YOUR NEXT THREE MIAMI-DADE COUNTY JUDGES .....

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

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

The JNC for the 11th Judicial Circuit recently interviewed a number of candidates for one new Circuit Court seat and two new County Court seats created by the enactment of SB 2508 during the 2025 legislative session.

The JNC has nominated the following individuals for appointment to the Circuit Court seat. The Governor has 60 days to name our next Circuit Court Judge: (all six are current County Court Judges, meaning the Governor will get a two-fer).

Alicia Garcia Priovolos

Cristina Rivera Correa

Elisabeth Espinosa

Jorge Perez Santiago

Rita Gonzalez Cuervo

Stephanie Silver

The following individuals have been nominated for the two County Court seats. The Governor will name two of the 12 as our next County Court Judges:

Alexander Shear (APD)

Jose Rohaidy (ASA)

Andrew McGinley (Fla. Dept of Children & Families)

Kimberly C. Hillery (Dept. of Homeland Security)

Christian Dunham (Federal APD)

Michelle Roth (pvt. practice, former ASA)

Gabrielle Raemy Charest-Turken (AUSA)

Patricia Salman (CABA Staff Attorney)

Jeffrey Pierce (ICE - Dept. of Homeland Security)

Yaneth Baez (ASA)

Jennifer Trautman Levin (pvt. practice)

Zahara Markoe (pvt. practice, former ADA) 

TAKING BETS ON THE THREE WINNERS (name your three in the Comments) .....

IN KEEPING WITH TRADITION .....

Governor DeSantis has been in office for slightly more than 6.5 years. In that time, he has made

326 judicial appointments.

Today alone, he named one new Circuit Court Judge in the 7th Judicial Circuit and two new County Court Judges in St. Johns and Monroe County. Two of the three new judges come directly from the State Attorney’s Office, while the third is a former ASA.

Of the 326 judges he has appointed to date, 208 had ASA/AUSA/AAG on their resume (64%), and 103 of those 208 were current prosecutors at the time of their appointment (32%).  Contrast that with the fact that only three of the 326 were APDs (two state and one federal) at the time of their appointment (1%), and only 16 of the 326 had APD on their resume (5%). 

Yes, elections do have consequences. (Good luck with your interviews in Tallahassee, Alexander Shear and Christian Dunham, - you have about a 5% chance of getting the call).

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

GOV. DESANTIS' JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS & A "FEW" NEW ATTORNEYS SET TO JOIN THE BAR .......

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

GOVERNOR DESANTIS & HIS RECORD ON JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS .... AND NEW LAWYERS JOIN THE RANKS OF THE FLORIDA BAR .......

Last week I reported to my loyal readers that three new judges* were appointed in Miami-Dade County among a grand total of 20 new judges appointed throughout the State by Gov. DeSantis on September 16th.  Following my post, there was a decent amount of chitter chatter on the local list serv which we will not quote from directly. But the gist of the chatter was that, in the patch of 20 new judges, Gov DeSantis included two, yes two criminal defense practitioners, and that we should somehow be excited because our fine Governor has finally seen the light after being in office for 32 months and finally recognized the fact that a criminal defense lawyer can actually make for a fine trial court judge.

Let’s be clear and set the record straight.  DeSantis’ record of judicial appointments has been abysmal.  There is a reason why DeSantis does not fear losing at the appellate court level when a trial court judge in Tallahassee rules the Governor’s mask Order to be unconstitutional. He knows that every single judge sitting on the 1st DCA is a Republican appointee and, as DeSantis predicted, they reversed the trial court judge’s ruling faster than you can say the word “ivermectin”.  The trial court appointments made by DeSantis also reflect only one kind of judge - one that has somewhere on their resume the initials  “ASA”, “AUSA”, or “AAG”.

The current numbers are staggering when you consider them from the lens of a criminal defense practitioner, or, better yet, from the eyes of the citizens of our great state - many of whom may someday appear before one of those trial court judges.

Governor DeSantis loves to cite his record of diversity in his judicial appointments. His appointments to the bench have been anything but diverse. (Contrast that with President Biden's first eight months in office. On Monday, the Senate confirmed another Biden appointee as an U.S. appeals court judge - Veronica Rossman; Judge Rossman becomes one of only eight appeals court judges in the country who have experience as a public defender. Biden is responsible for naming four of those appointees. Read the full story here.).

Between January of 2019 and September of 2021, Governor Ron DeSantis has appointed at least 148 judges to the Florida Supreme Court, Appellate Court, Circuit Court, and/or County Court bench. Of those 148 judges, at least 93 of them (63%) have the “ASA”, “AUSA”, and/or “AAG” on their resume. Contrast that with the fact that only 9 of his 148 appointees (6%) had the letters “APD” and/or AFPD” on their resumes.  Of the 93 appointees, 57 of them were actually employed as an ASA, AUSA, or AAG at the time of their appointment, while only TWO (2) of the nine defense appointees were working as an APD or AFPD at the time of their appointment.

NEW ATTORNEYS JOIN YOUR FLORIDA BAR

The test scores are in and please welcome another 1,483 attorneys to The Florida Bar.  The actual numbers may end up being even higher.  The July results include: (UPDATED/CORRECTED)

FIRST TIME TEST-TAKERS STATS ONLY

2,285 applicants sat for the Bar exam for the first time; (3,343 applicants overall took the Bar exam; 1,058 of them had taken the test one or more times before. It is not clear how many of those 1,058 passed the exam).

