THERE IS NO "DIVERSITY" ON THE BENCH .... NEW COUNTY COURT JUDGE .....

 

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

GOVERNOR NAMES NEWEST COUNTY COURT JUDGE IN RECORD TIME ...... Breaking tonight

It was just last week, October 26th to be exact, that the 11th Circuit JNC sent the following six names to the Governor's desk as a result of a vacancy on the County Court bench due to the elevation of County Court Judge Diana Vizcaino:

Karl Brown

Heloiza Correa

Javier Enriquez

Christopher Green

Kevin Hellman

Christopher Pracitto

To the credit of the JNC, half of the nominees had a background in criminal defense as Chris Green began his career as an APD, Kevin Hellman has been with the PD's office for his entire career, and Chris Pracitto is a practicing criminal defense attorney.

Of course this means that none of those three nominees ever had a chance once their names arrived on the Governor's desk. DeSantis has been in office for 34 months now and to date he has only named two PD's to the bench, Ayana Harris (AFPD) and Barry Dickson (APD - appointed to the Escambia County Court).* Contrast that with the fact that our Governor, who likes to brag about the diversity of his appointments, has named 94 ASAs, AUSA, AAGs to the bench of which 57 were working in that capacity at the time of their appointment.

Congratulations to our newest County Court Judge Javier Enriquez, who is currently the General Counsel to the Department of Children & Families (DCF). Judge Enriquez has been a lawyer for - wait for it - exactly seven years. His current assignment has him working in Tallahassee. Enriquez' name was recently on the Governor's desk back in July of this year when he was a finalist for the two open Circuit court seats (Rosa Figarola and Martin Zilber). In 2018, Enriquez ran for State House District 114 against Incumbent Javier Fernandez losing 53% to 47%. Enriquez is a member of the Federalist Society (shocking, I know).

He now joins our Miami-Dade brethren on the County Court bench. Welcome Judge Enriquez.

FACDL-MIAMI 2021 AWARDS GALA - VIRTUAL

The Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers - Miami Chapter will Zoom into your living rooms this Saturday evening at 6:00 PM. If the event comes close to last year's Emmy winning performance hosted by Matthew ("Mike") Meyers then this is must see TV.

You can catch all the action here:

Please click the link below to join the webinar:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87327565273?pwd=NUVrb1E0VDlkVUtsdm1ic1paa0d3dz09

Congrats to all of the honorees:

Judge Andrea Wolfson - The Gerald Kogan Judicial Distinction Award AKA "The Kogie"

Jeffrey Weiner - The Pearson-Prebish Founders Award

Audra Cohen - The Rodney Thaxton "Against All Odds" Award

Yanelis Zamora - The Gregg Wenzel Outstanding Young Lawyer's Award

Let's all congratulate and recognize our great profession and our colleagues, and judges, who strive to make a difference.

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

*Governor DeSantis has also named seven former APD's to the bench.

FACDL AWARDS BANQUET TONIGHT

FACDL BANQUET POST GAME 

We have never attended an FACDL Banquet and maybe that has been a mistake because the event we just watched was wonderful. There was a technical glitch at the beginning and at the end , but  in between there were inspiring speeches, funny videos, and hard working lawyers and yes..judges...who were honored Saturday Night. 

A few random thoughts:

We do not know Mr. Adam Saper from the PDs office, who won the young lawyers award, but he gave a great speech, acknowledging the shade of the tree leaves we all rest under- acorns  planted by giants like Rodney Thaxton and Gregg Wenzel. Well done Mr. Saper. 

Nothing better than Judge De La O's video of FACDL President Matt Meyer delivering the Kogie to the home of the Judge. As he accepts the award, his wife and his son are in the back ground holding up a sign that says "SAVE US".  Too funny. 

Both Chris DeCoste and Tara Kawass are cancer survivors and Ms. Kawass battled cancer as she and DeCoste battled the State in a notorious murder case in Tallahassee. The State joined their client with a co-defendant who they sought death on. So our two heroes obtained a hung jury verdict with the same death qualified jurors who convicted the co-defendant. An almost unheard of outcome. Amazing. Even we are impressed. 

And then there was the life time achievement award to past FACDL president Lenny Sands. We don't have enough space to tell you all the great things about Lenny Sands, so we will leave it at this- you will NEVER in your career meet another lawyer who is both a gentleman and as fine an advocate for his client as the good lord ever made. There is no other lawyer who we can think of who is more deserving of a life-time achievement award as Lenny Sands. 

We have asked the big-wigs at FACDL (who rightly view us with a wary eye) to send us the videos. If we get them we will post them. A lot of hard work went into them. The production value was good. The subjects all had fun with it and it made the 90 minutes fly by (so did our wine). 

