DONE AND GONE: A JUDICIAL REMOVAL-RESIGNATION- A BREAKING STORY

     Are you surprised it took this long? Are you surprised that the lawyer with no experience, no demonstrable legal ability, no trial experience, and no qualifications to win a judicial election other than- and lets just call it as it was- a Hispanic name- is resigning from the circuit bench in the face of an embarrassing removal? 

What we know is that a long history of not showing up, canceling court, being rude to court staff, culminated in the judge "losing their sh&t" in court when a litigant mouthed off - is resigning effective December 31, 2023. The Judge will no longer have a court division as of December 1, and will just burn their vacation time at Florida taxpayer's expense. 

We also know that upon assuming the Circuit bench and being hidden in a dark corner of Juvenile Court, she quickly showed that she had no ability to handle those cases. As the months turned into years, and her work became more embarrassing to the judiciary, more accommodations were made until the Judge was mostly assigned to the domestic violence division (technically a circuit position, but traditionally staffed by County Court judges with their eyes on an 11th Circuit spot after faithfully traveling to all the Federalist Society events in DC)  where she spent her days reviewing petitions for temporary injunctions. 

But she could not even handle that, and as problem upon problem piled up, staff complaining about rude treatment, court being canceled or being late at a rate alarming for even Miami judges,  she was given the opportunity to resign before the accusations became official and public. Discretion being the better part of incompetence, she accepted the offer. 

Do we sound mean and bitter? Yes. This person replaced an extremely competent Circuit Judge based only on her Hispanic sur name, and that not being enough, she pandered during the election to the African American Community, covered by the blog in perhaps one of our greatest posts ever here.  

To recap what remains the absolute high (but really low) water mark of Judicial elections in Miami, the candidate said her volunteer work at Camillus House (something later shown to be an abject and arrant lie) for "colored people" (her words not ours) landed like a bomb at the Wilkie Ferguson Bar event (Wilkie Ferguson was an African American Judge and leader in our community before his untimely death). She followed that gaffe with this legendary statement: "I consider  myself a colored woman" for reasons unclear other than her brain-mouth connection was colored dimwitted.  

And yet- she won. 

We railed against the election of someone so obviously incompetent, who potentially could be presiding over death penalty cases. We raged that elections have consequences, and that this person was being given the power to remove children from parents, sentence people to prison, and most importantly for our civil brethren, sign 57.105 sanctions orders. 

In short, we screamed from the Internet roof tops that being a Judge mattered, and this person had no ability to be a judge. That the rolls of Miami Dade Circuit Judges that included Judge Cowart, Judge Dennis Murphy, Judge Rob Pinero, Judge Melvia Green, Judge Gerald Weatherington, Judge Ron Friedman, Judge Herb Klein,  and Judge Phil Knight, would now include a Rose By Any Other Name. 

We were right. And we have the right to say that. 

HERE'S YOUR NEW CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE IN ACTION

 Using runners to solicit cases. Yup, the judiciary was upgraded with this election. 

Will the Florida Bar/JQC act on a lawyer/Judge employing non-lawyer runners to go to accident victims' homes to solicit cases? Or will they sweep it under the rug?

Will Judge Aponte be appointed as a Referee in Bar cases? We think she should. We think she should get EVERY Bar complaint about a lawyer soliciting cases. It is, after all, her specialty. 

For those of you who defend the Judge- please write in. 

For those of you who believe the judiciary was improved with this election - please write in. 

We know our new judge knows this rule- she is, after all a Judge. But for the rest of us, here is the rule in question:

Direct Contact with Prospective Clients - Rule 4-7.18(a) A lawyer may not contact a prospective client in-person, by telephone, telegraph, or facsimile, or through other means of direct contact, unless the prospective client is a family member, current client, or former client. 

Uz Cate Gui Case Felice Tt i Lien by HR on Scribd

 

Judges are held to higher ethical standard, aren't they?

 Rumpole's rules for Life:#2: Be careful what you ask for in life...you may get it.

GOOD NEWS MONDAY AND OUR CHOICE FOR A NEW JUDGE TO BE ASSIGNED TO THE COMPLEX LITIGATION DIVISION

 Mondays should be all about good news so lets jump right in to it. 

