JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG

2012-01-30T01:35:00.010-05:00

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

WELCOME WELCOME TO THE REGJB ....

So, you may be noticing some new faces and some old faces around the building this week. Lots of boxes moving in and moving out. Can't find a Judge?

Welcome back Judge Victoria Sigler. You can find her in courtroom 4-8; she took over Judge Cueto's division.

Welcome back Judge William Thomas. You can find him in courtroom 4-2. He took over Judge Zabel's division.

Welcome back Judge John Schlesinger. You can find him in courtroom 6-4. He took over Judge Trawick's division.

Welcome for the first time Judge Valerie Manno-Schurr. You can find her in courtroom 2-8. She took over Judge Firtel's division. If any of you know anything about Judge Manno-Schurr please share your knowledge with our readers. She comes from Civil. She knows nothing about criminal. She has never sentenced a criminal defendant - ever. (She did shadow Judge Firtel for a few calendars). Provide her with some case law; write a legal memorandum; give her some guidance.

Welcome for the first time (sort of) to Judge Samantha Ruiz-Cohen. You can find her in courtroom 2-4. She takes over Judge Tinkler Mendez' division.

Other moves:

Judge Rosa Rodriguez can now be found in courtroom 3-2. She takes over Judge Ward's ROCourt division.

Judge Tinkler Mendez can now be found in courtroom 7-2. She takes over Judge Scola's Back Up division.

Judge Firtel can now be found in courtroom 4-6. He takes over Judge Rodriguez' Back Up division.

AND LAST, BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST, WELCOME BACK ONE OF THE BEST JA'S THE REGJB HAS EVER KNOWN.

Welcome back to Diana Petitto. She was Judge Pineiro's JA during his years on the bench. After he passed away, she joined Judge Manno Schurr in civil. She re-joins the REGJB family. Please drop by chambers in Room 223 and say hello to Diana. She would love to see all of you.

CAPTAIN OUT .....

THE UN DEAD

2012-01-29T10:36:00.000-05:00

A few thoughts on Florida's upcoming primary:

Newt Gingrich is a vampire. He is the un dead. He cannot be killed without a wooden stake though his heart (or a few more steaks from the Palm- Newt's getting portly) and getting beat in Florida, which is a probability come Tuesday, will not do it.

After the Florida primary 10% of the delegates will be chosen. Up coming primaries include Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Texas. All southern states and all states that The Vampire Gingrich will do well in.

Note to Mitt: If you ignore Newt again after beating him in Florida, he will arise at night and suck the blood from your campaign. Again.

THE SUPER BOWL.

The Giants being a 3 point underdog in this super bowl is like someone saying to you in 1999 "You know, Apple might be a good stock to buy a few thousand shares of." (October 1999- $75.00 a share.)

We are reminded of the best super bowl score we ever made: the famous 1979 line.
The Steelers were back in the super bowl for the third time. They opened at 2 1/2 point favourites and the money pored in (ours included.) The line went to 4 and then 5 1/2 before settling at 4 at kick off.
The Steelers won 35-31. Those who had the Steelers -2 1/2 won. Those who had the Cowboys + 5 1/2 won. Those who had ether the Steelers or the Cowboys at 4 pushed and got their money back. It was our first five figure profit from a bet (we had the Steelers - 2 1/2 and the Cowboys +5, which is called "a middle"). The only people who lost money were the books.

We don't know if this is a game to middle. We like the Giants, no points, and take the money odds (+120) meaning bet ten bucks and win twelve (only in America!).

We'll keep you updated about our thoughts of securing your retirement with this super bowl, including our exclusive lock on the coin flip.

Coming this week: More about electronic filing, or "Joel Brown, Harvey Ruvin, and the revival of the Pony Express."

Welcome to the 21st Century

2012-01-28T09:01:00.000-05:00

Good Saturday morning. Before we begin, a little business:

There are two Circuit Court Criminal Judges designated as the emergency judges for this weekend: Samantha Ruiz Cohen and Vicki Brennan. Will Thomas has the Circuit Court Civil duty. We have been assured that callers will be treated in a courteous manner and all calls will be promptly returned.

The inside rumor is that the Court Administrators are considering adding a customer loyalty program: every time you get an emergency order signed on the weekend you will get a loyalty card stamped. Five stamps entitle the customer to a free cup of coffee at Au Bon Pain.

Also being considered is outsourcing the entire operation to India: "Hello, this is Pandhari, how may I be of assistance to you this emergency weekend?"

We've done a pretty through search of the Federalist Papers and we're pretty sure the founders didn't want anyone becoming president whose name was Mitt. It falls under the writings about avoiding embarrassing the presidency to foreign nations. But then again if that was true, how do we explain eight years of W?

State Attorney Mike Satz in Broward has a challenger: Chris Mancini.
Let the "anyone but Satz" campaign begin!

Speaking of Broweird, they are way ahead of Dade in implementing E-filing. What an embarrassment for our circuit. What can Brown do for you?

We guess this idea is probably too good to be implemented, but the Feds really got the e-filing system right and could someone explain to us why Florida couldn't have bought the whole system and implemented it State wide? Or is Florida hearing for as many different e-filing systems as there are counties?

Something tells us the Florida court system will be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Especially since as late as 1998 the system seemed so comfortable with living in the 19th century.

Enjoy your weekend.

EMERGENCY!

2012-01-25T15:39:00.002-05:00

Here is the situation: You are an attorney and have a client ordered released on house arrest a few days before Christmas. It is now Christmas Eve and your client is not out. Corrections has made some sort of mistake (as shocking as that may seem. By the way, Dade Corrections confirms the bond for Al Capone is almost processed and he should be released shortly.) What do you do? What CAN you do?

You can call the on duty emergency Judge for help. The Eleventh Judicial Circuit web site maintains a list of the emergency on duty judges for the criminal and civil and family divisions (although for the life of us we cannot imagine what emergency a civil lawyer could have- "Judge, the bank has short changed us $1.67 on the interest on the judgment and we need that fixed before Monday." ? Whatever.)

One such lawyer had such a problem this past christmas eve. He did not get satisfaction from the on duty judge for criminal court. Indeed, he did not get a call back although he left several messages. Perplexed that the on duty criminal judge would not return his call, the attorney -thinking that the duty judge's phone must not be working- called the on duty civil judge. Enter Judge Gil Freeman who saved the day for the attorney and his client. She was by all accounts understanding, courteous, professional, and helpful to an attorney almost out of options.

Here is the letter which obviously lists the criminal court judge in question. But before you read it, try and guess who was less than helpful in this situation (including the allegation that he hung up on the attorney when he finally picked up the phone once he was explained what the emergency was.)

(Hat tip to South Florida Lawyers for
the letter. )

Hint:

“This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digest his words
With better appetite.”

William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar.

Hirsch, M.complaint.adm.Judge

STATE OF THE UNION

2012-01-24T20:02:00.000-05:00

STATE OF THE UNION:

We'll live blog for a bit during the state of the union address. So feel free to post your comments which will go up just about instantaneously.

STATE OF THE STATE:
We think we have to side with the critics of the Captain's last post. From what we know, Mr. Labora is Hispanic and his decision to announce to run as Alex Jimenez Labora is no real problem for us. People are entitled to run for office in a manner in which their ethnicity is reflected in their name. The problem arises with individuals who co-opt the names of their spouse or long removed family members in order to capitalize on perceived ethnic advantages that they're not otherwise entitled to take advantage of.

The fact of the matter is that an individual's ethnicity means nothing regarding their intellectual ability to perform an elected office. However, to the extent that the experience of being a member of a minority may help that individual in understanding the minorities that they may be required to judge or otherwise render a decision about, a person's cultural experience is just something that cannot be separated from the person.

This is a slippery slope. In the end we would prefer a society where a person is judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. MLK knew a thing or two.

Go ahead and live blog- the comment moderation is off for a bit.

ELECTION CENTRAL: SANTOVENIA V. LABORA

2012-01-24T00:10:00.014-05:00

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

Election Central .....

Circuit Court Group 47. Maria de Jesus Santovenia now has an opponent.

An Attorney using the name ALEX JIMENEZ LABORA has filed to run against Ms. Santovenia for the open Circuit Court seat.

BUT, HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM .........

There is no Alex Jimenez Labora that is licensed by The Florida Bar to practice law in the State of Florida.***

The Florida Bar does list an Alexander J. Labora as an attorney who has been practicing law in Florida for 18 years. (He also happens to be married to one Judge Deborah White Labora).

Now, suffice it to say that both Horace and I have always been big supporters of Judge Deborah White Labora and the Drug Court Program on this BLOG. But, fair is fair. And in the past, when someone has filed to run for Judge using a name different than the one they are licensed under, and when that different name just happens to be an Hispanic name, we must call Mr. Labora out on this.

***We checked at SunBiz.org for the name Alex Jimenez Labora and we were only able to find an Alexander J. Labora listed as an RA and/or an Officer in three different corporations. We also checked Fictitious Names, Limited Liability and General Partnerships. We did find one listing for an Alexander Jimenez PA that was formed in 2008 but the addresses do not appear to match up to Mr. Labora. Mr. Labora does state on The Florida Bar web site that his firm name is Alex Jimenez Labora, but there are no corporations or fictitious names found searching "Alex Jimenez Labora".

Mr. Labora specializes in foreclosure defense, bankruptcy, commercial transactions, personal injury and probate. He went to school in Mexico at Universidad IberoAmericana graduating with a chemical engineering degree in 1979. He furthered his education with an MBA obtained in 1983 at the Wharton's School of Business at the Univ. of Penn. He then went to law school at the "U" and got his JD in 1992. He has been a Hearing Officer in the 11th Judicial Circuit since 2010.

For the record, there are now four contested Circuit Court races. Also, there are currently four contested County Court races. The only non-incumbent who has yet to draw a challenger is County Court candidate Tanya Brinkley in Group 28.

JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS UPDATE:

We are waiting to hear from Governor Scott on the replacment for Judge Scola.

The JNC sent six names up on December 16, 2011 and the Governor has 60 days. Those names are:

Miguel de la O
Richard Hersch
Alan Sackrin
Rodney Smith
Deborah White-Labora
Bonnie Riley

The JNC is accepting applications for the following open seats:

County Court - the seat of Norma Lindsey (she was elevated to Circuit); application deadline is January 30, 2012

Circuit Court - the seat of Julio Jimenez (he passed away last week); application deadline is February 16, 2012.

Captain Out .....

THE EYES OF THE NATION

2012-01-23T05:05:00.004-05:00

The traveling circus called the Republican Primary (Motto: "Did you realize Obama is black??") has moved to sunny Florida. The eyes of the nation are upon us. What to do? What to do?

We Miamians know what to do when the eyes of the nation are upon us.

Lets start with a good old fashioned MIAMI RIOT!!

We did it for the 1989 super bowl and for that last international conference of some sort. Lets have a riot!

What else? Well remember, this is the state that had a former supreme court justice indicted for drug trafficking. And then he jumped bond!

That's right, all you wet behind the ears young ASAs from Backwater, PA and you idealistic PDs from Hicktown, Indiana, we had a supreme court justice who trafficked in Marijuana for a little income supplement. (FYI: the name of the justice and the case won't come up in a Google search. But it's a great trivia question: who was it?)

What else? Well perhaps one of our senators can reveal he's a transvestite on the weekend. Nah- this is Florida, we need something really kooky.

Well, we'll all just have to wait and see. But be assured of this: our State's proud history of doing something absolutely, stunningly, embarrassing and stupid ensures that we will not drop the ball when the nation is watching.

See You In Court. Watching and waiting. This ought to be good.

THE BEST

2012-01-20T18:35:00.001-05:00

UPDATE: Saturday night at 6pm, our prediction for the South Carolina Primary: Newt Gingrich 40%; Mitt Romney: 29%, Ron Paul: 15%; Rick Santorum: 14%.
You read it here first.
FYI: For you Paul supporters here in Florida, you will be disappointed as your candidate will not be on the air here at all, and will spend very little time in the state. Florida is a winner-takes-all primary for its 50 delegates, and the enrollment procedure which doesn't allow independents to register vote in the Republican primary at the last moment make the contest a non-starter for congressman Paul.

It's mid-January and a young Floridian's thoughts turn to......

PIZZA!

Why not? We've done posts on the best bar-be-que, so why not a conversation on the best pizza in Miami?

The conversation starts with two: Anthony's Coal Fired, which has several outlets in Dade and Broward (and serving a pie to those lunkheads north go the border is a definite no-no in our eyes) and Steve's Pizza at 12101 Biscayne Boulevard- in North Miami on US 1 next to the Home Depot.

Anthony's Coal Fired has that coal fired oven smoky taste. The sauce and crust meld nicely and there are several great toppers that make the pizza sing. Our favorite it to have them put the Eggplant Marino on top of the pizza. Anthony's also has great chicken wings and a winning salad. You can catch us at the one just south of Dadeland on US1.

Traveling north on US1 takes you to Steve's Pizza, who has been around since it was battling "My Pi" in South Miami for the title of the best pizza in South Florida. At Steve's it's all about the sauce and their secret ingredient, which we strongly suspect is a large dose of sugar. The sauce makes the pizza and we've never had a bad slice. Steve's is a small pizza joint, serving slices and pies for the Jockey Club crowd nearby. There's not much ambiance, but then you don't need much when all you want are a few good slices.

Honourable mention: Hanging out on Coral Way just off of Brickell avenue, and close enough to the REGJB to dash over for lunch, is Tutu Pizza, the pizza place cousin of Tutu Pasta which is right down the block. Tutu pizza is all about being thin. There is a coal fired oven that dominates the interior of the restaurant. The pizza is thin and crispy with a nice dose of cheese melting around a sauce that is much lighter than that from Steve's or Anthony's, giving the slice a nice warm orange glow. The crust is nicely blackened with the coal fired smoky finish. Every pie comes with a small pile of fresh basil to sprinkle on your slice. You could do a lot worse for lunch after a long morning in court.

MOVING ON

2012-01-18T21:58:00.000-05:00

Life is for the living. No matter how hard it is sometimes to move forward after a terrible loss, we have no choice. We have to breathe in and out and put one foot forward of the other and move and live our life.

We joined the great Wiki web black out. Take a look in the upper left hand corner of the blog.

DOM represented himself on a traffic ticket at the REGJB the other day.
Welcome him home when he gets out tomorrow.

A SECOND CHANCE

The supreme court gave an inmate on Alabama's death row a second chance to appeal the denial of his motion for post conviction relief. You will recall that the inmate was represented by lawyers from Sullivan and Cromwell who left the firm without telling their client. When the clerk of the court mailed the decision denying the motion the notice was returned to the clerk's office unopened and the time to appeal subsequently expired.

By a vote of 7-2 Justice Ginsberg wrote that “In these circumstances, no just system would lay the default at Maples’s death-cell door.”
The error was so compelling that even Judge Alito concurred in the result. Of course Judges Thomas and Scalia (despite his unearned reputation as a friend of defendants) dissented in the decision.
The NY TImes article is here. The decision in Maples v. Thomas is here.

See You In Court.

JUDGE JULIO JIMENEZ

2012-01-15T21:07:00.004-05:00

Update: Sorry we did not get this up sooner. There will be a memorial service for Judge Jimenez on Wednesday January 18, 2012 at 12:30 PM at Church of the Little Flower, 2711 Indian Mound Trail, Coral Gables, Fl. Mass will be celebrated.

He was Sy Gaer's law partner, which means he had a connection to the roots of the REGJB. He was a defense attorney, a trial lawyer, a judge, and an all around good guy, and we are sad to report that Julio Jimenez passed away on Sunday. Many of you know he was sick, battling liver cancer. However, Julio Jimenez lived long enough to swear his son in as a member of the Florida Bar this past Friday. There's not much we can add to something as poignant as that.

He will be missed.

Here's a fun post we did on a Judge Jimenez battle with the SAO over PTI.

UPDATE:
Judge Julio Jimenez's Memorial Service will be on Tuesday, January 17, 2012, from 5 pm to 10 pm at Maspons funeral home at 3500 SW 8 Street.

Here is the Herald's obit.

HUNGER

2012-01-14T21:31:00.001-05:00

Against our better judgment, after the two month fiasco of the Game Of Thrones series, we started Hunger Games. And we have to admit it's pretty darn good.