All in all, we must eat some crow and say this award banquet -albeit via Zoom- was a well done and indeed special event. We are impressed and that says a lot considering how misanthropic we are and remain. 

The Kogie: Judge De La O

Founders Award: Leonard Sands (great choice BTW).

Rodney Thaxton Against All Odds Award: Tara Kawass and Chris Decoste

Gregg Wenzel Young Lawyers Award: Adam Saper 

Best Local Blogger Award: Rumpole

In other news: 

The US blew past 70,000 new infections a day and exceeded 80,000  (82,154 for a new record) on Friday and we are on our way to 100,000. The second wave is here and things are getting worse and no better time for your local state court judge to say "Hey, how about trying this case?"

Ohio has a record number of its citizens in hospitals, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court just blocked the Governor's emergency order restricting the number of people who can gather indoors because that is what idiot judges do. 2,500 people were newly hospitalized overnight in Illinois, and North Dakota has the highest rate rate of infections per capita. 

All in all the news is just what President Trump, who is now repeatedly announcing "we are turning a corner" wants to hear. 

The problem is that the turn is at the corners of "Hell" and "Collapse".

Your Dolphins are on a bye this week and next weekend their new QB Tua becomes the starter. 

Game Four of an entertaining World Series starts tonight after the FACDL Banquet (Fox planned the start to not conflict with the banquet of course). If you were watching Friday night you saw a perfect "safety squeeze" pulled off. Runners at the corners. Less than two outs. Batter bunts. The runner from third scored and the runner from first advanced. Small fundamental baseball at its best in the fall classic. 

FACDL AWARDS BANQUET GOES VIRTUAL

 The FACDL Annual Awards banquet is always a rousing affair. Cocktails are sipped. Hor d'oeuvres are consumed and everyone congratulates everyone else for fighting the good fight. Judges are honored. Other Judges who are running for reelection show up as if they always attend (they don't). Long speeches are made and everyone goes home and they next day tries to steal a case from the people they drank with the night before. 

But this year will be different because this year two things which never happened before will occur. First, On Saturday October 24, 2020, the event will be virtual. 

And second, RUMPOLE will attend. We will finally get to see the shenanigans we have been missing. We have our own Zoom account. Our IP address will be masked with a Tor and we will be in full mask- the character of our mask will be announced on the day of the event to stop imposters. And we are working on a voice synthesizer. 

So show up. Toast the honorees and chat will Rumpole. We are lining up a very nice Bourbon or perhaps open one of our rare Sine Qua Non Shot in the Dark 2006 Syrah. Only about 440 cases were produced and we have several bottles. Some fresh king crab legs. Line caught Halibut and a loaded baked potato and a Shot in the Dark is not a bad way to spend an hour with friends. 

LAW DAY AND MORE

Monday May 1, was Law Day.  Judge Hirsch celebrated by a short constitutonal calendar which follows: 

The great ideals of liberty and equality are preserved against the assaults of opportunism, the expediency of the passing hour, the erosion of small encroachments, the scorn and derision of those who have no patience with general principles, by enshrining them in constitutions, and consecrating to the task of their protection a body of defenders.

   – Benjamin Cardozo, The Nature of the Judicial Process

The following is cause for concern. 
The federal "justice" system has become a maw. A gulag swallowing defendants and digesting them through the bureau of prisons. Prosecutors grease the wheels, and  nameless, faceless gray bureaucrats skulk the hallways,  processing the defendants as grist for the mill. 
What we all have suspected, we now have evidence is true- the feds only give lip service to the constitution's guarantee that every defendant is presumed innocent.  And thus, one day recently as we passed by the office of federal probation and supervised release, we saw this message on a videoscreen:

We stopped in our tracks, and happened upon one of those aforementioned hapless bureaucrats:
Rumpole: "What are the rules for travel for pre-trial convictions?"
HB:  "Huh? (We point to the slide). Oh, defendants must receive permission from the court before traveling outside of the district."
Rumpole: "And this applies to people convicted pre-trial?"
HB: "Sure does"
Rumpole: "And what about defendants not convicted pre-trial?"
HB: "Huh? Hmmmm....never thought...huh...I dunno...wait! I can ask my supervisor..."
Rumpole: "Never mind. Thank you."

