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, August 09, 2018

HERE COMES THE JUDGE .......FIVE NEW JUDGES .....


THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

SO, YOU WANT TO BE A JUDGE .....

BREAKING - WE UPDATED THE POST BELOW BY PLACING AN *** NEXT TO THE NAMES BEING SENT TO GOVERNOR SCOTT.  18 OF THE 26 ATTORNEYS THAT WERE INTERVIEWED HAVE BEEN FORWARDED TO THE GOVERNOR; (6 NAMES PER OPEN SEAT).

It may be hot and muggy outside, and if you’re lucky enough to be Horace Rumpole, you may be able to afford a vacation "down under", but the rest of us are busy back in the Magic City working the corridors of the GJB. And, the 11th Circuit JNC is also busy, really, really busy.

As you may recall, Governor Scott came a-calling for three Circuit Court Judges recently and he tapped Judges Dawn Denaro, Andrea Wolfson, and Renatha Francis, all of the County Court. That means the JNC needs three new County Court Judges and they aim to narrow the list on Thursday, August 9, 2018 when they will interview 26 candidates (out of the 31 that applied). Those being interviewed include:

9:00 Abreu, Milena (currently a candidate for judge)***
9:15 Bandin, Christine  ***
9:30 Barket, Michael (currently a candidate for judge)
9:45 Brown, Karl St. Hope  ***
10:00 Cabarga, Carmen R. 
10:15 Chamorro, Miguel J. 
10:30 Cuervo, Raul A.  ***
10:45 D’Arce, Madelin 
11:15 Delancy, Michelle  ***
11:30 Giordano Hansen, Marcia  ***
11:45 Gitchev Guerrero, Brenda  ***
12:00 Harris, Ayana  ***
12:15 Harris Nelson, Julie 
1:00 Heller Peter S. ***
1:15 Hillery, Kimberly C.
1:30 Janowitz, Scott ***
1:45 Jean, Lody ***
2:00 Kolokoff, Jeffrey M. ***
2:15 Meltz, Jonathan
2:45 Mena, Griska ***
3:00 Perez-Medina, Luis ***
3:15 Pracitto, Christopher (currently a candidate for judge) ***
3:30 Reboso, Manolo ***
3:45 Silver, Stephanie ***
4:00 Torrents Greenwood, Blanca ***
4:15 White, Gavin N. L

Fear not fellow barristers, for if you missed out on applying for one of these three openings, Judge Wendell Graham has announced his retirement after proudly serving for the past 24 years on the County Court bench. 
 
Wendell Graham began his career serving our community when he joined Janet Reno’s office in 1983. After spending five years there, he spent the next six years as a solo practitioner while also serving as a Traffic Magistrate and a Hearing Officer for the Dade County Public School system. In 1994, Governor Lawton Chiles tapped him to become a County Court Judge. Graham last won re-election in 2016 when he defeated Antonio Jimenez garnering 57% of the vote.

We want to take a moment to thank you Judge Graham for your service to the citizens of our community and to our great State of Florida. I’ve personally known Wendell for more than 30 years and he has always been so kind who all that ever came into contact with him. You never saw Judge Graham raise his voice to anyone appearing in his Court before him. He displayed the type of judicial demeanor we would hope for in all of our judges. I spoke recently to Judge Graham and he has indicated to me that his last day on the bench is scheduled for August 31st. He has decided to return to private practice. He tells me that "he is extremely excited about this opportunity".

Please take a moment and join me as we wish him well in his next chapter of serving our community.

APPLICATION DEADLINE AUGUST 10th .....

Those that would like to file an application with the JNC to replace Judge Graham have until tomorrow to get that done.

But wait, there’s one more open seat on the bench. As many of our readers will also recall, Judge Stephen Millan recently resigned his seat on the Circuit Court bench. The deadline to file an application to replace Judge Millan is also August 10th.

EARLY VOTING BEGINS ON MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 2018

Look for our post on Monday as we review the ballot for the eight contested Circuit and County Court races.

