3RD DCA JNC SENDS TEN NAMES TO THE GOVERNOR FOR TWO OPEN SEATS .......

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

YOUR TWO NEW 3^RD DCA JUDGES .... WILL BE NAMED FROM THE FOLLOWING LIST OF NOMINEES .....

This past Monday and Tuesday, the 3rd DCA JNC interviewed a total of 17 for two open seats on the appellate court.  Today, the JNC narrowed the list to ten and forwarded those names to Governor Scott for his consideration.  The list includes six current and one former judge among the ten nominees.

Governor Scott has 60 days to name replacements for Judges Leslie Rothenberg and Richard Suarez. The two new judges will likely be chosen just two weeks before Scott leaves office as a lame duck Governor.

The list of nominees (click on the names of the last three listed below to be taken to their complete bio):

Hon. Monica Gordo
- 19 years Florida Bar; Circuit Court Family Division; eight years on the bench; former ASA

Hon. Eric Hendon
- 39 years Florida Bar; Circuit Court Criminal Division;  sixteen years on the bench; former ASA, APD, AAG

Hon. Timothy Koenig
- 34 years Florida Bar; Circuit Court Monroe County; four years on the bench; thirty years in private practice

Hon. Fleur Lobree
- 26 years Florida Bar; former Circuit Court judge (2 years) and County Court judge (1 year); former AAG, ASA

Hon. Bronwyn Miller
- 21 years Florida Bar; Circuit Court Civil Division; thirteen years on the bench; former ASA

Hon. Thomas Rebull
- 21 years Florida Bar; Circuit Court Civil Division; seven years on the bench; fourteen years in private practice

Hon. Lisa Walsh
- 26 years Florida Bar; Circuit Court Criminal Division; ten years on the bench; former APD

Oren Rosenthal 
-22 years Florida Bar; currently an Assistant Miami-Dade County Attorney; Oren Rosenthal currently serves as the lead attorney for the Miami-Dade Elections Department and the Information Technology Department. Oren has previously served as a member of the Federal Litigation section of the office. Oren is experienced as a litigator and as a transactional lawyer. Oren's litigation experience includes federal civil rights suits, intellectual property claims, complex commercial matters, as well as challenges to elections and the Miami-Dade County Home Rule Charter. Oren has also handled numerous appeals before both state and federal appellate courts.

Ann St. Peter-Griffith
-24 years Florida Bar; currently with Kasowitz, Benson, Torres LLP; has a national practice that focuses on all aspects of complex commercial litigation, including health care, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, False Claims Act, product liability, constitutional, and employment discrimination cases in federal and state trial and appellate courts. Also represents health care clients in civil and criminal matters throughout the United States. Former AUSA. 

Melissa Damian Visconti
-23 years Florida Bar; currently Of Counsel to Damian & Valori; experienced trial and appellate lawyer who has appeared in state and federal courts across Florida and around the country. Ms. Visconti is Of Counsel to the Firm and focuses her practice in the areas of state and federal court appeals, complex litigation, and receiverships. Ms. Visconti has extensive experience in state and federal appeals courts, as well as in the areas of products liability, whistleblower and False Claims Act cases, securities, multidistrict litigation, and class action litigation. She is also experienced in criminal law, advising clients who are the subjects of or material witnesses in federal and state investigations

Who didn’t make the final cut:

Hon. Jason Bloch
Hon. Alexander Bokor
Hon. George Sarduy
Hon. Angelica Zayas
Jeffrey Geldens
Kansas Gooden
Edward Guedes

Predictions anyone?

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

17 APPLY FOR TWO OPEN SEATS ON 3RD DCA .....

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

SO, YOU WANT TO BE A 3^rd DCA JUDGE .......

The application deadline has passed, and you’ll be happy to know that Judge Michael Hanzman and Judge Milton Hirsch will not be leaving the trial bench any time soon. Neither of them applied for the two open seats on the 3^rd DCA due to the resignations of Judge Leslie Rothenberg and Judge Richard Suarez. Judge Lisa Walsh though is one of the 17 applicants*** that will be interviewed next week. A total of nine current and two former judges are among the applicants. Two, Judge Alexander Bokor and Edward Guedes are also being interviewed for the three open seats on the Florida Supreme Court.

