JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG

WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RICHARD E GERSTEIN JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO JUSTICE BUILDING RUMOR, HUMOR, AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT AND BETWEEN THE JUDGES, LAWYERS AND THE DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, CLERKS, COURT REPORTERS, AND CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS WHO LABOR IN THE WORLD OF MIAMI'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE. POST YOUR COMMENTS, OR SEND RUMPOLE A PRIVATE EMAIL AT HOWARDROARK21@GMAIL.COM. Winner of the prestigious Cushing Left Anterior Descending Artery Award.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TEDDY



Happy birthday to our 26th President. Writer, outdoors man, environmentalist,  solider,Police Commissioner of NYC, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Governor,  amateur practitioner of taxidermy, advocate of the strenuous life,  buster of trusts and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. 


Here is an excerpt from my favourite speech that he gave. It is from his speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, France. Given on April 23, 1910, it has come to be famously known as the "Man in the Arena Speech." Every trial lawyer should carry a copy of this with him/her. It helps to read after the losses. 

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.


Roosevelt is my favourite president and ranks third on Rumpole's list of greatest presidents. (c) 2007 all rights reserved. 

 

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

captain getting very testy today rumpole, you better get him some of your miami river's finest:

TO 6:13 PM

You must be drinking again; Judge Cueto was elected in 2008 when he garnered more votes than his opponent Josie Perez Velez

TO 7:50 pm (Old timer)

You are the only dip shit in the room. The List serv has been one of the best additions to FACDL and he was using it for the exact purpose it was created.

Anonymous said...

How old is Rumpole?

Rumpole said...

What a great question!!! In all these years no one has thought to think outside of the boz!

I am squarely within the 25-54 category.

Hmmm.. what other hints.... I was not old enough to see and remember Bill Mazeroski's game winning world series game seven walk off home run.

I didn't vote for Ike.

I didn't watch the Nixon/Kennedy debates.

Old Timer said...

To 12:57 PM:

You're wrong.

The FACDL list is for lawyers to find stuff that may be unique, novel or different. Or to get a copy of a Motion on an issue not common in our practice. Or to get the skinny on how to get into PTI in Broward.

What Kim was asking for is basic case law on an issue that would take him 15 minutes to locate, but didnt want to do it himself. Plain and simple.

Maybe FACDL should have a YLD so under-30 lawyers can bother each other on basic shit.

I get enough e-mail that matters and I help lawyers frequently on FACDL requests, but Kim is obviously a lazy lawyer looking for someone else to do an easy job for him.

Anonymous said...

Rumpole - Who are presidents 1 and 2?

Anonymous said...

Not voting for Ike is a given if you are no more than years old. To have been old enough to vote for him you would have to be about 69 years old.
And I didn't watch the debates either, not because I wasn't old enough, but because we didn't have a tv in my apartment.

Anonymous said...

He may have asked a simple question but, let's not bash him for that.

It is amazing how many lawyers send out emails before they even open a book or look in Westlaw.

Anonymous said...

I'm relatively new in town and I am planning on taking my girlfriend and her parents to Chritsy's saturday night and I plan on getting engaged. But I have read about this disturbing incident there. What exactly happened? Is this place a jinx?

Anonymous said...

Rumpole
I agree that Teddy R was a great
president. But conservative republicans distain him as a "Progressive". He help point the Country in the correct direction and was NOT a kiss ass to the corporations.
DS

Anonymous said...

dude go to the palm instead much better place to eat. christys is good not as good. if you go get the baked alaska

I filed suit said...

As an attorney who filed one of the many "mashed potato" suits as the press took to calling them, let me see if I can enlighten you a bit, without naming names.(I'm bound by a confidentiality agreement.)

A lawyer- lets call him Mr. Big (MB) takes his wife/gf, his brother- his gf, and others from his office on a Sunday night of Memorial Day weekend to Christys to celebrate a big fee on a case.

