MORE PUBLICITY

More publicity for the best legal blog around (yawn). 

Now its the local DBR tagging on to our ground breaking, Pulitzer Prize worthy stories about judicial candidate Elena Ortega-Tauler.

Here is the link but you have to pay them money, or just read this blog for free. 

JUDGES SARDUY & KELLY HAVE OPPONENTS, JUDGE SAYFIE DOES NOT .....

AND NOW A WORD FROM JUDGE BLAKE: 

 Stan Blake said...

As a prior administrative judge in the Criminal Division for 9 years, the average person has no idea about all the extra work with no additional pay. Almost daily meetings and putting out fires are just a small part of the job. Because of the experience, administrative judges often teach others and sit on commitees. I know personally how hard Judge Kelly and Judge Sayfie work.

Wednesday, May 04, 2016 2:54:00 PM

 

This is Rumpole. We want to thank the Captain for doing a great job staying on top of this ever-changing judicial election landscape. The thought that comes to us is....where is Albert Zemlock when you need him?

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

BREAKING NEWS ROUND THREE .....

INCUMBENT JUDGE SARDUY HAS AN OPPONENT

AND

INCUMBENT JUDGE SAYFIE LOSES HER OPPONENT

AND

INCUMBENT JUDGE KELLY HAS AN OPPONENT .....

Incumbent Judges beware.  No seat in safe in Miami-Dade County.  Today, very quietly, Circuit Court Judge George Sarduy, currently assigned to the Family Division, drew an opponent.  That opponent is none other than attorney Elena C. Tauler AKA Elena "Ortega"-Tauler; which is the name she used to file for Judge.

Judge Sarduy was in private practice until April of 2006 when he was appointed to the County Court bench by Governor Jeb Bush.  Less than two years later, Sarduy was elevated to the Circuit Court bench by Governor Charlie Crist.  He ran unopposed in 2010 to retain his seat and he is currently running for reelection.

Elena C. Tauler is an attorney licensed by The Florida Bar since 1988.  On the other hand, Elena Ortega-Tauler is not an attorney licensed to practice law in the State of Florida.  Despite that, Elena Ortega-Tauler is running for Circuit Court Judge.

Tauler filed to run in Group 52 more than one year ago, and until today, was running against Carol "Jodi" Breece, Raul Perez-Ceballos, and Oscar Rodriguez-Fonts.  This afternoon, Tauler jumped into Group 74 filing against Incumbent Judge Sarduy.

We have written several posts about Elena Tauler, including on April 24, 2008 and March 8, 2015, that can be found here and here.

We were recently sent a brochure from Florida Mediation Group where Tauler is a Mediator.  The brochure touts "Elena C. Tauler", Esq as a Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit Court mediator.  It does not mention anybody by the name of Elena Ortega-Tauler in the brochure.

INCUMBENT JUDGE SAYFIE .....

Also happening this afternoon, Judge Sayfie lost her opponent, Rosy A. Aponte.  Aponte has now decided to run against Incumbent County Court Judge Carroll Kelly in Group 23. 

And thank you to the alert reader who pointed out that Sayfie's campaign account has grown since last Friday.  On Monday she reported that for the month of April, 2016, she raised an additional $41,990, bringing her total raised to $96,000.  It is also remarkable how the legal community rallied around her candidacy in opposing the filing by Aponte.  I say that because, of the $41,990 raised in the month of April, $41,465 was donated on Friday, April 29th, the day Aponte filed.  Sayfie also loaned her campaign an extra $25k on the same day).

INCUMBENT JUDGE CARROLL KELLY .....

Judge Kelly has been on the bench since 1998.  Since getting elected that year, she was reelected in 2004 and 2010, and she is running for reelection this year.  Her web page can be found here.

Judge Kelly is currently the Administrative Judge of the Domestic Violence Division.  She previously served as President of the Florida Conference of County Court Judges, teaches as an Adjunct Professor at the UM law school, and serves on the faculty of the Florida Judicial College and the Florida College for Advanced Judicial Studies.

Her opponent is Rosy A. Aponte, who we wrote about on Friday, April 29, 2016.

Three days left until filing closes and by all accounts there will be a lot more action in the final 72 hours.

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

ELECTION CENTRAL: WHO'S RUNNING FOR JUDGE IN 2016 ..... UPDATED

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

NEW CANDIDATE FILINGS FOR ELECTION 2016 .....

