REMEMBERANCES

 HAPPY VETERANS DAY. You can search up our prior posts on this subject and we hoped you paused at 11:11 today and spent a moment in silence for the doughboys who were the first to die on European soil to keep the world free. Sadly, they would not be the last. 

Speaking of remembrances, the remembrance of Gene Zenobi is up this week on Friday in the big courtroom on 4 starting at 2pm.  We hope you attend. Gene was a remarkable man. 

Gene Zenobi 

GENE ZENOBI HAS PASSED AWAY

 We lost one of our greats this weekend; Gene Zenobi passed away. 

A dapper Gene circa late 1970s doing what he did best 

Gene was old school. He was from a time when a man's word mattered. He was a deep thinker who approached a trial the way a grandmaster approaches a chess match. He had many theories about jury selection developed over a lifetime of trying cases in Miami Courtrooms. He understood before most of the rest of us that jurors form alliances and he crafted his jury selection to pick jurors who would form alliances for not guilty. He lectured generations of lawyers about jury selection, and his number one maxim- that jury selection starts from the moment you park your car and walk towards the courthouse, is a rule all of us should follow every time we show up for voir dire- we never forget it or Gene when we walk into the REGJB to pick 6 or 12 to start a case. 

Gene had a successful private practice; he was there at the start of the cocaine cowboy era in the 70s-80s. A simple kid from an Italian family in Pennsylvania, he rose through hard work, study and skill to the top of his profession both in the Dade Public Defenders Office, and in private practice.  In his later years Gene took a struggling and rudderless Regional Counsel Office and turned it into a powerhouse of lawyers who tried and won cases. The foundation of lawyers he recruited and kept remains today, providing world-class legal services to indigent clients. 

Gene defended over thirty death penalty cases; argued before the US Supreme Court in Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison Power, 419 US 345 (!974); had a vast amount of knowledge about history and literature- (we agreed William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich was the most significant historical work of the 20th Century); loved jazz; and was the single best horse-handicapper I ever met- and I've met many. He could also be found at many a lawyers-home-poker-game in Miami from the 1980s through the 2010s and beyond. He scooped his fair share of pots. 

His, my friends, was a life very well lived. And if you never had a chance to sit at a big Italian dinner and drink great wine and listen to his war stories, well, you missed out on a once in a life-time type of experience. He was a soft-spoken raconteur. 

Gene was a colleague and a friend, and in the end, perhaps the best thing we can say about him, from the hundreds of things that come to mind, was that when he was your friend, you could never have a better one; and if he was your lawyer- you had the best. 

Rest in peace my friend.   

DOWN GOES BAILEY

The federal age and race discrimination case of Abe Bailey vs. Regional Counsel has been decided by Judge Joan Lenard with a resounding victory for RC3. 

The case pitted two well known and respected attorneys- Abe Bailey and Gene Zenobi- against each other after Zenobi, the second appointed Regional Counsel for the 3rd Region of Florida (Motto: "We also do cases in the Keys and we bet you didn't know that") first demoted Bailey and then fired him. 

The case raised troubling allegations against Gene Zenobi, whose tenure as head of RC3 has been magnificent, bringing a steady hand to a once troubled office. To be accused of age and race discrimination, no matter how unwarranted, is a difficult cross to bear. 

Zenobi was undoubtedly thrilled to read Judge Joan Leonard's forty plus page order  issued Thursday, which exonerated him and his office on every count.  

Bailey on the other hand must be dismayed to see the court accept the defense pleadings and contentions that his work as an assistant regional counsel was insufficient and ineffective to the point he merited being fired. 

This was a slam dunk win for the defense in every way. 

Sum Judgement Abe Bailey by Rumpole21

ZENOBI 2 FOR RC3

Gene Zenobi was re-appointed by Governor Scott over the weekend for a second four year term as head of the Regional Counsel's office for Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. 

Zenobi took an oft-ridiculed and mostly irrelevant State agency 
(see our posts here and here  and especially here for a Gene Zenobi quote that his predecessor ran the office like "a police state." )
and turned it into a quality organization providing superb representation for criminal defendants at trial, on appeal, and on post conviction relief motions for which we recently learned RC3 has original jurisdiction for indigent defendants.  The office also fills many loopholes in legal representation, providing attorneys in dependency and delinquency courts, and for elderly clients in probate court. 

Zenobi, the Jedi-Knight of Jury Selection, has provided stability to an agency that was previously rocked by instability at the top. Experienced lawyers like Jack Blumenfeld, Alan Greenstein, Kellie Peterson, Phil Reizenstein,  and Silvia Gonzalez compliment a bevy of top-notch ex-pds and ASAs. 

Congratulations to Mr. Zenobi on a well earned chance to finish what he started. And unlike his counterparts at the SAO and PDs office, you might well have a chance to tell Mr. Zenobi in person, as he makes it a regular habit to appear in court in support of his attorneys. 

Here is what former Attorney General had to say when Gene Zenobi was applying for the job at the time time the agency was riddled with dysfunction:

According to Ovalle, JNC member Bob Butterworth had to this to say about the employee Mr. George fired:

As the interview concluded, committee member Bob Butterworth, former Florida Attorney General, praised Zenobi.

“If governor selects you, I believe you can change the agency,” Butterworth said. “You are able to attract people of the very highest quality who would like to get back into public service.”

The above quote came from our "police state" post, a link to which is posted in this post. Go see it post-haste. 

Give Bobby B credit for his prognostication abilities as Gene Zenobi has done just what the former AG said he would do. 

See you in court.