THE SCENE: A TACO CART ON NW 27TH AVENUE AND NW 17TH STREET.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE: Taco Stand owner Moises Gonzeles, Miami Herald Photographer Al Diaz, Judge Deborah White Labora, her two children- Christopher 20 (a/k/a The Cobra-keep reading) and Amanda 17, Ian Vaquero-an Iraqi war veteran, and James Dewey Bretthauer- suspected thief on rollerblades (I know- but we are not making this up.)
THE EVENTS: Al Diaz is speaking to Taco vender Moises Gonzales for a story on the taco cart. He puts down his $5,000.00 camera and along comes James Dewey Bretthauer on roller blades who grabs the camera!
Gonzlaes takes off after the thief and flags down Judge White-Labora who is with her children in their mini-van on the way to the airport.
"Follow that rollerblader" (or words to that effect) shouts Gonzales, and off goes the Judge and her brood in a high-speed pursuit of the thief.
As they get near the neer-do-well, Judge Labora-White's son Christopher leaps from the van "like a " cobra" according to his sister Amanda, and wrestles the rollerblading robber into the yard of Iraqi war Veteran Ian Vaquero. This being Miami, Mr. Vaquero promptly pulls out his 9mm handgun and straightens the mess out and detains the thief until Miami's finest arrive.
"Thank god for the second amendment and armed civilians" says young Christopher to the Herald.
Diaz- the rattled photographer had this to say to the Herald:
``I never thought photographing food vendors would be a dangerous affair,'' said the veteran journalist, who has covered everything from armed invasions to fashion shows. ``But the taco stand owner, the drug court judge, the boy and the Iraq war veteran, they are my heroes.''
Rumpole says: Just another day in the big city. Kudos to Judge White-Labora and her kids. And if we get the case we promise to go easy on them in depo.
Ha! Great story. Is this judge up for re-election? If not she has missed a golden opportunity.
ReplyDeleteTHE CAPTAIN REPORTS:
ReplyDeleteNo, but she has been on the short list the last two times Gov. Crist was appointing a Circuit Court Judge.
She is again before the JNC to replace Judge Esquiroz and should no doubt get out of committee and up to Tallahassee. Let's hope that Gov. Crist picks her this time - assuming he is not going to pander to some needed voting bloc before the November Senate election.
He would NEVER do that.
Cap Out .....
Haha! I was there at the chevron where the taco stand is located getting gas when this happened. The camera was SWEET! The taco stand, not so much...
ReplyDeleteWell if this doesn't get her on the circuit bench, I don't know what will.
ReplyDeleteCap- it's only business- nothing personal- remember that kid..
ReplyDeleteWhite-Labora has always been a great person.
ReplyDeleteI wish the Governor would elevate her.
Only Hiaasen could have come up with a scenario like that!!! Oh wait, Hiaassen writes about South Florida.
ReplyDeleteTouche to the Judge, her son, Christopher and the gun toting Iraqi War vet.
I love the 2nd Amendment.
Straw buyer, how come you didn't join the chase?
ReplyDeleteI would never picture Judge White-Labora joining in a Little Havana thief chase.
ReplyDeleteHorace
ReplyDeleteKUDOS to the Judge's son, hes got big ones.
DS
4:34, because I didn't have the lightning quick reflexes of a judge!
ReplyDeleteI think Manny C., Mr Fine , Dawn Denaro Richard Hirsch, j/ Lisa Walsh would all make a good felony judges. Manny C. for example, is a man who has tried some of the hardest Felony cases over the last 20 years, has made it in private practice, and, is a cool cat.
ReplyDeleteCounty judges preside over a lot of silly cases... So, unless prior to becoming a cc judge they have had serious litigation expierence, a la B. Miller, why should they move up
White-Labora is already acting as a circuit judge by handling drug court; they should elevate her. Besides, I cannot think of anyone so deserving of it. She is brilliant, reasonable, knowlegeable, and has the arguably the best temperament of any judge i've been before.
ReplyDeleteShe pedals, not peddles, on a bicycle, or so one would hope...
ReplyDeleteA former DV ASA concurs with this early morning's anonymous: hers is very near a model judicial temperment.
ReplyDeleteWhy should a circuit appointment be wasted on Judge Labora. She's already sitting circuit and is unlikely to ever leave drug court. I think as highly of her as anyone else but if she's just going to sit in drug court until she retires and not take over a trial division, why would she be a wise choice? Because she's a great judge? No.
ReplyDeletethis story reminds me of a recent murder/suicide here in Broward and the Street-Sweeper. man follows ex-girlfriend to a gas station in plantation where he shoots her in the face and kills her while she sat in her car at the pump. her foot came off the break causing the car to roll backwards killing her passenger who was rolled over by the car as tried to get out of the car that was being barraged by bullets. about an hour later, in davie, the police department got a report of a dead body lying in the swale of a yard in front of a single family home in a quiet residential neighborhood (Ivanhoe). a man had been shot in the head. the detective in davie was convinced the two were connected, but the plantation police disagreed. after all, the two women were gunned down in plantation and a killer was on the loose. there was no evidence of any kind connecting the two separate incidents. except the street sweeper. the street sweeper happened to be working, driving one of those street sweeping trucks at the time of the killings in plantation. the gunman fled the gas station on foot and comondiered the street-sweeper at gunpoint. the gunman ordered the street sweeper to drive to a specific house in davie (I believe the mother of the ex-girlfriend, but i'm not sure of that) where he proceeded to shoot himself in the head in the passenger seat of the street-sweeper truck. imagine the shock of the street sweeper who was just driving along doing his job and then he finds himself in this crazy situation. now imagine that the street sweeper is on probation for a minor drug offense and now has a dead body in his truck. he's thinking he's going to jail forever, that no one would believe his story. so the street sweeper calmly exited his truck, walked around to the passenger side, and pulled the dead man out, dragging him to the swale where he left him. then he went home. the detective in davie was right. the gunman killed his ex-girlfriend and killed himself, but not before using the street-sweeper's phone to call his current girlfriend to tell her he'd done something bad. she in turn called the police and through her cellphone, the detective tracked down the street-sweeper who explained how the gunman ended up dead in davie with a gunshot wound to the head. the story was consistent with all of the physical and scientific evidence. it's all true.
ReplyDeleteThe backstory on this unfortunate situation is that the rollerblader served one year in Dade County Jail and maintained an endearing friendship with Judge White-Labora through correspondence. This fateful event ended up serving not only justice and retribution for Al Diaz, the victim, but news,
Deletepublicity and even a medal from
the mayor with a monetary reward for the taco vendor hero. After surviving a difficult year in Dade county jail, the notorious rollerblader has since retired from this type of behavior and graduated from Miami Dade College with a business administration degree, though he lost the privelege of practicing licensed massage , his previous career. His rehabilitation demonstrates the positive power of grace and hope in the face of adversity. May Judge Labora's graceful ambivalence continue to be a source of inspiration for those prodigals who may have strayed, but someday, find their way back home.
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ReplyDeletethat was a good one