BORED WITH BRUMMER THE READERS MOVE ON

Anonymous handicaps the Judicial Election Scene:

2006 judicial races handicapping: Langer-- Word on the street is that every criminal defense attorneys worst nightmare/former state attorney candidate Al Milian is putting in for this seat. Poor Langer is one of vics of jewish male judge syndrome in which Dade will no longer be called the 11th JEWDICIAL circuit as it was called for so many years by the fine jurists north of palm beach. Poor Langer has also been in Juvenile not exactly the best place from which to obtain contributions. Milian wins this in a rout although It will be interesting to see if PBA is still going to be behind him. Milian is also a twice tested battle veteran of campaigns and like him or hate him is a very good speaker and will make an impressive candidate with his former ASA creds.
(Larry) Schwartz v. Mendez-- Fascinating race. A well financed campaign, Schwartz, VS a great name. This is not to say Ms Mendez isn’t qualified as she was a prosecutor and has been a successful criminal defense/Family law attorney for many years. She is also battle tested having gone through the race once before. This will be an interesting test to see if a mega financed Jewish male can beat a Hispanic female. Last year Jeff Swartz lost to AdA Pozo- Revilla But in that race there was no huge financial disparity. If Mendez pulls off this upset, look for sales of antacids to spike amongst the Jewish male judges up in 2008. Schwartz Bar poll ratings may be his undoing. Too close to call, if this was a football game it would be pickem.
Judge Glazer-- kind of surprised that she hasn’t drawn any opposition in 2006. Bar poll ratings not so good. Like Langer has spent so much time in Juvie hasn't gotten the chance to pad the campaign coffers.Please no mas on the Brummer wars they are a bore.

Rumpole Responds: If you had signed your name, you’d be in the running for post of the month. Excellent analysis. Witty commentary (especially the antacids quip). We can’t really disagree with anything you write except most participants in our on-line Blog Poll believe Ms. Mendez is running because of name/gender and not because she’s qualified. Certainly we have opined that Judge Larry Schwartz is better qualified and should not have opposition. But the clear sentiment around the courthouse is that he brought this on himself with his snippy attitude and condescending treatment of attorneys. Are you reading this Judge Schwartz? We like you, but many are happy you have opposition. It just goes to show that being nice counts. See the next post.

Anonymous writes:

Mindy Glazer? She hasn't drawn opposition because she has a good reputation and is a nice person. Notice a few who have drawn opposition recently - Postman, Swartz and the 2 Schwartz's, - all with reputations of being nasty, unfair. People don't mind tough judges, they mind arrogance, rudeness, and unfairness. Why there is not a line out the door to run against David Miller is beyond me.

Rumpole replies: "The series isn’t over until the fat lady sings" (Dick Motta, coach Washington Bullets, circa 1977) There is plenty of time for people to announce their intentions.

Anonymous poses a new topic: PD verus SAPD?

Instead of no mas on Brummy - how about this as a new topic -Although public perception (or at least my pd clients' perception)is that private attorneys on average do a better job than us –
Do private attorneys handling court-appointed cases do as effective a job on the cases asthe public defenders office?I will admit this is a vague question and there are many factors which I will leave for later discussions if anyone actually wants to address the issue.My answer is simply - HELL NO.For the most part, if I was an indigent client, I would want anactual PD and not a PCAC.We've all seen it - PCAC do not want to go to trial. PCAC want to get a quick plea agreement. PCAC want the quick money of a few court appointments, but want to concentrate on there privately retained cases. PCAC will only prepare the case for trial oncethe Judge gets on there case a little.Any takers on this indigent defense issue?


Rumpole Responds: As a private defense attorney that takes some appointed cases, we speak with a bit of authority. You, Sir/Madam are 100% CORRECT.
The reason is simple economics. Court appointments do not pay for the time attorneys put in. This comment may out us, as we have said this several times:

Lets say a defendant is charged with armed robbery, and is a gort/perp/everyletterintheblastedalphabet. He/she is facing close to a life sentence. Yet the fee is $3,500.00 How can any attorney accept this type of case and spend the proper amount of time for $3,500.00 ?? Sure, you can bill more, but it will get slashed back to around $3,5000.00.

If society wants to warehouse criminals and not let them back on the street, they should damn sure pay the bill so the accused has a proper defense and a tragedy does not occur. If we were in that position, we would want a PD who is not affected by the pressures of rent and private clients to represent us, as long as the PD was experienced. The thought that the PD’s office is just a training ground is outmoded. Many experienced and dedicated lawyers spend their career there. So does Mr. Stein (We are sorry…we just could not help ourselves…we know it’s a cheap shot and wrong…but it was an Irresistible impulse.)

Anonymous agrees with us:

an agressive p.d.(one who tries at least 12 jury trials a year), always gets better results then the private atty will. at least thats the way it worked when I worked there.


Anonymous attacks anonymous (huh?) :

[anonymous wrote]: "Anonymous said –
most everything the gabers said has turned out to be false."
[and then anonymous replied to anonymous } Yeah I guess that's 200K worth of BS right?


Anonymous does a hit and run:

i don't think Rory has anything better to do with his time? therefore, that will not be his last post.


A curious George wrote:

Just curious.Who is running against Shelly?Did you get the name yet?

Rumpole replies: Be aware, curiosity killed the cat.
We believe Sheldon Schwartz is currently being opposed by current assistant public defender Migna Sanchez-Llorens.