A BREAK

 Mondays should not always be hard. So even if you're a judge under fire, a prosecutor who can't stop texting, or a defense attorney picking six or twelve hung over after a great Dolphin win, here's something that can bring a little peace in your life: 

Macondo Coffee!

Located just across the street from two of the three federal courthouses in Miami (and who goes to the King building anyway now that the Akins Courthouse is newly refurbished?) Macondo coffee is the real deal!

We love their power bowls and flat bread pizzas for lunch. For breakfast they have this egg dish called Campesina Casserole which is served in a cast-iron pan, with melted cheese sizzling on top and maduros (literally "like bananas, but not really")  mixed into the eggs. With a strong Americano, it is the best way to start the day before fighting with the feds. 

Whoever thought putting a high-quality coffee shop that serves great food just across from the courthouse would be a recipe for success?

Rumpole's fav booth is on the right as you walk in - look for us!

The next time you are there, grab a few coffees and pastries, and go see your fav federal blogger- he's in the office on top of the garage. Some people park in garages. A few work in them (like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak who started Apple in a garage) and some work on top of them. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US

 The Blog is 19 years old. We can vote and fight in a war. 

We've actually done both. 

SHOULD JUDGE MILLER RESIGN?

 The facts are pretty much known now. Indeed, Newsweek has picked up the Miami Herald story and run it nationwide. 

While sitting on the appellate court in Miami, Judge Bronwyn Miller had on an on-going text correspondence (and perhaps multiple phone calls) with the elected State Attorney about the Corey Smith case where Judge Miller is a witness. She did this while other prosecutors went into court and told circuit court judges that Judge Miller was not speaking with anyone without a subpoena- which was a bold-faced lie to the court. 

Judge Miller reviewed the appellate brief of the Attorney General in the Smith case and told the elected State Attorney the problems in the brief and changes to be made. This is a shocking breach of ethics if not morals. Although not assigned to the case, upon her elevation to the Third District Court of Appeals, Judge Miller had to have abandoned any pretense of advocacy for any side in any case. Even where her Court would have ruled against a case she prosecuted, Judge Miller was required- in our considered opinion- to want only that her Court reach the correct decision- even if that decision negatively opined about  her prior work as a prosecutor. Such is the exalted role of an Appellate Judge- in our opinion. Essentially sacrificing her personal opinions and feelings for the desire only that her Court get it right-even if she- in her prior position- "loses".  Judge Miller did not do this- she in fact did the opposite. 

And finally, Judge Miller opined against the ethics of defense attorneys in general, giving rise, in our opinion, to the well-founded belief that she cannot be fair in any criminal case moving forward. 

Any- and we do mean any- first year assistant public defender has more ethical decency in their pinky than Michael Von Zamft demonstrated as a prosecutor in the Dade County State Attorneys Office. How could she possibly denigrate the ethics of our profession in light of what we all know MVZ did? Such a statement was shocking in its ignorance and disrespect for our profession. A profession that hands out an award named after President John Adams in honor of his defense of British Soldiers accused of murder in Boston.  A profession that routinely goes into court and saves the lives of wrongly convicted men and women when their actions are ridiculed and viewed with skepticism- until they show that they are right, and the system got it wrong. 

  Judge Miller was elevated to the most rarified air of the bench- the appellate court. Her actions are indefensible, and she has, in our opinion, forfeited the right to serve in such an exalted and important role. 

That is our opinion. 

What say you? 

SHAME

Shame has fallen on Miami, the Miami State Attorneys Office, The REGJB, State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, and Third DCA Judge Bronwyn Miller.

As the Miami Herald is reporting, and all of the REGJB knew on Friday, there are a series of text messages between the State Attorney and Judge Miller.  

The Herald Article and the text messages are here.

Why is this shameful? 

Judge Miller was a prosecutor on the Corey Smith case, and Fernandez-Rundle is the elected prosecutor. And it is not as if this is any case. It is a case that has brought the Miami SAO to the edge of ruin, with disgusting stories of prosecutors manufacturing testimony, and then lying to the Court about it. 