1,637 of those applicants passed the Bar exam

1,483 have been approved for admission by the Florida Supreme Court while the other 154 have hired Brian Tannebaum to find out why they were not yet approved.** 

The top law school pass rates for FIRST TIME test takers:

FIU (again) at 88.8%

UM  - 82.5%

UF   - 81.3%

The bottom three:

St. Thomas - 50.8%

Florida Coastal - 53.3%***

Florida A&M - 56.8%

*The Eleventh Judicial Circuit currently has a total of 121 judges including 48 that are male and 73 that are female. The breakdown includes: in Circuit Court 34 male and 43 female; in County Court 14 male and 30 female.

**Just Kidding about Mr. Tannebaum, although we all know how fine an attorney Brian is in that field of practice. No cash nor a bottle of Opus One was provided to the Captain by said Tannebaum in exchange for this message.

***Florida Coastal lost their ABA accreditation and will cease to exist as a law school after 2023.

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

NEW CIRCUIT COURT JUDGES

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

AND YOUR NEW CIRCUIT COURT JUDGES ARE .....

Governor Scott announced the appointment of Judge Rosa C. Figarola and Thomas J. Rebull, both of Miami, to the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court.

"Judge Figarola, 52, was appointed as a Miami-Dade County Judge in 2001 by Governor Jeb Bush. She has also been a faculty advisor at St. Thomas University School of Law since August 2010. From 1982 to 2000, she was an assistant public defender for the Eleventh Circuit Office of the Public Defender, in the appellate division. She received both her bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Miami.

“With a background as an appellate lawyer and a county judge, Judge Figarola possesses the experience necessary for the circuit and has demonstrated a deep respect for hard work and personal responsibility,” Governor Scott said. “Born in Cuba, she brings with her to the circuit court bench respect and appreciation toward those like her who left behind everything familiar and came to America in search of the freedoms and opportunities our country offers.”

Judge Figarola will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Mary Barzee Flores.

A partner with Broad and Cassel since 2001, Rebull also has been a member of, and currently chairs, the City of Miami Civilian Investigative Panel since 2003. The panel was created and empowered by voters to conduct independent and impartial oversight of the Miami Police Department. Previously, he practiced with Hector and Harke LLP in 1999. From 1998 to 1999, he was general counsel for Total Quality Management Group Inc. and practiced with Muller Mintz et al from 1997 to 1998. He received his bachelor’s degree from Boston University and his law degree from Washington College of Law.

“During his eight years on the City of Miami Civilian Investigative Panel, Thomas has had experience in exercising impartiality and fairness which will help him do the same as a circuit judge,” Governor Scott said. “He is hardworking and conscientious and recognizes that the sole and solemn obligation facing a judge is to enforce the rule of law.”

Rebull will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Israel U. Reyes."

4 DOWN AND ONE TO GO .....

That leaves the appointment of a new 3rd DCA Judge. That appointment should take place in the next week.

And, with the appointment of Judge Figarola, that means the revamped JNC will be meeting to nominate 3-6 names to the Governor for the newest open seat on the County Court.

Also, with the appointments of Judge Altfield, Judge Multack, Judge Figarola and Judge Rebull occurring before August 14th, that means all four appointees will have to run for "re-election" in 2012. Had any of them been appointed after August 14th, they would have effectively been able to serve for three years and not have to run until 2014.

CAP OUT .....

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

LOTS OF NEW JUDGES, and more on the way .......

Congratulations to Judge Lisa Walsh. On Monday, Governor Rick Scott elevated her to the Circuit Court to fill the seat left vacant with the death of Judge Pineiro. Judge Walsh has big shoes to fill, but those that know Lisa have all the confidence in the world that she will get the job done and do it fairly and with respect, to the litigants and the attorneys, from both sides, just like Rob would have wanted and expected!!!

Judge Walsh joins Judge Victoria Brennan who last week was appointed by the Governor to replace Judge Kevin Emas. If you were keeping score, the six names that the Governor was choosing from included: Judges Brennan, Figarola, Hague, Walsh and White-Labora, and attorney Michael Hanzman.

Meanwhile, with the passing of Judge Gross, the JNC recently sent up six more names. Those names are: Judges Brennan, Walsh and White-Labora, along with private attorneys Miguel de la O, Michael Hanzman, and Richard Hersch. Keep your scorecards out as that means two of the six names before the Governor have now been eliminated from the short list. So, your next Circuit Court Judge will be either Judge White Labora or one of the three attorneys, de la O, Hanzman or Hersch.

County Court .....

Last week Governor Scott appointed ASA Fleur Lobree to the open seat of Judge Bloom. On the same date that Lobree was being named a Judge, the JNC sent five more names up to the Governor to replace Judge Gayles’ open County Court seat. Those names are: Tanya Brinkley, Dawn Denaro, John Goran, Steven Lieberman, and Gordon Murray.

And, with the appointments of Brennan and Walsh, the JNC will open the application process one more time. They will conduct interviews and then send up still more names to the Governor and he will need to name two more County Court judges.

Of course, if by chance the Governor chooses Judge White-Labora for that last open Circuit Court seat, that will give Scott still one more County Court judge to name.

Has any Governor in the past ever had as many as eight (three Circuit and five County) judicial appointments in their first six months of office?

CAPTAIN OUT .......