Anybody know why the JAA Broward blog has not been posting? When something like that happens in Broward, we suspect nefarious means afoot.

What makes DOM go "yikes!" ?. When a member of the US Attorney in Miami's staff is indicted for trafficking in oxycodone. His blog has all the yikey details.

Coach Jeff Fisher shined the Fins for St. Louis of all places.

DRUG COURT:
Several months ago we published the announcement that Judge White-Labora would be leaving drug court in the new year. What we neglected to publish was the change in that decision. We are happy to let everyone know that the powers that be changed their minds and Judge White-Labora will be in drug court through the end of 2012. And if someone could explain the reason why she has not yet been elevated to circuit court, we'd like to know. Governor Scott has actually done a pretty good job with his appointments, but the failure to elevate Judge White-Labora is one mistake he needs to fix.

Monday is a holiday.
See you Tuesday.

THE GATES ARE OPEN

2012-01-13T08:18:00.002-05:00

Outgoing Mississippi Governor and putative candidiate for president Haley Barbour opened the gates of the prisons in Mississippi and pardoned a bunch of people. Barbour granted conditional and unconditional pardons.

Rumpole says: Our number one complaint against the american justice system is the length of sentences. Our second complaint is the utter lack of hope any inmate has for a reduction of his/her sentence. Rehabilitation for those serving ten or twenty years or beyond is meaningless to an inmate who has little incentive to anything. The liberal use of pardons for those who earn it is a very good start.

Just before the new year the Becker-Posner blog tackled the question of whether America imprisons too many of its citizens. It's worth a read. From Judge Posner's post:
Some statistics: the incarceration rate had been 118 per 100,000 in 1950, and actually fell in 1972 to 93 per 100,00. By 2000 it had reached 469 and only since the advent of the economic crisis has it begun to decline as states try to reduce expenditures. Between 1950 and 2000 the white imprisonment rate increased by 184 percent and the black imprisonment rate by 355 percent; today 40 percent of prison and jail inmates are black, although blacks are only 13 percent of the overall population. Even though the U.S. crime rate fell by a third in the 1990s (and by two-thirds in many large cities)— the murder rate by more than 40 percent—the inmate population continued growing during this period, an increase that cannot be explained by population growth, since the population grew by much less than a third in the 1990s.

TRISCADECAPHOBIA

Today is Friday the 13th. Did you know the original plans for the REGIB included thirteen floors? *
The number 13 is the sixth prime number. It is also a fibonacci number. Thirteen turns are required to make a hangman's noose. And there were thirteen disciples at the last supper. Dan Marino wore number thirteen as did Shaq in the 1996 olympics.

Roy Black on the use of snitches and the federal cooperation scheme.

Anybody in trial on anything good?

Cold front coming. It's already hit Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Philly. Meanwhile its a toasty sixty in Denver and much of the midwest.

See You In Court.

*Not really, but it sounds interesting.

MITT IS IT v 2.0

2012-01-10T20:44:00.000-05:00

Here's a headline you won't see in November: "Mitt Wins!"

Romney will win the New Hampshire primary tonight.
Ron Paul is second, with Henry Cabot Lodge, Harold Stassen and others bringing up the rear.

JUVENILE JUSTICE?

In answer to a statement in the comments on the previous post that no juvenile in the US had ever been executed for a crime, we did a quick search and were astounded to see that NINE...count em...NINE juveniles were executed from 2000 to 2005 when the supreme court (Motto: "Better late than never") put an end to the madness. But up until 2005 the US proudly stood with Iran, North Korea and China as the only countries who taught those rascally kids a lesson they would never forget.

NEW BLOGGER
Keep your eyes open for our new guest blogger who, like El Capitan, has been awarded unfettered blogging privileges. Membership has its rewards.

PRIVACY

There was some chatter across the legal blogs about Mitt Romney indirectly attacking the decision in Griswold v. Connecticut which is credited with establishing the "right to privacy." Griswold was about the ability to buy condoms. But in a much larger sense Griswold more than any other case highlights the problems with constitutional analysis and illustrates why objectivism as applied to constitutional law is an excellent lens.

Justice Douglas found a right to privacy in emanations from a "penumbra" from the bill of rights. A penumbra is a region where some or all of the light is obscured. When applied to constitutional analysis, finding a right emanating from a penumbra is another way of a judge saying "the facts of this case disturb me enough to invent something to fix the result and skewer the decision to a result that I personally want regardless of what the law is."

There is no right to privacy in the constitution. If you ask us personally if there should be, the answer would be an unequivocal "yes!". And we approve of the "result" in Griswold. But the the method to reach that result is dangerous.

No other right has ever been found lurking in the elusive penumbra since Justice Douglas's remarkable discovery. But what if Thomas and Roberts and Scalia and Alito can convince one of their brethren that they have "discovered" the right of a fetus not to be aborted lurking within a penumbra of the constitution? How about if, after careful scrutiny, they found that right just out of common eyesight and lurking within the penumbra of the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"? How wonderful would the analysis of Griswold look to those who otherwise celebrate the discovery of the right to privacy?

Our point is that when you reach the upper most echelon of constitutional analysis, the method of arriving at the result (the philosophy if you will) is more important than the result itself.

See You In Court.

ANOTHER DNA EXONERATION

2012-01-08T09:07:00.001-05:00

Another Illinois inmate freed by DNA.

NY Times here.

The Lake County state’s attorney, Michael Waller, in a statement defended his office’s prosecution of Mr. Rivera, whose case was featured in an article in The New York Times Magazine. “I am mindful that for Mr. Rivera and some others, this decision will be viewed as too late in coming,” Mr. Waller said. Though there was no physical evidence linking Mr. Rivera to the crime, he was convicted of raping and murdering the baby sitter, Holly Staker, based largely on his confession. In 2005, DNA testing determined that Mr. Rivera was not the source of semen found inside Holly, and he was awarded a new trial, his third.

Rumpole says: But innocent people don't confess, right?

SLAPPY'D AROUND

2012-01-05T21:48:00.001-05:00

Judge Juan Ramirez, formerly head honcho at the 3rd DCA, has himself a nice little blog.

called Florida Law Update. We were perusing it the other day and stumbled upon our topic for the first post of 2012.

As the new year begins, most trial lawyers (but not us) usually make some sort of misbegotten (read: drunken) resolution to try more cases. Therefore, we proudly present The JBB's first Litigation Skills Seminar of 2012 ( (c) Rumpole 2012 most rights reserved, some just tossed aside cavalierly).

Todays topic: PEREMPTORY CHALLENGES 201.

Melbourne v. State, 679 So.2d 759 (Fla. 1996) is our starting point.

When one side strikes a juror and the other side objects, Melbourne requires the court to conduct a three step analysis. Practice tip #1: If you have made the strike, remind the judge that peremptory challenges are presumed to be exercised in a nondiscriminatory manner (except in some northern counties of Florida where the courthouses proudly fly the confederate flag and the judge swearing you in as a new lawyer requires you to whistle Dixie) and the burden of persuasion never leaves the opponent of the strike to prove purposeful racial discrimination. Put another way- the burden never shifts to the person who made the strike, although some explanation of the strike is required.

Step one of Melbourne: A request by the party challenging the strike for the party making the strike to state a race neutral reason. Step one has three parts: he party challenging the strike must a) make a timely objection and b) show that the venire member is a member of a distinct racial group and c) ask the court the request that the other party provide a race neutral reason for the strike.

(*pop*) (that sound you just heard was the can of worms being opened.)

Part of our focus today is on the second clause the first step of the Melbourne dance: what is a distinct racial group? Lets talk a look at State v. Alen, 616 So.2d 452 (Fla. 1993).

Alen pre-dates the "distinct racial group" vernacular of Melbourne and calls it a "cognizable class". And what is a CC? Why it's "an identifiable group in the community ...distinguished from the larger community by an internal cohesiveness of attitudes, ideas, or experiences that may not be adequately represented by other segments of society."

Longtime readers of the blog know what is coming next: yes, the Florida Supreme Court in Alen did create a definition that by all objective analysis makes "Judges" a "distinct racial group." So go ahead and hum a refrain of "we shall overcome" and then continue reading.

What Alen tried to deal with was the question of who is a member of a distinct racial group? Is Rose Schwartz-Diaz, a jewish woman born and raised in the Bronx and who comes to Miami and marries Javier Diaz, a Hispanic? No. Alen says "Although a person's naive language and surname may be used by a trial judge in determining weather a potential juror can be classified as hispanic, those characteristics are not strictly dispositive."

Or as his honor Milt Hirsch might take the opportunity to say "Would not a Rose by any other name...drink a Materva and eat Arroz Con Pollo if properly romanced by the right latin fella?"

Fast forward to Smith v. State, 59 So.3d 1107 (Fla. 2011). That vexing question of figuring out who is who had not been solved completely. The Florida Supreme Court blamed the 3rd, which originally decided Smith and certified a conflict with Alen: "The Third District's opinion, which does not require that there be a threshold demonstration that the juror was a member of a protected class, has the potential to undermine (civilization and all we hold dear?) the very purpose for the protections required to prevent invidious discrimination in jury..."

selection.

So Smith instructs Judges to turn to potential jurors and say "Madam, are you now or have you ever been Hispanic?"

We end our lesson with Judge Colodny and Garcia v. State. When you don't follow Melbourne precisely, things go bad fast. The actual decision in Garcia turns on the court's failure to follow the third step of Melbourne, but for our purposes the failure to follow the first two steps are illustrative of what needs to be done.

In Garcia, the defense struck a juror . The State objected: "We would ask for a race neutral reason" and without the state showing that the juror was a member of a distinct racial group, (step 1-B) and without the defense waiting for the court to ask for an explanation, the defense immediately proffered a race neutral reason: prior jury service, thereby waiving any appellate challenge to the court's failure to dance the Melbourne's first two steps properly.

The second step of Melbourne requires the court to ask the proponent of the strike to provide a race neutral reasons. Things were hopping during voice dire that day in Judge Colodny's Courtroom, and as the record makes clear all the state did for the first step was make a timely objection. From that point matters proceed swiftly and not according to Melbourne, which clearly states as follows:

Step one: a) Object cha cha cha...b) show the potential juror is a member of a distinct racial group cha cha cha...c) ask the court to ask opposing counsel to proffer a race neutral reason cha cha cha...

and then...dip and twirl and spin and twist and proceed to step two:

the proponent of the strike gives a race neutral reason cha cha cha like

"He's a Cub fan" or "he once ate a hot dog in browierd" or "he stays through the second half at Heat games." etc.

You see, to be a good trial lawyer, you need some rhythm.

CLE crédit will be applied for. Stay tuned.

See You In Court.

Charlie Johnson has an opponent

2012-01-03T23:31:00.004-05:00

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

BREAKING NEWS .... IT'S BACHMAN ..... NOT

REAL BREAKING NEWS - CHARLIE JOHNSON HAS AN OPPONENT ......

COUNTY COURT UPDATE:

Group 39:

Charles "Charlie" Kenneth Johnson (Incumbent)
vs.
Enrique Lazaro Yabor

This afternoon, attorney Enrique "Rick" Yabor filed to run against Judge Johnson. Mr. Yabor has been an attorney for 12 years. According to his website, he was an ASA and tried over 200 trials. He specializes in: Business Law & Litigation, Real Estate Litigation, Construction Contracts and Litigation, Bankruptcy, Family Law, Employment Litigation, and White-Collar Crimes. (www.yaborlaw.com ).

Judge Johnson was appointed to the bench as one of Governor Charlie Crist's last appointments in December of 2010 after serving as an ASA for 22 years. Judge Johnson has smacked down $140k of his own money as a loan to the campaign.

Group 27:

Ivonne Cuesta
vs.
Jacci Suzan Seskin

In late December, ASA Jacci Seskin filed to run against APD Ivonne Cuesta. Mrs. Seskin had a previous career as a RN for 25 years before attending law school. She has been an attorney for eight years. She apparently worked at both the Public Defender's Office and now, the State Attorney's Office. Mrs. Seskin, who is married to a doctor, plucked down $150k of her own money as a loan to the campaign.

Ms. Cuesta has only $7,000 in her bank account (of which $5,200 is a loan to her campaign).

Group 20

Michelle Alvarez Barakat
vs.
Fleur Jeannine Lobree
vs.
William Pena Wells

I have previously posted on this race.

Group 28

Tanya Brinkley
vs.
Nobody

Ms. Brinkley was up against attorney John Rodriguez until he switched to Group 33.

Group 33

John Rodriguez
vs.
Nobody

Filing deadline still four months away. No changes in Circuit Court races.

CAPTAIN OUT ..............

WELCOME BACK

2012-01-02T21:25:00.002-05:00

The holidays are officially over (wait- we have a three day weekend coming up for MLK day in two weeks) and it's time to get back to work.

COLD SNAP

The low Tuesday morning could be in the high 40's as temperatures plunge Monday night with the wind whipping the wind chill (technically defined as something that happens to people stupid enough to live in the North East US) making it feel like 29-34 degrees.

And wait! Tuesday night will be colder!

Rumpole tip: Go to your AC and flip the little switch from "cool" to "heat" and set the temp to 70. Brew a hot cuppa and relax.

Miami! See it like a native.

IOWA RESULTS

Avoid the rush Monday night, we have the Republican Caucus (technically defined as "a meeting of a bunch of farmers and their families that are not representative of the nation and yet have undue influence on who we elect as a president" ) results now:

Mitt is it!

Ron Paul;

Rick Santorum;

Newt;

Rick Perry

Bachman Turner Overdrive/under achiever.

The Judges rotation takes effect next week. Can't tell your player without a scorecard and that's what we are, your unofficial REGJB scorecard.

Let us be the last to wish you a happy new year.

See You In Court.

LAST POST OF 2011

2011-12-31T16:45:00.004-05:00

We wanted to end the year on a good note, and not a sour one. Criticizing Judges is a wearisome and unfortunately necessary job of the preeminent blog that covers the legal scene of Miami. In other words, it's a dirty job but somebody's got to do it. Like bond hearings on New Years Day.

So Happy New Year!

2012 brings a new year loaded with special challenges. Clients will show up seeking help. Some will be in distress, some will need immediate help, and others will just need a confident, guiding hand.

Our wish for our blog readers is that 2012 brings you all the joy and success that you want and deserve.

We (meaning all of us who work in the REGJB) are truly blessed to be working in our chosen profession, using our talents to support our family and help those who need our skills.

Many of our fellow citizens suffered in 2011. They lost their jobs and their homes were endangered or lost. The news reports that millions more americans have given up hope of finding employment and are thus not counted in the unemployment statistics.

There are simple enjoyments in life that sometimes we need to be reminded of. The joy of working in a fulfilling job. The pleasure of using your training and skill. The simple comfort of being with family and knowing that they are similarly safe and happy.

Sometimes life throws curveballs at you and you lose things that are precious to you, like your health or your job or your loved ones. In those times we are comforted by this saying: "Tough times don't last, tough people do."

Here's hoping that 2012 is filled with those simple joys and pleasures that make life worth living. For those of you who have faced tough times- be tough and endure. Life will get better. For those of you lucky enough to have had a successful 2011, take time to remember that there is an element of luck and chance in life and be happy for the good fortune you have been blessed with.

See you in court in 2012.

UH, MILT, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING???

2011-12-30T12:15:00.006-05:00

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

UH, MILT, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING ??? .....

I was listening to the news Wednesday evening. The story was about two men charged with raping a pregnant woman at Johnson & Wales in North Miami.

The news report showed video of the Bond Hearing and the Judge was Milt Hirsch.

I heard Judge Hirsch ask more than one question that sounded way out of bounds.

Hirsch: Do you know who the alleged victim in the case in which you are charged is?

Defendant: No sir

Hirsch: You have no idea?

Defendant: No sir

......

At one point in the questioning, Hirsch asked the defendant WHERE WERE YOU ON DECEMBER 22 (the date of the alleged rape).?

He asked at least one other question that sounded totally inappropriate. (I tried to find the video from the newscast online, but was unable to locate it).

I cannot understand why Judge Hirsch would be posing a question that basically asks: Where were you on the date of a crime that you are alleged to have committed?

The Judge certainly has the authority to make decisions about the bond amount based on danger to the community and risk of flight. If the Judge wants to issue a Stay Away Order, he could have turned to the ASA and asked the victim's name and then entered an Order directing the defendant to stay away from that victim.

