areas of real estate, probate, criminal, civil, traffic, estate planning, and bankruptcy law.

Group 31

Rita Maria Baez 
Raised $9,500 Loan $200,000

Ms. Baez has been a member of The Florida Bar for 28 years. I was unable to locate any information about her other than she may practice personal injury law.

Christopher Green (I)
Raised $48,803 Loan $58,600

Judge Green has been a member of The Florida Bar for 31 years. He was appointed to the County Court bench in December of 2022 by Governor DeSantis.  He currently presides over civil cases in the South Dade Justice Center. This is his first election. Before his appointment, Judge Green was a trial attorney for 30 years with both civil and criminal jury trial experience.  He started his career as an Assistant Public Defender in Miami-Dade County.  For the next 22 years, Judge Green worked as an Assistant City Attorney with the City of Miami City Attorney’s Office litigation division. 

Group 01 Patricia Marino-Pedraza

Group 02 Kristy M. Nunez 

Group 06 Jorge Perez Santiago

Group 10 Diana Gonzalez-Whyte 

Group 14 Gloria Gonzalez-Meyer 

Group 18 Betsy Alvarez-Zane

Group 21 Jacqueline Michelle Woodward 

Group 22 Linda Singer Stein

Group 26 Maria De Fatima Ortiz 

Group 32 Lizzet Martinez 

Group 33 Eleane Sosa-Bruzon 

Group 37 Yara Lorenzo Klukas 

Group 40 Michael George Barket 

Group 41 Larry King 

Group 43 Milena Abreu

We will continue to monitor both the local election office as well as the office in Tallahassee for any group movement by the candidates as well as any new filings over the next 11 days.

CAPTAIN OUT .......
Captain4Justice@gmail.com

ELECTION CENTRAL - 2024 - CIRCUIT COURT RACES

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

ELECTION CENTRAL - 2024

On August 20th, voters in Miami-Dade County will head to the polls to elect several new judges in both the Circuit and County Court. As I have for the past 19 years, your Captain will be on top of all of the races, bringing you the breaking news that our readers have come to expect from your humble Blogger. You won’t get this kind of coverage in the Miami Herald, nor the Daily Business Review, the Miami News (now I’m aging myself), or any other local thread. Thanks to Rumpole and the Justice Building Blog our readers know that they will obtain their best election coverage from The Captain.

Today, we bring you the filings from the Circuit Court.

CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE:

There are a total of 24 Circuit Court Groups up for election in 2024. The deadline for filing is Friday, April 26, 2024. With 11 days to go, we currently have three judges who are retiring. Group 8, where Incumbent Judge David Miller is retiring, has drawn two candidates, and one name should be very familiar to most of our readers as he has been a Judge and ran in two contested elections in the past. In Group 29, where Incumbent Judge Pedro Echarte is retiring, that Group has also drawn two candidates.  In Group 49, Incumbent Judge Terera Pooler is retiring, and only one candidate has filed so far.

The other 21 Groups have Incumbent judges currently facing no opposition.

***In the contested and open races we are providing you with information on how much money the candidates have raised as well as how much they have loaned their individual campaigns.

GROUP 8 (Judge David Miller retiring)

Jason Edward Bloch
Raised $0.00 Loan $575,025

Jason Bloch has been a member of The Florida Bar for 30 years. He spent 20 years working for Miami-Dade County as an Assistant County Attorney. He was appointed to the Circuit Court bench by Governor Rick Scott in 2014. He ran in his first election in 2016 and lost to Judge Marcia del Rey 52% to 48%. He has spent the past seven years working pro bono on legal matters. He ran again for Circuit Court Judge in 2022 against Incumbent Judge Oscar Rodriguez-Fonts. He lost by 1,851 votes out of 262,589 votes; 50.4% to 49.6%.

Bonita Jones-Peabody
Raised  $28,526 Loan $25

Ms. Jones-Peabody has been a member of The Florida Bar for 33 years. She is currently working as an Assistant Public Defender in Miami-Dade County as a supervisory and training attorney. She has been with the office of Carlos Martinez for the past 20 years.

GROUP 29 (Judge Pedro Echarte retiring)

Heloiza Correa
Raised $107,313 Loan $11,000

Ms. Correa has been a member of The Florida Bar for 14 years. She is originally from Brazil. She began her legal career as an Assistant State Attorney in Miami-Dade County working there for nearly four years. She spent three years working for a law firm before opening up her own law office. She concentrates her practice in the areas of commercial litigation, complex business litigation, and construction litigation.

