Our political reporter, the intrepid Captain writes in with breaking news:
BREAKING NEWS:Your self-anointed political reporter, who first reported the unusual happening of an incumbent Broward Judge actually facing opposition, has some very interesting news .....Judge Robert Diaz no longer has opposition.
Attorney Brian Peter Wolk, who filed to run against Judge Diaz on March 13th, (that's the Judge Diaz, who was suspended from the bench without pay for two weeks for some past problems) has DROPPED OUT of the race.
Why ... we can't answer that one yet .....?????
On a separate note, can you believe the amount of judicial fundraisers that have been taking place in the last couple of weeks and those that are scheduled to take place this week.
I've got envelopes piling up from the following campaigns:
Candidate Stephen Millan
Judge Stanford Blake
Judge Maria Espinosa Dennis
Judge Mary Jo Francis
Judge Mindy Glazer
Judge Luise Krieger-MartinJ
Judge Lester Langer
Judge Cindy Lederman
Judge Ellen Leesfield
Judge Steve Leifman
Judge Bronwyn Miller
Judge Karen Mills-Francis
Judge Dennis Murphy
Judge Catherine Pooler
Judge Sheldon Schwartz
Judge Sam Slom
Judge Ellen Sue Venzer
Makes you want to vote for a constitutional amendment where all judges get appointed instead of elected!
A reader thinks s/he knows why Judge Diaz no longer has opposition:
That Broward dude couldnt run. Quirtk in law, gotta be a member of the bar 5 years at qualifying time for county court and 5 years at time of election or take office for circuit. he wouldnt be 5 years by May 12.
oops!!!!!!!!!!!
Rumpole notes that Judge Diaz was suspended for sending an anonymous email to Judge Seidman complaining about Seidman turning defendants into Immigration and Customs for deportation. We have already made our feelings about this judge well known. Too bad Judge Diaz didn't just post on our blog.
Only North Of Border do people get punished for speaking out and trying to do the right thing, while oppressive, ignorant, xenophobic, jingoistic bullies get rewarded.
Henry was the ultimate judge.
ReplyDelete"Only North Of Border do people get punished for speaking out and trying to do the right thing, while oppressive, ignorant, xenophobic, jingoistic bullies get rewarded."
ReplyDeleteWho is this in reference to?
Props to anonymous about the "quirk in the law".
ReplyDeleteFlorida Constitution, Article V, Section 8, discusses Eligibility for judges. It states, for Circuit Court, in pertinent part:
"No person is eligible for the office of circuit judge unless the person is, and has been for the preceding five years, a member of the bar of Florida."
and for County Court,
"Unless otherwise provided by general law, no person is eligible for the office of county court judge unless the person is, and has been for the preceding five years, a member of the bar of Florida. "
and there is a general law, that does provide otherwise, for County Court Judges, as F.S. 34.021 states that:
"No person is eligible for election or appointment to the office of county court judge unless the person is, and has been for the preceding 5 years, a member in good standing of the bar of Florida prior to qualifying for election to such office or submitting his or her name to the appropriate judicial nominating commission for appointment. "
Brian Peter Wolk became a member of The Florida Bar on December 19, 2001 ....
When we called Mr. Wolk to seek comment on this apparent shortcoming in his qualifications to run for Judge, his only response to us, was:
[in the words of Emily Litella aka Gilda Radner], ... "never mind".......
Have any lawyers read Newman v. State?
ReplyDeleteBeen there, (Supreme Court), done
ReplyDeletethat...
Article V, Section 8 has been
interpreted to apply when a person takes office. (See Ari Miller v. Gina Mendez, Miller v. Mendez, 804 So.2d 1243 (Fla., 2001) Newman v. State, 602 So.2d 1351,(Fla. App. 3 Dist., 1992)
He knew the law. The reason he
withdrew was he realized the vast
sum of $ he would need to spend...
Love the blog, Rump, especially the Broward editions...
Cool...Hope we see more comments from Judge Miller in the future...sounds like Captain never heard of WestLaw.
ReplyDeleteRump, are you seriously saying that just b/c your readership hasn't dropped means people like you censoring (call it what it is) their blogs, or waiting for it to pass the Standards Board before its available for public consumption? YOU ARE A MONOPOLY. No one else has a Dade Criminal Court Blog. If Fpl sucks, what can I do? Start my own electric Co? I'm stuck with their service. Similar thing here. No one is realistically going to put in the time to make another blog on the same shit you have. We only have you. Why take away the fun of real-time quotes b/c once a month some asshole writes cruel shit? Why do believe its your responsiblity to PREVIEW quotes for publication? What is wrong with a disclaimer( in bold print if you wish)? No more back and forth b/t bloggers. Now, we'll have to wait for you to OK our speech. Yes, its your blog, and its private, and you can do whatever you please with it, including censoring it or ending it. But it just seems, with all due repect to all your hard work, that you fell a little too easily into a kind of Power Trip. You decide what other lawyers (mostly) are allowed to say on a blog that is supposedly an open forum. Can't be open and "moderated" at the same time. No matter how you try to spin it, it just can't be. Go with freedom. Leave the dark forces of control and regulation alone. They don't suit you. There's always a "good reason" to limit speech (and other freedoms) in the minds of those who naturally take a collectivist approach. Hate to see you cross over.