Two hurricanes in the Gulf will miss Florida and strike near New Orleans this week. LA 2-Fla 0. This is the type of contest you want to lose. True this is bad news for Louisiana, but we do not have as many readers there.

NASA is tracking a Near Earth Object (NEO) that has a .5% chance of striking earth just before election day. The size of the object is six and a half feet long. Who says the good lord does not play politics?

If you are a judge elect and have a pending bar complaint (or two) in which probable cause has been found,  then you are not out of the woods. The JQC will pick up the ball and take it over the goal line. We have two such judge-elects facing this prospect.  We put the odds of one of the two of these two distinguished individuals being suspended or disbarred above the odds of an asteroid striking the earth before election day. 

Speaking of Judge elects, we call upon Judge Soto to let the voters' decision have consequences. New judges will often be "hidden" in juvenile or delinquency courts as they gain experience. This is not to diminish the hard work of the dedicated judges who serve in those positions. 

But the voters of Dade County elected Judge Aponte to a circuit court position without her ever having tried a case. It is said she has never taken a deposition. But the voters have spoken. She was determined to be the better qualified of the two candidates. 

So Judge Soto please assign Judge Aponte to the complex litigation division of civil court. Let her handle the biggest and most complex civil cases around. She worked for a plaintiffs' firm that demonstrably and illegally used runners to solicit clients from accidents scenes you say? So what- is what the voters of Dade said. 

She has never taken a deposition and is unfamiliar with the rules and laws of discovery and complex litigation? Who cares!

 How can we have a judge who never tried a case preside over complex trials? Elections have consequences we say- let the chips fall where they may.

 Do not "hide" this judge in juvenile or dependency court. Our children are much to important to place in her inexperienced and unethical hands. Put her in complex litigation and let the civil lawyers, who did not raise a hand in this contest, deal with her. That's of course if the JCQ doesn't deal with her first. 

Lawyers: wherever Judge Aponte ends up, consider filing a motion to recuse because you client does not feel s/he can get a fair trial from a judge who worked for a disbarred lawyer for a firm that illegally employed runners to go to accident scenes to solicit cases. The ethics stink to high hell. In other words- a community shunning of the "judge" who wants to play in the big leagues. We will be beating this drum until and through January 2021. 

That's what we say. What say you? 

AIRING DIRTY LAUNDRY

Unlike other popular bloggers and news outlets (we are NOT a news outlet, although we scoop El Herald from time to time) we do not hide controversy or our dirty laundry. We hang it out for all to see. 
We received this comment. We invite further comments based on our thoughts below:

Rumpole, just say that you support Tunis and that's the reason why you attack Aponte. If you are old and wise as you claim to be, you would know that "Hispanic" is not a race but a census origin. According yo he U.S. Census Bureau "Hispanic origin can be viewed as the heritage, nationality, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the person’s parents or ancestors before arriving in the United States. People who identify as Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish may be any race." https://www.census.gov/topics/population/hispanic-origin.html. If you meet Aponte in person, you will see that she is of mixed race with a mix of physical characteristics of white European, red Native Caribbean (Taino/Arawak) and black African races and that her origin is Hispanic Puerto Rican. So, your attempt to smear Aponte over how she described her race at the forum and the improper use of "Hispanci" origin as a "race" in voter registration records is just stinky hot gas emanating from b.s.

Being so woke and politically-correct, perhaps, you could be better informed about Hispanic culture where "de color" (of color) is not considered an insult but the respectful and proper manner to describe black and mixed-race persons. And, by the way, she is absolutely correct about the vagaries and craziness of political correctness and the speech police.

Tuesday, July 21, 2020 1:58:00 AM

 

First: We have been clear- we do not think on any metric Ms. Aponte approaches the bar to be a county court judge much less a circuit court judge. She has not demonstrated any expertise in any area of the law. She has not written one article we can find on any area of the law. Her pleadings that we have reviewed do not pass muster of a 1-L summer intern. She worked for a law firm that used runners to chase cases which is unethical and illegal. She appears to be the stereotypical candidate who seeks the bench for all the wrong reasons (steady paycheck and benefits). 