FACDL BANQUET THIS SATURDAY NIGHT 
It's that time of year when dues paying members of the FACDL get together and share mead and meat with members of the judiciary and everyone tells everyone what an important part of the justice process they are. 
And awards are bestowed. Here are this years winners:

The Honorable Gerald Kogan Judicial Distinction Award:

     Hon. Judge Nushin Sayfie 

The Daniel S. Pearson – Harry W. Prebish Founders Award:

               Gene Zenobi

The Rodney Thaxton “Against All Odds” Award:

      Team of   U.S. v. Estaban Santiago Ruiz case: Hector Dopico, Eric Cohen, Sowmya Bharathi, and Ayana Harris                                           
The Gregg Wenzel Young Lawyer’s Award:

            Kristen Kawass

We know the first two honorees and the awards are well deserved. Judge Sayfie has served with distinction in the criminal division, and Gene Zenobi, after a long and successful career as a criminal defense attorney took over the reins of a dispirited Regional Counsel Office and by all accounts turned it into a first class office providing indigent defendants with topflight legal talent. 

We don't know about the Santiago-Ruiz case or Ms. Kawass, but we congratulate them on receiving distinguished awards. Is there any better award for a criminal defense attorney than one named "Against All Odds"? Esepcially an award given in the name of the great Rodney Thaxton. And we hope there is a decent explanation for the hero that Greg Wenzel is to our country, and why it is an honor for any lawyer to receive an award in his hallowed name. 

Rumpole will continue a Cal Ripken-like streak and not attend the festivities, in lieu of which we will be attending Gotterdammerung at the Met saturday night in NYC, followed perhaps by a night-cap at Bemelman's bar. Tommy Rowles (RIP) who made the best Old Fashioned is no longer serving regulars, but it's still one of our favourite haunts in Gotham. 

FACDL AWARDS BANQUET

The FACDL had their annual awards banquet this past Saturday. 
We received positive reviews from several attendees, including high praise for  PD Abbie Waxman who received the Gregg Wenzel Young Lawyers Award, and Michelle Estlund who won the Rodney Thaxton "Against All Odds Award". 

Ms. Waxman was a Rumpolian 17 of 18 in jury trial wins this past year for her clients. A very impressive record, bit considering her pedigree, not surprising in the least. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. 

Significant in the praise we received was Ms. Estlund's remarks about Rodney Thaxton, a legendary Public Defender in Miami who died way too soon.  

Rodney Thaxton was the type of lawyer who comes along once in a generation or so. Ms. Estlund deserves credit for remembering Rodney Thaxton in her remarks. It was a classy thing to do. 

Congratulations to Ms. Waxman and Ms. Estlund for being part of Liberty's Last Champion. 

Well done. 

Well done indeed. 

FACDL SOIREE RECAP

The Miami chapter of the FACDL met on Saturday night for their annual soiree.*  The Hialeah chapter of the FACDL will be meeting at Pollo Tropical next Saturday for their annual soiree, while the Coral Gables FACDL and Pinecrest FACDL will be meeting at the Four Seasons for their annual soiree in two weeks. 

The Miami FACDL soiree was a great success! Everyone congratulated everyone else on doing a great job. The event was hosted by a retired judge who noted most of the people in the room weren't alive when he joined the FACDL in 1982. He then performed some of his beloved imitations- like George Jessel picking a jury before Judge Ellen Morphonious while Gen X assistant PDS whispered "Who are George Jessel and Judge Morphonious?"

"Jessel worked for Phil Hubbart and Morphonious was the judge who sentenced Mercury Morris" whispered an older PD. 

"But who are Phil Hubbart and Mercury Morris?"

"Bondsmen from the 1970s"

Then the awards were handed out:

The Sy Gaer "I've Tried A Lot Of Cases" award went to the Professor Roy Black who recounted tales of drinking with Ted Kennedy while his clients Magulta and Falcon fixed the jury in federal court. 

The Alex Micalescu Professionalism Award went to that lawyer on Miami Beach who was arrested for stalking his girlfriend by bugging her car and office.

The State PD Pat On The Back award went to a State PD who for a salary of $41.99/week tried a hundred cases to verdict and invented a partial cure for feline leukemia on the weekends. 

The Federal PD Pat On The Back award went to a Federal PD who got Judge Moore to sentence a client to the lower end of the guidelines ....twice! 

And on a serious note, the Justice Kogan award went to REGJB fixture Judge Dennis Murphy who has spent the last 15 years enforcing the 4th, 5th, and 6th amendments (as he so eloquently put it) "one motion to suppress at time." 

Unfortunately for Judge Murphy, by the time he left the event and got his car, he was informed by text message from President Trump that he was fired. Governor Scott then announced he was committed to appointing judges who respect the constitution, "but not at the cost of having a criminal case dismissed."

And so it goes. 

From Occupied America, where as you read this, next year's State PD Pat On The Back award recipient is finishing raising money for every child in Florida to have a laptop in school while also constructing a hundred "no kill animal shelters" all before heading to court to try another case, Fight The Power!


