BAD MOON RISING

 The shocking decision in Caribo v. State, 4D2023-2962, courtesy of your friends on the 4th DCA ("We're gonna getchya") allows for the introduction of a defendant's prior convictions as impeachment when a defense attorney solicits from a police officer during cross examination a statement her client made.   Ay Caramba!  

Danger Will Robinson! This is not good! 

“When a hearsay statement has been admitted in evidence, credibility of the declarant may be attacked and, if attacked, may be supported by any evidence that would be admissible for those purposes if the declarant had testified as a witness.” § 90.806(1), Fla. Stat. (2023). “A party may attack the credibility of any witness, including an accused, by evidence that the witness has been convicted of a crime if the crime was punishable by death or imprisonment in excess of 1 year under the law under which 5 the witness was convicted, or if the crime involved dishonesty or a false statement regardless of the punishment[.]” § 90.610(1), Fla. Stat. (2023).

This is the statement that came out on cross by the defendant's attorney: 

 

Q: Okay. So after the interview, you took a picture of the shoe, was there any other things that you did with Mr. Caribo regarding this case?

A: I asked him if he—I believe I asked him if he had any of the jewelry concealed on him, at the time. Other than that, I don’t believe I did anything else, just speaking to him.

Q: Okay. And did Mr. Caribo act, like, surprised or did he say he had jewelry?

A: He said he didn’t have any jewelry on him.

The learned judges (note the sarcasm) found this to be a hearsay statement of the defendant which, naturally, allowed the prosecution to impeach the defendant who was presumably sitting quietly at counsel table quietly working on Wordle, with 23 felony and 5 misdemeanor convictions, 

So now cross-examiner beware! One wrong question, and all your client's priors come flooding in. 

(H/T Judge De La O's case law email update) 

Opinion_2023-2962 by Anonymous PbHV4H

And finally, for some fun heading into the NFL Playoffs weekend, a -4 degree temp meme that some people see something else in 😂

DOJ INVESTIGATES

 In the wake of the shooting of an unarmed person by ICE in Minneapolis last week the DOJ naturally ordered the federal criminal investigation of the agents The Widow of the victim. Because that's what the Department of justice does in 2026. 

In response at least three prosecutors with the US Attorney's office in Minneapolis have resigned because that is what good men and women of conscience do when confronted by an evil government. 

Will that good conscience will spread to the US attorneys office here in Miami? Do not hold your breath. 

Military occupation of Minneapolis   As per the failing NY Times (the Times added nearly 500,000 digital subscribers in 2025 and now has over 12 million subscribers.)

We did not (could not) follow our own advice and keep the first weeks the new year free and that is why our blogging has been slow. 

SCOTUS WATCH - More decisions from the DC 9 today. Will they include a market shaking decision on Tariffs? 

In the meantime enjoy the coolest guys of the 1970s- Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes and the legendary Teddy Pendergrass singing the Love I Lost on the coolest show of all time- 

Soul Train. Why ever listen to crap when there is this? 

Coming soon: exclusive video of civil judges calmly choosing their courtrooms and chambers in the new civil courthouse.  Only on the REGJB blog that soon needs a new operator. Apply within.  

SARTE

 As we wind down the legal aspects of our life, work, and blogging, we are going to post quotes from time to time to make your day a little better. Bring a smile to your litigation creased face. Warm your soul like written chicken soup, or a well-done knish with grainy mustard. 

And we start with a great one on a blog run by a misanthropic blogger and it represents our view of the judiciary and Miami. 

"HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE" 

John Paul Sarte 

UM FIESTA BOWL TONIGHT

 The University of Miami plays Ole Miss in the Fiesta Bowl tonight. And as we all know in Miami, Fiesta means chips party! 

UM is in the college football playoffs. Only 11 one more win and they are in the National Championship game to be played on April 1  January 19. 

The Canes are -3.5 and the o/u is a high 52.5. First, take the under. It has hit in all the Canes playoff games. They have a great Defense. 

Ole Miss is the Cinderella underdog of college football, with their coach having been blown up left them high and dry for LSU. Like the platoon in Stripes (see below) they are training themselves and winning. But alas, even for Cinderella midnight came, and for Ole Miss it will be tonight. Your Miami Hurricanes will win and advance to the national championship game! Almost time for everyone in Miami to jump on the bandwagon and pretend they are loyal Canes fans. 

ANOTHER ONE BITE THE DUST

Another great American newspaper is closing forever. Word has reached us that Pittsburgh's oldest and largest Newspaper-  the Pittsburgh Post Gazette -is closing on May 3, 2026, ten years to the day the Tampa Tribune folded. 