But to cross examine the defendant, (and that WAS the tone of the questioning), asking questions that would potentially incriminate the defendant, was totally out of line. Quite frankly, it appeared (both by his facial expressions and his tone of voice) that Hirsch was incredibly upset with what this defendant was being charged with. (The victim is eight months pregnant). Who wouldn't be?! But, Judge Hirsch's job description does not permit what I saw on that video Wednesday evening. He could have done what he needed to do without posing the questions that I heard him ask.

What's your take on this? Some of our readers have already chimed in:

4:25 writes: In response to the questions asked by Judge Hirsch, the Judge refused to issue a stay away order in the rape case because "the defendant doesnt know who the victim is"

8:48 wrote back: 4:25 Shame on you. You interfered with Captain's favorite past-time of pissing on Judge Hirsch. I assume that the Captain Judge would simply have issued the stay away order. Who cares if the defendant doesn't know who to stay away from.

And in response, was this entry:

To 8;48 , Judge Hirsch did not issue the stay away order because the sub told the judge (upon questioning) that he didn't know who he raped! Apparently that is a new standard in issuing stay away orders. You cant issue one to a sub who hasn't the freakin manners to ask his freakin vic their name.

And finally, this:

Didn't the prosecutor know the victim's name? They are the ones who tell the bond judge to issue a stay away order keeping the defendant away from whatever the name of the victim is.

Judge Hirsch has been getting very good reviews as he closes out his first year on the bench. It started a bit rocky when he issued that standing Order where even Rumpole himself had to use his online dictionary to figure out some of the words Hirsch wrote. The Judge also shook the GJB with his bold ruling on the constitutionality of FS 893.13, finding it facially violative of the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.

Next year is an even year, and that means election season. We look forward to 2012 and qualifying day as we watch with excitement all of the judicial match-ups that are formed for the end of summer election. We also have the "big one" in November, but we'll leave the blogging on that to our 538 guru Horace.

So, for now, we simply wish you the safest of holiday weekends and hope that 2012 is your best year yet. Happy New Year.

CAPTAIN OUT ......

LAST POST OF THE YEAR 2011?

2011-12-29T08:22:00.003-05:00

UPDATE: Go to the comments section and read El Capitan's comment. He has all the breaking news on the Hirsch/ bond hearing/stay away order contretemps.

Maybe it is, and maybe it's not. In any event, 2011 is rapidly drawing to a close.

Look back to December 2010. Did you accomplish all your goals for 2011?

We did not. We never do. And isn't that the point? To live is to continually strive to make yourself a better person. To love more, learn more, and (zen warning) be more.

Lets look at some of our predictions for 2011. Some panned out; some did not.

We predicted that there would be a natural disaster somewhere in the world which would in turn spark a man made disaster. And in fact that came true:

Just turn on your TV and you can't help but seeing Newt Gingrich's fat face everywhere. (Newt was the man made disaster, started by the natural disaster of Sarah Palin being relevant in our nation's life). (If you were thinking about the nuclear meltdown in Japan sparked by the Tsunami, we didn't predict that.)

We predicted the Dolphins would lose two games this year and be a lock to win the Super Bowl.*

For 2012 we confidently predict the following:

The Heat will have another disappointing season and will NOT win a championship. (Like shooting fish in a barrel folks, or appealing a decision from a broweird judge- just way tooo easy.)

In January 2013, the person taking the oath of office for President of the United States will have a wife named Michelle, two daughters and his first name will begin with a B. And it won't be close.

The economy will continue a slow improvement. Stocks will rise modestly.

Another Judge will have the guts and courage and integrity to admit they got their initial decision wrong, as did the Judge in Famous Fee Fiasco of 2011.

This Judge will be promptly snapped up by a large firm who quadruples their salary.

The talent drain on the circuit courts will sadly continue.

The Marlins won't be half bad. The stadium is super cool.

Judge Murphy will continue doing an outstanding job.

Ditto Judges Firtel, Soto, Sayfie, Lopez, Thornton, Bloom, Walsh, and Hirsch. For all the grief we give our robed readers, we as lawyers in Miami are truly lucky to have a core group of outstanding and dedicated judges. We don't say this often (because it gives us indigestion) but - THANK YOU!

Morning Joe will continue to be the best morning show on TV.

The Kindle will continue to be the only way to read, when you're not on your computer reading our blog.

Certain federal bloggers will continue their mighty struggle to be funny.

A certain state court blogger will continue to be quaintly amusing and relevant.

We wish you a Happy and Successful and Healthy 2012 and if you want to be amused, stay relevant and in the know, just keep clicking our blog and reading our posts.

See you in court in 2012.

* Of course we didn't. There's no amount of liquor in the world that would make us that loopy.

HIP HOP JUSTICE

2011-12-27T05:05:00.001-05:00

The NY Times confronts the issue of jury nullification, otherwise known as "just say No(t guilty)."

The Author, Paul Butler, is a former federal prosecutor, a professor of law at Georgetown, and the author of "Lets Get Free: A Hip Hop Theory of Justice."

The article starts:

IF you are ever on a jury in a marijuana case, I recommend that you vote “not guilty” — even if you think the defendant actually smoked pot, or sold it to another consenting adult. As a juror, you have this power under the Bill of Rights; if you exercise it, you become part of a proud tradition of American jurors who helped make our laws fairer.

Item: NYPD made 50,000 arrests last year just for possession of marijuana.

Item: Some states are seeking to take away the right to a trial by jury for drug possession because jurors are increasingly ignoring the law and issuing jury nullifications.

The next time some snotty 24 year old prosecutor seeks to have the court issue some misbegotten order prohibiting the defense from arguing that a juror is free to vote their conscience, remind the court that no less an authority (and great defense attorney) John Adams, said this: it is each juror’s “duty” to vote based on his or her “own best understanding, judgment and conscience, though in direct opposition to the direction of the court.”

See You In Court.

PS Check out "when clients cry in court". Boo hoo hoo.

BOXING DAY 2011

2011-12-26T09:27:00.004-05:00

It's Boxing Day!

For those of you with pugilistic preferences, today is not your day. Put down your fists.

But if you are a citizen of the Realm, one who dwells in Her Majesty's Commonwealth, then today is the day to shop and save.

Much like the tradition of the colonies on the day after Thanksgiving, subjects of Her Majesty's Commonwealth queue up and get some goodies on sale. It's an official holiday in Canada, the UK, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, to name some of the countries in the civilized world that celebrate Boxing Day.

Speaking of England, we are closely following the condition of the Duke of Edinburgh who was hospitalized with chest pains late last week and underwent cardiac catheterization.

Prince Philip, HRH's Husband, is 90 years old and was otherwise in tip top condition, keeping up a schedule of over 400 appearances a year. Perhaps it is time to cut back a bit?

Courts in Miami are definitely closed today. Who's set for trial tomorrow? Who's going to trial? On the last week of the last year in the last century (1999 for our robed readers) we were in the third week of a trial that ended New Year's Eve. What's your Xmas/New Year's Eve trial story?

Unlike other blogs, we blog 24/365. *

See You In Court.

*We're not saying we don't take vacations, we're just saying we never close.

psatb/bbtrav/boxdy/R1-3.v2.3

CHRISTMAS 2011

2011-12-25T11:47:00.003-05:00

Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:10-12

The above picture is Da Vinci's Madonna of The Rocks or sometimes called The Virgin of the Rocks. The original painting is in the Louvre, while the charcoal sketch hangs in the London National Gallery of Art (our favourite museum bar none), along with a second painting. There is a controversy as to which painting came first, whether Da Vinici's assistants worked on the painting in the National Gallery, and whether Da Vinici was forced to alter the paintings. Wiki has a good article here on the paintings.

Merry Christmas.

XMAS EVE 2011

2011-12-24T07:55:00.005-05:00

NORAD TRACKS SANTA HERE.

We always make it a habit this time of year to re-read Stephen Ambrose's remarkable account of the 101st Airborne Division's defense of the town of Bastogne, Belgium, in December, 1944.

When Germany launched a surprise attack known as the Battle of the Bulge, all General Eisenhower had in reserves were the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions. Both were ordered into the battle. Trucked across France, the 101st marched into Bastogne to stop elite German Panzer divisions while other U.S. soldiers fled in panic. And stop them cold they did.

With nothing to rely on other than each other, the 101st (including the famous 506th PIR whose exploits at Bastogne were detailed in Ambrose's Band Of Brothers) took up front line positions in the woods of Bastogne, dug foxholes in the bitter cold (the coldest winter in Europe in almost 100 years) and once again held off the best troops and tanks of Germany with nothing more than their rifles and each other. Their story is a remarkable one. No men ever better exemplified the courage of the American solider.

Bastogne exemplified the tradition of American soldiers enduring more than was humanly possible and refusing to leave the line, even while injured, so long as their fellow solider- their brother in arms- was still fighting.

American soldiers don't march into combat in summer clothes in the dead of winter anymore. They don't dig foxholes in sub zero weather anymore, they don't endure horrific artillery barrages and they don't fight tanks with rifles while hobbling on frostbitten feet anymore.

But they still exhibit remarkable courage. They still go into war zones in foreign lands and fight despots and terrorists and put their lives on the line to protect our freedoms and liberate people they've never met.

Bastogne was a startling example of the mettle of the American solider. But it didn't start there and it doesn't end there. It continues today in places like Bagram, Kandahar, and Forward Operating Base Delaram, where today on Christmas Eve, the 3rd Battalion of the 4th Marine will - as they have done every day during eight combat rotations, get out of their tents and patrol a 2000 kilometer stretch of Afghanistan, putting their lives on the line for

their fellow Marine, and in a larger sense, for all of us.

Thank you just doesn't seem enough, but it's all we have.

Thank you and Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and whatever other holiday or tradition you may follow, we wish you the joyous peace of the season, and a happy and healthy, safe and prosperous New Year.

HR.

PRE XMAS

2011-12-22T09:24:00.005-05:00

UPDATE: THE SKY IS FALLING

We neglected to write that Sky Smith also had a client in the trial before Judge Scola and also succeeded in obtaining a full acquittal for his client.

We regret the omission.

The REGJB is still open Friday, but since a group of Judges are apparently making the decision, that could change at any moment.

Judge Robert Scola had his first federal trial verdict Wednesday. Congratulations to Michael Walsh and Charles White for securing the very first NGs before Judge Scola. Lets hope its a harbinger of things to come. Newt Gingrich was rumored to say that if a few more cases go against the government Judge Scola could be called on the carpet.

Should the courts close for the Holidays? Coming next week we have a point/counterpoint debate between a sitting judge and an attorney who runs a small firm.

Economic Outlook: Jobless claims came in today lower than expected today at 364,000. It's the lowest weekly claim in two years (since April 2008) and it's the third straight week that the number came in lower than expected. That means we should see another drop in the unemployment rate next month.

What this means: The economy is kicking into gear at just the last moment to help the President. We could see unemployment in the mid to low 8% range and if the number dips a toe into the 7.9% range over the fall of next year the Republicans could resurrect Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt and still not be able to beat Obama.

On the flip side, the economy grew at a weak 1.8% in the third quarter and that's about .5% less than we need to sustain a jobs recovery.

Rumpole says: we are coming out of this unemployment/recession disaster very slowly and on the precipice of a double dip recession. This is a cliff hanger. Stay tuned.

Scott Rothstein hands up his former law partners Stuart Rosenfeldt and Russell Adler as being up to their lawyerly suspenders in his scheme. The Sun Sentinel reports here. Some Miami lawyers are part of the defense teams for Rothstein's former law partners who have not been indicted yet. Also getting caught up in the slime, former Broward Homicide Prosecutor Ken Padowitz, who was of counsel to the firm, shared some space, and drafted an opinion letter blessing the law suit funding scheme Rothstein was peddling. The lesson in all this is be careful who you share space with.

Miami Regional Counsel Gene Zenobi is no longer lonely, as the Governor made the following Regional Counsel Appointments across the state (all of which were due July 1, 2011, by the way)

RC4 (Broward and West Palm): Antony Ryan, a well respected Assistant Public Defender in West Palm Beach got the nod over RC4 henchwoman Shari Vrod, whose strong ties with RC4 current head Phillip Massa was probably her undoing.

RC2 (somewhere on the west coast) Ita Neymotin, who was a former RC2 employee and former Assistant Public Defender before running a law group, was picked to head her old office.

RC5 (somewhere north of RC4) Jeffrey Dean was re-appointed as the RC for the 5th region (motto: "Florida has 5 regions, and we're one of them!")

We will NOT be in court Friday, as we're heading out for Truckee and points west for the Holidays.

See You ....sometime in the New Year.

FRIDAY OFF... NEWT OFF HIS ROCKER...

2011-12-19T22:04:00.007-05:00

UPDATE: Sorry Virginia, there is no Santa Claus.

Court is OPEN ON FRIDAY. Merry Christmas- now get to work.

The Governor issued a reprieve today for State workers and as a result (State) court's in Miami will be closed (update- some readers say it ain't so. Is there a Santa Claus Judge Brown?) The JAA Blog has the machinations that the folks in Browierd are going through as they decide what to do.

Getting tough on CRIME JUDGES

This is what the Republican party has sunk to: with no more room left to increase penalties on crimes, Newt Gingrich, who is currently leading the race for the Republican presidential nomination, has opined that arresting federal judges might just be the right thing to do. Really.

Appearing Sunday on Face The Nation, Gingrich said Congress should compel federal judges to testify about any decision that the party in power disagrees with. Gingrich said he would send U.S Marshals to arrest federal judges if they did not come willingly to the Capital to testify. As Andrew Rosenthal pointed out in the NY Times, Marshals are tasked to protect the federal judiciary which gets hundreds of death threats a year.

Really Newt? Arrest Federal Judges if you don't like their decisions? What's next? Suspend Habeas Corpus? (Oh, wait, Scalia has already almost done that). National Identity Cards? Guilty until proven innocent? (Except in Texas, where that is already pretty much the case. Read this NY Times article on the 46h person exonerated based on DNA in Texas in the last ten years. In this case the defense is seeking to have the prosecutor investigated for withholding the evidence.)

And while you're at it President Newt, get rid of that pesky first amendment, shut down this blog, and declare this a nation of christians and throw all the muslims, jews, and japanese in internment camps. Now you've got the tea party's attention. Not to mention the religious right.

Listen closely. If the Republican party nominates this lunatic then they have lost their soul, they have lost all reason, and they will surely lose the election.

Anybody in trial? Let us know.

FEE FIASCO UPDATE:

If you check out our tweets on Monday you will see that during the day there was quite a bit of chatter on the FACDL Listserv that certain penurious ASA's are ringing up certain appellate attorneys to give them a piece of their mind (not that they can afford to give much more away) about "trashing" them in emails. Meanwhile the appellate attorney noted that when the ASA told Judge X during the hearing that the other appellate attorneys had all billed the cap of $2,000 in the case, one of the appellate lawyers was an assistant public defender, and the other billed and received about 10K.

Newt Gingrich got involved and called for the arrest of the appellate lawyer for doing a good job and "trying to free a convicted murderer."

See You In Court. We are announcing our availability to represent any member of the federal judiciary who gets called to Congress for Contempt of Newt.

HOLDAY CHEER

2011-12-18T09:34:00.003-05:00

A different take on law firm holiday parties from the popular if not avuncular

ANGRY GURL:

(who sent this comment in on the previous post)

Angry Gurl said...

So the firm I am of counsel with had their holiday party at the Epic. In these tough economic times I am certain they spent enough money to pay the salaries of three mid-level employees at the support staff level for a year. That's three families, six to 12 or so people who could have paid their mortgage and car loans and gotten health insurance for what these bloated buffoons blew in an orgy of gluttony in one night.

And believe me when I say gluttony. Women who are so obese that they can no longer perambulate and are forced to travel around on some electric hybrid wheel chair/scooter are sitting in line with piles of potato chips stacked on top of pasta in cream sauce and fried potatoes, friend chicken, and because they want to eat healthy, friend cauliflower and broccoli swimming in a some sweet brown sauce. And because they are so heavy that they can't walk, they have a second plate on their electric chair piled high with sweets, cakes, and of course since this is the holidays- christmas cookies.