The big fella eats a dinner of legendary proportions- two slabs of Christy's famous prime rib- including an end piece. Two helpings of Chrity's famous caesar salad, a big shrimp cocktail, and then two helpings of cheesecake for desert. After he finishes, he lights up a cigar- which believe it or not was allowed in those days . A Miami society patron of the Arts is nearby and complains. Mr. Big just laughs and blows cigar smoke. The Patron's daughter says (and this was much in dispute at several of the depos and motions and hearings) "If that fat f won't put out his cigar, I'll do it for him." She then picks up a carafe of wine (although many people testified it was a half a glass) and douses Mr. Big. Mr. Big's wife or gf is still eating. She uses her fork and hurls mashed potatoes at the woman who ducks. The first known instance of airborne mashed potatoes hits the Miami City Manager who is eating with his family nearby. The City Manager's son then picks up his bowl of mashed potatoes and hurls it across the dinning room. The bowl lands in Christy's famous desert- baked alaska- which is flaming at the time and tips over and sets the table cloth on fire.

You now have several dozen parties of diners in a panic. Half are throwing mashed potatoes at each other, while the other half are climbing over each other to get out of the dining room and away from the fire. My client- an elderly gentleman slips on some mashed potatoes and tears his ACL-and then has a piece of flaming baked alaska singe his scalp through his hairpiece (believe it or not) so I filed suit for negligence and failure to provide security. The slip and fall was tough because under the facts it was hard to prove that the mashed potatoes were on the floor for any period of time to constitute negligence. But I got luck by filing quickly and the insurance company was trying to stem the flood of bad publicity and lawsuits so they maxed me out to go away quietly, which we did.

Meanwhile the dispute spills out into the parking lot. People are screaming and crying because many infirm and elderly people were trampled in the restaurant by those trying to get away from the fire (and it was this behavior that so incensed Judge Soomon, may he rest in peace). Several men and women are swinging purses,shoes, throwing cell phones at each other- the general kind of nonsense when rich people fight. Coral Gables PD and fire department show up and everyone calms down, although now sensing a lawsuit, about 25 people demand to be taken to the hospital by fire rescue. Some like my client were seriously injured and couldn't walk- others said they had shortness of breath. Possibly one real heart attack emerged from the incident. It made the front page of the Local section of the Herald with this funny headline: "Mashed Potatoes fly at Famous Coral Gables Eatery"- I think Edna Buchannan wrote the story on a slow night.

Anyway- its a fine restaurant and you should go there and get engaged. Mazel Tov.

Rumpole said...

DS Teddy R was my kind of Republican. The real kind. Not like these right wing religious lunatics.

Anonymous said...

Ok I will bite. Re: how old is Rumpole? I say 50 going on 51

um, cuz the squarely root of 2554 = 50.5371151. Am I right? Huh???. Awh come on, throw us a bone.

Anonymous said...

So I was north of the border today when one of the most screwed up things happened. I was trying to get Judge Seidman to consider alcohol treatmeant as mitigation for a proposed jail sentence and he gave me a really hard time but reset me for a month. I stopped to talk to a friend from law school in the courthouse cafeteria when a lawyer named Steve came up to me (wearing no jacket nor tie wearing sneakers and cargo pants, only in Broward would someone go to court dressed like that) and told me that the Judge was in a tough reelection batttle and needed help as he was the only judge in Broward willing to mitigate to a treatment program on a 2nd DUI within 5. Steve went on to explain that good Judges like this needed money to survive a tough campaign. Steve explained that while sometimes the Judge could give lawyers he didnt know a hard time but that once he knows you he is respectful. He then handed me a donation envelope and left.

I felt like I was slimed. While it wasnt said it sure felt like a pay to play situation. Anyone else been through this up there? I hope and want to believe the Judge knew nothing about this Steve guy. Should I tell the Judge?

Anonymous said...

OK!!! Tuesday, October 27, 2009 7:27:00 PM

Is this story fact or fiction?

Rumpole, can you confirm any truth to this?

Anonymous said...