Also on Monday, Governor Scott versus The Florida Supreme Court - The Battle for the Fourth Circuit Bench

CAPTAIN OUT .......
Captain4Justice@gmail.com 

6 comments:

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...


If you have been following the Manafort trial, then you have been entertaining yourself with the daily outbursts by trial judge T.S. Ellis.

Most recently he lambasted the AUSA (with the jury in the courtroom) for permitting an expert witness to sit in the courtroom during other witness testimony. Today, the judge actually had to apologize to the government, and he did so in front of the jury.

Here is the story:

The latest development is that, today, when the Judge realized he had made a "mistake" in admonishing the AUSA in front of the jury for having their expert in the courtroom, the judge actually apologized today to the jury:

The judge presiding over Paul Manafort’s bank and tax fraud trial apologized Thursday for flipping out on prosecutors in front of jurors during testimony of an expert witness the day before.

Virginia federal Judge T.S. Ellis instructed jurors to dismiss his angry outburst a day earlier and admitted he was wrong.

“Put aside my criticism,” the red-faced jurist told the panel, adding: “This robe doesn’t make me anything other than human.”

Manafort prosecutors say judge's harsh words hurt their case
Ellis lost his cool at the start of IRS Special Agent Michael Welch’s testimony, after the witness, who was testifying for the government, said he had been in the courtroom for some of the trial.

In a heated exchange with Assistant US Attorney Uzo Asonye, the judge insisted he had never authorized Welch to watch the trial — which Asonye challenged.

“Appreciate it, your honor,” Asonye said, according to court records. “We’ll check the transcript but we believe that we said case agent and expert witness [were allowed].”

“Well let me be clear: I don’t care what the transcript says,” Ellis snapped. “Maybe I made a mistake. But I want you to remember, don’t do that again. When I exclude witnesses, I mean everybody. Now, it may be that I didn’t make that clear. It may be that I did allow this, but don’t do it in the future.”

Witnesses typically are barred from sitting in the courtroom, except in the case of certain expert witnesses like Welch, or unless specifically approved by the judge.

Asonye was allowed to continue questioning Welch — who went on testify that Manafort didn’t report at least $16 million on his tax returns between 2010 and 2014 — but prosecutors worried that the damage had already been done.

They filed a motion Thursday saying the tongue-lashing could be prejudicial to their case — and asked for the judge to explain that he had been wrong.

“While mistakes are a natural part of the trial process, the mistake here prejudiced the government by conveying to the jury that the government had acted improperly and had violated court rules or procedures,” prosecutors wrote.

They argued that the flare-up could lead jurors to not find Welch’s testimony credible — or, worse, assume the government was trying to “secure an unfair advantage” by having him in the courtroom.

Ellis, who cracked jokes with potential jurors during jury selection, has ripped prosecutors in Manafort’s trial before for a gamut of issues, including the pace of their questioning, for making repeated references to Manafort’s lavish wardrobe expenses and even for rolling their eyes.

Wednesday was no different, as the judge nitpicked over the amount and type of charts that prosecutors could use during the testimony of an accountant.

“Judges should be patient. They made a mistake when they confirmed me. I’m not very patient, so don’t try my patience,” said Ellis, who was appointed to the bench by President Ronald Reagan.

Cap Out .....

Anonymous said...

Mistrial and motion to recuse.

Anonymous said...

Don’t know who Scott will select. But can say this for sure. Whoever gets selected will gave served as an ASA or similar government position on their resume. By the time Scott finishes his eight years about 90% of his appts will have been former govt attys.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Judge Graham. More than a few judges could learn from you on the way to treat the public and Attorneys with respect and dignity. You and I were ASAs together way way back. Always knew you would do good things. Congrats and best of luck in your next endeavor

Anonymous said...

Never saw so many unqualfied bottom feeders looking to eat at the public trough because they cannot make a living in private practice.....

Anonymous said...

Very sad group of selected. If we keep getting ASA’s fees will keep getting batted down. Why? Because they never had a paying Client or Gad to earn a client’s money.

JNC get real. Stop this ASA BS.