Second: The thought of her handling a death penalty case in circuit court when she appears to have NEVER tried a case or taken an adversarial deposition defies belief. It is downright frightening. It would diminish the judiciary and Miami-Dade County. 

Third: We do not think she has told the truth. We are working on her claim about cooking at Camillus house. It does not add up to what we are learning are  their procedures for people who volunteer. SO if that is not true, then her claims to be African-American and Indian appear to be the lowest form of pandering to the electorate. To be fair, she is not the first to do this, and will not be the last. It does not make it right. 

Fourth: We will admit possible error and to being insensitive to race and ethnic origin if Hispanic is NOT a race and is only an ethnic origin. The above commentator is correct- The US Census asks people to identify their race and says Hispanics can choose any race.  However other institutions characterize Hispanic as a race. Hospitals upon admission. Police reports when detailing an arrest.  But we could be wrong. We readily admit that many many Hispanics (including some of our best friends*) are also black. 
But on this point we concede error based on giving Ms. Aponte and her defender above the benefit of the doubt. 

We have aired our dirty laundry. WHO will address our concerns about Ms. Aponte? That she has neither the experience, nor demonstrated intellectual ability to be a circuit court judge given the power of life/death/freedom over the citizens of Florida. Who will call her our best and brightest and show us where we are wrong? You see we post our critics in the comments section and at times on the post section. We have invited Ms. Aponte or her defenders to reply. Show us one trial. One depo. One brief. One legal memorandum that shows legal ability. Just one. We will take it from their. Or please be prepared to defend a circuit court judicial candidate without any of the above. 

(THWACK) the sound of the ball in your court. 

* Note our sarcasm and humor in writing that many of our friends are Hispanic/black. This is classic defense by racist which we are not. The  truth of the matter is we have few friends and we have never even considered their race/origin. On review, some are Sith, one is a Hutt, one an Ewok.*
 Shame on us. We think of other things.


* Even more humor. These are alien species from Star Wars. 

A MATTER OF TRUTH

The Herald and Ace Reporter David Ovalle, fresh from covering protests and a run-in with an obnoxious Florida Highway Patrol Trooper that threatened him with arrest for "inciting a riot", has interviewed everyone's favourite judicial candidate, the colorful candidate (not to mention the candidate of colour) the one, the only, the woman, the myth, the legend in the making, the Rosy Aponte. The colorful article is here.   (You may need a subscription to access it. We recommend it. Ovalle needs a raise. Pony up a few bucks from your business account). 

Aponte told Ovalle that the use of the term "colored people" was just an innocent mistake. A slip of the tongue. A bit of the old nerves. She meant to say "people of color". Case over. Much ado about nothing. Ahhh....but Rumpole has questions. Just a few questions on cross as some litigators are wont to say. 

First: The moderator specifically asked Aponte about whether she recognized that her use of the term colored people was something that people find offensive. She did not gasp in horror, apologize for her slip up and correct the record by saying that she meant to say people of color. No, what she did was feign ignorance- stumbling through an explanation where she said she was told it was ok to use that term. She mentioned that  Megan Markle used the term and that was good enough for her. She said  she never knew the term  was offensive because no one told her it was offensive. She detailed an extensive study of the issue, being told the term minorities was fine, then it was not, then it was.  

She told the Wilkie Ferguson Bar Association that she was colored because like Senator Warren, she is Indian. (She didn't say Native American, but we will leave that tepee unturned for now).

And then she said this in response to a question by the moderator:
 And The reason I said colored is because when  I was mentioning minority they said minority was no longer politically correct. 

So Ms. Aponte, were you lying to the moderator when you specifically defended the use of the term colored, or were you lying to Ovalle when you said you meant to say "people of color"?

Point II: A call to Camillus house has yielded some issues about whether she actually volunteered there to cook for the coloreds. So before we go any further, perhaps Candidate Aponte may want to amend her answer and say something like that what she meant was that she often tosses the remainder of her French fries at the bottom of the McDonalds bag to people in the street when driving by Camillus House. Because her  statement that she cooked there as a volunteer is, as they say in Southie, "Suspect". You might want to fess up before we get to the bottom of this. 