Hey dip shit at Tuesday, October 27, 2009 9:13:00 PM, by posting on the most popular legal blog in Florida you have already told the Judge. You may now want to prepare your client for Jail time.

Anonymous said...

7:27 has a lot of time on his hands.

I was there! said...

Forget rumpole. I was there! I was a third year law student interning at the State Attorneys Office. I was assigned to this very hot 40's attorney- this was when aerobics was still popular- she was in shape and getting divorced- and well...anyway after doing it all Sunday she took me to dinner there.

I can confirm the story- but what the guy didn't mention was the almost Kennedy-like aura that arose in the aftermath of the incident- complete with the nicknames like in the Kennedy assassination.

There was first and foremost- Gold Porsche Guy- who several people saw outside taking pictures of the mele in the parking lot and then jumped into his Gold Porsche and sped off when the cops arrived. The pictures never surfaced.

There was umbrella lady- who several people saw reach into her purse and open a small umbrella in the restaurant just before the first mashed potatoes flew. People point to her as being involved in a conspiracy.

There was walkman-man. And eccentric older guy who had won the Florida Lottery. He still lived in his dilapidated house in South Miami but gave himself one luxury of eating six nights a week, by himself, wearing a walkman at Christys. He refused to testify or give a deposition.

The woman I was with was called "hot wife" because it was apparent to everyone she was a much older married woman but with me on a date.

Lets see...there was the amateur opera singer who said he slipped and fell and injured his throat.

I was seated in a corner booth with a direct view of Mr. Big. The woman I was with pointed him out to me and she said everyone was talking that he got a half a million dollar fee to represent some colombian drug trafficker. It was apparent he and his party were celebrating- he ordered several bottles of champagne and made a point of sending the first one back because it was the wrong year. He did it in a very loud voice. He did order at least two orders of prime rib, but I must confess that when the potatoes started to fly, I was a bit pre-occupied as my girl was sitting tight up close to me on the same side of the booth, and she had the beautiful long nails, and they were in my lap....and when the table caught on fire I had to jump up-zip up, barely missed having a big problem- and we scooted out of there. My girlfriend's main concern was not getting dragged into the lawsuit and have it affect her divorce.

PS- her husband was a big banker- and she got 5 million and moved to Vegas-invited me-I declined- she opened a series of nail salons that catered to locals and last she told me she was about to sell them and retire. She's way too old for me now- but boy does that bring back memories!

Rumpole said...

MOST POPULAR LEGAL BLOG IN FLORIDA???
I thought that one in Tallahassee that posted pictures of the naked first year law students got more hits than we do.

Anonymous said...

Anyone else out there wondering what to do about the new SAO policy in misd cases of not sending police reports and simply saying it is our responsibility to go to the police and clerk and get it?

Anonymous said...

Rumps that's funny - I think it is really quite safe to say you are
within the 35 to 55 age range.

25 to 35 is not even in the relm of
the possible.

Rumpole said...

11:28 AM- Kyles v. Whitely- us supreme court case says its the prosecutor's responsibility to provide defense with reports and witnesses - not to mention 3.191

Anonymous said...

@9:13 pm.

Similar thing happened to me with that Judge in Broward. I don't know what the hell is wrong up there.

And why do they let lawyers wear sneakers and khaki cargo pants to court anyway.

Anonymous said...

Does Rumpole have a girlfriend?

Anonymous said...

Scott Saul was doing his finest Broward Lawyer impression today. Khakis, wrinkled shirt and sneakers. Overdressed for Broward.

Anonymous said...

cant remember his last name but that Steve guy used to be a cop

Anonymous said...

I have had lunch with Seidman, he is quite Insane. Really.

Anonymous said...

All people born on October 27 are awesome Scorpios!

Don't mess with them as they have the power!

Go Teddy!

Anonymous said...

Can a Judge's wife call for a contribtution? Seidamn's wife lori or laura called me for money before last sounding.

Only North of the Border in Browierd.