Judge Aleman. She was reprimanded by the Florida Supreme Court today. Having a bad day? Need a "pick me up?" Read the transcript of the reprimand here.
Here's a highlight:
Judges are not and must never become adversaries of
any attorney appearing before them, especially in
first-degree murder cases where a person’s life is at
stake.
All of us who sit on the bench are subject to
criticism, including recusal requests that may be
highly unflattering to us.
Nevertheless, we still must be fair, courteous, and
impartial when responding to such requests.
Rumpole wonders: We now know that judges are required to be "fair, courteous, and impartial" when we move to have them recused. What about the rest of time? Ba dum dum.
And a day of shame for the DOJ as well:
The case against former Senator Ted Stevens was officially dismissed today as the Judge blasted the Department Of Justice and appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the investigators.
The title of the post links to the NY TImes article.
Here's how bad things are- the FBI agent who spilled the beans on the meetings with the prosecution team during which the lawyers intentionally and continually failed to disclose Brady material, has asked for Government "whistle blower" protection.
And former senator Stevens joins that lengthy list of proud public servants who spent a life time extolling the virtues of the great american legal system, only to learn the dirty little secret that it usually doesn't work.
THE MASTERS.
Thursday starts one of our favourite times of the year, as the Masters gets underway in Augusta, Georgia. You won't find us at work Thursday or Friday. No sir. We take the rest of the week off, cool off a case of beer, and spend four days at home watching golf. Fun fun fun.
WHERE IN THE WORLD WUZ RUMPOLE?
Those of you who correctly identified the fuzzy picture of the late Judge Manny Crespo which now hangs in Judge Pinero's courtroom were correct. Kudos to Judge P for hanging a picture of his dear friend and a true Justice Building gentleman and legend.
Now we throw you a curve ball with this one:
See you in court, where this time of year we're apt to wear our green blazer.
versailles
ReplyDeleteRumpole will be caddying for me in Augusta. Watch on TV and find out his true identity.
ReplyDeletePS--he's a great caddy but has trouble breaking 100.
Golf is boring. Do people really watch that?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'll say it. Aleman got hosed by the Florida Supreme Court. I know that Aleman is over the top arrogant, and maybe she has done things that deserved a reprimand or even worse from the Supremes, but what happened in this case, which I followed pretty closely, did not warrant the Supremes thumbing their collective nose at her.
ReplyDeleteThose PDs who were throwing rocks at her from the outset of the trial that was the subject of the inquiry were avoiding an ugly trial of a child killer,and they were baiting her from the outset to get the case kicked down the road. We've all had cases that we would have done almost anything to get out of, but the
PDs in that case went after the judge, which I think is going too far.
Aleman got railroaded on this.
She is inflexible, no doubt; she is ideological, without question; she is impatient, perhaps to a fault. But Judge Aleman not follow the law? Not that I have ever seen, and definitely not in this instance.
Motions to recuse require the magic words that the PD had already had wirtten down when she asked Aleman to disqualify herself. Aleman simply handed her a pad and pen and said fulfill the legal requirement by transcribing the language from a note onto a motion. Since the behaviour and controversy had happened that day and the day before in voir dire nothing else was really necessary. It was obvious at the time of the trial and at the JQC hearing that the PDs were trying to delay the trial.
at the end of the reprimand, she stated only - "God Bless you, and god bless the court."
ReplyDeletethat is chilling
Almost 6 years ago, the governor was warned about Aleman, by Dade County lawyers. But, what do Dade lawyer know?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.4dca.org/Dec2003/12-03-03/4D03-3218.pdf
Rumpy -- how about if you take pictures of south Florida's favorite 'scrip clubs', and we have to guess which one...as you know, I like-a da scrip clubs.
ReplyDeleteIt is with deep regret that I have come t realize that my contract with this blog will not be renewed. It has been a great ride. Along the way I met some great new friends. That night in the Key Largo bar with Fake Risivy will be one I long remember. My battles with real fake blecher will go down in blog history.
ReplyDeleteBut I have not been able to reach a financial agreement with blog management that does not want to pay residuals to those of us who are creative. As such, when my contract expires at the end of April, I shall seek employment elsewhere. I am considering a very nice offer from a teacher's blog outside of Bloomington, Indiana, (I will be fake chem prof herb) or a water and sewer blog in Buffalo, NY, where I will be fake schlag, and will also have Twitter responsibilities.
As for my blog site in the upper keys, "conch chatter" it is on hold for now. Early stage funding for these projects are hard to obtain these days. But I still own the site and the name, so when funding is available I will try and get it up and running.
Until then my friends.....cya
948 pm
ReplyDelete"aleman got railroaded"
that's a joke.
she is unworthy of the bench. she is indefensible.
A public reprimand is basically the
ReplyDeleteequivalent of a judicial warning in juvenile court. It's a complete
joke and has no teeth. She'll play
nice for a little while but then her real self will emerge once again. Can't change people at this
age - they are who they are.
Go Lefty!
ReplyDeleteA female fan.
I would like to see the Schwartz reprimand on tape. Does anyone know how it can be accessed?
