The Greater Miami Chapter of the ACLU of Florida invites you to celebrate Law Day and the vital career of Stephen Harper of the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office. Join the defenders of our Bill of Rights at ACLU’s Annual Law Day Reception
Annual Law Day Reception
Friday, May 10th, 6:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M.
This year in the beautiful Miami Beach Botanical Garden
Our C. Clyde Atkins Civil Liberties Award will honor Stephen Harper, Clinical Professor of Law, FIU College of Law. He recently retired as Miami-Dade Public Defender and now supervises law students and lawyers on properly praparing the penalty phase of death cases throughout Florida.
Full details of the event and the award are here. There is a phone number and email address, but we're pretty sure you can still buy a ticket at the door.
STATE AGREES TO MOTION FOR A NEW TRIAL:
David Ovalle and the Herald have all the details here. Apparently in a trial for attempted murder of a police officer the defense originally accepted a juror but the entire jury was not yet chosen and the next day a new panel was brought down. At some later point the defense moved to strike a juror from the first panel and the court (who else but blog favourite Judge Rodriguez-Chomat?) refused and the state (Scruggs and Kulick) sided with the judge. Then after the defendant was convicted and the defense filed a motion for a new trial the state decided to read some case law. It is fairly apodictic that either side may use a strike against a juror until the panel is sworn in. Having read the case law, the state agreed to a new trial.
Let's just say this: there is a reason why trial judges should first have been trial lawyers. We want- we really really want to praise the state for conceding to the motion. And yet... the thought that they opposed the strike at the time...it just bothers us so much, that we can't do it. We tried, but alas we failed.
TYPICAL FRONT RUNNING CLASSY HEAT FAN
This was the scene Wednesday night, when classy Heat fan Filomena Tobias gave the finger to Joakim Noah.
Now here is the best part of this story:
Filomena (Phyllis to her close friends) is described by the Herald here thusly: Filomena Tobias, a Porsche-loving Palm Beach socialite once accused of drowning her wealthy husband, is the rabid middle-finger-flipping Miami Heat fan...Her back-story reads like a Jackie Collins novel: Jersey-born secretary, married money, divorced three times, accused by a gay stripper named “Tiger” of kidnapping. She later hired a 300-pound psychic who would claim Tobias had confessed to drugging and drowning her fourth husband, CNBC commentator Seth Tobias.
Who could make this stuff up? Wouldn't a psychic (off all people) know what they're eating would make them fat? And would Jersey take her back? We could trade her and Governor Scott for Governor Christie and a bimbo to be named later. And while we're at it, just what does everyone's favourite "middle finger frowning" Judge Rodriguez-Chomat have to say about the actions of Phyllis? He's handled cases like this before.
Typical Heat fan.
You can have them.
See You In Court.
16 comments:
I'm a casual Heat fan Rumpy but I gotta admit great post keep knocking em out of the park.
If you're a recluse, please promise to keep it that way.
Wait: divorced 3 times but killed her 4th husband so a widow too?
Outstanding.
Jersey to boot.
So over the top the fake boobs and plastic surgery mean nada.
She is gross.
How embarrassing
I keep watching that horrific gun battle in South Miami and honestly it's disturbing. 1). I do believe the home owner may have thought these officers were robbers. 2). 90K worth of marijuana isn't worth losing your life that was just not worth his life.
Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Jorge Rodriguez-Chomat, who made national news by sending a disrespectful, Xanax-popping teenage girl to the slammer for a month, was not always a respectful man!
The judge, who at one point represented Miami in the state legislature, once duked it out with a fellow representative on the floor of the House in Tallahassee.
It was democracy – doled out with an iron hand, and caught on video-tape.
The well-publicized fight occurred during a 1998 debate about school vouchers, the Miami blog randompixel reminds us.
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Republican Rodriguez-Chomat fast-walked toward fellow lawmaker Carlos Valdes, also from Miami, and grabbed him by the tie!
The scene turned into a free-for-all between the two as they grappled like wrestlers trying to get the upper hand.
House members and security guards rushed to the floor and grabbed them before blood was spilled.
Valdes, now a Realtor, wouldn’t comment about the story. And neither did he want to say anything about Rodriguez-Chomat’s national news-making encounter with 18-year-old Penelope Soto. The girl eventually flipped off Rodriguez-Chomat as he held her in contempt (see the video below).
“Enough has been said about both incidents,” Valdes said.
– Click here for famous mugshots of South Florida jailbirds
But in interviews at the time, Valdes accused Rodriguez-Chomat of calling him a “jackass.”
Months later, Rodriguez-Chomat blamed the loss of his seat on the widely-viewed tussle.
Now a judge, Rodriguez-Chomat seems to have had a hard time getting much respect from the local law community.
His latest approval ratings among lawyers, according to numbers collected by the Dade Country Bar association in 2010, are dismal. Rodriguez-Chomat scored the second lowest among 99 judges, with 46 percent of lawyers polled believing he is unqualified to sit on the bench!
Rodriguez-Chomat had no comment.
Catch Jose Lambiet’s column Thursdays and Sundays in The Miami Herald
Julie Durda & MJ Acosta what great weather forecast. Glad their on 10 case I gave up on 7.
You forgot to highlight that she was there with her "personal trainer".
Rump, she may be a heat fan, but she ain't from here. She is one of the oddities that makes Miami a colorful place; tolerated for amusement purposes only.
Btw, a girlscout sold cookies to me yesterday and proudly announced that despite having the urge, she chose not to spit on Gail Levine during a cookie sale!
8:17,
What a classy petson are you even though your heat fan analysis is dead on, besidesthat I'm "apalled" at your commemt Gail is a much needed unethical ASA in our "community". It "sickens" me to see how you all only see things as ethical and unethical "black & white". I'm going to grab hands with Gail during morning calender break and sing koombyah, then I'm going to hold up a sign in this building that says 'Hail Gail' and walk all the floors, until one of any of those "honorable" officers toss me out on my ass.
Fake BTDT
How could a this judge and the state not know that you can exercise back strikes anytime before the jury is sworn.(Not so in federal court} Both are idiots. They wasted the jury's time and court resouces and gave the defense a "free bite of the apple". This is what we get when lawyers who cannot make a living get elected simply based on their last names and money. Our state bench is as shallow as ever. Very few judges are worthy of the robes. Most are there to get a paycheck from the public when they could not earn one in private practice.
The Bulls are such a classy bunch, they certainly didn't deserve to be flipped off. Filomena speaks for me, Yannick is lucky all he got was the finger. Go Heat!
Prosecutors did the correct thing in this case. Had the case been appealed to the Third District, defendant probably would have been sandbagged.
Rodriguez-Chomat: qualified to be Santa Claus.
If you want to get laid consistently, become a personal trainer, move to Palm Beach and make sure your clientele is rich MILFs over the age of 45. Those women LOVE to bang personal trainers, soccer coaches, tennis instructors, etc. while the hubby is at work bringing home the mulah.
Of course, the 50 year old hubby is banging his 28 year old latina secretary, so it's all good in the 'hood.
What's a marriage without a good affair to spice it up. Everybody needs a little strange to keep them happy.
Money obviously can't buy class. She should take herself back to where she came from: the slums of NJ.
Oh please. First, phuc Joakim Noah, good for that lady! I have no problem with what she did.
Second, we (guys) are all part of the problem. We all throw our money around trying to impress these gold diggers, we buy them expensive sh1t, take them to expensive dinners, etc. We are the morons. That's why I'm cheap, I keep my money in my pocket and only hit one women who need immigration status.
Money obviously can't buy class lol
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