And all the while their boss/enablers, who spend thousands every month on private gyms and personal trainers and tanning booths are standing to the side of the line smiling with their $25,000 in dental caps shinning brightly while they and their chic thin trophy wives who are 20 years younger then them encourage this herd of mooing cows to eat more and enjoy their generosity. Its like they're drug dealers getting junkies hooked for free.

Its a disgusting spectacle on so many levels, including fraud. The smiling bosses stand by and encourage their minions to have another glass of champagne. And their secretaries and clerks and their truck driving husbands wearing their only suit which stopped fitting them three years ago, are suitably impressed because the bottle says Moet, and they think they are drinking a $100 glass of champagne when in fact the 1990 Louis Roederer Cristal Brut remains in the back and not available to hoi poloi. Ditto with the "caviar" which is probably fish eggs from some local mercury filled bass plucked from the muck and slime of the Everglades, while the stuff from Russia is kept securely in the partner's dinning room.

And on and on it goes. The fraud, the food, the gluttony, the smiling bosses. I could only take an hour or so and I left sick to my stomach.

Saturday, December 17, 2011 9:16:00 PM

And then we received this comment in response:

Anonymous said...

AG,

Finally a post I can agree with. If you wish to see gluttony at its best, go to Disney World. Every 10th person is sitting in a motorized chair, eating a turkey leg, drinking a diet soda, eating ice cream, etc. It is even more disgusting to witness this spectacle when it is blistering hot out.

I have absolutely no issue with people eating themselves to death, but I do have a problem paying for it with higher insurance rates.

Sunday, December 18, 2011 7:38:00 AM

Rumpole says: ignoring for a minute her unique view of current life in Miami, AG raises a serious issue: people are out of work. They are scrapping by on unemployment cheques. They have no health insurance and sometimes they go hungry so their children can eat and sometimes even that doesn't happen. Should law firms or any big corporation be spending 50 thousand dollars on a year end party?

The answer is that it doesn't really matter. It's not the 50K that will save society. It's the trillion dollars of national treasury and thousands of lives ended because of wars started on faulty intelligence that put us in the desperate position we are in today. Today the last troops left Iraq. Nine years late Saddam Hussein is gone. Was it worth it?

Ask the Iraq war vet who can't feed his kids if it was worth it. It's not AG's office party that's the problem. It was Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld's party that caused the problem.

See You In Court.

FEE FIASCO

2011-12-15T19:38:00.006-05:00

(spin the judicial wheel of fortune below and find out where your favourite robed reader will be in 2012.)

The story you about to read is true.

The names have been withheld because most of the players are pretty nice guys.

We saw the following on the FACDL Listserv:

I just had the displeasure of arguing what appears to be Judge X's first Makemson hearing in which I was seeking to recover more than the $2,000 cap for a felony appeal. I had 153 hours in this first degree murder (life sentence)/armed robbery case, in which the trial took a month and the record was 5,500 pages. At the statutory rate of $75 per hour, I was asking for $11,475, which compares to a fee of $76,500 from a client paying full freight. (Rumpole can't help but wonder, who is getting $500 simoleons an hour to do an appeal outside of the southern district of NYC?)

Judge X (who apparently just came over to criminal from family court), was swayed by (the ASA)'s shrill arguments that I should not have taken a case with a statutory cap and expected to get much more, and her representation (which was news to me) that the other co-defendants’ appellate attorneys accepted the $2,000 cap for their fees.

Long story short, Judge X awarded $6,000, or $39.22 per hour.

Be warned.

Post script: The trial Judge, who is one of the most respected Judges we have and who otherwise has a reputation for treating all attorneys fairly and with respect issued a sua sponte (Latin meaning literally "woops, I think I can fix that before anyone does anything like appeal me") order reconsidering his prior decision. We think this will turn out just fine for the appellate attorney.

The more important question was what in the name of Sam Hill was the State Attorney's Office doing sticking their nose into a private attorney's fee? This is a dangerous precedent. When a prosecutor starts having some say in how much a court appointed attorney gets paid, it's Katie bar the door for the zealous advocacy on behalf of a client. (nb- two more catch phrases and we will tie the record for one paragraph). We are not aware of any statutory authority that gives an ASA the right to be heard at a fee hearing. If this matter is NOT resolved to the attorney's satisfaction we urge the FACDL to file an amicus brief on the appeal on the issue of whether Ms. Pinocchio ASA gets to put her beak into the middle of a fee hearing.

Speaking of the FACDL, there was an FACDL/PD party today at the PDs office. Don't get too upset, we didn't get invited either. Plus the opportunity to socialize with Brian Tannebaum, Barry Wax, Scott Fingerhut and other former FACDL Miami presidents WITHOUT the benefit of alcohol was just something we found very easy to pass up. And for those of you worried that Joe George might swoop in and become the next Public Defender after firing the entire PDs office, as best we can determine, NO alcohol was present on state property.

What was announced at the Party was the coming Judicial Assignments for the new year. Yes, it's that time of year again when Judges Brown and Soto spin the Judicial Wheel of fortune and click clack click clack lets see where your favourite judge landed.

OUT OF CRIMINAL: Judges Trawick, Cuerto, Zabel. Fair thee well.

IN TO CRIMINAL: Jon Schlessinger (for Trawick) Vickie Sigler (for Cuerto) Will Thomas (for Zabel). Welcome to the party.

Other moves: Firtel leaves division for backup and Manno-Schurr comes to criminal and takes over his division. Tinkler-Mendez leaves division for backup and Samantha Ruiz-Cohen takes over her division.

Judge Rosa Rodriguez leaves backup (Firtel takes over) and goes to ROC around the clock court taking over for Judge Ward. Judge Jackie Scola leaves backup and Tinkler Mendez takes over her spot.

You just know that once the music stops some poor judge will be left standing without a chair and be sent to probate.

See You In Court where you can't tell the players without a program and there's no better place to get your program than right here on your favourite blog.

THE HAMMER HAS A HEART

2011-12-14T06:23:00.002-05:00

Please remember to bring a new, unwrapped toy on Wednesday or Thursday to the courthouse area. Or, bring it to the holiday party.

With the holiday season now in full swing FACDL is again joining hands with the Dade County Bar Association Homeless Outreach Committee to ensure that some of Miami's less fortunate children do not go without toys this year. Just as we did last year we will be setting up collection boxes on Wednesday in the REG Building to collect new, unwrapped toys that will be delivered to the families at the Champman Homeless Center in Miami. Through the efforts of Rick Freedman, and the assistance of Judge Yvonne Colodny, Carlos Martinez, Katherine Fernandez-Rundle, and the staff at Au Bon Pain, we arranged to have collections stations set up at Au Bon Pain restaurant on the first floor of the Justice Building, Judge Colodny's chambers in room 209, as well as both the State Attorney's Office, the Public Defender's Office.

Additionally, this year's FACDL Holiday party will be held on December 15th at the Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office. This year we are fortunate enough to have Administrative Judge Bertila Soto for what promises to be a very informative question and answer session. Just as last year, instead of charging an admission fee for this year's Holiday Party we are asking that attendees bring an unwrapped toy to be donated.

On December 21 at 6:00 pm there will be a holiday party at the Chapman Homeless Center where all the toys that have been collected will be handed out to the children. The Dade County Bar Association welcomes, and urges, all the FACDL membership to attend. We are hoping that all of our members will make a point to attend this great event and contribute to this worthy cause. We had a wonderful turnout last year and with everyone's help we can top it this year. Happy holidays to all.

Jude M. Faccidomo, Esquire
Vice President, FACDL-Miami

JUDGE ROBERTO PINERO:

The Captain Reports:

One Year Ago .....

Very quietly this weekend I was thinking of Roberto Pineiro. Believe it or not, it was just one year ago (December 9, 2011) that Judge Pineiro died of a stroke at the age of 56.

We miss Rob Pineiro and we pray that he is in peace. We hope that all of our new Judges that have been appointed to the bench in the past year will read and learn about Judge Pineiro. He would be someone that you would want to emulate during your time wearing the robe.

God bless Judge Roberto "Rob" Pineiro.

Captain Out .....

RUMPOLE says: we think about Judge Pinero often as we enter the REGJB. He was one of a kind.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

2011-12-13T05:05:00.001-05:00

Life is all about timing.

Turn into one door on the spur of the moment to get a cup of coffee and bump into your future spouse. Decide at the last minute to forgo spending eleven bucks for a triple pumpkin spice latte, and save yourself a million bucks in alimony later on.

Stephen King writes in the afterword of his great new book 11/23/63 (no spoiler alert- this has nothing to do with the plot of the book) that if a stripper named Karen Carlin hadn't fallen behind on her rent and asked Jack Ruby for a $25.00 loan, Ruby, who had previously tried to get close enough to Oswald at the Dallas police station the day of the assassination would not have gone to the police station the next day because he assumed he had missed his chance and Oswald had been transferred to the Dallas County Jail. But the Western Union Ruby went to to wire the money was just a few blocks from the Police Station and Ruby, who often entertained Dallas cops at his club and was well known to them, wandered down to the police station intending to speak to some friends. But Oswald was just about to be transferred. And thanks to a stripper needing a quick loan, history changed again that day forever. Timing.

The Fins fired coach Tony Sporano today and timing was everything.

Sporano and the rest of the NFL awoke this morning to the firing today of Chiefs Coach Todd Haley. WIth the Chiefs suddenly the only team in the market for a coach, the Dolphins, knowing they were going to fire Sporano at the end of the season were now forced to act.

Sporano was allowed to hold his regularly scheduled 11:00 AM news conference. Timing. Then the media headed cross town to the Heat's 3pm conference. Timing. The Dolphins are on the road for the next two weeks, giving the interim coach a chance to get his feet wet without enduring a home town stadium of boos. Timing. With most of the media safely across town, the Dolphins called a news conference attended by some Haitian security guards and one lost insurance agent from Oswego named Hal and fired Sporano.

Timing.

See You In Court, and if you see us, its all about timing.

r4/oswego/sporano/truckee.psatb.

HOLD STILL, THIS WON'T HURT A BIT.

2011-12-12T04:46:00.002-05:00

Hunter shoots deer. No news. Dog shoots hunter. News. Herald has it here.

Dolphins win. News. Dolphins get blown out by Eagles. No news.

Its taken a while, but the chickens hatched by Schmerber v. California, 384 U.S. 757 (1966) are finally coming home to roost.

DUI mavens will tell you that in Schmerber, the US Supreme Court upheld the rights of states to forcibly extract blood from DUI suspects.

Now the WSJ reports that many states, including our own, have adopted or are about to adopt "no refusal" laws that allows the police to hold you down and jam a needle in your arm and extract your blood when you refuse to provide a breath sample in a DUI case.

The Wall Street Journal article states that Texas (Motto: "jus give me mah gun and screw the commie constitution crap") is leading the way.

No doubt Alito and Roberts and Thomas will uphold such a law. They never saw a criminal law they didn't like. But lets see what our friend Scalia does with a 35 year old precedent that puts the government in the vampire business.

How does one discern the original intent of John Adams when it comes to driving impaired?

By the way, on this day next year, we will be dealing with the last of the numerology fads, as it will be 12/12/12. Woo Hoo!

See You In Court.

lcp/psatb/r5/truckee

RUMPOLE MAKES AMENDS

2011-12-10T19:22:00.003-05:00

Governor Scott appointed three judges in Miami (Motto: "Give us your tired, your poor, your wretched refuse, your judges...") not the two we reported, so we apologize to County Court Judge D.J. Cannava for leaving him(?) out of our last post. It's sort of a record in a way. We usually wait until the Judge has donned the black robes and taken the bench before we insult them.

As our Captain reported:

Don't feel too bad for Donald "DJ" Cannava. In his first time interviewing with the JNC, his name was sent up to the Governor, not only for one of the two Circuit Court seats, but also for the County Court seat vacated by Judge Rosa Figarola (Circuit).

And the Governor chose Cannava as our newest County Court Judge, in his first time up.

A Rumpole Courage award goes to 29 year old Scott Millard. The Michigan attorney refused to let a cantankerous, sarcastic, sneering (aren't they all?) Judge Kenneth Post from questioning his client about when he last used controlled substances during an initial court proceeding. Mr. Millard was polite, respectful and firm and held his ground to the point where the Judge fined him $100 and then held him in contempt and took him into custody.

The ABA Journal transcript is here.

We would gladly pay his $100.00 fine if we could, and we want Mr. Millard to know that he will never pay for a drink in this town should he choose to visit our fair city.

Here is the arrest report for Officer Villa who was arrest for DUI in his vehicle last week

courtesy of ace Herald Reporter David Ovalle who was nice enough to email it to us.

Sorry about the size of the document. We think if you click on the link you will get the full size of the document. Officer Villa was taken to the station, no idea if he provided a breath sample, and then in violation of some policy/statute (?) that we were told requires drivers arrested for DUI to be held for 8 hours or until there is some proof they are sober, Villa was taken home instead of to TGK/DCJ.

Arrest Affidavit - Fernando Villa

YOUR NEW CIRCUIT JUDGES

2011-12-08T20:00:00.003-05:00

Six candidates....two spots...and your new circuit judges are (drum roll please)

Judge Norma Lindsey, elevated from County Court and

Angie Zayas. elevated from the mere mortal status of a lawyer.

Congratulations to both Judges. Now as our Governor likes to say:

Get to work.

Meanwhile we now have a county court vacancy courtesy of Governor Scott's elevation of Judge Lindsey, and a circuit vacancy courtesy of President Obama's elevation of Judge Robert Scola.

And the beat goes on.

HUM DRUM DUI

Here's a DUI scenario all of our DUI mavens can relate to.

Your client is passed out in his car in the middle of an intersection.

The police are called.

Your client is arrested and ....

1) Taken to the police station offered (threatened) a breath test and then taken to jail, or

2) Given a promise to appear by a sympathetic police officer and driven home by Officer Friendly?

Well, if your client is MIAMI DADE OFFICER FERNANDO VILLA then it's scenario number two. Herald article here.

And the beat goes on.

See You In Court.

7OTH ANNIVERSARY OF ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR

2011-12-07T21:32:00.009-05:00

Wednesday December 7, 2011 marks the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It was the greatest generation's 9/11 and they answered the call of history and met the challenges of their time and set this country on the road to greatness.

When we think of Pearl Harbor we think of the great naval battle of Midway about seven months later . And when we think of Midway we think of the greatest American war hero you probably have never heard of: C. Wade McClusky, Jr.

Recall that what the Japanese didn't achieve at Pearl Harbor was the destruction of the U.S Carrier fleet, as the carriers were at sea and survived the attack unscathed. Seven months later in June of 1942 a Japanese naval armada of 200 ships set sail to attack Midway- a strategic atoll about 1,000 miles from Hawaii.

50 U.S Naval ships sailed to protect Midway including three carriers: The Yorktown, the Hornet and the Enterprise.

The attack on Midway was actually an elaborate Japanese plan to trap and sink what they believed were the two surviving US Carriers: The Hornet and the Enterprise. The Japanese believed they had sunk the Yorktown in the battle of Coral Sea. To make matters worse, the great US Admiral Bill Halsey was sidelined with a bad case of the shingles. He chose as his replacement Admiral Raymond Spruance, who had limited Carrier experience.

But the US had broken the Japanese code and Spruance and Admiral Fletcher, who was commanding the damaged Carrier Yorktown knew the Japanese plans and in turn planned a trap of their own.

But the greatest Naval victory in US History eventually came down to a humble 40 year old pilot from Buffalo, New York named C. Wade McClusky, Jr. Lieutenant Commander McClusky commanded Fighter Squadron Six on the Enterprise. The day of the battle he and about forty of his pilots flying SBD Dive Bombers launched looking for the Japanese Carriers. Several prior US attacks on the Japanese Carriers had met with disaster. When McClusky's force arrived at where he was told the Japanese fleet would be, he saw nothing. McClusky didn't panic. He led his squadrons on a classic search pattern and soon they stumbled upon a Japanese Destroyer moving quickly. Despite running very low on fuel, McClusky gave the order to follow the Destroyer and soon his squadrons came upon the Japanese fleet, totally unprotected and without air cover due to both strategic decisions of the Japanese Admirals and some plain old bad luck. Most of the Japanese air cover was on the deck being both re-fueled. Their bombers were also going through an ordinance change and the decks of the Japanese Carriers were stacked with bombs, torpedos, and fuel hoses.