Judge Miller, before she was a judge was part of the prosecution team, along with now thoroughly disgraced prosecutor Michael Von Zamft, who ran out of state, and may find that he has not run far enough as his misdeeds continue to be reported. This means that Judge Miller is a witness in the current Corey Smith saga. 

And of all the people on earth that maybe our state attorney should not be texting with, perhaps Judge Miller should have been at the top of that list. 

But alas, the two could not stop texting each other like a couple of misguided magpies. They texted. They gossiped. They trashed colleagues- judges and lawyers (defense attorneys in particular)- and Judge Miller speculated about the whole sordid mess being shut down by the Governor, as well as whether Judge Wolfson- who ruled against the prosecution after MVZ was caught lying- could be removed- allowing a successor judge to review all of Wolfson's rulings. 

Among other gems in the texts is Judge Miller trashing defense attorneys as having a lower standard of ethics than prosecutors. Well on that point she has us. Unlike her colleague MVZ and the office she worked for, defense attorneys have not coached witnesses to lie in first degree murder cases and arranged for witnesses in custody to be brought to a police station so they could have sex with their significant (or insignificant) others. We don't do things like that- shame on us. 

One wonders how Judge Miller ever sits on another criminal appeal, her bias towards Ms. Fernandez-Rundel's office and against defense attorneys now well established beyond what is needed for any defendant to have a well-founded fear that she cannot be fair and should be recused.

And perhaps, just perhaps, in a case where the Dade SAO has already been CAUGHT tampering with witnesses in a first degree murder case and coordinating and manufacturing their testimony- Judge Miller and Ms. Fernandez-Rundle crossed a line. 

Time will tell. 

Query: How can you tell if  MVZ is lying?  A: He's speaking.  Here's a gem from the Herald article: 

Von Zamft told the court that Miller wouldn’t speak to either side without a subpoena. By then, the texts show she had communicated with him and Fernandez Rundle, and texted about calling two other prosecutors.

Somewhere Alex Michaels is saying "I told you so."  (In his Romanian accent of course). 

The texts will be analyzed and scrutinized like the Dead Sea Scrolls, or the Shroud of Tourin, or the election lawsuits of 2020. 

A special prosecutor needs to be appointed. 

A blue-ribbon commission of respected Dade Lawyers and retired judges needs to be empaneled with subpoena power to get to the bottom of this dirty mess that has broken the once proud Miami Dade State Attorneys Office. Their reputation is in tatters.  If they tell you the sun has arisen, you cannot believe them. They have no moral guidance, are running scared, and now...now...the problem may be at the very very top. And we all known what flows downhill. 

Shame. 

Shame. 

Shame. 

NFL WEEK 10 2024 THE RACE FOR NUMBER ONE

 The race for number one starts today at 930 in Germany where the 2-7 New York Giants face off against the 2-7 Carolina Panthers. Thank goodness you can buy liquor in Munich on Sundays. Plus the beer will be flowing freely. 

The race is for the number one draft pick in the 2025 draft. And while we are staying away from the number of Giants -6.5, we like the under 40, Chuba Hubbard to rush for over 73 yards, Bryce Young to scramble for more than ten yards, and a parlay of those two picks. That will pay for a few steins of beer and a sausage. 

Update: Well that was easy. Chuba Hubbard has 85 yards in the first QUARTER. Nice win pays for dinner tonight at The Corner Store in Soho tonight. Be jealous we can get a Resy whenever we want there.  We love that the TV announcer just said Giant's Kicker Gano puts the "No" in Gano as he missed a field goal and kept us on pace for the under.

Update 2: And a big thank you to the Gants for three turnovers, two in the red zone, and a fumble on the first play of OT, allowing this game to go under, and for us to pay the corkage fee for an Opus One tonight at The Corner Store. Life is good when you bet against the Giants in 2024, 

Your Miami Dolphins are getting 2 in Los Angeles Monday night. More on that after we see how the day plays out, but our initial thought is to lay the 2. 

Denver at KC looks fun. Over 42. 

