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 15, 2019

MURDER MYSTERY AND POLITICAL INTRIGUE

Jeffrey Epstein Murder Mystery: The plot thickens. No conspiracy theorists we, but a Rumpolian look at the evidence yields the following: 1) Mr. Epstein was taken off of suicide watch two weeks before his death when his attorneys told officials at MDC that the injuries to his neck resulted from being attacked by a murderous thug (former police officer) cell mate; 2) Epstein's last cell mate was removed from his cell a day before his death. In violation of procedure, he was left alone in his cell; 3) The corrections officers did not check on Epstein  for hours before his death. Two of three officers on duty were not actual corrections officers but other employees trained to fill in when needed; 4) The day before his death Epstein was reported to be in good spirits and telling his lawyers he felt the 2nd Circuit would order his release and that his double jeopardy motion would be granted. He told his lawyers he was looking forward to seeing them the next day; 
AND NOW THIS: 
The NY Times reports today here  that the Medical Examiner has currently listed Epstein's death as "unclassified" AND that the hyoid bone in Epstein was fractured. Long time and careful readers of the blog know that in his younger days Rumpole liked nothing more than a good murder and developed a bit of expertise in the manner and method of untimely deaths. While Hyoid bones are known to fracture in suicide hangings, especially in individuals over sixty, they are almost always fratured when death is caused by strangulation. Indeed the fracture of the Hyoid bone is a signature event in a strangulation (something a young medical examiner was forced to admit during an uncomfortable hour under the cross examination by your blogger many years ago in a successful murder defense in a galaxy far far away).

Former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara tweeted shortly after Epstein's death that there should be a full video of Epstein killing himself. He should know. To date there has been no discussion of the video. Does it exist? Have people, including the ME seen it? If the ME has seen it, there would be no reason not to classify the death as a suicide. 

Rest assured that Rumpole is taking a second and harder look at Mr. Epstein's demise. 

JUDGE FABER NEW ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGE FOR CRIMINAL COUNTY COURT
That white smoke you saw in the hallways of the REGJB recently wasn't some santeria ritual. It was the signal that the Judges had decided that Judge Robin Faber, long head of the jail division of county court, a blog reader and blog Fantasy Football participant, will don the scarlet robes (not really, but they do it in England and should do it here) and take over as head honcho of the criminal county court judges. Talk about a thankless job! And he has big shoes to fill with Judge Sam Slom retiring on Halloween. 

JUDGES VIE FOR CHIEF JUDGE SPOT
For reasons not entirely clear yet, Judge Soto will not be up for chief judge of the 11th Judicial Circuit (Motto: "Call us Dade-County, not Miami or Miamahh por favor") when her terms expires in about a year (the timing is also not clear yet). To be clear, we did NOT say she is retiiring from the bench, only that she cannot (or has decided not to)  stand for another term as Chief Judge. 

Two candidates have thrown their electronic hats into the ring via email: Judge Nushin Sayfie, currently chief Judge of the felony criminal dvision, and Judge Scott Bernstein, recently honoured with a judicial award. 
Predictably the fault line has appeared between criminal and civil. 
You think the democratic presidential nomination is hotly contested? To quote Ronald Wilson Reagan "You ain't seen nothing yet!". 
Judges Sayfie and Bernstein are both excellant choices. Well respected and quite able, each will be able to lead our gagle of Judges into the future.  We have more experience with Judge Sayfie who we have seen lead the criminal court judges through thick and thin, and a few scandals that she was on top of and handled admirably. We can always use a voice at the top that understands the trials and tribulations of an REGJB lawyer. However, that is not a blog endorsement. There is a lot of time between now and the election, and a week is a lifetime in politics. 

JUDGE SINGHAL NOMINATED TO FEDERAL BENCH
Mr Markus' federal blog, which has uncomfortably been dabling recently in state court toipics, broke the story yesterday that Judge Raag Singhal, who serves in Broward, has been nominated by POTUS to an open spot on the Southern District Of Florida. The nomination has long been rumored and is well deserved. 



18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Robin Faber will be a very welcome admin judge. At least he'll listen to the defense side and do things for us for a change. Bye, Bye Sam.

Anonymous said...

Soto is term limited.

Anonymous said...

CHIEF JUDGE?

One choice. JUDGE MARTIN ZILBER.

Period. End of discussion. He already has the votes. He has selfies with every Judge in every division of the court. Please VOTE FOR ZILBER.

the trialmaster said...

I would not want Bernstein to be in the position of CJ. He would favor certain individuals and not be objective. I have found him to be arrogant and unfriendly to attorneys who appear in front of him. We use to have great CJ, such as Farina, Wetherington, and of course the greatest of all, the late very great ED COWART. Judge Hanzman would be the best, but I would not want to lose him from handling his full caseload.

anonymous said...

He is fabulous!

Anonymous said...

Another state hack going federal.

Anonymous said...

Bring back Shelly Schwartz for chief judge.

Anonymous said...

To know Nushin is to love Nushin.

Anonymous said...

Faber is fabulous!

Anonymous said...

Bernstein would be a great choice.

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...


THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

WORD OF THE DAY GUYS LATEST SUBMISSION:

BOFFO

Judge Milton Hirsch delivered such a boffo performance in his latest novel that he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Now blog faithful, it's your turn to use BOFFO in a sentence.

Cap Out .......

Anonymous said...

The Third DCA, screwing the environment one opinion at a time.

Anonymous said...

Jorge Cueto for Chief Judge!

Anonymous said...

Cueto might be the best judge we have. Straight forward, common sense, moves files, isn't afraid to rule.

Is he always right? No, but none of them are.

If we had more judges like Cueto we'd have a much better, much cheaper, and much more equitable legal system.

Anonymous said...

Jorge Cueto for Chief Judge!

Anonymous said...

I would be calling the Shumie and starting the weekend boffo a good case that just walked in the door.

Anonymous said...

Judge Laura Stuzin will get the votes.

Anonymous said...

Lol If thats true she has no chance.