If luck is the residue of design, McClusky's squadrons arrived at the precise moment when the Japanese fleet was totally unprotected and their Carriers at their most vulnerable. McClusky's SBD dive bombers pounced and in almost no time less than 40 planes sunk three Japanese Carriers. And just like that the war in the Pacific changed. The Japanese never launched another offensive Naval action after Midway and the battle remains the greatest American Naval victory.

All because a calm pilot from Buffalo didn't panic and kept his men together and led them into history.

See You In Court.

THINGS ARE GETTING STRANGE

2011-12-07T06:04:00.001-05:00

Before we get to today's topic, a little holiday housekeeping courtesy of the FACDL:

Dear Membership,

With the holiday season now in full swing FACDL is again joining hands with the Dade County Bar Association Homeless Outreach Committee to ensure that some of Miami's less fortunate children do not go without toys this year. Just as we did last year we will be setting up collection boxes on Wednesday in the REG Building to collect new, unwrapped toys that will be delivered to the families at the Champman Homeless Center in Miami. Through the efforts of Rick Freedman, and the assistance of Judge Yvonne Colodny, Carlos Martinez, Katherine Fernandez-Rundle, and the staff at Au Bon Pain, we arranged to have collections stations set up at Au Bon Pain restaurant on the first floor of the Justice Building, Judge Colodny's chambers in room 209, as well as both the State Attorney's Office, the Public Defender's Office.

Additionally, this year's FACDL Holiday party will be held on December 15th at the Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office. This year we are fortunate enough to have Administrative Judge Bertila Soto for what promises to be a very informative question and answer session. Just as last year, instead of charging an admission fee for this year's Holiday Party we are asking that attendees bring an unwrapped toy to be donated.

On December 21 at 6:00 pm there will be a holiday party at the Chapman Homeless Center where all the toys that have been collected will handed out to the children. The Dade County Bar Association welcomes, and urges, all the FACDL membership to attend. We are hoping that all of our members will make a point to attend this great event and contribute to this worthy cause. We had a wonderful turnout last year and with everyone's help we can top it this year. Happy holidays to all.

Things are getting strange in ....where else but Browierd County. The JAA Blog has all the details on the Redemption Movement.

Below are the videos of a defendant (self and apparently secretly made) who doesn't want to give his name. Pity the poor overworked PDs who are trying to get the fool to just give them his name.

Anybody have any experience with these jerks popping up in Dade County?

Here's the Judge trying to get the idiot to say who he is.

Post script:

It appears that our hero messed with the wrong Judge when he showed up late to Raag Singhal's court. According to the Broward Blog the Judge issued an AC and when the genius showed up and started his games Ragg took him into custody because he wouldn't give testimony sufficient to allow Raag to vacate the AC. Upon being handcuffed our brave hero broke down and wanted to admit everything, but by then it was too late and as of last word Mr. Funny Guy is in the Broward County Jail. Now he has a number to go with his name.

THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC

2011-12-05T20:17:00.006-05:00

What Rumpole is reading:

11/22/63: Absolutely Stephen King's finest. And even if you're not a Stephen King fan, this book is special.

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. When you're done with this shorter story you will immediately start re-reading it to see what you missed. Sounds weird? Read it and see.

Destiny Of The Republic: A Tale Of Madness, Medicine and Murder of A President. Candice Millard. Think you know everything there is to know about President James A. Garfield? Think again.

The bad thing about writing a good post over the weekend is coming home late Monday and feeling like we have to write something before people get bored. It's not like we have law professors at UM guest blogging for us.

First no soup, now no mail for Rumpole. The US Postal service will be making cuts in the spring.

Super size black holes are gobbling up the universe, and that has us worried.

North Miami Police Officers are casting Santeria spells on the City Manager (and getting fired for it.) Pure Birdseed.

The cost of fuel in Afghanistan has risen to $400.00 per gallon, but only for the US Military.

The Dolphins don't suck anymore after the drubbing they put on the Raiders on Sunday.

And only 19 more shopping days until Christmas (starting Tuesday).

See you in court.

LIAR LIAR POLICE ON FIRE

2011-12-03T07:57:00.004-05:00

Jerry Sandusky's attorney tries again and has his client sit for a two day interview with the NY Times here.

Query: When, if ever is it appropriate to have your client sit down with the press?

NO SOUP FOR YOU RUMPOLE!

One of the pleasures of going to trial in federal court, or showing up for an 11:30 hearing was having lunch at Lil Anthony's Italian Restaurant. As of Friday, the restaurant had served its last piece of pizza or plate of pasta. Or in Rumpole's case, the very best Tomato Soup in Miami.

The New Times has brief bit on the closing here. If anyone hears if and where they re-open, please let us know. We had two bowls of the soup yesterday, and will be going into withdrawal shortly.

LIAR LIAR BROWARD COPS ON FIRE

Here's the scenario: The Broward SWAT team serves a warrant. The defense files a motion to suppress and alleges that the police did not knock and announce. The detective takes the stand and give detailed testimony on how he saw the knock and announce and how they always knock and announce without fail. Always.

Then the defense plays the outtakes from a local police show showing that the police did not even remotely come close to knocking and announcing when they served the warrant in the case being litigated.

Lets play: So what does the Broward SAO do?

A) Nolle Prosse and apologize to everyone for presenting perjured testimony?

B) Open an investigation of the Detective and his squad?

C) Argue exigent circumstances the next day and refuse to drop the charges?

If you said C, you've seen how they work in Broward.

The JAA Blog has all the dirty details here and here.

Here's the point. Is this an isolated incident? Did the defense in Broward just get extremely lucky and happen to get the exculpatory information they needed in the one case the police lied/or were mistaken?

Or does this happen all the time and this is the one time they got caught?

How many times have you told the prosecution that this was the only time your client made a mistake, and how many times have they sneered at that fantasy and responded that this was the first time they got caught?

Here's what concerns us the most- and this is directed at our robed readers: How many times do you hear in court that the police lied? That they planted the drugs they claim they saw the defendant drop? That they hit the defendant and tore up the first two Miranda forms before he agreed to waive his rights? And how many times have you ruled against the defense and reasoned that police have no reason to lie? That it is foolish to think any police officer would risk their badge to lie about one insignificant case?

How do you feel when you see what is clearly an institutional bias to commit perjury whenever it suits them?

See You In Court, and by the way, get that attorney in Broward who nailed these cops an award and re-read that idiot prosecutor his oath as a prosecutor.

WORLD AIDS DAY

2011-12-01T19:25:00.007-05:00

Better late than never. Thursday was World Aids Day. But it's not too late to do your part.

Here is the Government's web site for World Aids Day. You can follow the links and find your own suitable charity and do your part.

We can't let this go. It's hard to imagine most of our readers passed the Bar. If you read the comments section from the last post, you will see speculation on who the young woman was referenced in our post. Most thought it was a prosecutor. Then we wrote that there was nothing in the post to confirm she was a prosecutor. Then someone wondered if she wasn't a prosecutor what could she be?

Co-counsel?

Counsel for the co-defendant?

Jury consultant?

Expert witness?

Come on people. Think just a little tiny bit outside the box.

It's all over the FACDL Listserv that great criminal defense attorney Roy Kahn tore it up in trial in civil court and got a 3.25 million dollar verdict.

Roy, can you spare a dime?

FACDL SPY

Our FACDL spy says the following things are in the works:

1) The clerk's office will now accept checks and debit cards for payments. For a brief moment the clerk's office decided to only accept coin as payment and then only quarters and nickels minted 2009 or beyond and then only from the Denver mint.

2) Security pass: Regular working private defense attorney Joes and Janes will be able to join their brethren from the SAO, PDs, and Regional Counsel (RC?) and bypass the security and walk in the side door.

Register us as completely 100% against this idea. Everyone, and we mean everyone including Judges and Bailiffs should have to go through screening. Otherwise the building turns into a sieve.

The security of an area is directly related to the square of the number of people who can bypass screenings.* With what will now be 100s of people not being screened as they enter, the chances of their being an "incident" of some sort is now much more likely than not.

See You In Court.

*That's not our formula but one employed by respected security agencies.

EVE OF DESTRUCTION

2011-11-30T20:06:00.004-05:00

The Scene:

Your favourite blogger in a hallway outside of a courtroom speaking with a young attorney.

Rumpole: Your description of what will occur if I proceed to trial is right out of Eve Of Destruction.

Young Female Attorney: Huh?

Rumpole. You know. Barry McGuire. Eve Of Destruction. A famous song from the sixties.

YFA: No. Never heard it.

Rumpole. Well, you weren't alive in the sixties. In fact, you weren't alive in the seventies. (Very long pause as we stared off in to space over her head. We think to ourselves that she is incredibly young and more than a bit attractive. Finally, after a few more awkward moments of silence:) Please tell me you were born in the eighties. Please dear lord don't say you were born in the nineties.

YFA: (Laughing) Why would that matter so much to you?

Rumpole: Well, for one thing it would cause me to go home tonight and drink much more than I had intended to.

YFA: (Laughing again) 1986. I was born in 1986.

Rumpole: Thank you. You've saved me just a bit.

Yeah, my blood's so mad, feels like coagulatin',
I'm sittin' here, just contemplatin',
I can't twist the truth, it knows no regulation,
handful of Senators don't pass legislation,
and marches alone can't bring integration,
when human respect is disintegratin',
this whole crazy world is just too frustratin',
and you tell me over and over and over again my friend,
ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

See You In Court.

JB Spence and Buddy Payne, long time law partners and giants among civil trial lawyers in Florida, both died a few days apart in November, 2011. The Herald dual obit is here.

Election Central

2011-11-29T01:48:00.004-05:00

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

Election Central .....

Circuit Court Group 49. Richard Hersch now has an opponent. (ht to 5:48 pm).

Attorney Victor De Yurre, a member of the Florida Bar since 1977 has filed to run against Mr. Hersch. Many of you will remember Mr. De Yurre from his previous life in politics. He first ran for the Miami City Commission in 1987 against incumbent Commissioner Joe Carollo. He defeated Carollo and served on the City Commission from 1988-1995.

Like most politicians elected in our city, De Yurre attracted his share of controversy. In 1991, New Times did one of their many stories about De Yurre. The City of Miami was on the verge of bankruptcy, (so what’s new), and De Yurre had spent the taxpayers money on lavish trips out of the State and Country. De Yurre had taken nine trips in 1990, cultural missions is what I think they call them, to places like Italy, Washington DC, Seattle, San Francisco (supposedly to see programs for homeless people), and Brussels, among some of the places.

The trip to San Francisco must have been anything but eventful. I say that because, in 2002, New Times did a feature story called: “What Did You Do In The War On Poverty”? In the story they interviewed several past members of the Miami City Commission and they asked them each that exact question. When they got to De Yurre, he responded: “I can't put my finger on anything now. I can think of global things, like funding low-income housing projects. We also had those façades on Eighth Street, Overtown, and Liberty City -- injections of money that helped people spruce up places. I can't think of any individual thing I did. I really can't think of anything else I could have done.”

As a lawyer, De Yurre appears to have a solo practice in the downtown area. I have no idea what type of law he practices. I believe he has a son, Anthony, who is also a lawyer. Anthony works for Pathman, Lewis, and is involved in the political scene and is a mover and shaker in the community in his own right.

I would imagine that De Yurre could prove to be a formidable opponent to Mr. Hersch -of course, if Hersch happens to get tapped by Governor Scott to one of the three open Circuit Court seats, then he won’t have to worry about running for Judge again until 2014.

I also reported on November 21st on this BLOG that Fleur Lobree has drawn yet another opponent.

ELECTION CENTRAL ..... GROUP 20 COUNTY COURT

JUDGE LOBREE DRAWS YET ANOTHER OPPONENT

On October 12, 2011, on the Justice Building BLOG, I reported the following:

And the newest filing has someone challenging newly appointed County Court Judge Fleur Lobree:

William Pena Wells; (he is the attorney that caused much discussion on this blog on the issue of his being suspended by the Bar for three years as the result of his criminal conviction).

The newest candidate:

Michelle Alvarez Barakat. Ms. Barakat has been practicing law since 1999. She worked for the Florida Bar in lawyer regulation. She now practices in a two person firm with her husband, former ASA Brian Barakat. According to her web site, her practice concentrates on criminal defense and commercial litigation.

JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS UPDATE:

We are waiting to hear from Governor Scott on several appointments:

Circuit Court open seats include: Judge Ivan Fernandez, Judge Amy Steele Donner, and Judge Robert Scola. Six names sit on Scott's desk for the Fernandez seat and the Donner seat. The JNC has not yet selected the names to replace Scola. Expect two new Circuit Court Judges to be named sometime during the week before Christmas.

Donald "DJ" Cannava
Miguel de la O
Richard Hersch
Norma Lindsey
Deborah White-Labora
Angelica Zayas

County Court open seat: Judge Rosa Figarola. The Governor has five names on his desk. Expect a new County Court Judge to be named around the same time as the two new Circuit Court Judges.

David Alschuler
Tanya Brinkley
Donald “DJ” Cannava
Ivonne Cuesta
Steven Lieberman

Cap Out .....

ON LINE MONDAY

2011-11-28T04:07:00.001-05:00

Now we move to the internet sales which start today. This orgy of consumption is a bit intimidating. And somehow sad.

Another Miranda case, another small chip knocked out of the decision by the Supreme Court. In Bobby v. Dixon, decided per curiam, (a latin term meaning literally "you lost badly") the court reversed the decision of the sixth circuit. For Miranda purposes the court held no violation where the defendant invoked Miranda during a non-custodial "chance encounter" with the police two days before confessing after Miranda. The facts in this case were distinguished from the "two-step" method to undermine Miranda employed by the police (and disfavored by a plurality of the court) in Missouri v. Seibert, 542 U. S. 600 (2004)

Here's a tough and kinda sexy Brooklyn Judge profiled in the NY Times.

"Tanned, toned and blond at 50-something (long-divorced, without children), Judge DiMango speaks in a comfortable Brooklyn accent. She wears short knit dresses — black or fire-engine red — that show cleavage underneath a robe that casually falls off her shoulders; she drives an aqua Porsche."

This is the last few days of November. When does the "it's almost Christmas so I don't want to go to trial" motions start creeping on to the court calendars?

See You In Court.

IF FRIDAY WAS BLACK...

2011-11-26T09:00:00.004-05:00

Then Saturday is?

The confusing thing about this "Black" labeling business is that Wall Street calls historically bad days "black" and retailers call the best day of the shopping year "black". Kinda confusing.

Johnny Walker Black? Good. Black Mark? Bad. In the Black? Good. Black eye? Bad.

I think some lawyers should get involved and resolve this inconsistency. Should only take a team of 20 and about 2000 billable hours to settle on a new word.

Speaking of lawyers, our old friends at Weil, Gotschal and Manages, have settled the NBA Strike! (The link is to the NY Times coverage).

Yes Virginia, there will be basketball this year. Your daddy can pay $500 a seat to see Dwayne Wade and Lebron James et.al., play at the AA arena starting Christmas day. Heat v. Mavs. Go Heat! Another under achieving over paid team of spoiled players.

And yet, this time around the players will not be so over paid. They capitulated. They caved. They didn't like their old deal so they went on strike. They didn't like the new deal offered, so they decertified the union. And then they settled for a pay scale that can go as low as 49% of revenues, or as high as 51%. Under the former deal that the players found so onerous, they were getting 57% of revenues.

The message is don't mess with the guys at WGM. They will eat your lunch and double bill you for it when the deal is done.

Except when they mess with yours truly.

So go hit those day two sales and see just how high your credit can go.

The Fins lost a close one in Dallas on Thanksgiving and say what you want but Tony Sporano and his team have showed real mettle in battling back from a disastrous start and not giving up. We think TS has earned another shot at coaching down the line. Unlike certain basketball teams in town, his players aren't spoiled brats.

See You In Court Monday, turkeyed out.

psatb/rposttd/bfsat?/rit

TURKEY DAY

2011-11-23T20:58:00.004-05:00

Lots of interesting chatter in the comments section from the previous post.

Sitting home tonight and watching the Verdict.

Query: What's the best legal movie?

Certain lawyers with an affinity for blogging about federal court will tell you that it is A Few Good Men. But for our money, it's Paul Newman in The Verdict. Rocky for trial lawyers. Our favourite part is not the courtroom scenes, as good as they are, but the scene where the Archbishop offers Newman $210,000.00. Newman asks how he arrived at the sum and the archbishop says he thinks it's a fair offer. Then Newman says that he is struck by how well the offer is divisible by three and the Archbishop responds that was the idea of their insurance company. Newman turns the offer down.

