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.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

BROTHERS IN ARMS

DOM probably won't blog about his case, so we will.

David scored a significant victory in the sentencing hearing today for Buju Banton, his Grammy-winning reggae singer/ client convicted, after two trials, of drug trafficking in a Tampa federal court. The Sentencing judge dismissed the 924(c) firearms count which carried a consecutive five year minimum mandatory sentence. That just left the 10 year min man on the drug case and that's what the court sentenced Buju to.


From a news account of the sentencing:

Markus said he plans to appeal.

"This fight is not over," Markus said. "We will keep fighting for him. Mark Myrie is my brother, and I'm going to keep fighting until they tell me to stop."


David won't stop fighting even if "they" do tell them to. What more could a client ever ask for in a lawyer?


In a statement he wrote after the sentencing, Banton -whose given name is Mark Myrie - thanked family, fans and supporters from around the world who flooded the court file with letters of support.

"The days that lie ahead are filled with despair, but I have courage and grace and I'm hopeful, and that is sufficient to carry me through," he said in the statement, which was read by Markus. "The man is not dead. Don't call him a ghost."


See You In Court.

Memo to So Fla Lawyers: lay off the criminal stuff or we'll start blogging about debentured bond lawsuits and subrogation and stuff. Capice?

26 comments:

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...

Is "convocted" the past tense of convicted?

Reprinted with permission from The Captain.

The Captain Reports:

The Big Bujaton gets ten years in the Big House - DOM is successful in getting gun charge dismissed saving his client 5 years.

In other news, former Judge Adrien just won't go away. The 3rd DCA issued a ruling today Reversing the former jurist in a foreclosure action. Read the opinion and decide for yourself whether the attorney simply pulled a fast one on the Judge and/or whether Judge Adrien should have been more aware of what was going on and demanding just a little bit more from the homeowners' attorney before granting their Motion.

From the opening paragraph of the opinion:

"Finding no basis whatsoever for the entry of the April 2010 Order, we reverse. We further grant Washington Mutual’s motion for appellate attorneys’ fees and sanctions against the Debtors and their counsel for abusing the legal process, resulting in a
drain of judicial resources and unnecessary litigation expenses."

The closing paragraph:

"Accordingly, we grant Washington Mutual’s motion for appellate
attorneys’ fees and sanctions against both the Debtors and their attorney, Paul B. Woods, jointly and severally. See id.; § 57.105 Fla. Stat. Also, given the
essentially fraudulent behavior of the Debtors, and the potentially unethical conduct of their ounsel, based upon and in furtherance of this behavior, we refer Paul B. Woods to the Florida Bar for its determination of whether professional discipline is warranted."

http://www.3dca.flcourts.org/Opinions/
3D10-1099.pdf

Cap Out .....

Thursday, June 23, 2011 11:26:00 AM

Rumpole said...

Gee I bet the oral argument was a doozy.

Fake Country dave said...

David be jammin mon.

Anonymous said...

He's your brother?

Anonymous said...

Of much more importance to many of you who practice in the Justice Building: The Supreme Court of the United States just issued its decicion in BULLCOMING v. NEW MEXICO. (a DUI case no less). Justice Ginsberg delivered the opinion:

"The question presented is whether the ConfrontationClause permits the prosecution to introduce a forensic laboratory report containing a testimonial certification—made for the purpose of proving a particular fact—throughthe in-court testimony of a scientist who did not sign the certification or perform or observe the test reported in thecertification. We hold that surrogate testimony of thatorder does not meet the constitutional requirement. The accused’s right is to be confronted with the analyst who made the certification, unless that analyst is unavailable at trial, and the accused had an opportunity, pretrial, tocross-examine that particular scientist."

Anonymous said...

Buju has called for gay, lesbian, and transgendered people to be shot in the face, have acid thrown on their bodies, and be burned alive.

Rot in prison you sick fuck.

South Florida Lawyers said...

Message heard and understood.

But there are only so many ways you can slice the Venetian Salami, if you get my drift.

Anonymous said...

a big loss for Marcus. A big win for prosecuter Jim Preston. The trialmaster has battled Preston and finds him a worthy adversary, even though the trialmaster prevailed. Now, Marcus can extract another fee for the appeal out of his innocent client. Thats a win for Marcus.

Anonymous said...

@3:18- whatever his personal views are does not mean he is guilty of the crime he has been charged with.

Anonymous said...

1:42-- Not in the literal sense.

Men who fight side by side--- Brothers In Arms.

Rumpole said...

Ahh so fla lawyers- really who cares? Have fun.

Anonymous said...

@4:27. That's a straw man argument. I never said I thought he was guilty. I'm simply glad to see him going to prison where he won't be able to record violent, anti-gay songs and potentially incite people to violence against the LGBT community.

Anonymous said...

Drug laws create criminals

Anonymous said...

3:18, Buju made those comments when he was a teenage up and coming reggae artist nearly 20 years ago. He has since, numerous times, repudiated this comments and apologized profusely for those words. The tolerance for gay men and women has drastically improved over the last 20 years and many of us who know support equal rights for GLBT individuals did not 20 years ago. Get over it.

Anonymous said...

sheesh why don't you tickle dom's balls a little more rump?

Anonymous said...

Anon 3:18,

Who peed in your corn flakes? Who cares what juju sings about as it is irrelevant in a criminal trial.

In this country a person cannot be sentenced to federal prison for obnoxious song lyrics - at least not yet.

I predict that there will be some juicy First Amendment cases hitting the courts in the near future, cases that will effect us far more than the juju case.

DOM did a bang up job and did exactly what the system calls for him to do, defend his client by forcing the state to prove that his client his guilty. Everyone should take his or her hat off to DOM for a job well done.

Oh and what is Venetian Salami? Is that like hide the salami?

Underpaid teacher said...

Past tense of convicted is "convicteded."

Anonymous said...

Dom not blog about his case? are you smoking wacky tabacky? this mans ego is only matched by sharpstein and eiglarsh

Anonymous said...

He performed the homophobic violent song "Boom Bye Bye" as late as May 29, 2006, at Memorial Fest in Miami, which caused quite an uproar, so the 20-year argument doesn't fly.

Venetian Salami is the seminal Fla. Supreme Court case on long-arm personal jurisdiction (the state counterpart to the federal Burker King, et al., cases).

Anonymous said...

Love the way Rump kisses DOM's ass.

Fake Jose Elortegui said...

I have no idea what any of you are talking about.

Anonymous said...

as a young lawyer, I have gotten to know Eiglarsh, Sharpstein and DOM pretty well. And I can tell you that all of them, and most of the other big name guys, are really cool, down to earth lawyers. They are always willing to share their knowledge with you and help you defend your client. The haterade on this blog is ridiculous.

Rumpole said...

DOM is my brother

Anonymous said...

um , who is eiglursh?

Anonymous said...

the $ is my brother.

Anonymous said...

What's the love affair with DOM? At best he is a mediocre trial lawyer. Can't mention him in the same sentence with Sharpstein.