49ers at Tampa. We will take a home dog getting 6.5 but the over 50 number is high. Maybe tease that down to 46. 

Steelers at DC. Some player props we like are Najee Harris over 1.5 receptions. Ditto Darnell Washington and Calvin Austin. Of the three picks, Harris seems like the lock.  Also QB Russell Wilson rushing under 13.5 yards. He doesn't run much anymore. 

Lions at Houston. Detroit may well be the best team in the league. We like the under 49.5 and Houston as a home dog getting 3.5 to keep it close. 

Remember the rule about gambling. Bet as much as you possibly can. We are lawyers. We can always earn more. 😜

TOMORROW: 

There are text messages between two people who know better. One is a witness in the Corey Smith case. The other...well, wait and see, but you will be very disappointed in her lack of professionalism. Or maybe you won't. But will all agree a leader should know better and act better. 

BREAKING

 There is definitely something breaking that is earth shaking in our little REGJB world. 

We know ...we are pretty sure we know the basics. 

We are pretty sure the Miami Herald will publish a story about it next week. 

We are pretty sure it involves an elected public official, and appointed public official, and the Corey Smith prosecution fiasco that unfolded like a moldy rug in the REGJB this past year and has taken down one prosecutor and permanently stained the reputation of a once-proud prosecutors' office. 

We have some more information, but we are seeking double and triple confirmation, because unlike prosecutors in certain cases, we do not make allegations we cannot prove.  

We are pretty sure of many things about this breaking news, and many of those are shocking, saddening, and distasteful. We think. Because less than a week ago we were also pretty sure that Kamala Harris was about to be elected president of the United States, and how did that turn out for us, the nation and the world? Not so well. 

So for now we are keeping our nose to the grindstone and working to conform what we are pretty sure we know. 

INVASIVE SPECIES

Correction- we updated the post to reflect that it was Judge Delancey and not Judge Brinkley who provided over this mess. 

BREAKING: THE STATE CONCEDED ON THE NEED FOR A NEW PENALTY PHASE- but the defense wants the entire verdict tossed.  Somewhere MVZ has just felt a great disturbance in the force as the Dade SAO has acted in the interests of justice. 

  

 

 In South Florida we have our share of invasive species wrecking havoc. From pythons in the Everglades, to DeSantis Drone Judges spouting MAGA crap, invasive species are a problem. 

Which brings us to the hearing unfolding his week before Judge Delancy. 

Fresh off a death recommendation in a notorious case, an email arrived in the Judge's in-box from a juror in the case, reporting another juror who described the defendant as "an invasive animal species that needs to be killed". 

There was also chatter about a juror who told other jurors that they spoke to their husband about the case during deliberations who sagely advised her that eleven other jurors could not be wrong (wanting death). 

So much for the rule, often repeated in appellate opinions, that jurors are presumed to follow jury instructions. 

Unless of course the instructions have changed and jurors are now told to ignore their own personal opinions and just go along with the crowd, and that defendants in death cases are labeled Invasive Animal Species. 

Yeah, the death penalty system, like our electoral system, is firing on all cylinders and working perfectly. 

Long weekend ahead unless you're Rumpole working Saturday (say high to us at MDC Brooklyn) and Monday (FDC Miami). 

SOME JUDICIAL NEWS

 THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

ELECTION RESULTS .....

Congratulations are in order for our newest County Court Judge:

Christopher Benjamin, former Assistant Public Defender, collected almost 54% of the vote and defeated Alina Salcines Restrepo.

Congratulations are also in order North of the Border as former Miami-Dade ASA Woody Clermont (he lives in Broward poor guy) was elected to the County Court with 54% of the vote defeating Samuel Stark.

Finally, Juan Fernandez-Barquin, was re-elected as our Miami-Dade Clerk of Court.

CAP OUT ......
Captain4Justice@gmail.com

Very happy for former Dade ASA Woody. He will bring some real life experience and fairness to the Bench. Much needed up there. 

Also congrats to Judge Benjamin. We don’t really know him but we hear some good things.