The scene where Newman yells at the Judge and calls him a "bagman for the boys downtown" also makes us smile for some unknown reason.

Can't beat Miles O'Shea as the Judge either.

Enjoy your turkey and the holiday.

TURKEY WEEK

2011-11-21T06:56:00.003-05:00

Front page of the NY Times: "What They Don't Teach in Law School: Lawyering."

Front Page of the NY Times Magazine: "Teaching Good Sex".

And they accuse the comments section on the blog over the weekend of being weird.

Law and Sex. The question is how much are our readers influencing the editors of the NY Times?

FIU MOOT COURT

They are teaching good lawyering at FIU Law School. Over the weekend Professors HT Smith and Scott Fingerhut ran their annual Moot Court Competition. Judges from the 3rd DCA and the REGJB took time out of their weekends and presided over the trials while dozens and dozens of lawyers from the PD, SAO and private practice attended the trials as "jurors" rating the law student participants. We heard via a few emails (some apparently while the competition was in full swing) it was a great success, and congrats go to the law students and thanks to the Judges (it's almost the end of the year, we need to be nice to robe wearers at least once) and lawyers who gave selflessly of their time.

Anybody going to trial with two and half days of work scheduled for the week? Clerks and courts should close Wednesday at noon if tradition holds and the chief judge issues an order pardoning a local turkey and court and clerk personnel.

Anybody ever try a Turducken for Thanksgiving? It's a turkey stuffed with a chicken which is stuffed with a duck. Throw in some sausage and cornbread and it takes 12 hours in the oven. We saw one being prepared. Looks amazing.

See You In Court. Enjoy the holiday week.

ITS A LONG LONG ROAD

2011-11-17T22:11:00.007-05:00

Mr. Black was pondering rebuttal arguments. Actually he was beyond pondering. He was mulling though his collection of great rebuttals of the past. Want to know why Mr. Black is a great lawyer? Read his blog. He loves and respects his craft. And he constantly studies it.

Mr. Black calls the prosecutor's rebuttal in the prosecution of Dr. Conrad Murray "as good as it gets." and "It was a coup de grace." High praise from a lawyer who knows a good rebuttal when he hears one.

Speaking of rebuttals, we were always of the belief that a good piece of defense evidence was more than worth sacrificing the right to a rebuttal argument. This was back in the day when the defense had the rebuttal closing argument unless they introduced a piece of evidence. However, now that the defense no longer has the chance at a rebuttal closing argument, we miss it.

True the prosecution has the burden of proof. But they get to proceed first at every critical stage, from voire dire to opening. Sometimes a good last word works wonders.

Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez thankfully does not join the historical litany of multi-named assassins, as his attempt on the life of President Obama was not successful and he is now in custody. Ortega-Hernandez shot at the White House while the President was a continent away. However one projectile struck the facade over the Truman Balcony where the President and his wife sometimes sit and relax. Do we now have to sequester our President in a physical bubble at all times? Maybe so. But the important point is Mr. Ortega-Hernandez's Second Amendment rights were not infringed before he shot up the White House, right? Right?

"It's a long long road, from which there is no return..."

The Hollies*. He Ain't Heavy. He's My Brother.

*HT to Scott Saul for correcting us.

Happy Birthday, Six & Counting

2011-11-16T01:03:00.011-05:00

JUROR ARRESTED FOR THEFT! (This is why we started the blog). David Ovalle has all the details here as a juror who was going through security snapped up a Mac Lap top. Surprisingly good police work solved the "Case of the pilfered 'puter" in record time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG

Congratulations to Horace on his 6th Birthday as Administrator of the Justice Building Blog. And with due deference to South Florida Lawyers, Southern District of Florida, and the Broward Blogs, we here would like to say that your BLOG is Number One in our book.

Don't know if you'll be around for another six years, but many of your loyal readers and posters will stick with you for as long as you are willing and able to continue with your fine administration of the BLOG.

On a lighter note:

The Captain Reports:

As mentioned by one of our loyal readers, attorney Miguel de la O, who filed many moons ago for an open Circuit Court seat in Group 42, now has an opponent. That opponent is attorney Greer Elaine Davis Wallace, a solo practitioner with an office in Florida City, she specializes in family law and has been practicing since 1979.

Captain Out .....

JAIL TIME

2011-11-14T15:31:00.007-05:00

Although Mark Twain wrote "regret for wasted time is more wasted time" we fall squarely behind Carl Sandberg who wrote "Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you." Not bad for a second baseman for the Chicago Cubs.

Very secretly we have been conducting an experiment. With the help of twenty attorneys, we have tracked the wait time to see a client at the various pre-trial holding facilities. Our attorneys faithfully emailed us their experiences, and we have now correlated the data. *

The Best facility to go and see your client is.....DCJ! With an average wait time of 16 minutes from entering the facility to when the actual interview begins. Comments about DCJ tended to be that the hardest part of the visit was clearing the screening process. The only major obstacle that our attorneys ran into at DCJ was the limited interview rooms on each floor- usually one. If someone was already seeing a client ahead of you on the same floor as your client, then the wait time significantly increased, usually more than tripling.

Second place was....Metro West. Putting aside travel time, the average wait time to see a client a Metro West was 34 minutes. The problems at Metro West are well known. The interview rooms fill up; the staff can take over an hour to bring your client. But when things go well at Metro West the visit tends to run smoothly. But horror stories included waiting 94 minutes for the client to be brought and waiting 67 minutes only to be told the client was ill and couldn't come down. When the interview rooms were full the average wait time tripled to 110 minutes, with most attorneys feeling that after having made the drive, they were trapped into having to wait to see their clients.

Third place was the Stockade with an average wait time of 41 minutes. Most attorneys expressed surprise that when they timed it the wait was as long as it was. The experiences attorneys had varied, with one public defender swearing that he/she averaged 16 minutes in wait time over 11 visits over three months. On the other end of the spectrum, one hapless attorney said he was turned away four times over the course of one week, including twice in one day when he was told the facility was on lock down.

Last place was TGK. One memorable comment about TGK was that "it is the Eeyore of jails". The average wait time was 53 minutes, with the main problem being that about half the time the attorneys were allowed access to travel to the area where their clients were held and the other half of the time the attorneys were forced to wait for an escort. Without an escort, TGK vaults into second place with a wait time of 21 minutes. But the wait time skyrocketed when the attorney was told to wait for an escort, with times averaging well over an hour.

What can be done?

The Feds have a system that allows an attorney to email ahead and request a client be brought down to the interview room. Even the Broward County Jail will bring your client down if you call ahead and tell them you are on your way.

But this is Miami, where reason and common sense have no place in matters such as these.

See you in court.

*Over a period of the last six months, over 20 attorneys took part in collecting data for us. Some attorneys emailed us dozens of reports faithfully detailing all of their jail visits, while other attorneys participated once or twice and then opted out. All times do not include travel time. We cannot vouch for the accuracy of what was reported to us and the highest and lowest reported wait times for every facility was discarded in formulating the averages we arrived at.

11-11 NONSENSE

2011-11-12T13:51:00.005-05:00

Don't know about you, but we've had more than enough of this 11/11/11 crapola. Only one more year of having to deal with this nonsense (12/12/12) and then the human race does not have to deal with this again for another 89 years.

Maybe next time around we'll be more mellow in our middle age years.

Mr. Black's final critique of the defense closing in the Dr. Conrad Murray case is worth a read here.

Mr. Black summarizes the defense failures:

When you are speaking on a national stage, it has to be first class. How many opportunities does a lawyer get like this? Why waste it with inanities? I would have walked the jury through a list of the strongest points I had with excerpts of the testimony. Hit them hard and make them unforgettable. Once again missed opportunities.

Clay Kaeiser has this great remembrance of Judge Phil Knight:

I'll never forget a marijuana possession case that I tried in front of Judge Knight in which he called us all sidebar halfway through the trial and told the prosecutor that he was going to grant my motion to suppress. One problem--I had not even filed a motion to suppress. Needless to say, sensing immediate victory, I remedied this problem by making an "oral motion" that was quickly granted. Many months later, in a social setting, Judge Knight explained the incident by telling me "Clay, nobody has ever gone to jail for marijuana in my court." He'd done so many jury trials that he must have sensed a guilty verdict and decided to abort the whole proceeding.

Despite this, Judge Knight was no bleeding heart--god forbid that you had a client convicted of a violent offense in front of him for sentencing--but he did have a very developed theory of punishment that minimized victimless crimes. He was an armed services veteran who had worked his way through law school (as either a librarian or in the post office) and eventually became a partner in one of the big downtown law firms (Fowler White?). Despite his well-documented problems, he was one of the most intellectually gifted and hardest working judges who have ever served in the Justice Building. And he had a great sense of humor. Once, around Christmas time, a young female defendant, represented by Sy Gaer, said to the Judge "you look just like Santa Claus" As Judge Knight smiled (trying to look even more like Santa Claus), Sy said to his client, "but wait until you see what he has as a present for you." The whole courtroom--including Judge Knight--cracked up.

CK

Justice Scalia (DOM's BFF) has little patience for federal habeas claims attacking state court convictions. Greene v. Fisher.

a federal court may not grant habeas relief to a state prisoner with respect to any claim that has been “adjudicated on the merits in State court proceedings” unless the state-court adjudication “resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as deter- mined by the Supreme Court of the United States.” 28 U. S. C. §2254(d)(1). We consider whether “clearly estab- lished Federal law” includes decisions of this Court that are announced after the last adjudication of the merits in state court but before the defendant’s conviction becomes final...

We have said that its standard of “contrary to, or involv[ing] an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law” is “difficult to meet,” because the purpose of AEDPA is to ensure that federal habeas relief functions as a “ ‘guard against extreme malfunctions in the state criminal justice systems,’” and not as a means of error correction...

The retro- activity rules that govern federal habeas review on the merits—which include Teague—are quite separate from the relitigation bar i

mposed by AEDPA; neither abrogates or qualifies the other. If §2254(d)(1) was, indeed, pegged to Teague, it would authorize relief when a state-court merits adjudication “resulted in a decision that became contrary to, or an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, before the conviction became final.” The statute says no such thing, and we see no reason why Teague should alter AEDPA’s plain meaning.

The weather is beautiful. Enjoy your weekend.

11th Hour 11th Day 11th Month

2011-11-11T00:21:00.000-05:00

(Re-run from last year and this is the fourth Veterans Day we've run the video. And while you're at it click here and read Judge Jon Schlessinger's moving tribute to his Uncle Edward Kielich, who was buried with full honours at Arlington Cemetery. BTW somehow we forgot to wish Happy Birthday yesterday to our beloved corps. 236 and going strong. Semper fi.

Check out DOM's post on Judge Palermo- WWII Veteran. Bronze star and six battle stars. A great American Hero. )

They’ve seen things we could never imagine.

They’ve done things people were not meant to do.

They risked their lives so we can live in freedom.

They are our veterans and today we honor them.

We've posted this video the last two threeand it bears watching again.

93 Years ago today, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 the guns of the great war fell silent.

Our Boys, The Doughboys, lie at rest in places with names like Flanders, Bony, and Belleau. They died on battlefields named Marne, Somme, and Verdun. Almost 5 Million Americans were in uniform for World War I, and over 100,000 died, and more than half of those deaths were on the battlefield.

It was the first time American boys would be asked to save Europe. It would not be the last.

Our nation has answered the call time and time again. Mostly for the right reasons, but not always. Yet we’ve always answered the call. And the price has always been high. Our young men and now our young women lie in battlefield graveyards all over the world, never to grow older, never to see the results of their sacrifice. Sacrifice given with the full assurance that their country would never let them down and would never forget.

Today we remember. And at 11 am, stop for a moment and take two minutes and reflect on the good things in your life. Think of your home, or your children, or your parents, or the freedoms you enjoy, and your comforts and remember none of that would have been possible without them.

Thank you. It doesn't seem enough, but Thank You, each and every one of you.

JUDGE PHIL KNIGHT PASSED AWAY IN MAY

2011-11-09T20:30:00.004-05:00

Judge Phillip Knight passed away in May of this year.

We received this email:

Rumpole, you missed the fact that Judge Phil Knight passed away in May 2011. Could you please post something?

The reader is correct. We did miss the fact that Judge Knight passed away. The title of the post links to his obit.

Judge Knight was a brilliant man. An accomplished attorney and a great and well respected trial Judge, Judge Knight set the standard for running an efficient courtroom. Judge Knight often was in his chambers by 7:00 AM, reviewing files, reading motions and generally preparing for the days cases. It was not unusual for Judge Knight to have his calendar concluded by 9:30 and a trial started by 10:00 AM. Judge Knight was so efficient, and his court audit was so low, that we often heard from other disgruntled colleagues that Judge Knight must have had some agreement with the clerk's office to assign less cases to his division. Of course nothing could have been further from the truth. Judge Knight's audit was low because he was a hard working judge.

Judge Knight was human and like all of us he battled his demons. But Judge Knight was a great Judge and a valuable addition to the REGJB for the time he served as a circuit judge. It was gratifying to read that upon his retirement he lived a full and happy life in Sun City, Tampa,. Judge Knight was a true Miami original and we will not see his like in these parts again.

FEILER WINS IT!

2011-11-08T06:03:00.004-05:00

Michael Feiler, civil lawyer extraordinaire, blog reader, football wiz, is your 2011 Blog Suicide Pool winner!

After an epic battle that lasted into week 9 of the NFL season, Feiler secured the victory with a strategy over the past two weeks of picking teams playing the slumping Cleveland Browns. Feiler was never in danger. Meanwhile, the ever eclectic Clayton Kaeiser survived a scare last week as Ravens came back from three touchdowns down to eek out a win over the visiting Cardinals and keep him alive for one more week. This week CK returned to his MNF strategy and surprised many blog readers by picking against his beloved Chicago Bears who traveled to play the supposedly surging Philadelphia Eagles, although no less a source than Rumpole had warned him that all that glitters was not Eagle Green in Philly. It was not the first time this season CK had picked against the Bears, but it would be the last. The Bears rewarded loyalty and punished those who picked against them by beating the Eagles and sending Mr. Kaeiser to a loss.

Well done to to both gentleman and all hail the victor Michael Feiler.

DOWN GOES FRAZIER.

Joe Frazier has died. The NY Times Obit is here.

Joe Frazier was underrated. He was one of the very best boxers to ever practice the sweet science. In March 1971 he and Muhammed Ali met for the first time in a 15 round fight matching two undefeated heavy weight champions, as Ali had lost the title when he was stripped of it for his decision to refuse to be drafted. It was truly the fight of the century.

In our busy world very little occurs that stops almost everyone from what they are doing and makes them pay attention. Ali Frazier I stopped the world. You can't imagine the anticipation and the atmosphere as the world literally stopped to watch two undefeated champions fight.

Anybody who was anybody was there. Frank Sinatra was a ringside photographer for Life Magazine. Burt Lancaster was a ringside announcer. Leroy Neiman painted the men as they fought. Somehow, with tickets reaching astronomic prices with scalpers, we got inside the Garden and saw the fight. Frazier stalked Ali for 14 rounds. He never let up the pressure. And then in the 15th round Joe threw the best left hook of his life and Ali was down. Ali got up and Joe won the decision.

Frazier would go on to lose his next two fights with Ali and be pummeled by a monstrous George Foreman, but on that crisp spring night in March in the greatest city in the world, Joe Frazier was indeed the greatest. NY Time sports writer Dave Anderson calls Frazier in a column today, "the better fighter. And the better man." Rest in peace champ.

At the tone, the standard time will be.....

Long time and careful readers of the blog well know our appreciation of a life well lived.

Dr. Norman Ramsey, The Nobel Laureate whose research led to the atomic clock, passed away over the weekend at age 96. The NY Times obit is here.

STOP THANKING JURORS

2011-11-07T04:07:00.002-05:00

DR. Conrad Murray found guilty. But you probably already knew that.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SY GAER. We were remiss in not reporting that yesterday, Sunday, was Sy's birthday. But it seems appropriate to remember it today, Monday, the start of the trial week in the building Sy spent his life working in. Stop by his picture on the second floor (across from the elevators) and read the wonderful words of Judge Milt Hirsch and share a few thoughts about our wonderful friend.