ReplyDeleteJohn B. Thompson, J.D.
ReplyDelete5721 Riviera Drive
Coral Gables, Florida 33146
305-666-4366
amendmentone@comcast.net
April 8, 2009
The Honorable Katherine Fernandez Rundle
State Attorney, Eleventh Judicial Circuit
Miami, Florida Via e-mail to katherinefernandezrundle@miamisao.com and Hand-Delivery
Re: Criminal Misconduct in Bar Prosecution of John B. Thompson
Dear State Attorney Fernandez Rundle:
I hope this letter finds you well.
I have read with interest, as maybe you have as well, of U.S. District Judge Sullivan’s ordering of a criminal probe by a special prosecutor of the alleged criminal conduct of the Justice Department in prosecuting Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. In that instance, a Republican DOJ targeting a GOP Senator. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/04/07/ST2009040704436.html.
I am respectfully asking you to formally petition Gov. Crist for a specially-appointed “special prosecutor,” as provided by Florida law, to investigate the demonstrably criminal acts committed acts by those within The Florida Bar who prosecuted me upon the insistence of two commercial enterprises against whom I had helped secure formal findings by the federal government of their illegal and criminal acts. This assault through The Bar is clearly in retribution for my success against these Bar complainants before the federal government.
Here is a listing of some but not all of the criminal acts by The Florida Bar and its agents:
1. Payment of money by three Bar operatives—the Bar prosecutor and two Bar Governors—to my Bar referee after she was assigned my case.
2. Refusal by The Bar to produce public records in contravention of Florida’s Public Records Law, Statutory Chapter 119. This is a criminal act.
3. Subornation of perjury by Bar prosecutors, which subornation was proven at trial by the testimony of Alabama Circuit Judge James Moore.
4. Failure and refusal by Bar employees to execute state loyalty oaths, as mandated by state law. This failure is a criminal act. As you know, your own State Attorney’s Office found that even Bar Referee Tunis was traveling under a phony forged loyalty oath. Your office refused inexplicably to prosecute Mr. Said who forged the oath.
5. Extortion by both Bar Governor Ben Kuehne and the now late Bar Governor Steve Chaykin, who demanded my mental health examination as a condition for pleading guilty, with a 90-day suspension then to occur. That 90-day sanction would have been accepted, but the settlement was intentionally scuttled by the phony mental health exam demand, as evidence at my trial proved.
6. Enhancement of my punishment from the 90-day suspension to permanent disbarment with no opportunity to apply for readmission in retaliation for my filing a federal civil rights action seeking relief from the criminal acts of The Bar. This retribution for seeking a federal remedy was arranged by Bar Governors Ben Kuehne and Steve Chaykin. These acts by Kuehne and Chaykin constitute criminal acts under state and federal law. A document executed by all Florida Bar Governors in 2008 regarding the case of Richard Gorman fully corroborates my assertion that Bar Governors have obstructed justice in certain Bar disciplinary proceedings. In the Gorman matter, the entire Board knowingly covered up the prosecutorial misconduct of a Leon County prosecutor to keep an innocent man in jail. This is the single most shocking document I have seen in my 32 years of practicing law. It involves criminal activity by Florida Bar Governors living and working in your Miami-Dade jurisdiction and should be part of any special prosecutor’s investigation of The Bar.
7. Obstruction of justice by Greenberg Traurig and its partner Barry Richard, who as outside general counsel for The Bar, have knowingly engaged in obstruction of justice and denial to me of civil rights in violation of state and federal criminal statutes.
8. Withholding of exculpatory evidence, just as was done in the Sen. Stevens case, in violation of Brady. Submission of evidence by The Bar at my trial known to be false, in violation of Giglio.
9. Acceptance of bribes by Bar Referee Dava Tunis, which then led her to deny all discovery in my case, including the denial of subpoenas guaranteed by state law. Tunis should be investigated, indicted, and convicted for her central role in this criminal endeavor.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
You, of course, cannot have your own State Attorney’s Office conduct this investigation or even decide whether or not to conduct it, just as US District Judge Sullivan will not allow Main Justice to investigate its own lawyers. You, in just the 2008 election cycle during which The Bar committed multifarious criminal acts against me, received money from Bar operatives, just some of whom are the following, all found at http://election.dos.state.fl.us/cgi-bin/contrib.exe:
:
• Ben Kuehne, Florida Bar Governor, now under indictment by the USDOJ for money laundering (see above). He was at the center of this criminal conspiracy to deprive me of my state and federal civil rights, as was . . .
• Steve Chaykin, Florida Bar Governor (see above), who publicly announced that any lawyer opposing gay adoption was to be counted among “the enemies of The Bar and “outside the core values of The Bar;”
• Georgina Angones, whose husband, Frank Angones, supervised and orchestrated for two years, as Bar president-elect and then as president, the wholesale shredding of my constitutional and legal rights. Angones engaged in a number of criminal acts, including extortion;
• Alan Dimond, former Florida Bar President and partner to Barry Richard of Greenberg, Traurig, The Bar’s general counsel (see above);
• Barnaby Min, formerly of your State Attorney’s office, who was the first Bar prosecutor in this matter and who bribed my Bar referee (see above). Min even showed up at my Bar trial to remind Referee Dava Tunis of his money “contribution” to her. Min during my Bar trial, violated The Bar’s own rules and posted false and defamatory comments about me at the “Justice Building Blog.” You suspended one of your own Assistant State Attorney’s, Mr. Ranck, for posting similar material disparaging you at this same “Justice Building Blog” run by the anonymous miscreant and alleged lawyer known as “Rumpole.”