Cristobal David Padron
Raised $2,700 Loan $120,000

Mr. Padron has been a member of The Florida Bar for 12 years. He is a solo practitioner working in the areas of family law, dissolutions of marriage, paternity actions, domestic violence matters, as well as complex civil litigation and appeals.

GROUP 49 (Judge Teresa Pooler retiring)

Marie Elizabeth Mato
Raised $133,884 Loan $10,100

Ms. Mato has been a member of The Florida Bar for 24 years. She has dedicated her entire legal career as an Assistant Sate Attorney in Miami-Dade County where she currently handles the most serious felony cases in the office.

GROUP 2 Ariana Fajardo Orshan

GROUP 13 Jose L Fernandez

GROUP 14 Vivianne del Rio

GROUP 15 Maria Elena Verde

GROUP 24 Mindy S. Glazer

GROUP 25 Yery Marrero

GROUP 31 Carlos Lopez

GROUP 36 Lisa Sharon Walsh

GROUP 42 Miguel M. de la O

GROUP 43 Ellen Sue Venzer

GROUP 47 Maria de Jesus Santovenia

GROUP 53 Jason Emilios Dimitris

GROUP 54 Antonio "Tony" Arzola

GROUP 56 Javier A Enriquez

GROUP 58 Diana Vizcaino

GROUP 61 Christine Bandin

GROUP 66 Lourdes Simon

GROUP 68 Victoria del Pino

GROUP 71 Charlie Johnson

GROUP 78 Valerie R. Manno Schurr

GROUP 80 Marisa Tinkler Mendez

We will monitor both the local election office as well as the office in Tallahassee for any Group movement by the candidates as well as any new filings over the next 11 days.

TOMORROW, THE COUNTY COURT RACES.

CAPTAIN OUT .......
Captain4Justice@gmail.com

DONT GO

 There is a "happy hour" sponsored by the Dade County Bar Association on April 11. 

Here are all the reasons you should not go. 

1. There will be civil lawyers present. 

2. They will probably be drinking white wine spritzers. nuff said, right? But if you're still considering....

3. Their war stories are always something like "Then during summary judgement they forgot I had an affidavit from the insurer indemnifying my client ...." as which point all the civil drones listening say something like "Are you kidding me? I would have love to seen what Judge Monica-Beth Gonzalez-Schwartz-Sanchez-Goldstein said when you dropped that on them!!!!!" 

4. They will endlessly complain about having to wait to use a Tesla supercharger. "I liked it better when I was the only one in my neighborhood who had a Tesla. Now everyone has one."

5. They will want to show you pictures from their phone of their Italy trip last summer. "Here we are getting Pizza in Rome. Isn't my youngest cute? And here we are at the famous steps and when my wife learned we had to walk up them she told us to go without her..." 

6. They will say things like "So I bought Bitcoin when it was fifty dollars and I have 20 coins. How many do you have and I'm thinking of selling my Apple stock that I bought at 30 three years ago and buying Eth. How much Eth do you have?" 

7. At which point they will say "Did I tell you about the summary judgment motion I won last week?"

8.  Did we mention this event will be populated by civil lawyers? 

9. And as you walk away from the ignoramus with the Tesla and Bitcoin you will stumble into a covenant of civil lawyers and one will be saying "So I turned down the 1.4 million offer and said see you at trial and like an hour later their insurance lawyer started blowing up my phone..." 

10. Most of the food most likely will be gluten free vegan crapola. Our whole generation was raised on gluten and we all seem to be doing just fine. 

So do not go. But if you must then....

But wait! We have another reason... 

11) Qualification season is upon us, and as the weeks dwindle down, your favourite judge up for reelection cannot resist an event with lawyers and free food, so not only will you have to endure civil lawyers, but judges hunting for donations. 

You have been warned. 

RSVP here and tell them that under no circumstances will we be attending so the bourbon is safe. 

]

715

 Because baseball matters. On 4/8/1974 Henry Aaron hit home run number 715 passing George Herman Babe Ruth as the all time home run leader. 

Aaron's life was threatened. He was called disgusting names. His family was also threatened. Because he was a black man breaking the most hallowed record in sports. 

This was in 1974- during our lifetime. Fifty years ago this Monday. In the United States of America a black man's life was threatened because he had the temerity to hit more home runs than anyone else in our national pastime. 

Something to think about. 

Here's the video. 

JUDGE ILLANA DIAMOND ROVNER

 We came across this wonderful article on Judge Illana Diamond Rovner, the first woman on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Appointed by Ronald Wilson Reagan, she is everything a great judge should be. She has an amazing life story starting with her parents fleeing the Nazis six weeks after she was born in 1938. Her father was able to immigrate from Latvia and save his family's life. This was back when the United States was a beacon of freedom to the world and immigration was not a dirty word. (And yes we are well aware of the abject failures of the Roosevelt administration to do more to allow more people fleeing Nazism into the United States, but we can celebrate the success of this immigrant Judge). 