CLOSING ARGUMENTS:

Roy Black looks at the closing arguments in the Dr. Conrad Murray case. His analysis, as always, is worth a read, but his first point is something we have been harping on for years: DON'T WASTE TIME THANKING THE JURY!

The most dramatic moment of the case arrives. The attorney stands up with his/her case on the line. Those first few minutes of persuasive argument may well swing the jury. Come out with your best points. Make a dramatic statement so powerful that it will ring in the jury's ears long after you've sat down. The jury will never be more ready to hear it than in these first few moments.

And what do most attorneys do? "I want to take a few moments and thank you for your service. It has been a long and hard case and we all know that you've been paying attention and the case is almost over and on behalf of (insert your client here) I want to thank you for blah blah blah blah blah blah blah..."

Here's what Mr. Black says:

If you want to thank the jury do it in the body of the argument not at the beginning. Everyone knows you really don’t mean this. It is condescending and pandering. They know this intuitively. So stop it. It sounds and is phony.

Mr. Black is right. Stop it. Nobody cares and nobody really believes what you're saying. Do you really think the jurors go into the back and say "Well I think the defendant is clearly not guilty but the prosecutor took the time to thank us for our service and the defense attorney didn't so maybe we should teach her a lesson and find her client guilty?"

Dolphins win! Nuff said.

See You In Court.

RACE DAY

2011-11-06T08:45:00.007-05:00

It's race day here in NYC. Nothing like it. We will be nicely ensconced along First Avenue watching the runners, sipping some hot beverage.

Clayton Kaeiser, having barely escaped with his pool life with his faith in the Ravens last week, puts it all on the line with the Eagles against his beloved Bears! CK is picking against his Bears, who are A) Coming off a bye week and B) have done well against Vick in the past. Good luck CK. (Interesting, but this is CK's third or fourth pick of a MNF game. any strategy in that?)

Michael Feiler puts on his Stetson and boots and for the second week in a row picks against the Cleveland Browns and rolls with the Texans in Houston. Good luck.

9 weeks these guys have lasted. Not a blog record, but still impressive.

The Fins roll into KC and we think the wheels are off the bus. The Dolphins usually play better on the road, and they didn't play that badly last week in New Jersey against the Giants. But KC had a nice win against the Chargers on MNF and are in first place and this is no time for a let down. Give the 4 and take KC.

The Bears are 2-1 against the spread against the Eagles over the last three years, including a very impressive 31-26 win last year against Vick and the Eagles. Both teams are riding two game winning streaks and both teams are 2-0 against the spread during those games. The line is anywhere between -7.5 and -9 Eagles, who are at home. The money line is Chicago +400 (meaning if you take no points and bet the Bears to win, you get back 400 for every 100 you risk). Have some fun, go with our initial pre-season assessment- the Eagles are not as good as everyone says they are. Take the Bruins for 50 or a 100 and have a few beers an enjoy the game.

TO has an arrest warrant for failing to show up in court on a case about his child support payments. Anyone know a good lawyer?

See You In Court Tuesday- Monday is a travel day.

FALL

2011-11-04T20:22:00.003-04:00

There's a certain crispness to the mornings here in NYC that just quietly whispers that Fall is here and Winter is coming. We are not running in the NYC marathon but for the last few mornings we have quietly arisen before dawn and plodded through Central Park and the West Side. Sometimes running, sometimes walking. always enjoying the sunrise and then a hot cup of coffee and pastry at a local patisserie.

We love South Florida, but we do miss the change of seasons.

DOM asks if Judges should be able to ignore joint sentencing recommendations? We note that in Federal Court the only thing a defendant has a right to is a jury trial. A judge has to accept and approve a plea of guilty and many times they don't. So to answer DOM, A judge does not have to accept a joint sentencing recommendation, although we think they should. Indeed a Judge should not accept a plea of guilty where there is a joint sentencing recommendation if there is even a shadow of a doubt in their mind as to whether they will accept the parties recommendation.

We have never seen a judge reject an agreed upon plea in state court. Please post your stories on this subject.

The Dolphins are on the road at KC facing a Chiefs team coming off a MNF upset of the Chargers. 0-8 looks likely.

Meanwhile, take your hats off to Michael Feiler and Clay Kaeiser continue their battle in the suicide pool to week nine. Mr. Feiler barely escaped alive after the Ravens mounted a furious comeback last week and saved their season and his skin.

Enjoy the weekends. The lamb chops for us tonight at Ai Fiori, and then some sushi at Nobu for us tomorrow night.

MARATHON WEEK

2011-11-03T06:43:00.003-04:00

It's Marathon week in NYC. Who's running? Over the years the REGJB has been well represented in NYC.

We're not really sure who or what a "Kim Khardashian" is. Can someone explain this to us?

Occupy Oakland has turned into burn Oakland. The question is whether that is good or bad?

We mean, it's Oakland after all. There's no "there" there.

Ivan Fernandez Investiture at the 3rd DCA Friday at 3pm.

Bill Altfield Investiture at the Dade County Courthouse Friday at Noon. We received several emails informing us that everyone is invited to attend.

There was a disturbance at the Dolphins training facility yesterday. Several members of the offense were late for team meetings and were stuck in the team's parking lot.

Turns out they had trouble crossing the white line in the parking lot because it looked awfully similar to the goal line.

Remember the wardrobe malfunction of Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl in 2004? The litigation over fines to TV stations continues. The Third Circuit struck down a 500K fine 2-1.

It's comforting to know that in these troubled times when over 35 million Americans are on some form of government assistance that law firms and courts are devoting so much time to an exposure of a female breast for 9/16th of a second.

American Exceptionalism.

See You In Court.

AAH WHAT'S THE USE?

2011-11-01T20:49:00.002-04:00

YOU CAN'T SHUT OFF THE RISK AND THE PAIN

WITHOUT LOSING THE LOVE THAT REMAINS

WE'RE ALL RIDERS ON THIS TRAIN....

Bruce Springsteen, Human Touch.

Supreme Court:

Justice Clarence Thomas was the lone dissenter as the Court refused to review the 10th Circuit's decision that crosses placed along Utah’s highways near the places where state troopers have died in the line of duty, to commemorate their sacrifice, was unconstitutional.

11th Circuit:

Partial win for Ben Kuehne in the sports agents/alien smuggling case here.

Liberty City 7 lose here.

Sometimes we're too bored to write,

sometimes we're too busy...

See You In Court.

2011-10-31T05:51:00.000-04:00

The Honorable Kathy Williams had her investiture last week. DOM had the coverage.

Judges Bill Altfield (Dade County Courthouse at noon) and Ivan Hernandez ( 3rd DCA at 3pm) have their investitures this Friday.

The Captain pointed out in the comments Friday the NY TImes Op Ed here that the US has falling crime rates and teeming prisons. As we have said many many times: "The United States has 5 percent of the world’s population, yet 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. " Something's rotten in Denmark and in our criminal justice system.

The best chance the Dolphins have to win this season is this Sunday, on the road, at KC.

Roy Black continues his insightful critique of the lawyering in the Dr. Conrad Murray trial. His post on the prosecutor asking one question to many is superb, and if you have never done that then you've never tried more than one case. We've all been there. The goal is avoid doing it again and to recover when you do.

Mr. Black's commentary of this trial is a must read for all trial lawyers, especially young ones. His points are excellent and there is much to be learned from reading his opinion on the lawyering. Now if he could only give coach Sporano a few tips....

Supreme Court hears an ineffective assistance of counsel case today. The issue is a plea offer that was not communicated. NY Times coverage here.

Happy Halloween.

Send us your scary court stories.*

* Just emailing us the word "Broward", while technically qualifying as a scary court story, is not in the spirit of the request.

NFL 2011 WEEK EIGHT

2011-10-30T08:46:00.003-04:00

Breaking: Dolphins lose....more on this as it becomes available.

Our suicide pool rolls on as Clay Kaeiser and Michael Feiler continue to distinguish themselves with their football acumen.

Today CK confidently pick the Ravens to beat the visiting Cardinals while Feiler rolls with the 49ers over the Browns.

In our view Feiler has the rougher road to hoe today. Good luck to both players.

Take the under 51 if you can still get it in the Steeler/cheater and Cowboy/Eagle match-ups; take the under 42 in the Miami/Giants game in New Jersey today. The weather should be a factor in all three games.

We like the Browns +10 in San Fran today.

We'd also like it to stop raining in Miami before the end of the year.

See You In Court tomorrow. Enjoy your Sunday.

BOB LASSITER

2011-10-29T07:42:00.003-04:00

Many long time denizen of the REGJB know that for decades South Florida was blessed to have the very best in talk radio- Neil Rodgers. Neil died recently, and for some reason we have been thinking about Neil and his protege-Bob Lassiter. As detailed here, Neil was instrumental in getting Lassiter started in talk radio. But once he started, Bob Lassiter went on to have a career that approached if not equaled the great Neil Rodgers.

Here is the aircheck of what many believe was Lassiter's greatest call: the famous Mr. Airstream. It's worth a listen. And then listen to the other airchecks on the blog- they are all great.

And in case you're missing Uncle Neil, here is a web site that has over 150 Neil Rodgers shows-commercials included.

If talk radio is not your thing, just skip today's post and tune in tomorrow for Football.

See You In Court.

WRONG IS RIGHT

2011-10-27T21:25:00.002-04:00

What do you do as an appellate judge when you know the underlying fact on appeal- which was accepted by all parties and the trial judge- is wrong?

If you're Alex Kozinski, you have a little fun. The full coverage by the WSJ is here.

The fact remains that Arias conceded that he violated the order, and defendants didn’t argue otherwise to the district court, which is probably why the district court saw no reason to belabor the point. And this concession amounts to a waiver so that we must deem a violation established for purposes of this appeal even though Arias didn’t actually violate the order.

This raises the unusual question of how we treat a finding of bad faith for a transgression that didn’t actually occur. We conclude that Arias couldn’t have acted in bad faith if he did not, in fact, violate the district court’s order. You can’t have chicken parmesan without chicken; you can’t have an amazing technicolor dreamcoat without a coat; you can’t have ham and eggs if you’re short of ham or eggs. And you can’t have a bad faith violation without a violation.

Kozinski is obviously not from South Florida, because if he was, he would have written "you can't have arroz con pollo without the rice or the chicken..."

The Herald has a big scoop: The State Attorneys are now running the clerk's office!!

Here is a direct quote about how they obtained an a-form in the tragic cases of a Coral Springs police officer arrested for DUI Manslaughter that occurred in the Gables:

As of Wednesday, more than a month after the crash, Coral Gables police declined to release the arrest affidavit, saying it was part of an “open criminal investigation.’’ The Miami Herald was able to obtain the document through the state attorney’s clerk of courts office.

The full article written by Herald reporter Julie Brown is here. Next time you see Ms. Brown, ask her exactly where is the "State attorney's clerk of courts office"? We'd love to know.

Query: Should a reporter for the city's only major news paper have some fundamental understanding of the court system she is covering? Or is that asking too much?

Maybe we'll take a walk down and check with the Miami Herald's NY Times City desk.

See You In Court on our way to the SAO's clerk of courts office, where it's apparently an a-form jamboree.

BRAVO!

2011-10-26T20:28:00.001-04:00

CORAL GABLES COURT CALENDARS CANCELED THROUGH NOVEMBER 4

From: Bravo, Carmen
Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2011 12:19 PM
To: Carames, Manuel (COC); Gillett, Deborah (COC); Adrover, Jorge (COC)
Cc: Elena Reyes; Bula, Sonia; Hall, Charlene; Bazile, Sandra (COC); Fernandez, Yolanda; Diaz, Estela
Subject: Cancellation of Coral Gables calendars

Good afternoon,
Earlier today, I was notified, that due to the uncertainty regarding the reopening of the Coral Gables Courthouse, all Criminal Traffic, Misdemeanor and Traffic Infraction cases that are scheduled for the week of October 31 through November 4th are to be cancelled per Judge Slom.
I have asked the COC to inform me of any cases that have speedy issues, which need to be calendared ASAP so we may have them reset as soon as possible on other judges calendars.

I have attached next week’s schedule indicating the sessions that will be cancelled.
Thank-you and please let me know if you have any concerns.
Carmen Bravo
Director County Court Operations

Administrative Office of the Courts
*** We Who Labor Here Seek Only the Truth***

PAPERS PLEASE

2011-10-25T20:44:00.003-04:00

The rumor broke through several attorney chatter services Tuesday. From the FACDL Listserv to Twitter to emails, the defense world was abuzz with the news that Customs Border Patrol was conducting sweeps and searches of our clients attending traffic court in the REGJB Tuesday.

Clients who are not in the United States legally are being confronted and detained while appearing in traffic court. The traffic courts of the REGJB have been called many things, but an international boarder has never been one of them. Are these "boarder searches", dozens of miles inside the United States, legal?

Is anybody going to do anything about this?

And how bad are those Dolphins?

As the news went back and forth, attorneys regaled each other with news of other supposed excesses of the CBP, including a rumored sweep of a Broward County Convention of cosmetologists. No, CBP is not deporting theoretical physicists (cosmologists), but they are seeking to deport beauticians who have overstayed their welcome, not to mention their visa.

Locating a super nova or a black hole (no judicial jokes please) is one thing, but it's not that easy to get a good shave and a hair cut these days.

See You In Court...with papers if asked.

RIP

2011-10-24T13:54:00.006-04:00

BREAKING: Coral Gables courthouse closed Tuesday for "environmental reasons..." The courthouse was recently fumigated. Some employees are reporting becoming ill.

(Does anyone know a good lawyer?) More on this as it becomes (ack ack) available.

MIAMI DOLPHINS

1966-2011. Rest In Peace.

Up 15-0 with less than six minutes left, at home, versus a team with a losing record.

Loss in overtime 18-15.

The Day the Dolphins died.

Reprinted with permission from the Captain.

The Captain Reports:

JNC COUNTY COURT NOMINEES .....

Names sent to Governor Scott to replace Judge Figarola are:

David Alschuler
Tanya Brinkley
Donald Cannava
Ivonne Cuesta
Steven Lieberman

We should have the names later today for the Circuit Court two open seats. Also, with Judge Scola moving to Federal bench, that opens up yet another Circuit Court seat.

And a contented reader writes:

Anonymous said...

who cares, really so annoying! I hate when you get into the football crap on the blog. It is so annoying. I like it better when you stick to what the blog is suppose to be about and that is the Justice Building which totally lacks justice right now. Especially when we have too scared judges refusing to grant motions when they know they should be. GEEEZZZZZ its freaking sickening. I hope RIP is for the rest of the season. Go bother your wife with football

Rumpole responds:

Gee whiz Mom, why do you have to bother me at work?

mqc/udtue/cgcth...psatb

OCCUPY MIAMI

2011-10-22T10:10:00.003-04:00

Suicide update: CK marches with the Saints

while Feiller rolls with the Cowboys

OCCUPY MIAMI!

There is a group occupying Miami downtown. It's starting small but who knows what it leads to?

The Herald has coverage here.

What's the difference between protests by the "Occupy" group and protests by the Tea Party? Not much (to the chagrin of conservatives) says the NY Times.

Any thoughts about if and when they try to occupy the courthouses?

THEORY OF THE CASE:

Want a great nuts and bolts explanation of the defense theory of the case and why it matters so much? Roy Black has it here.

Tim Teebow arrives in Miami to play against the Dolphins tomorrow (yawn).

It's a beautiful fall day in Miami. Enjoy.

2011-10-20T13:45:00.009-04:00

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

BREAKING NEWS.....

UPDATED: JUDICIAL REASSIGNMENTS ANNOUNCED TODAY. We hear that the GJB will be getting William Thomas, John Schlesinger, Victoria Sigler, Valerie Manno -Schurr and Samatha Ruiz Cohen; and we will be losing Trawick, Hogan-Scola, Cueto, Ward & Zabel in January of 2012.

ELECTION 2012 - CANDIDATE WILLIAM PENA WELLS .....

On October 12, 2011, on the Justice Building BLOG, I reported the following:

And the newest filing has someone challenging newly appointed County Court Judge Fleur Lobree:

Fleur Lobree vs. William Pena Wells. Mr. Wells has been practicing in Florida since 1988. In 2002, he was suspended from the practice of law for three years nunc pro tunc to October of 1998. He petitioned for Reinstatement and was reinstated in 2004. He has a solo practice in NMB.