Point III: Likewise your newfound membership in the NAACP which you told Ovalle you belonged to. We wonder why you didn't tell that to the colored members of the Wilkie Ferguson Bar Association when asked about your involvement in the community? And we are checking with the NAACP as to if and when you joined. 

Query: If appearing before a Bar association makes you nervous Candidate Aponte, then what are you planning to do when trying a death case and Alex Michaels turns over the defense table during a demonstrative cross and kicks the court reporter for good measure? Perhaps the high pressure position of circuit judge is not something you are cut out for. Have you considered traffic magistrate in Two Egg, Florida?

Point III: Why are you working for a law firm where the named partner was never admitted in Florida and has been disbarred in New York for trust account violations of a client's money? When you lie down with dogs you get fleas, and is ethics something you consider when taking a job? 

Point IV: We offer you the blog, front page, unedited. All you have to do is send an email. Have at it. Answer these charges, or say what you wish. 

For those of you offended by our use of the term colored, it is being done to mock the person who wants to be your next circuit judge. We recommend you read Ovalle's article, which delves into the reasons why the term is offensive. 

ROSY APONTE ON RACE

UPDATE FRIDAY 1PM: REGJB Courthouse ordered evacuated. Reasons murky but appear to be a pending protest of the arrest of  protestors arrested on Thursday.  This time we have it right. The courthouse is as empty as the legal and social  knowledge of a certain candidate for judge. See below. It is as empty as a Megan Markle lecture on the etymology of the racist lexicon. See below. It is as empty as ….Just see below and stay away from the REGJB. 

There was a candidates debate, zoom style.
You can watch the entire one and half plus hours here. 
But we want to focus on the answers, the elocution, the command of the English language, and the anachronistic use of the term "COLORED PEOPLE" by candidate for Circuit Judge, the one, the only, the Rosy Aponte. 
We have transcribed the pertinent points, which you can listen to for accuracy, bemusement, and downright shock at her inarticulateness and deafness when it comes to speaking about people of color. Also watch how deep she digs the hole. 

We pick up at the action at 1:25:20 into the debate. The topic is alternative forms of release: The text in red are Rumpole's thoughts. 

RA: Yes I think we just need to get a little more creative. I think that there's a lot of instances where somebody  can be given an ankle bracelet and be sent home and be monitored through the ankle bracelet. We don't need to have people incarcerated in one big jail system. [As opposed to a bunch of small jail systems?].  A lot of these crimes are crimes that are are not so so ummm so severe that you cannot have somebody have ahh ankle bracelet have them go and ah report every day to a probation officer.   [There is an idea here somewhere. With a map and a little cognitive training, she will find it someday]. I think that we need to use those kinds of means more than just always sending anybody to jail umm and and where we can it will be less it will be more cost effective and it will be better for the community if some of these crimes that are not such  not high crimes [Historical and constitutional scholar that she is, we are sure she is referring to high crimes in the context of the meaning in the usage contained in Article II, Section 4 of the constitution]  umm we would just give them an ankle bracelet and have people remain in their home and only go out if they have to work or have  to go  report to a probation officer.  I think we need to be more creative on how we do these  things umm  going forward especially after this whole covid 19 pandemic. 

We want to  dwell on this fascinating reference to high crimes a bit more. In 40 plus years of legal work in the courts of Dade County, we have NEVER had a judicial officer refer to our client's act as a "high crime". 

But now lets move on to the good stuff. Let's really see how her legal mind clicks. The question posed is how people who are on the bench interact with those who come before them. 
At 1:27:11 the moderator asks the genius about her experiences with the AFRICAN AMERICAN community. We capitalize that for a reason as you shall soon see. It's as if he was giving her a hint-but she missed it. Here is her answer. Listen to it yourself. We did NOT change one word.
RA: The only thing that comes to mind right now is Camillus House. I volunteered a lot at Camillus House. And as you know that is a very diverse community of people. The homeless people. [Yes we know that is a bit of a non sequitur, but put on your seat belts for what she says next]. Ummm There's a lot of colored people in that that depend on Camillus House so I think that what comes to mind right now is me volunteering to cook and to feed people in the Camillus House.
Rumpole cannot help but say that the only thing that comes to mind right now is that people who express themselves as if they have the IQ of a potato slug should not be running for judge. The second thing that comes to mind right now is that Ms. Aponte should look at a calendar. It is 2020 Woman. WE DO NOT CALL AFRICAN AMERICAN PEOPLE COLORED PEOPLE. Well apparently most of us don't. She does.
The third thing that comes to mind is....we can't. We just can't continue. We are rendered speechless. She used the term COLORED PEOPLE when addressing the WILKIE FERGUSON Bar Association. Does she know Wilkie Ferguson was African American colored? 