We recommend you read the article. Particularly striking is her recollection of her and two other women sitting in the first row of law school at Georgetown and the idiot professor telling them on the first day of class that he wore a black armband when women were admitted and he would not be calling on any of them. Or her experiences being a supervisor in the Department of "Justice" and male colleagues walking out because they would not accept being supervised by a woman. 

This all happened in our lifetime. This is not 100 years ago.  It  was a time before Starbucks and IG and Door Dash so we get that the 30 something DeSantis judges cannot relate to her experience- especially being a dirty foreign female immigrant and all.* But like it or not we are all sitting in the shade of an oak tree from acorns that Judge Illana Diamond Rovner planted. And we are all better off for it. 

*  We do not condone this language. We use it to show how the presidential candidate of the same party as Ronald Reagan who at least 40%-45% of the American Public plan on supporting speaks about immigrants and immigration. Because in their world the next Judge Diamond Rovner cannot come from Mexico or Nicaragua or Honduras. In fact, just spit balling here, but if they had a chance to vote on banning any person not born in the United States from being a judge, is there any doubt in your mind they would do so and the DeSantis- Maga-Federalist Society idiots would all jump on board? 

And yes we call the federalist society a bunch of idiots because we were there when it was formed and we know that the foundation of the group was based on certain philosophical and epistemological principles like what is a right and where does it come from that these fed-soc puppies with their tongues hanging out have never read or even heard about. They just want to be told to sit up, give their paw, be patted on the head and made a judge. It makes us sick.   

SAO DIVISION ASSIGNMENTS

 The start of baseball season reminds us that you can't tell the players without a programme. 

Springtime turns a young ASAs thoughts to promotion or that job at the insurance company defense firm paying 125K to start. 

Herewith we (no altruists us) provide you our readers the latest update of the SAO division assignments. 

For some reason we cannot find Michael Von Zamft's new assignment. Hmm...may have to check further on that. 

MISDEMEANOR DIVISION (Motto: "Wrecking the future of poor people one misdemeanor conviction at a time."  ) 

Misd Division Assignments 2-19-24 by Anonymous PbHV4H on Scribd

 

 FELONY DIVISION (Motto "Nothing better than offering five years prison for resisting with violence")

 

Felony Division Lawyers March 24 by Anonymous PbHV4H on Scribd

COURTHOUSE UPDATES

 As we start the new month of April, we have some updates on courthouses. 

As the new civil courthouse rises, so does the anticipation of what it will be, including the amenities. Today we learned some inside information about the new civil courthouse, including ....

There will be a food court and besides Chick-fil-A and a Cuban Cafe, such high-end eateries like Prime 112 (they have a great kobe beef hot dog)  and a high-end lunch restaurant run by famed chef Thomas Keller, he of French Laundry fame, who runs an "impossible to get into" restaurant at the Surf Club- tentatively to be called "The Verdict".  Also in the works is a "judges only" Nobu sushi restaurant on one of the tops floors, along with what is being called a "luxury" gym and spa requiring paid memberships.  Now your favourite judge can deny your motion for summary judgment,  bounce upstairs and hop on a Peloton before eating a half a sushi roll at Nobu because they are all on Ozempic like everyone else. 

Not to be out done, the REGJB downstairs will be getting a ...brace yourself...Whole Foods!!!! Including a juice bar and soup and salad bar. Healthy eating is apparently in these days. Tentative opening date is one year from today 4/1/2025. 

LEGAL BETTING ON THE LAW 

And finally, word comes that the Hard Rock sports betting app- which is the only legal sports betting in Florida,  is now expanding to cover bets on the upcoming judicial races as well as trials. You like the defense in an upcoming DUI trial? Check the app and see if you can get a not guilty at +140 (bet 100 to win 140). Word is some enterprising lawyers approached the Hard Rock and got them to book the bets with the lawyers setting the odds and splitting the wins and losses. 

The big bets will naturally be on the upcoming Trump trials. Right now the only odds are for the case in NYC and the odds against a full acquittal (the defendant is charged in over 30 counts) are over 50-1 meaning the bookmakers are calling a total not guilty a big long shot. To bet on a conviction on any count is -680 meaning you have to bet 680 to win 100, which means the prosecution is a serious favorite in this case. 

Those are your courthouse updates for today, enjoy.