Capitalists we, we cannot help but feel alarmed for the future. Newspapers were and are not only the conscious of the community, allowing for a decent discussion in the OP Ed pages and letters to the editor, they were and are the cop on the beat for local, state, and the national government. If a city-council person had their brother-in-law on the city payroll with a no-show job, a local beat reporter would dig it up and publicize the waste and fraud. They reported on the victories of the Rumpoles of our profession, labouring away in criminal court and speaking truth to power. And they provided the flavour of the community with local sports, and lifestyle news coverage.

Now all we have is IG streams where you have to hope to get a glimpse of some news between the posts on new recipes for chicken salad made in an air fryer, and fetching 20 somethings bemoaning their loneliness behind pictures of Starbucks lattes while sitting seemingly alone in a bikini in a cafe in January, or hiking a mountain in Karachi. And if you click on their profile you can join their OFs*! 

 (Sarcasm alert!) What a great world we live in!

* Only For idiots accounts. What ever happened to the good old days of watching porn in a dingy movie theater on 79th street in Miami or Times Square in NYC? *sigh* 

2:45 "Blown Up Sir!" 

NFL WEEK 18 2025

 Here it is, sadly, the last week of regular season games for 2025. It's been a great year and we are going to miss the steady diet of football on Sunday, Monday and Thursdays. 

The games this week are bleh, and it is too difficult to really know which teams will be playing starters and which have pulled the plug for the year. For example, the Dolphins are sitting Devone Archane, who has been our go-to money-making prop bet on the over for his rushing yardage. 

But we have a secret. 

One word, and it's not "plastics".  (for those of you born after 1990, especially judges, see below)

Under. 

You know what the line was in the Seattle-49er's game Sunday night? 48. The final was 16-3! It was not even close. 

So today we are loading up on under parlays, including this gem: 

Browns/Bengals under 48 + Titans/Jaguars under 46.5 + Fins/Chaters under 45.5 +Lions/Bears under 51. 

All of them are good plays by themselves. But a four team parlay hit would be as sweet as a SDNY Judge granting a Maduro defense motion to suppress- and as unexpected. That's why they call it gambling.

Have fun. See you in the Playoffs. 

FF AND SURVIVOR

Going into the last weeks Rumpole had won the Survivor pool and was a top seed in the FF playoffs! He had the never done sweep of both blog football contests in his sights. 

But alas injuries decimated his team, including the loss of starting QB Mahomes, and even with that, heading into a San Fran 49ers MNF game he was up and just needed  49ers star running back Christian McCaffery not to score two TDs, which he did, allowing the eventual champion to knock Rumpole's Last Hurrah FF team out of the playoffs and into a respectable third place finish (above a certain judge who loves Minnesota wide receivers who are vastly overrated if you ask us).   

And the Champion was....Fantasy Femme Force! 

Step forward and identify yourself for the accolades which are deservedly yours. 

It just kills us that most you have no knowledge of culture before 1985. 

IN VICTORY MAGNANIMITY

 This crossed out desk: 

POSITION AVAILABLE: CJA ATTORNEY SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

Must have three years of experience in criminal law, two jury trials, one in narcotics trafficking. Spanish speaking preferred. Apply on-line. SDNY. 

Many readers are emailing us asking our opinion of the military operation to arrest Maduro and his wife in Venezuela. We have these thoughts: 

1: As the secretary of state repeated multiple times, Maduro was not the elected leader of Venezuela. He lost the election and seized power. Three cheers for nation building!.

2. In watching the press conference by the President, secretary of defense, and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, we were struck by one thought: They all ignored, or forgot, or never learned of one of the most valuable lessons taught by the greatest statesman of the 20th Century: Winston Spencer Churchill: 

In Victory Magnanimity; 

in Defeat, Defiance.

We saw a lot of chest thumping "no could do what we did" kind of statements, that strangely we never saw Eisenhower do after the Normandy Landings, McArthur after the Inchon landing, the Israelis after the Entebbe raid, or the government under Obama after Bin Laden was killed. 

In short, there was no magnanimity. And that leads to people believing their own hype and PR and chest thumping and over-confidence. And that leads to a terrible tragedy. We hope this does not occur. We shall see. 

MEL BLACK MEMORIAL

 We received many wonderful comments about Mel Black, including the below from his daughter., There is a celebration of his life on Sunday January 11, 2026 Shake-A-Leg Miami from 4-7PM.  Click on the link for the location, which is 2620 Bayshore Drive, Coconut Grove. 

Kadie Black said...

Thank you all for your very kind words. My dad was a very special human who is leaving behind a beautiful legacy of kindness and impact. This world is better because he was in it.

There will be a celebration of life on Sunday, January 11th from 4pm to 7pm at Shake-a-Leg Miami for those who want to join.