At 1:29:57 the moderator, having pulled himself off the floor and collected his thoughts returns to the phrase that doesn't pay. 
Moderator: Attorney Aponte when addressing the last question.. the term you used was "colored people"...would you care to clarify that statement?
Now Ms. Aponte, chess master, uses the Elizabeth Warren Gambit and calls herself "colored" because she has Indian and  African American ancestry- although she did not say it that eloquently.

RA: Yes. I consider myself a colored woman. To me a colored person is somebody who has a diverse background. I have Indian and African American in my family  so that makes me a colored person. Anyone who has diversity in in in a different color in their skin that  is not white...I consider myself to be a colored woman  because as I said  I have African American and Indian in my family history. 
The Moderator then asks her if she realizes how that phrase can be offensive to some people. What occurs next is destined to become a classic in American political rhetoric: 

RA: Ummm I keep hearing different politically correct (jumbled ) on the one point they said it wasn't  politically correct and now their saying it's back to being politically correct. The other day I mentioned being a minority they told me: 'no you can't say you are a minority you have to say you are a person of color.' So I keep getting contradicting ahh  opinions about that. And The reason I said colored is because when  I was mentioning minority they said minority was no longer politically correct. 
So it's hard to keep up with the  politically correctness that people keep changing back and forth. I used to say minorities and now they say minorities is not politically correct. You have to say that you are a person of color. 

Rumpole wonders, who is "They" that she keeps referring to? Is there some political correctness teacher she is consulting? And if so maybe that person can remove their white hood so Ms. Aponte can hear them better. 

Dr King: I have a dream. 
Rosy Aponte: So I keep getting contradictory opinions about that.
We also, on reflection, realize we need to apologize for the Potato Slugs comment. To all the Potato Slugs out there, we apologize  for slurring them with this.  

Moderator: You just cited to us your history in working with minority communities...Are you saying this the first time someone has ever told you that the use of the term colored person could be considered offensive?

RA: I just saw Megan Markle call herself a colored woman on national TV. I never heard that it was offensive. 
Some legal scholars quote Gladstone. Others quote Chief Judge John Marshall. Some peruse literature for guidance and inspiration. Shakespeare for example.
And some quote Megan Markle. 
You say Potato. She says Colored Person. You say Native American. She says Indian. 

True or False: RA in closing mentioned the many colored friends she has? 
False. But- and we are guessing here- it's only because she ran out of time. She did say she started her career as a civil rights attorney!! and a teacher!!!- and then she said this: 
 and we kid you not: "I want to bring on my experience as a public school teacher who knows how to speak to people." 

We leave it at that. Because we are speechless. We cannot top it. We do not have the experience she has as someone who knows how to speak to people. 

Rumpole drops the mic and walks away. 

TUNIS GETS AN OPPONENT

The Captain is all over this. 

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

MAJOR, MAJOR, BIG TIME BREAKING NEWS .....

Incumbent Judge Dava Tunis has drawn an opponent.

Candidate Rosy Aponte, who filed and qualified to run against Incumbent Judge Gordon Murray in Group 38 of the County Court has just switched to filing to run against Judge Tunis in Circuit Court Group 75.

Aponte has previously been unsuccessful in seeking a seat on the bench:

- she ran for a County Court seat against Judge Kristy Nunez in 2018, losing
that race by 52 % to 48%.
- she ran for a Circuit Court seat against Judge Oscar Rodriguez-Fonts and Carol Breece in 2016. Ms. Aponte failed to make the runoff as she gained only 26% of the vote compared to Rodrgiuez Fonts (34%) and Breece (40%) in the Primary.