In our post dated January 26th, we discussed the first filings for the Judicial Election of 2016.  At that time, Judge David Young had filed to run in retiring Judge Rodriguez Chomat's Group 39 seat.  On the same date that Young filed, attorney Oscar Rodriguez-Fonts filed to run in the same Group.  Before I was able to finish writing the post, attorney Carol "Jodie" Breece filed to run in Group 52, the group of retiring Judge Michael Genden.

Well, in the past few days, things got much more interesting.  Where do I begin?

David Young is still running for Judge, and he is still running in Group 39; but now, nobody is running against him.

As for Group 52, it just got very crowded, with four candidates having filed in that Group.  Jodie Breece is still in the group, and she is joined now by Oscar Rodriguez-Fonts, who filed papers with the Elections Commission switching from Group 39 to Group 52.  Joining Breece and Rodriguez-Fonts are:

Elena Ortega-Tauler.***  Ms. Tauler has been a member of The Florida Bar for 26 years.  She runs a solo practice and specializes in the field of Immigration Law.  Now, I have not had the pleasure of meeting Candidate Tauler, but if she has ever read my columns on this Blog, then she would have known that this was coming.  You see, there is no Elena Ortega-Tauler that is a licensed attorney in the State of Florida.  There is an Elena C. Tauler.  And Ms. "Tauler" even has a web site for her law firm.  I read through the dozen or so pages on that web site.  Do you think I found any, even one, reference to her being called "Ortega-Tauler"?  NO.  NADA.

Not only does Ms. Tauler list her name on The Florida Bar's web site as Elena C. Tauler, but we were also able to find that the home she apparently lives in, in the City of Doral, has her name on that deed as Elena C. Tauler.  Also, there are no less than 24 corporations listed on Sunbiz where Elena C. Tauler is either an Officer and/or the RA.  And, check the no less than seven documents that Tauler filed with the Florida Division of Elections in Tallahassee when she filed to run for Judge; all seven have a signature that clearly appears to read "Elena Tauler".

Why Ms. Tauler do you feel the need to attempt to pull one over on the voters of Miami-Dade County?  Why are you running for a job where the public expects nothing less than for you to be the class of judgment and professionalism; yet your first act in running for Judge is one of deceiving the public by adding the name "Ortega" to your last name?  We have outed several potential judicial candidates in the past on this Blog; you are not the first, and you most certainly will not be the last.

If you are going to run for Judge under the name "Ortega-Tauler", then at least have the decency to use that same name in the Member's Section of the Florida Bar web site and change your name on your own law firm web site so it reads "Ortega-Tauler".

***Addendum***. Thank you to Wannabe Captain.  That commenter reminded me of a post I scribed on April 24, 2008, that can be found here. Now I remember how I earned my reputation.  Six and one half years ago I first reported on Ms. Tauler when she filed to run against Migna Sanchez Llorens.  (Shortly after my post, Ms. Tauler withdrew her name from the race). In that post, we alluded to the fact that Ms. Tauler had been recommended for Disbarment by The Florida Bar, but the Supreme Court overruled that recommendation and Suspended her for three years.  We also made mention of the more than 30 lawsuits Ms. Tauler was a party to in Miami-Dade County.  Please take the time to review our earlier post and thanks again to Wannabe Captain for the reminder.

Raul Alberto Perez-Ceballos.  Mr. Perez-Ceballos has been a member of The Florida Bar for 12 years.  He has a solo practice and specializes in the field of Family Law.  He was interviewed by reporter Julie Kay for the Daily Business Review recently and he indicated that: "I like to read, and I like to write," ...... "That's why I want to be a judge."

Perez-Ceballos had this to say about the crowded field in Group 52: "This could be a record," .... "I've seen a three-way race but I've never seen a four-way race go through."

Raul, Raul.  Yo soy El Capitan!  The Captain only has to go back to Election 2004 to recall that Don Cohn, Catherine Parks, William Thomas, and Josie Velis ran for Judge in the same Circuit Court Group.  Or, how about Election 2002 when Alexander Akpodiete, Xavier Cortada, Raul Ordonez, and Sarah Zabel ran in the same Group.  Or, Election 2000, when Gina Mendez, Dennis Murphy, Martin Zilber, and Peter Sylvester Adrien ran for Judge against each other.  For 100 points, who won each Election?  And for 50 bonus points, who was in each of the Runoffs?

So, what can you take away from this post?  Well, for one thing - read the DBR and end up with quotes like "I like to read and write; that's why I want to be a judge".  Read Rumpole's Justice Building Blog with crack political reporter El Capitan, and you get the story behind the story; Ms. Tauler!

That's your Election Central update for our Judicial Elections 2016.

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