*Some big-wig from the FACDL didn't  like us calling their event a "soiree"

FACDL AWARDS DINNER

UPDATED Below with a full list of the award winners. As we said, we are an ocean away. 

The FACDL had their 263rd awards dinner last night at the Last Stop Bar in Florida City. Yes, the tradition dates back to a bunch of Calusta Native Americans sitting on a mound of shells in Florida Bay and handing out fresh lobster and oysters as an award. 

Actually, and because we are still in Europe involved in Brexit, we have pieced together events based on the numerous emails we have received in the last 8-10 hours. 

Federal assistant Public defender Abby Becker received the Greg Wenzel young lawyers award for doing something really good. Nobody knows for sure, the acoustics were awful. But we're sure it's well deserved.   for her work in spearheading the Federal Public Defenders Clemency petitions. This is great work that was and is really needed. Well done.  (okay? Everyone needs to stop sending us  mean and nasty  emails now. We weren't there. We don;t know who did what to whom.)

Beji Waxman received the "Against All Odds Award" for writing a winning brief in the Florida Supreme Court and his prior decade of litigation for a client in the infamous Casey Nickelodeon murders in Broward. Eventually Waxman was able to convince the Supreme Court that the Broward rule that identity need not "really be proven" in a Broward murder case was, well,  not entirely kosher to use some Latin. 

Judge Mary Jo Francis deservedly received the Justice Kogan award for her work on the bench, especially in jail court  misdemeanor cases, where 99.9% of the cases involve defendants suffering from mental illness. 

Edith Georgi won the Sy Gaer founders award for her lifetime of wonderful, dedicated, and top notch advocacy at the Public Defenders office. 

Alex Michaels won the Gino Negretti "Courtesy in Court" award, for obvious reasons. 

But according to all emails, the highlight of the event was when moderator Milt Hirsch paused in his annual rendition of Federalist Paper #78 (on the judiciary) 

But it is not with a view to infractions of the Constitution only, that the independence of the judges may be an essential safeguard against the effects of occasional ill humors in the society. These sometimes extend no farther than to the injury of the private rights of particular classes of citizens, by unjust and partial laws. Here also the firmness of the judicial magistracy is of vast importance in mitigating the severity and confining the operation of such laws. It not only serves to moderate the immediate mischiefs of those which may have been passed, but it operates as a check upon the legislative body in passing them; who, perceiving that obstacles to the success of iniquitous intention are to be expected from the scruples of the courts, are in a manner compelled, by the very motives of the injustice they meditate, to qualify their attempts. This is a circumstance calculated to have more influence upon the character of our governments, than but few may be aware of...

whereupon Judge Hirsch introduced Judge Sayfie, to a rousing standing ovation of attorneys who all then made patting movements on their jackets and rummaged through their purses to mostly discover that, darn, they forgot to bring their check books. 

Judge Hirsch then returned to conclude with his rendition of "A Costly Ride" by Guy de Maupassant,  reprising his long-ago defense of a case in which he successfully argued the old "wrong place, wrong time defense."


A good time was apparently had by all. 

One of these years someone is going to invite us. 
Until then.... see you in court. 

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...

The Captain Reports:

Rumpole - here is your Errata Sheet:

The last Award is called the Pearson-Prebish Founders Award named after the two FACDL-Miami founders. It is awarded for Lifetime Achievement.

There were two winners, both well deserved:

Edith Georgi and Rory Stein

Congrats to all of the winners last evening.

Cap Out .....

FACDL AWARD WINNERS

Herb Smith, retiring after a stellar career as an Assistant Public Defender won the Miami FACDL's lifetime achievement award. Well done Herb; well done indeed. 

Manny Alvarez won the Against All Odds award for his amazing defense of former FBI agent John Connolly. Perfect award for this case and Manny's work. 

Federal Judge Marcia Cooke won the Gerald Kogan Judicial Distinction Award. Love Gerald Kogan. A Miami guy who made it to the Florida Supreme Court and never forgot his roots. And of course who doesn't breathe a sigh of relief when their federal case ends up in Cooke's division? 

And  two PDs- one state and one federal won the Gregg Wenzel Young Lawyer's Award- 
Damaris del Valle from the state PDs office and Christy O'Connor from the feds.  Can't say that we know them….but what an honor to win an award named after Gregg Wenzel. 

Congrats all. 

FACDL BANQUET TONIGHT

The annual self-congratlatory FACDL Banquet is tonight. 

Cocktails will be consumed. 
Speeches will be made. 
Awards will be bestowed. 
Dinner will be served (salmon or steak?)
Judges angling for support will mingle. 
A capital time will be had by all. 

And thankfully, continuing a long and distinguished streak, we were not invited, and shall not attend. 

Enjoy the weekend.

See you in court.