Judge Tunis was first appointed by Governor Bush in 2005. She ran unopposed in 2008 and again ran unopposed in 2014. She has never faced an opponent. UNTIL NOW.

CAPTAIN OUT .......

Rumpole Notes...we are trying to be judicious here. An adjective we neither seek nor want. So we do not want call people names like "an unqualified slug" and such. 

Aponte should be ashamed of herself. Judge Tunis is dedicated and hard working. She does not merit an opponent. Neither did Judge Murray for that matter. Aponte is singularly unqualified to be a judge in our opinion. Twice rejected by the voters of Miami who have had a chance to vet her, she should stop playing games and trying to bully judges. Go away. We do not want you on the bench. You are trading on your name to make up for a truly undistinguished career as a lawyer. You are becoming the Covid-19 candidate- a virus no one wants. 
As always, we invite the person we have discussed to email us a response which we guarantee will be posted unedited. Equal time as it were. 

Here is part of a prior post about Ms. Aponte:
Ms. Aponte luckily managed to avoid payment of her debts through a discharge she obtained in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Interestedly, Ms. Aponte's complete ineptitude has been highlighted recently by the Hon. A J Cristol who barred her from practicing before the United States Bankruptcy Court as a result of her confession that she had no clue what she was doing in a contested chapter 7 case. Ms. Aponte's stellar representation resulted in the debtor and multiple family members of the debtor, including his elderly mother being held in contempt of court, faced with incarceration and substantially sanctioned. Unbowed, in yet another case pending before the Hon. Laurel Isicoff, Ms. Aponte was ordered to show cause and sanctioned as a result of filing an unsuspecting alleged debtor in bankruptcy without ever having met her client. Her excuse was simple, someone in her office used her credentials . 

JUDGES SARDUY & KELLY HAVE OPPONENTS, JUDGE SAYFIE DOES NOT .....

AND NOW A WORD FROM JUDGE BLAKE: 

 Stan Blake said...

As a prior administrative judge in the Criminal Division for 9 years, the average person has no idea about all the extra work with no additional pay. Almost daily meetings and putting out fires are just a small part of the job. Because of the experience, administrative judges often teach others and sit on commitees. I know personally how hard Judge Kelly and Judge Sayfie work.

Wednesday, May 04, 2016 2:54:00 PM

 

This is Rumpole. We want to thank the Captain for doing a great job staying on top of this ever-changing judicial election landscape. The thought that comes to us is....where is Albert Zemlock when you need him?

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

BREAKING NEWS ROUND THREE .....

INCUMBENT JUDGE SARDUY HAS AN OPPONENT

AND

INCUMBENT JUDGE SAYFIE LOSES HER OPPONENT

AND

INCUMBENT JUDGE KELLY HAS AN OPPONENT .....

Incumbent Judges beware.  No seat in safe in Miami-Dade County.  Today, very quietly, Circuit Court Judge George Sarduy, currently assigned to the Family Division, drew an opponent.  That opponent is none other than attorney Elena C. Tauler AKA Elena "Ortega"-Tauler; which is the name she used to file for Judge.

Judge Sarduy was in private practice until April of 2006 when he was appointed to the County Court bench by Governor Jeb Bush.  Less than two years later, Sarduy was elevated to the Circuit Court bench by Governor Charlie Crist.  He ran unopposed in 2010 to retain his seat and he is currently running for reelection.

Elena C. Tauler is an attorney licensed by The Florida Bar since 1988.  On the other hand, Elena Ortega-Tauler is not an attorney licensed to practice law in the State of Florida.  Despite that, Elena Ortega-Tauler is running for Circuit Court Judge.

Tauler filed to run in Group 52 more than one year ago, and until today, was running against Carol "Jodi" Breece, Raul Perez-Ceballos, and Oscar Rodriguez-Fonts.  This afternoon, Tauler jumped into Group 74 filing against Incumbent Judge Sarduy.

We have written several posts about Elena Tauler, including on April 24, 2008 and March 8, 2015, that can be found here and here.

