JUDICIAL HOLIDAY SCHEDULE

UPDATE: What causes your favourite federal blogger to shout "woo-hoo!!"??  Why nothing less than the 76-17 vote confirming Raag Singhal as the newest federal judge for the Southern District of Florida.  The coverage is on his blog here. 
Congrats to Judge Singhal and welcome to the party. 

You cannot tell the ballplayers without a scorecard, and you won't know where to go to have your case called these next few weeks without the Judicial Coverage  Holiday Schedule. 

The December, 2019 holiday schedule is out! (Woo-hoo! Oh wait, that was already done). Here is what is confusing: some judges are listed as covering their own calendars. That seems weird. Let's say we are starting a jury trial. And the Judge introduces the parties. She wouldn't say "And representing the defendant, covering for Horace Rumpole, is Horace Rumpole." 

Does that make sense? 

With that being said, here's your 2019 long awaited, much anticipated, earth shaking, viagara-taking, Judicial Coverage Holiday Schedule. And once again, a shout out to Judge Tinkler-Mendez, the hardest working judge in show business. 

2019 Holiday Coverage.amended (1) by Anonymous X2glnmuma on Scribd

MURDER MYSTERY AND POLITICAL INTRIGUE

Jeffrey Epstein Murder Mystery: The plot thickens. No conspiracy theorists we, but a Rumpolian look at the evidence yields the following: 1) Mr. Epstein was taken off of suicide watch two weeks before his death when his attorneys told officials at MDC that the injuries to his neck resulted from being attacked by a murderous thug (former police officer) cell mate; 2) Epstein's last cell mate was removed from his cell a day before his death. In violation of procedure, he was left alone in his cell; 3) The corrections officers did not check on Epstein  for hours before his death. Two of three officers on duty were not actual corrections officers but other employees trained to fill in when needed; 4) The day before his death Epstein was reported to be in good spirits and telling his lawyers he felt the 2nd Circuit would order his release and that his double jeopardy motion would be granted. He told his lawyers he was looking forward to seeing them the next day; 
AND NOW THIS: 
The NY Times reports today here  that the Medical Examiner has currently listed Epstein's death as "unclassified" AND that the hyoid bone in Epstein was fractured. Long time and careful readers of the blog know that in his younger days Rumpole liked nothing more than a good murder and developed a bit of expertise in the manner and method of untimely deaths. While Hyoid bones are known to fracture in suicide hangings, especially in individuals over sixty, they are almost always fratured when death is caused by strangulation. Indeed the fracture of the Hyoid bone is a signature event in a strangulation (something a young medical examiner was forced to admit during an uncomfortable hour under the cross examination by your blogger many years ago in a successful murder defense in a galaxy far far away).

Former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara tweeted shortly after Epstein's death that there should be a full video of Epstein killing himself. He should know. To date there has been no discussion of the video. Does it exist? Have people, including the ME seen it? If the ME has seen it, there would be no reason not to classify the death as a suicide. 

Rest assured that Rumpole is taking a second and harder look at Mr. Epstein's demise. 

JUDGE FABER NEW ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGE FOR CRIMINAL COUNTY COURT
That white smoke you saw in the hallways of the REGJB recently wasn't some santeria ritual. It was the signal that the Judges had decided that Judge Robin Faber, long head of the jail division of county court, a blog reader and blog Fantasy Football participant, will don the scarlet robes (not really, but they do it in England and should do it here) and take over as head honcho of the criminal county court judges. Talk about a thankless job! And he has big shoes to fill with Judge Sam Slom retiring on Halloween. 

JUDGES VIE FOR CHIEF JUDGE SPOT
For reasons not entirely clear yet, Judge Soto will not be up for chief judge of the 11th Judicial Circuit (Motto: "Call us Dade-County, not Miami or Miamahh por favor") when her terms expires in about a year (the timing is also not clear yet). To be clear, we did NOT say she is retiiring from the bench, only that she cannot (or has decided not to)  stand for another term as Chief Judge. 

Two candidates have thrown their electronic hats into the ring via email: Judge Nushin Sayfie, currently chief Judge of the felony criminal dvision, and Judge Scott Bernstein, recently honoured with a judicial award. 
Predictably the fault line has appeared between criminal and civil. 
You think the democratic presidential nomination is hotly contested? To quote Ronald Wilson Reagan "You ain't seen nothing yet!". 
Judges Sayfie and Bernstein are both excellant choices. Well respected and quite able, each will be able to lead our gagle of Judges into the future.  We have more experience with Judge Sayfie who we have seen lead the criminal court judges through thick and thin, and a few scandals that she was on top of and handled admirably. We can always use a voice at the top that understands the trials and tribulations of an REGJB lawyer. However, that is not a blog endorsement. There is a lot of time between now and the election, and a week is a lifetime in politics. 

JUDGE SINGHAL NOMINATED TO FEDERAL BENCH
Mr Markus' federal blog, which has uncomfortably been dabling recently in state court toipics, broke the story yesterday that Judge Raag Singhal, who serves in Broward, has been nominated by POTUS to an open spot on the Southern District Of Florida. The nomination has long been rumored and is well deserved. 

A NOTE ON PRIVACY

You may have read in the DBR the other day about some Judges who are ill. We have known about some of these Judges being ill for a while now. We have chosen not to write about it in the past. nor will we do so in the future unless and until a particular Judge contacts us and specifically requests that we do so. In this spirit, we have also not published any comments, of which all have been uniformly positive and sending well wishes to those who are ill.

Why?

Two reasons: First, an illness is an intensively private matter and we respect the privacy of the attorney or Judge unless they specifically choose to share their illness with us and our readers. If that does not occur, and it has occurred in the past, then we will respect the privacy of the person who is ill. It is as simple as that, despite the fact that there will be many well wishers who will not get an opportunity to express their feelings to their friend or colleague.

The second reason is a bit more complex.

When you are diagnosed with a series illness, an insidious change can occur unless you are very careful. You walk into a heart institute or a cancer center and you slowly realize the buildings and doctors and nurses exist because of you. The research money and philanthropy that went into creating the specialized center were all done because of the illness you have. And slowly, if you are not careful, the illness comes to define you. This is a dangerous moment. The body follows the mind. What the mind conceives, the body can achieve. To get better, you cannot allow your mind to become the mind of a sick person. And yet your illness fights hard for recognition.

You are no longer the Judge affirmed on appeal, or the lawyer who gave the devastating cross and spectacular closing argument in that big case recently. You meet a friend who has someone with them and you stop to chat and as you walk away you hear your acquaintance saying to their friend "you remember that lawyer I told you who just got got diagnosed with cancer? That was him..." You become the Judge battling cancer, or the lawyer who recently had a serious operation. You lose your identity to the disease. Once that happens, you're almost done.

So we refuse to identify our colleagues who are ill. We choose to continue to interact with Judges and lawyers for the people they are, not the diseases they are battling. And we wish all of our friends and colleagues and even our dear robed readers who may be ill good health in the future and success in remaining who are they are and not becoming their disease.

The body follows the mind. It's a very powerful statement if you follow its implications.

See You In Court.

GOVERNOR SCOTT DOES IT AGAIN!

It pains us to say it, but the Governor has done good again, appointing long time criminal defense attorney Raag Singhal to the Circuit Court in the seat vacated by trader Vic Tobin.