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.

Wednesday, July 02, 2014

MISTRIAL

A mistrial (Legaleese for "start all over again") was declared this week in the big murder trial before Judge Tinkler-Mendez. The Defendant, James Rolle, is accused of killing off duty Miami Detective James Walker. The state didn't  turn over a trial transcript of testimony of a witness in a related trial. Interesting to note that while the prosecution didn't provide it to defense attorneys, the defendant had it. 

Something is wrong with that.

THE TRAGEDY IN ISRAEL. 

Three teenage boys were abducted in Israel a few weeks ago while hitchhiking. They were murdered. A nation mourns the loss of it's sons. 

This madness must stop. Killing children is no way to advance a political cause and settle disputes. 


We came across this missive by Rabbi Ed  Feinstein. 

Rabbi Ed Feinstein:

We Pray for the Children
JERUSALEM, July 1, 2014

I visited Israel for the first time when I was 16 years old. I came with my family and we stayed in Jerusalem with friends who had immigrated years before. Each night, the neighborhood kids took me out on the town. When my parents expressed their reservations about this, they were told not to worry. Israel was safe for kids. In Israel, everyone looked after kids. In Israel, everyone was family, there were no strangers. As a protest against the fear that haunted the generations of Jewish exile, Israel had constructed a child-safe society, a child-nurturing society. Embracing children was the way Israel affirmed life after a generation of Jewish death.

Only if you understand how Israel looks upon children will you grasp why the tragedy of this week hurts so much. After so many wars, so much terror, after Intifada, suicide bombers and random rocket attacks, why are we so affected by the death of three young teens? Because Israel's greatest achievement was to return the promise of childhood to the Jewish people. Childhood is the most powerful human symbol of renewal --of new life and new possibility, of an open future. The promise of childhood was taken from us in the Holocaust, in the pogroms and in the brutality of exile. Israel gave us back childhood in all its sweetness. And that's what was murdered on a highway near Hebron.

"We will learn to sing without you," affirmed the mother of Naftali Frankel. And at that, the entire Jewish people wept.  This is more than politics, more than nations struggling for power and territory.

This week, Israel struggles for life against death, for hope against despair. This week, Israel struggles for childhood and its dreams. There will be military operations and diplomatic negotiation. Those will not heal the wounds nor will bring closure. What was taken cannot be won back by bullets, but only by a renewal of hope, a rekindling of faith in tomorrow.

So this week, we will hold our children tighter, and we will pray. This week, the entire Jewish people join together in prayer for the children we have lost. We will ask God for the strength to reassure our children that tomorrow is coming....soon.

Revenge Killing: In the wake of this horrible murder of three Israeli teenagers, comes word that an Arab teenager: Muhammed Abu Khedir was abducted in front of his home the day after the burials of the three Israelis. Muhammed was kidnapped and murdered  as be prepared to leave for early morning prayers.

Muhammed. Age 16. 


This is madness. The killing of children as targets in an ancient war between two peoples that have similar roots and supposedly similar values. 

There is and never can be any moral justification for the killing of innocent children. Today, Israelis and Arabs need to pause a moment, and collectively hang their heads in shame for these outrageously horrible murders. 

Shame on them. All of them. Children are being murdered. THIS MUST END. 




12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Then what is the prejudice and why grant a mistrial? Seems odd.

Anonymous said...

T-M is a good judge but not up to the task of handling big cases like this.

Claude Erskine-Browne said...

I thought a ' mistrial ' meant you go advance directly to GO AND collect your $200s .

Anonymous said...

The trial had all kinds of problems and it was better for the State to start over again. That transcript was only one minor problem.

I too would have to wonder how the 3rd DCA would have a problem with a discovery issue when the defense had the transcript in their hands the whole time. Don't need Leslie Rothenberg to affirm that one....

Anonymous said...

Someone do tell whey Miranda fired her bailiff.

Anonymous said...

There will never be peace between Israel and Palestine. The Jews picked the wrong location to start a country. It is a protracted total war - women and children are always game. The horror

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...

The Captain Reports:

$3.3 million dollars, NOT .....

It's been a really bad week for attorney Russell Adler. Last week he was sentenced to 30 months in the federal pen for his actions while a partner at RRA.

This week the 3rd DCA reversed a judgment where he was the trial attorney. In the case, the jury awarded $3,000 for past medical
expenses; $100,000 for future medical expenses; $1,500,000 for past pain and suffering; $1,000,000 for future pain and suffering; and $700,000 in punitive damages.

The 3rd DCA, in Bank of America v. Valladares, ruled that the bank could not be held liable for the injuries to the Plaintiff absent "malice" being proved in the case.

The case dealt with a bank teller who thought that a customer, Valladares, who had come into the bank to cash a check, was actually a bank robber. So, she activated the alarm and the police showed up. Valladares was injured during the police activity and sued for his injuries.

The Plaintiff sued the bank and not the police.

You can read the opinion here:

http://www.3dca.flcourts.org/Opinions/3D12-1338.pdf

Happy 4th. God Bless America.

Captain Out .....
Captain4Justice@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

Yes, it will end three weeks from NEVER.

Lunatics on both sides fighting a war over religions. Those type of wars don't really have an expiration date or a "peace process." Killing of innocents is just part of the playbook. They've been killing each other since before I was here and they'll be killing each other long after I'm gone. Thankfully it is half a world away and there is 99.9999% chance that it never affects me one way or another.

Sorry for sounding like I don't give a shit, but I really don't give a shit.

old guy said...

Thank you for tthose thoughts.

I recommend that you read some John Donne poetry, or are you the type of anonymous who none of us want to know?

A life lost is awful. You will always be wrong when you ignore the loss, and sit cowering in your bed hoping that it does not happen to those who -- for some reason -- still choose to care about you.

Rumpole said...

12:05 yeah, it doesn't affect you just like those camps in Afghanistan run by lunatics in 2000 never affected you. It's a small world. You are one dirty bomb smuggled in on a ship in Miami from affecting you. Don't be so smug. Google hubris and see what happens to those who don't heed warnings.

ENjoy your weekend you simpleton.

Anonymous said...

Religious fanaticism is at the root of most of the killing and evil in the world today. Killing in the name of God?! Could there be a greater irony?

Anonymous said...

07.03 8:13 A.M. You must not read many of Rothenberg's opinions. She is one of the more moderate judges on criminal stuff.