ReplyDeleteYou could have set up 3 blogs in the time it took to post your stupid message.
ReplyDeleteRumpole
ReplyDeletePlease take down the Public Defender Poll and give me my props.
North of the border.
ReplyDeleteI heard James Ruben was thinking of running against Leonard Feiner in county court.
You could at least spell his name right---James Rubin. He practices in NMB and lives in Hollywood.
ReplyDeleteHe is married (assumption) to a
Fishman---per chance one of the legal Fishmans???
This is getting interesting!
Rubin is a great guy, (are we allowed to say that on the blog?
ReplyDeleteJames K. Rubin is a sole practitioner in North Miami Beach, where he practices primarily in the area of criminal defense. Mr. Rubin is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida and all Florida state courts. Mr. Rubin was formerly a law enforcement officer within the state of Florida and has completed training as a law enforcement field training officer, a law enforcement instructor and as a law enforcement firearms instructor. Mr. Rubin has previously assisted in providing 'in-service' firearms training to small municipalities located within Miami Dade County. He earned his B.S. degree from Drew University and his J.D. degree from Nova Southeastern University. Mr. Rubin is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Florida Association of Criminal Lawyers.
ReplyDeleteDuring the first candidate forum Mr. Rubin will be asked the following: Have you ever provided "in service" firearms training to medium size and large size municipalities ?
ReplyDeleteI hope he is prepared to answer!
Sincerely,
The Resume Police
Hopefully someone will run against Cindy Lederman. She makes Ann Coulter seem like a flaming liberal.
ReplyDeleteyour right. just ask Virgina Stanley.
ReplyDeleteShould be James Rubin-Fishman for all you shallow dummies
ReplyDeleteUnlike down south in the banana republic, we like our judges up here and believe in a nice old boy system of keeping them in so that we dont have a revolving door for judges like you have down there in the Republic
ReplyDeleteII keep hearing that Parks is running.
ReplyDeleteShe beat Josie Velis in the primary 2 yrs ago, but lost to Thomas who apparently changed his name to TOMAS!
ReplyDeletejosie velis has no place on the bench. and why would she pick a fight with judge murphy? she needs to go away.
ReplyDeleteDon Cohn is the MAN. He's very experienced and is a wonderful trial attorney and a nice person, as well. Demeanor is great, too. He can definitely beat a judge with a name like Rippengill, as in rip your heart out
ReplyDeleteYou said it about Velis, but she's got a lot of $$ and with that Hispanic name...
ReplyDeleteCatherine Parks...hmmm. Who would she run against?
ReplyDeleteVeliz does not have the money to run a county wide election. If murphy spends 200k he will win.
ReplyDeleteA Hialeah client is telling me that Leifman was selling perfumes with his JA at a political event this weekend. How much for Dolce?
ReplyDeleteMoney means shit. You sound like Dumb and Dumber. Peter Adrien and William Thomas both raised and spent next to nothing. Yet, they got elected.
ReplyDeleteJames K. Rubin is Special Magistrate for City of Hollywood Code Enforcement. He is also a principal in Avanti Land Acquisition
ReplyDeleteFrom Avanti's website:
Avanti Land, Inc. was founded in 2003 by a group of attorneys and real estate investors. From the start, the company focused on acquiring properties that were encumbered by a limited variety of legal issues and then removing and resolving these issues and selling each property in the open market.
Without this rehabilitation, otherwise productive properties went unused and remained unusable, and in many cases unsightly. Once Avanti completed its rejuvenation process, the properties became valuable parcels and were quickly acquired by interested developers.
A.L.I. purchases and rehabilitates real property parcels that, for various reasons, have fallen into a distressed state and require rehabilitation. To date the company has purchased numerous parcels in the Southeast Florida region. We perform extensive research prior to purchasing each property to ensure that the target property meets our select criteria. The end goal is to acquire properties that can be rehabilitated and sold with no title issues in an expeditious manner.
Our strength lies in the fact that we are able to acquire properties at a very significant discount over retail. This permits us a reasonable amount to accomplish the required legal work associated with rehabilitation. Due to this, we are able to sell each property at a very attractive price which helps to ensure a quick turnover."
In other words, the Special Magistrate who is levying the liens and legal entanglements on properties in South Florida is then also involved in purchasing them at distressed prices.
This would seem a clear conflict of interest and yet no one has reported it to the FL Bar or City of Hollywood.