In the past week, bloggers have posted on Mr. Wells past. Here is what we found:

In October of 1996, Mr. Wells was arrested and charged with two felonies: Two counts of Worthless Check of $150 or more in violation of FS 832.05 (2) under case number F96-33449. Mr. Wells was appointed a PD. The PD filed a conflict an PCAC Philip Horowitz was assigned the case. In March of 1998, the State Nolle Prossed the two charges. They immediately refiled the two charges during that same month. A trial on the two charges took place before Judge Carney in June of 1998. Mr. Wells was found Guilty of both charges by a jury. On August 12, 1998, Mr. Wells was placed on Probation for one year; restitution was reserved. Wells filed an appeal with the 3rd DCA in September of 1998. In January of 2002, the 3rd DCA issued their opinion Affirming the Convictions. The opinion is found at Wells v. State, 807 So.2d 132. 3D98-2706. (I will not explain the basis for the two felony charges as the 3rd DCA lays out the facts of the case in their appellate opinion).

In January of 1992, it also appears that Mr. Wells was arrested in Miami Shores and charged with DUI. Mr. Wells was found Guilty of the DUI on February 26, 1997. See Case number 21404-WD.

I emailed Mr. Wells and asked him if he had anything he would like to say or share with the readers of this BLOG. He wrote back and said (UNEDITED):

Dear Captain Justice:

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss these issues early in the campaign to flesh out the facts and correct the inaccuracies.

I would like to say that it is unfortunate that the campaign is "William Pena Wells" vs. "Fleur Lobree." I hope to reject that notion. Judges run as nonpartisan candidates, held to a higher standard of ethics and campaign practices, and limitations of active campaigning, than most other elected officers in our County. It demeans and cheapens the judicial office to put candidates for judicial service in a head to head horse race. I am running because I am qualified, not because a sitting judge is somehow not qualified.

Judge Lobree was only recently appointed to her seat by Gov. Rick Scott in April of 2011 by the elevation of Judge Bloom to the Circuit Court bench. This election will be the voters first opportunity to have a voice in who sits on the bench to judge them.

I would much rather have a system of election where each candidate runs on merit. So that if there are 10 seats to be elected, the candidates, sitting and aspiring, were listed in alphabetical order and the voters were told to "pick any ten"... This would preserve the dignity of the judicial office and make certain that the best candidates were elected.

But that is not the system we have...

County Court is truly, to borrow the television term, "the people's court" and it is a cornerstone of American democracy that the people have the last word in who sits on the bench. Without an announced candidate, as I am, that right disappears.

As to the DUI, that happened on Super Bowl weekend of 1992. I had consumed a glass or two of wine and by the time the chemical tests were done, the alcohol had metabolized so that I had reached an unacceptable limit. As a result, I accepted a first offender penalty and have learned a valuable lesson -- that I carry with me. I think this makes me a more valuable judge on the bench... Having made a mistake nearly twenty years in the past, and learned from that isolated incident, I can be a more empathetic role model for others.

As to the felony charges, those occurred in 1996, but the judicial process took quite some time to finally conclude and the Florida Bar investigation was held in abeyance while the criminal case was completed. So the dates are misleading and out of context.

Basically, this was a business dispute. I was an attorney for a concert promotion entity, and as part of my compensation, was an officer of the corporation with check signing authority along with several others. The business was to put on a mega concert on the beach at Ocean Drive with musical legend Little Richard among others. Trying to stimulate the local economy, a Miami Beach travel agency was used to coordinate the travel arrangements for the band and performers (nearly 100 tickets in total).

Sadly, the William Morris Agency reported that the inexperienced agent had booked the tickets wrongly. In order to secure the travel on the short notice available, the corporation had to wire William Morris the funds directly and allow them to book the talent's flights. The money (and more since they were last minute changes) was withdrawn from the business account and sent to the Agency. The tickets they had purchased were never used and were returned to them.

Unfortunately, the travel agency decided to deposit the checks anyway, hoping I presume for a windfall. But they were returned by the bank as insufficient funds. The agency filed a complaint with the State Attorney and the fact that the checks were in the several thousand dollar range made it a category of felony. It is not surprising that the State issued a nolle prosse on these charges, realizing the futile nature of them.

The concert did take place and the artists, musicians, and staff did arrive. The Mayor of Miami Beach proclaimed it Little Richard Day. The concert was featured in the Miami Herald.

The State refiled the charges and despite being offered a pretrial plea deal, I refused and sought a trial. I did nothing wrong.

There is no element of fraudulent intent in an insufficient check charge. It is a crime against the banking system and the stream of commerce, paraphrasing the statute, to issue a check which is presented to a bank and returned for insufficient funds.

The jury found me guilty of the charges and the judge reluctantly imposed probation.

Thereafter, I appealed the decision and the Third District affirmed, glossing over the fact that the concert did take place and the funds used to cover the NSF checks were routed to another entity which did the job.

The Florida Bar offered to close the investigation of my conduct with credit for the period of time that I had been suspended while on appeal, I agreed, and I resumed my practice.

The travel agency never requested reimbursement of the funds it was supposedly missing by virtue of these tickets. In fact, in the later civil case I filed against them, they specifically disclaimed any and the case was dismissed as a result. I never paid them a dollar of reimbursement. The travel agency is no longer in business.

I hope this fleshes out the bare facts available in the public record.

If you have any more questions, I will be glad to answer them. My mother, and my Cuban born grandmother, raised me right. They taught me never to do anything I was ashamed of later. I am glad to have the opportunity to talk about this.

Regards
William Pena Wells

CAPTAIN OUT ...........

WOOPS

2011-10-18T22:02:00.007-04:00

DOM BREAKS THE NEWS: BOB SCOLA CONFIRMED AS A DISTRICT COURT JUDGE FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA TODAY. Congratulations to Federal Judge Scola. Now get to work.

UPDATE: CAPTURED! The inmate who was mistakenly let out was captured when he had the crazy idea of going to a UM Psych Ward. Herald article here.

Corrections accidentally released a dangerous inmate on Tuesday. The irony is that while they open the doors for a guy who shouldn't get out, it often takes days and days to get someone released who should be released.

The Defendant was convicted of attempted murder of his former girlfriend on Monday. He stabbed her with a large knife. On Tuesday, before he was sentenced, corrections let him out. Judge Trawick is the sentencing judge.

The Herald article on the mishap is here.

BREAKING NEWS: THIS IS BIG!

Steady yourself.

It's still raining.

UPDATE: Rain will end. Temperatures to drop into the mid-50's Fall is here!

See You In Court.

SAME SONG, DIFFERENT BAND

2011-10-17T04:47:00.002-04:00

It's the same old song in The Office Of Regional Counsel, just in a different Region.

Region 4 is now in turmoil, and the bad news is that there is no Gene Zenobi clone ready to step in and solve the problems. Low morale, high turnover, top lawyers fired, and general interoffice turmoil all bedevil RC4 which covers Broward, West Palm, and some other counties where they make OJ and grapefruit juice.

The Sun Sentinel article is here. Last week the Governor declined to name any of the two remaining candidates that were forwarded to him (the 3rd candidate, Raag Singhal was appointed to the Circuit bench last month) and the JNC is back to accepting applications: "Help wanted. Attorney needed to run Office Of Regional Counsel. Must be willing to be shunned by fellow defense attorneys who are no longer getting appointments and be tolerant of employees who take a nip of wine every now and then after work."

Meanwhile things are so hunky-dory at our own Regional Counsel Office (Motto: "Now we're happy") that we hear rumors of a celebration dinner happening this coming week.

Dolphins/Jets tonight. Michael Feiler won his suicide pick of the Ravens Sunday. The only thing standing between him and victory are the OH-4 Dolphins.

NFL 2011 WEEK SIX

2011-10-16T07:21:00.004-04:00

Suicide pool down to the final two!!??

Last week it appeared that Dan Lurvey, Clay Kaeiser, and Michael Feiler had all won their picks and made the final three.

Lurvey had picked the Chargers by sending an email that said "bolts". A challenge flag was thrown. After further review it appears Dan Lurvey picked the Chargers in week three. It is a foul to pick the same team twice. Mr. Lurvey has fouled out of the contest. To his credit, before we released this information Mr. Lurvey sent us this email:

Incredibly, Bolts was a typo and I really meant Colts. You, understandably, thought I meant the Chargers as that is their nickname. Either way I lose as I picked the Chargers in week three.

Since Lurvey's ill-begotten and putative pick of the the Colts was destined to failure, his typo doesn't really factor into the equation, at least in this universe.

WEEK SIX: FINAL TWO:

Michael Feiler picks the Baltimore Ravens. Clayton Kaeiser picks the J...E....T...S on Monday night football. Good luck gentleman and congratulations.

A few plays today: take the under 50 in the Giants/Bills matchup and while you're at it give the three and take the Giants as both teams regress to the mean- Buffalo isn't quite as good as their record indicates and the Giants aren't quite as bad.

Under 51 Carolina at Atlanta and under 54 Dallas at Cheaters.

Good luck all.

OCCUPIED

2011-10-15T06:45:00.001-04:00

OCCUPY WALL STREET!

Why not?

FIRING SQUADS & OLE SPARKY

2011-10-12T22:35:00.015-04:00

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

"It wouldn't bother me if we took them up to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and threw them off, and if things were right with God they’re traveling in that direction anyway ....."

Those are the words uttered today by Florida Republican House member Brad Drake***. Drake has had it with our belly-aching over whether lethal injections may have been causing some pain to death row inmates. So today he filed HB 325 and will ask the Florida legislature next Spring to bring back firing squads and fire up "Ole Sparky".

Read the full article here: http://cltampa.com/dailyloaf/archives/2011/10/12/florida-legislator-wants-to-bring-back-firing-squads-and-electrocutions

***Mr. Drake is a 36 years old Baptist born in Fort Walton Beach; he represents the constituents of Defuniak Springs and he lists his interests as fishing, Florida history, golf, growing vegetables, hunting, NASCAR, and is a card-carrying member of the NRA.

In other news, newly appointed Circuit Court Judge Thomas Rebull was officially sworn in last week and is assigned to the Circuit Criminal Division. He takes over Judge Mary Barzee Flores' division. Has anyone been in front of him yet and care to comment?

In JNC news, as the result of Judge Rosa Figarola's appointment to the Circuit Court bench, the JNC will interview ten candidates and nominate up to six of them and send those names to Gov. Scott for his consideration. Interviews take place on October 21:

11:00 - Martin Zilber
11:20 - David Alschuler
11:40 - Tanya Brinkley
12:15 - Donald "DJ" Cannava
12:35 - Ivonne Cuesta
1:40 - Carlos Guzman
2:00 - Steven Lieberman
2:20 - Gordon Murray
2:55 - Yadira Pedraza
3:15 - Alan Taylor

The JNC will be busy as three days later on October 24th, they will conduct interviews to replace the retiring Judge Amy Steele Donner and also Judge Ivan Fernandez who moved South and West to "The Bunker" aka the 3rd DCA:

10:00 - Steven Befera
10:20 - Miguel M. de la O
10:40 - Andrew S. Hague
11:15 - Richard Hersch
11:35 - Norma S. Lindsey
11:55 - Cristina Miranda
1:00 - Maria D. Ortiz
1:20 - Bonnie Riley
1:40 - Alan D. Sackrin
2:15 - Rodney Smith
2:35 - Douglas Swalina
2:55 - Deborah White-Labora
3:15 - Angelica Zayas
** Donald "DJ" Cannava will be considered but will not be interviewed **

And for those that inquired about the names of the candidates who have officially filed for 2012:

CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE

Robert Coppel vs. Maria Elena Verde
Miguel de la O - currently has no opposition
Maria de Jesus Santovenia - currently has no opposition
Richard Hersch - currently has no opposition

COUNTY COURT

Non-Incumbents include:

Ivonne Cuesta (no opposition)

Tanya Brinkley & John Malgoza Rodriguez filed in same race. Rodriguez has thrown down $100,000 of his own money to fund the campaign.

And the newest filing has someone challenging newly appointed County Court Judge Fleur Lobree:

Fleur Lobree vs. William Pena Wells. Mr. Wells has been practicing in Florida since 1988. In 2002, he was suspended from the practice of law for three years nunc pro tunc to October of 1998. He petitioned for Reinstatement and was reinstated in 2004. He has a solo practice in NMB.

CAPTAIN OUT .....

ZOMBIES, PER SE.

2011-10-11T19:51:00.003-04:00

The secret is out: Our favourite restaurant in NYC was just outed by the NY Times as the Best Restaurant in NYC. And it wasn't easy getting in before this. Per Se!

We're sure we read somewhere in some Federalist Paper a warning against electing a President with the first name of Mitt. It's just not kosher as Publius would have said/written.

A zombie catastrophe in Canada.

Justice Scalia is a snob (if you didn't know that already.). Here is what he told the Senate Judiciary committee:

Justice Scalia said routine drug cases belong in state courts, which handle the vast majority of trials for most criminal offenses. The Judiciary Committee chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.), himself a former state prosecutor, agreed.

The increase in federal criminal law has required Congress to enlarge the federal court system, and Justice Scalia suggested that has helped diminish the "elite" quality of the federal judiciary.

Pardon us a moment. Ok, we're back from being sick. Elite quality? Per Se is elite quality. The Outback steakhouse is not, even if they dress the steak up with a bloomin onion.

See You In Court.

REGIONAL RE-SET

2011-10-10T21:30:00.005-04:00

(cue Dragnet theme)

The story you are about to read is true.

The names have not been changed, although the individuals are innocent.

On September 6, 2011 Attorneys Gene Zenobi, Kellie Peterson and Rene Palomino were dismissed from their jobs as assistant regional counsel attorneys for imbibing wine some 60 days previously.

Trial was held in the court of public opinion.

In a moment, the results of that trial ....

On October 4, 2011 the Governor of the State of Florida appointed Gene Zenobi as Regional Counsel, replacing the individual who fired him. Mr. Zenobi was exonerated.

Shortly thereafter (and we believe this is a scoop) Mr. Zenobi rehired and re-instated Kellie Peterson and Rene Palomino to their former positions at Regional Counsel. No confirmation on the rumor the parties toasted to their good fortune with a simple yet intriguing Cabernet.

Ms. Peterson and Mr. Palomino have been exonerated.

Dum da dum, dum da da da dum...

Judge Chin on sentencing: This is a great NY Times article on the education of SDNY Judge Denny Chin and his views on sentencing defendants.

NFL 2011 WEEK FIVE

2011-10-08T22:22:00.007-04:00

SUICIDE SLAUGHTER!

Jon Colby OUT

Michael Grieco OUT

Nick Basco OUT

Rick Freedman OUT

Kenneth Weisman and company OUT

Cary Clennon OUT

Juan Gonzalez OUT

Plea D OUT

Adam T2. OUT

Nine players, count em- NINE , all had their season ended on a late Eli Manning pick six as the Giants were driving for the winning TD.

Michael Feiler squeezed out a win with the Saints and CK is alive with his pick of the Lions Monday night. Lurvey picked the Chargers who are comfortably ahead. We will head into week six with two or three players.

The good news this week is that we are fairly confident that Fin fans will wake up Monday morning without having to endure another Dolphin loss. The bad news is that the Dolphins are off this week. The good news is that Ace College QB Senior Andrew Luck is house shopping in Miami.

The suicide pool rolls on with Feet of Clay Kaeiser alive and kicking as we made a mistake and listed his pick last week incorrectly. CK picked the Bears who beat the Panthers.

This week the NY Football Giants are everyone's favourite pick with the following people hopping on the Eli Manning bandwagon: Jon Colby, Michael Grieco, Nick Basco, Rick Freedman, Kenneth Weisman and company, Cary Clennon, Juan Gonzalez and Plea D and Adam T2.

Michael Feiler is marching with the Saints.

CK is now trying to cause trouble by picking against the Bears this week and taking the Lions. Just to make sure there is no more confusion, here is his email:

Thanks for the reprieve. This week I really am picking against the Bears & pick the Lions to beat the Bears on Monday night.

We are waiting on picks from the one and only Dan Lurvey. Brian Freedman took the lone loss last week with his faith in the Vikes all for naught.

The Obama Administration's justification for killing an American citizen- here.