JUDGE POZO RESIGNS

UPDATE: Swine flu outbreak in Mexico kills 60. This is scary because this is how it starts. 

We learned today that County Court Judge Ada Pozo, who defeated Jeff Swartz at the polls, has resigned as of the end of May. 

Anyone know why?

The JNC is now accepting nominations for this slot. 

FACDL guy Rick Freedman wanted us to give props to the many criminal defense attorneys who have stepped up and volunteered to take a case pro bono (literally "how rumpole is paid") to help ease the PDs work load. 

From the press release:

Beginning this week, 38 experienced criminal defense attorneys who are members of FACDL-Miami, will begin accepting felony cases from the Public Defender's office, as part of a volunteer (pro bono) attorney initiative to help Miami-Dade's poor. The initial response to the program has been fantastic and veteran lawyers with nearly 900 combined years dedicated to the legal profession in our community including Eugene Zenobi (39 years), Jack Blumenfeld (42 years), James McGuirk (42 years), Joel Robrish (40 years), William Aaron (37 years), Bruce Fleisher (36 years), Paul Morris (34 years), Bruce Alter (33 years), Richard Sharpstein (33 years), Alan Greenstein (32 years), Leonard Sands (31 years), Samuel Rabin (30 years), Jeffrey Weinkle (30 years), Richard Hersch (29 years), Eric Cohen (28 years), Bruce Reich (28 years), Milton Hirsch (27 years), Dennis Kainen (27 years), Michael Catalano (26 years), Lawrence Kerr (26 years), Rick Freedman (25 years), Faith Mesnekoff (25 years), Phil Reizenstein (23 years), Hector Flores (22 years), Tony Moss (22 years), Roberto Pardo (22 years), Marjorie Alexis (20 years), Robin Kaplan, Beatriz Llorente, Marshall Dore Louis, Mark Eiglarsh, Arthur Jones, Joaquin Padilla, Jackie Woodward, Keith Pierro, Larry McMillan, Elizabeth Perez, Michael Mirer, and others have offered their services to this wonderful program. 

 The New Times is covering the controversy of Miami Federal Judges and the Red Mass. 

The Sun Sentinel is covering the contretemps over Judge Cohen's advocacy and donation to a domestic violence prevention group here. Judge Cohen sits in the Broward's DV division. 

Query: Doesn't the requirement of avoiding the appearance of impropriety require Judges to avoid work for charitable organizations that directly relate to the type of cases they sit on? We mean, a Judge deciding landlord and tenant cases shouldn't donate to tenant's rights groups; a Judge presiding over Med Mal cases shouldn't donate to political action committees seeking to cap attorneys fees,  right? So why should a Judge handling DV cases donate to a victim's rights organization?  

There are plenty of  needy charities that having nothing to do with cases Judge's sit on.  Sorry Judge Cohen, but your charitable work smacks of politics. You should recuse yourself from all DV cases, meaning you should be transfered to civil court for a while.  

Another beautiful spring weekend awaits. Enjoy.