We were recently sent a brochure from Florida Mediation Group where Tauler is a Mediator.  The brochure touts "Elena C. Tauler", Esq as a Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit Court mediator.  It does not mention anybody by the name of Elena Ortega-Tauler in the brochure.

INCUMBENT JUDGE SAYFIE .....

Also happening this afternoon, Judge Sayfie lost her opponent, Rosy A. Aponte.  Aponte has now decided to run against Incumbent County Court Judge Carroll Kelly in Group 23. 

And thank you to the alert reader who pointed out that Sayfie's campaign account has grown since last Friday.  On Monday she reported that for the month of April, 2016, she raised an additional $41,990, bringing her total raised to $96,000.  It is also remarkable how the legal community rallied around her candidacy in opposing the filing by Aponte.  I say that because, of the $41,990 raised in the month of April, $41,465 was donated on Friday, April 29th, the day Aponte filed.  Sayfie also loaned her campaign an extra $25k on the same day).

INCUMBENT JUDGE CARROLL KELLY .....

Judge Kelly has been on the bench since 1998.  Since getting elected that year, she was reelected in 2004 and 2010, and she is running for reelection this year.  Her web page can be found here.

Judge Kelly is currently the Administrative Judge of the Domestic Violence Division.  She previously served as President of the Florida Conference of County Court Judges, teaches as an Adjunct Professor at the UM law school, and serves on the faculty of the Florida Judicial College and the Florida College for Advanced Judicial Studies.

Her opponent is Rosy A. Aponte, who we wrote about on Friday, April 29, 2016.

Three days left until filing closes and by all accounts there will be a lot more action in the final 72 hours.

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

JUDGE SAYFIE HAS AN OPPONENT

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

BREAKING NEWS ..... JUDGE NUSHIN SAYFIE HAS DRAWN OPPOSITION .....

UPDATED BELOW

In a stunning move, Judge Nushin Sayfie, Chief Administrative Judge of the Criminal Division, has drawn an opponent.  Judge Sayfie is running for reelection in Group 59 of the Circuit Court.

Her opponent is attorney ROSY APONTE, who has been a member of The Florida Bar for, hold your breath, a whopping seven years.  Ms. Aponte maintains a law office in the City of Doral.  Ms. Aponte filed to run against Judge Sayfie earlier today.

Judge Sayfie began her career with the Public Defender's Office and worked for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit PD from 1994-1999 and from 2001-2007. She also spent two years with the PD in the Second Circuit from 1999-2001. Judge Sayfie became a Circuit Court Judge in 2007.  She was appointed by Governor Charlie Crist in 2007 and ran unopposed in 2010.

Judge Sayfie has currently raised $54,000 and loaned her campaign a total of $5,000.

We know nothing about her opponent.

UPDATE:

If Aponte decides to leave Group 59 and jump into another race, here are the Incumbents currently running unopposed. One of them may end up having a long, hot summer filled with shaking lots of hands:

John Schlesinger - $61,000**; $100,000***
Rudy Ruiz - $118,000; $3,500
Scott Bernstein - $76,000; $50,000
Bertila Soto - $108,000; $2,000
John Thornton - $189,000; $100,000
Jennifer Bailey - $156,000; $5,000
Rosa Rodriguez - $89,000; $0.00
Barbara Areces - $64,000; $10,000
David Young * - $222,000; $250
William Thomas - $188,000; $500
Milton Hirsch - $174,000; $100,000
Samantha Ruiz Cohen - $111,000; $25,000
Monica Gordo - $144,000; $0.00
Jorge Sarduy - $105,000; $500
*former judge with no current opposition
**the first number represents the amount raised
***the second number represents the amount the candidate loaned to their campaign

If Judge Sayfie is lucky enough to have Ms. Aponte move to another Group, I'm thinking that Scott Bernstein is shaking in his boots right about now.

COUNTY COURT .... GROUPS 15 & 35

The latest on Group 35 is that Judge Wendell Graham is down to one opponent; Antonio "Tony" Jimenez.  That's because his other opponent, patent attorney Ruben Alcoba, has jumped into the Group 15 race against Linda Luce and Eleane Sosa-Bruzon.

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