The Broward Blog (link on the left) and the Sun Sentinel HERE report that the Florida Bar (motto: "If you're a lawyer, we're gonna getcha") has found probable cause to proceed to a disciplinary hearing against Broward Attorney Sean Conway for calling embattled North Of the Border Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Aleman "an evil unfair witch" when blogging about her practice of setting cases for trial within two weeks of arraignment. (Now don't you robed readers in Dade start getting excited. Look where Aleman ended up-having to pay Bogenschutz a load of bucks to save her robe.)
Res Ipsa Loquitor anyone?
Conway is being defended by well known Broward defense attorney Fred Haddad, who plans to defend Mr. Conway with a little used, archaic concept mostly unknown to the Bar's grievance committee: The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
We cannot confirm rumours that the Justice Department may file an amicus curiae brief denying the existence and legitimacy of the "so called amendment."
Caveat Blogger.
(Three latin phrases in one post. We suspect the eggnog in our office may well be spiked.)
HR.
So far the experiment has worked- we moved the Thompson thread up behind this one. However, that is our one edit that the great Wizard of Google allows us, and we may have to start a second thread behind tomorrow's post.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, we resisted the urge to write in the post "save her robe and broom" because that would be mocking a serious inquiry into conduct that the Bar believes is worthy of investigation and prosecution.
what has become of this country? today's report of performance enhancing drugs in baseball has 300 reporter. people sleeping on sidewalks in freezing weather, gun violence, an unjust war etc. get little coverage. the older i get the more i realize that the criminal justice system- asa, pd, judges, probatgion, jail, prison, experts is nothing more than an apparatus whicdh prosecutes the poor, oppressed, and those frozen out of opportunity by skin colar, lack of education, poverty, no parenting, etc,. Before I die I would like to see this country spend 1 decade prosecuting all the rich who benefit from illegal drug dealing (steroieds) , insider trading, tax fraud, military industrial complex war profiteers of an unjust war, real extate scams, etc. then we would have 1 million white people in prison instead of 1 million black and hispanic. the biggest criminals in our society manufacture drugs, guns, and tanks which kill, kill, kill. honest professions; nurses, elementary school teachers and what else?
ReplyDeleteGood news for PCAC lawyers. Yesterday, a group of us, along with Brian May (google him)went down to voice our objections to the county giving free office space to the ROC.
ReplyDeleteThe vote was put off by the board committe until Jan 19, 2008.
I predict Mr. George is going to be working out of his car for a long, long time....
THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:
ReplyDelete"The Jimmy V Way" or What Sonway should have said .....
In a college basketball game involving North Carolina State, legendary coach Jim Valvano was on the sideline when the referee made, what Valvano thought was an awful call. Not wanting to cost his team a technical foul or even risk the possibility of being fined after the game, Valvano approached the ref during a break and politely (with steam coming out of his ears) asked the ref:
"Hey, can I get fined for what I think?"
The ref, of course, said NO.
Valvano replied, "good, cause I think you're an asshole"!!!
Rumpole:
As a master of the sport of football, you of all people should know that there is no First Amendment when commenting on the Judges (Referees) of the sport.
In football, when the player or coach or owner comments on how they feel about the ref, they are fined up the ying-yang hundreds of thousands of dollars.
No difference here.
I am not saying I agree with that -in fact I completely disagree with the concept - but it does exist.
I hope Fred H kicks the Bar's butt all over the courtroom; with one hand tied behind his back and without wearing a TIE!!!
CAPTAIN OUT .....
All judges are assholes.
ReplyDeleteNow, that is not a Bar violation since it is not directed to any particular judge.
Really, they all have days when they are total assholes.
Signed,
Catch me if you can.
to the captain, thank you for your comment, I would like to exercise my first amendment right to criticize and be sarcastic and say that Mike Catalano is a great trial lawyer, modest, and does not self promote himself whenever possible and he is very adept at weighlifting at the gym.
ReplyDeleteI have been wondering about this question recently. Why doesn't the SAO offer diversion programs for first time DUI offenders when they are an option for much more serious felonies? I have been told that diversion programs are offered on DUI's in other counties, including Orange Co. Does anyone know the reasoning behind this?
ReplyDeleteVestri utor of Latin est vere infigo!
ReplyDeleteThere is no DUI diversion programs because that would make MADD mad, and Kathy doesn't want MADD to be mad at her.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, The Florida Bar is prosecuting me for my truthful statements about Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Ronald Friedman, who reminds many of the line from Superman in which Gene Hackman as Lex Luthar refers to imperious antagonist as "Your Turbulence."
ReplyDeleteFriedman announced his ruling on a matter I was litigating before we even had the final hearing on the matter, and then he refused to have the hearing, in violation of his own order. I then moved to recuse him. What did he do? He filed Bar complaint against me for identifying his misconduct.
The Third District Court of Appeal just whacked Friedman for doing the same thing to another litigant: announcing his decision BEFORE the trial and then refusing to recuse himself.
What's The Bar going to do, start disciplining Third DCA judges for identifying out of control judges?
This Bar pursuit of an attorney blogger in Broward is just more of the same Taliban-like nonsense that guts the First Amendment and is wholly at odds with the federal court's ruling in Fieger v. Supreme Court of Michigan. See http://pub.bna.com/lw/0611684.pdf