The interviews will take place on Monday, October 22, 2018 and Tuesday, October 23, 2018. Those being interviewed include:

Hon. Jason Bloch

Hon. Alexander Bokor

Jeffrey R. Geldens

Kansas R. Gooden

Hon. Monica Gordo

Edward G. Guedes

Hon. Eric W. Hendon

Hon. Timothy J. Koenig (Monroe County)

Hon. Fleur J. Lobree

Hon. Bronwyn C. Miller

Ann M. St. Peter-Griffith

Hon. Thomas J. Rebull

Oren Rosenthal

Hon. George A. R. Sarduy

Melissa Damian Visconti

Hon. Lisa S. Walsh

Hon. Angelica D. Zayas

***It was rumored that Rumpole was personally asked to apply.  In response to the request, he issued a one word PCA that read: "Overqualified".

Members of the public are invited to attend the interviews (they are being held at the law offices of DLA Piper) and also are urged to contact the commission concerning the applicants. Please consider emailing any comments concerning any of the applicants to the JNC Chair:

Harout J. Samra, Chair
DLA Piper LLP
200 S. Biscayne Blvd., Suite 2500
Miami, FL 33131-5341
Tel: 305-423-8534
Email: harout.samra@dlapiper.com

Predictions anyone ?????

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

EIGHT NEW JUDGES COMING TO A COURTROOM NEAR YOU .....

BREAKING SATURDAY AFTERNOON: JUDGE KAVANAUGH CONFIRMED TO US SUPREME COURT IN 5-48 VOTE. Rumpole not to be nominated to fill Kavanaugh's seat on DC Court of Appeals. 

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

BREAKING NEWS:

AND YOUR THREE NEWEST COUNTY COURT JUDGES ARE ......

Today, Governor Rick Scott announced the appointment of three new County Court judges to replace Judges Dawn V. Denaro, Andrea Ricker Wolfson, and Renatha S. Francis; all three were previously promoted to the Circuit Court.

JUDGE CHRISTINE BANDIN, age 39, currently a partner with Shutts and Bowen. She has been a member of The Florida Bar for 11 years. She currently handles the defense of class action and mass litigation cases for them. She replaces Judge Andrea Ricker Wolfson

JUDGE RAUL CUERVO, age 63, currently a shareholder at Carlton, Fields, Jorden, Burt. He has been a member of The Florida Bar for 33 years. He currently handled the defense of insurance claims, class action suits, and commercial litigation cases. He replaces Judge Renatha Francis.

JUDGE LUIS PEREZ-MEDINA, age 58, currently an ASA at Miami-Dade’s State Attorney’s Office. He has been a member of The Florida Bar for 12 years and has worked at the SAO for his entire career. He ran for an open Circuit Court seat in 2016 in a four way race coming in second place in the primary. In the general election run-off he lost a close contest to Judge Mark Blumstein, 51%-49%. He fills the vacancy created by Judge Dawn Denaro.


SO, YOU WANT TO BE A JUDGE .....

3^RD DCA & CIRCUIT COURT & COUNTY COURT .....

THIRD DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL:

Chief Judge Leslie Rothenberg and Judge Richard Suarez are resigning from the 3^rd DCA. As a result, the 3^rd DCA JNC is accepting applications for their replacements.

If you carefully watched the shenanigans that took place in 2016 with President Obama’s nomination of Merritt Garland to the then open Scalia seat, a nomination that was never even considered by the Senate’s Judiciary Committee for nearly a year, then you need to also think about these two open seats on the 3^rd DCA.

Over the next three months, despite the fact that Rick Scott is a lame duck Governor, he will likely appoint, or attempt to appoint a number of judges on the County Court, Circuit Court, DCAs, and yes, three open seats that will be on the Florida Supreme Court.

The 3^rd DCA JNC has provided only 19 days for applications to be submitted for the two open seats. The deadline is October 15^th. The Interviews are scheduled to take place the following week, on October 22-23. That means that Governor Scott should be receiving the finalists names on his desk on the evening of October 23, 2018. The Governor then has 60 days to choose the two replacements, with a deadline of December 22^nd.  Compare this to past history of DCA appointments by Scott and you notice that this particular appointment process has been expedited by approximately fourteen days; exactly the amount of days Scott will have remaining as Governor.   

So, in his final two weeks in office, Scott would likely be choosing the two new 3^rd DCA judges, despite the fact that, by then the Governor-Elect will have been known for a full 46 days.

CIRCUIT COURT:

With the resignation of Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan, (she is now the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida), Governor Scott also gets to name her replacement. Surprisingly, only ten applied for her seat. Those ten names were considered by the JNC and they have elected to interview two, consider four others who have already been recently interviewed, and not consider four others.