• Robert Traurig, name partner of Greenberg, Traurig and partner to Barry Richard.
• Contributions from other law firms and lawyers whose partners are and were Bar Governors during this politically-correct reign of terror.
You cannot, then, fairly investigate the very people who helped get you re-elected. Indeed, you once asked Gov. Jeb Bush to appoint a special prosecutor as to the Transit Not Tolls campaign because of your working, but non-financial, relationship with FIU. See http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2000-08-17/news/revenge-of-the-penny-tax. This instant matter now before you is a much clearer conflict of interest. You cannot fail to recuse yourself from it.
You also cannot investigate me because you and I, as you know, are political and ideological opponents. I was your predecessor Janet Reno’s Republican opponent in the general election of 1988. We have repeatedly crossed swords over the years, including gay rights issues that involved your office and on the other side of which was (surprise!) Ben Kuehne. You in fact asked Gov. Bush to appoint a special prosecutor in that matter in large part because you got money from Kuehne’s side in that gay rights fight. You cannot fail to do so here.
The last time we crossed swords was over your office’s mishandling of the murder trial of Michael Hernandez. Indeed, the way you have run your office since you became State Attorney in 1993 cries out for a Republican to run against you and defeat you. I have supported all who have tried to do so, in large part because The Miami Herald long ago described you and Janet Reno as “not prosecutors but frustrated social workers.” It is this political correctness which you exude and act upon that is at the very core of The Florida Bar’s high-tech lynching of the undersigned conservative Christian lawyer.
Indeed, The Bar had to pay me money damages in 1992 the first time it tried this nonsense. I am providing you, by means of the hand-delivery of this letter today, a copy of my Tyndale House Book which recounts the anti-Christian Bar jihad that you now find yourself in the middle of.
Finally, my Bar Referee Dava Tunis is presently a Circuit Court Judge sitting on the criminal bench before whom your subordinates daily appear. Your office cannot possibly investigate a judge who controls your office’s cases when a fair investigation would lead to Tunis’ indictment and conviction. I don’t need to recount here all of the proofs that tie you and your office to Tunis.
Therefore, please immediately formally petition Gov. Charlie Crist for the appointment of a special prosecutor for the purpose of investigating the criminal acts of your political friends and benefactors at The Florida Bar and of those, including Dava Tunis, who act as if “bar discipline” is to be used to pursue political agendas in violation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in Keller v. State Bar of California.
I shall secure a writ of mandamus against you if you do not do so.
Personal regards, Jack Thompson
Copy: The Florida Bar and Its Self-Proclaimed “Guardians of Democracy”
Media
Enclosure: Out of Harm’s Way
Rumpole, thank you for allowing Jacky to post his latest letter here. Glad to know he's still at it. You go Jack! Let us know when anything, anything at all happens as a result of this vast criminal conspiracy. Anything. Anything?
ReplyDeleteRumpole--why did you let Jack Thompson post here? While I am no fan of KFR, hopefully she will move to have him Baker Acted for a long, long time...........
ReplyDeleteJack, maybe you too should have made contributions to the Tunis and Fernandez-Rundle campaigns ;-)
ReplyDeletewacky jacky is at it again. what a head case. I am surprised you would even give this idiot an audience.
ReplyDeleteJack Thompson is the anti ultimate male.
ReplyDeleteHey 10:22. Are you talking about Obama?
ReplyDeleteI thought this and the Broward Blog banned that stupid jerk, Jack Thompson?
ReplyDeleteMake him go away, please.
Mr. Thompson was and is banned from the blog, When someone submits a comment I have two boxes to check one to post and one to reject- I obviously checked the wrong box, which is weird because I don't start drinking until tomorrow when the Masters begins.
ReplyDeleteWell- that's my mistake for this month. Glad to get it out of the way.
Jeri Cohen needs a reprimand for her behavior every day in court! She is rude to all lawyers, tells service providers there work is terrible and that she is the only person who knows how to do a job, she treats parents with no respect and tells them they are dregs of society!
ReplyDeleteShe believes she is above everyone and can speak in any manner she wants!
She needs the Supreme Court of Florida to give her a lecture
Jeri Cohen has been like that forever, However everyone seems to forget about it when reelection comes up!!!
ReplyDeleteE. Garcia
Wouldn't it be great if a bunch of the obnoxious judges had to get the same reprimand that Aleman got?
ReplyDeleteBoy is that true about Jeri Beth. Thank God she is not in criminal anymore.
She told everyone how to do their job and talked "down" to everyone.
The citizens re-elected her so we are stuck with her.
Outside of court, she is very nice and pleasant.