WILL BE INTERVIEWED ON 10/9/18:

DiRaimondo, Christina Marie
Guzman, Carlos

WILL BE CONSIDERED WITHOUT THE NEED FOR AN INTERVIEW:

Altfield, William I.
Bokor, Alexander S.
Brinkley, Tanya J.
Perez-Medina, Luis

WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED:

Barton King, Michelle
Guitian Barker, Maria A.
Cabarga, Carmen R.
Perkins, Joseph

The finalists’ names will likely reach Governor Scott’s desk on the evening of October 9, 2018 with a deadline to name Judge Fajardo Orshan’s replacement of December 8, 2018; again, a full month after the Gubernatorial Election of 2018.

With the resignation of Judge Stephen Millan, the JNC interviewed seven applicants for the open Circuit Court seat including: William Altfield, Alexander Bokor, Tanya Brinkley, Ayana Harris, Gordon Murray, Jorge Perez, and Luis Perez-Medina.

The following names have been sent to Governor Scott:

Judge William Altfield
Judge Alexander Bokor
Judge Tanya Brinkley
Ayana Harris
Luis Perez-Medina

COUNTY COURT:

With the retirement of Judge Wendell Graham, the JNC interviewed one applicant for the open County Court seat: Ariel Rodriguez. They also considered all those applicants that were interviewed for the Denaro, Wolfson, and Francis vacancies.

The following names have been sent to Governor Scott:

Julie Harris Nelson
Jonathan Meltz
Gavin N.L. White

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

CONGRATS TO JUDGE ROBERT LUCK

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

AND YOUR NEWEST 3^RD DCA JUDGE IS .....

JUDGE ROBERT LUCK***

Judge Luck, age 37, earned a raise today. $8,000 to be exact. You see the salary of a Circuit Court Judge is $146,000 while a Judge on the 3^rd gets paid $154,000. $8,000 bucks and no more daily calendars; pretty good gig if you ask me. Oh yeah, and the raise also comes with a lifetime appointment; almost forgot about that.

Seriously, Judge Luck is so well deserving of this appointment. He has two degrees from the University of Florida Gators. He clerked for Judge Ed Carnes of the 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. He even worked for that venerable boutique law firm Greenberg Traurig from 2005-2006. He then joined the U.S. Attorney's Office where he worked for almost seven years.

Then, in 2013, at the ripe old age of 33, Governor Scott appointed Luck to the Circuit Court bench. See our coverage here.
  
Luck faced the voters this past summer for the first time and drew opposition from ex state legislator Yolly Roberson. He defeated Roberson 54% to 46%. It appears now that that will have been his one and only election.

Judge Luck has spent the past three and one half years assigned to both the Criminal Division as well as the General Jurisdiction Division (Civil). While many criticized Scott for appointing a 33 year old to an open seat on the Circuit Court, Luck has generally been well received in both the Criminal and Civil Divisions by attorneys on both sides of the isle.

The appointment of Luck opens a seat on the Circuit bench that will be named by Scott sometime in May of 2017.

***As predicted earlier today by lead scribe of this Blog, Horace Rumpole and his crystal ball.

IN OTHER 3^RD DCA NEWS TODAY .....

3rd DCA Judge Linda Ann Wells has announced her retirement. She has aged out and Gov Scott will name her replacement. So, it looks like one of the names not chosen today by the Gov to replace retiring Judge Frank Shepherd will have a second shot and that should happen in the next few months; ARE YOU LISTENING JUDGES Browyn Miller and Norma Lindsey, along with attorneys Fleur Lobree, John Greco, and Oren Rosenthal.

The 3rd DCA currently has a makeup of ten judges:

Richard J. Suarez, Chief Judge
Linda Ann Wells
Frank A. Shepherd
Leslie B. Rothenberg
Barbara Lagoa
Vance E. Salter
Kevin Emas
Ivan F. Fernandez
Thomas Logue
Edwin A. Scales, III

With the departure of Shepherd and Wells, once their two replacements are named (Luck and ?), Gov Scott will have named 50% of the sitting judges including Judges Fernandez, Logue, Scales, Luck and Judge Wells replacement. Scott's second four year term as Governor ends on January 3, 2019 and he is widely expected to run against Senator Bill Nelson in the Fall 2018 election.

Also, 3rd DCA Judge Salter turns 70 years old in 2018; Judge Rothenberg turns 70, I believe, in 2019 (not completely sure). So, there is a real chance that Scott could have at least two more appointments to the 3^rd before he leaves office.

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

MILT HIRSCH, LESLIE ROTHENBERG, AND THE TAPES

Lesson one of legal blogging in Miami: Put Milt Hirsch in a post and the hits on the blog go through the roof.
 
Last we left Milt Hirsch, Miami's own "Bard of the Bench" he  was safely ensconced in his robes. There was just the nagging issue of his former client Sean Casey. To make a very long story short, Casey was charged with DUI Manslaughter. Milt did a spectacular job and got the blood tests suppressed. The 3rd DCA (in what should have been recognized as a precursor of things to come) reversed the trial judge's order. The case was returned for trial and Mr. Casey fled to Chile where he resided for two years until he was apprehended. Upon return to Miami, Casey, with Hirsch as his counsel, entered a plea and was sentenced to prison.
 
Casey filed a post conviction motion to set aside his plea. His main contention was that Hirsch and his therapist (recommended by Hirsch- Dr. Michael Rappaport) advised him to flee once the 3rd DCA reversed the suppression of evidence. Prior to fleeing, Casey and his mother surreptitiously taped Hirsch and Rappaport. "The Hirsch Tapes" as they came to be known, ended up in the possession of the SAO (motto: "The tapes are none of your ^%@!$!$~! business"). David S Markus (NOT the blogger) represented Casey on the motion. The court, at the request of the SAO, SEALED the tapes. Markus didn't get access to the tapes, and the tapes were not admitted into evidence. The court denied the motion for relief. The 3rd DCA, without benefit of the tapes, affirmed the denial. Casey filed a pro se motion alleging  fraud. The State filed a motion to seal. Enter Bruce Brugmann, a San Francisco owner of the San Francisco Guardian. He filed a motion to intervene and oppose the motion to seal. The court denied the motion. Brugmann appealed: From Judge Rothenberg's dissent:

On September 17, 2009, Brugmann filed the instant petition for review of the trial court’s order sealing the judicial record. On April 21, 2010, this Court issued an order denying the petition without a written opinion, and on May 6, 2010, Brugmann filed a motion for rehearing, rehearing en banc, and for a written

opinion. The motion for rehearing was granted, and on April 27, 2012, the panel issued a written opinion denying Brugmann’s petition for review of the order sealing the judicial records. Brugmann v. State, 37 Fla. L. Weekly D1041 (Fla. 3d
DCA Apr. 27, 2012). Upon issuance of the written opinion, Brugmann filed a subsequent motion for rehearing en banc. After review of the motion, this Court again granted rehearing; withdrew the April 27, 2012, panel opinion; and a majority of the voting members of this Court denied Brugmann’s petition without
prejudice to seek relief by other means.

In English: The 3rd DCA will not issue any reason for denying Brugmann's petition.

Enter Judge Leslie Rothenberg, friend of the poor, the weak, the oppressed, and champion of open government. She filed a very lengthy (anything over ten pages and we start skimming) dissent, strongly arguing for the release of the tapes. Judges Salter and Ivan Fernandez concurred with Judge Rothenberg's dissent.

What we have here folks, is a very divided 3rd DCA that cannot agree on much in this case. And ain't that fun?

From the peroration of the dissent:

Some of the evidence the successor judge failed to consider in evaluating whether to seal the Hirsch tape is: (1) whether the tape demonstrates that Hirsch gave perjured testimony at the evidentiary hearing; and (2) whether the tape, when
considered with all of the other evidence, supports Casey’s testimony that Hirsch encouraged him to flee the court’s jurisdiction, thereby committing a fraud upon the court at the evidentiary hearing…

Additionally, when ruling on Casey’s motion for relief of judgment, the trial court should have reviewed the tapes to determine if Hirsch and/or Rappaport counseled Casey to commit a crime; Hirsch and/or Rappaport gave perjured testimony; and Hirsch, Rappaport, or the State committed a fraud upon the Court

by falsely representing what was said on the tapes.

Rumpole says: WOW. It's not often we get to use "peroration".
Disclosure: We like Milt Hirsch. And we do not believe for one moment he committed a crime or counseled his client to flee. His reputation earned over many decades as a pre-eminent attorney entitles him to that presumption. And yet....

There is something about this we cannot just abide. Why not release the tapes? Especially if there isn't anything to hide. There is a young man in prison who claims the tapes contain evidence that support his legal arguments and would thus establish a very serious fraud upon the court. Why the rush to seal them? Why won't the circuit court judges hearing his motion listen to them? It is all very...distasteful. One could imagine, in other circumstances, Milt Hirsch as counsel for the accused, championing the release of the tapes and excoriating the government for secrecy, much like Judge Rothenberg has done. This case is bizarre. Down is up. Up is down. Milt Hirsch is on the side of tapes being sealed and kept from a defendant and Judge Rothenberg (to her everlasting credit) is championing giving the defendant a fair hearing and access to evidence.

Very strange.