THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:
DIVERSITY ON THE BENCH .......
Congratulations to our seven newest judges in Miami-Dade County; three to the Circuit Court and four to the County Court. And more importantly, congratulations to the one and only lawyer appointed to the bench by Governor DeSantis that comes directly out of the P.D.’s or F.P.D.’s office - AYANA HARRIS.
On another local note, the bench is a changing. For you old-timers, you will recall a day when, in your law school class, there might have been one or two female students in your class. The same was true of the bench as it was tough to find a female judge in Miami-Dade County "back in the day". To the credit of our last several Governors and to the voters of Miami-Dade County, that has dramatically changed.
Today, there are a total of 123 judges in Miami-Dade County - 80 Circuit and 43 County. Of the 80 Circuit Court Judges, 44 are female and 36 are male. In the County Court the numbers are even more dramatic with 26 female judges and only 14 male judges with three open seats to be appointed by our Governor. Who could have predicted in 1989 that thirty years later 57% of the judges in our County would be female.
It was also nice to see Governor DeSantis choosing three attorneys of color of the four County Court appointments.
One final note: some will recall the brouhaha in 2018 when Judge David Miller was up for re-election. Seemingly out of nowhere an attorney with 11 years of experience from Cole, Scott, Kissane filed to run against Miller. Her name, Elisabeth Espinosa. After she filed, her law firm filed two dozen Motions To Recuse Miller from cases before him where the defense law firm was CSK. Miller denied all of the Motions and the 3rd DCA upheld his decision in each and every case. Well Judge Miller, you can now welcome your new judicial colleague to the bench: The Honorable County Court Judge Elisabeth Espinosa.
One more final note. On Friday, Gov DeSantis appointed another five judges to open seats, four to the County Court and one to the Circuit Court bench. Of course, it almost goes without saying that all five are current or former government attorneys. Shannon McFee to the 20th Circuit is a former ASA; Sara Shullman and Melanie Surber were both appointed to the Palm Beach County Court directly out of the AG’s office; current AUSA Michael Bagge-Hernandez was appointed to the Hillsborough County Court; and finally, James Moody III received an appointment to the bench in Hillsborough County Court. He is a former ASA. You might recognize the name "Moody" as in our current AG Ashley Moody. James is her brother.
With 51 appointments to the bench in Governor DeSantis’ first year in office, AFPD Ayana Harris stands as the lone appointment coming directly from either the PD’s or FPD’s office. In contrast, according to a piece in the Florida Bar News, 44 of the appointees had ASA, AUSA, AAG, and/or Judge in their resume.
Happy Holidays to all of our readers. Make it a safe New Year. See you in 2020.
CAPTAIN OUT .......
Captain4Justice@gmail.com
When you see something that is not right, not fair, find a way to get in the way and cause trouble. Congressman John Lewis
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.
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13 comments:
Amazing! Want to be a judge? Qualifications? Honesty, intelligence, experience, knowledge, perspective, empathy. Nope. We now genuflect at the altar of diversity. It all comes down to sex and race.
Shannon McFee has been a practicing criminal defense attorney in Collier County for at least 20 years and has an impeccable reputation for zealousness and effectiveness.
Rump went three for three on his picks. And that means its a very merry xmas around these parts.
I’m convinced Kenny W starred in Goodfellas. He played either Pete the Killer - who was Sally Balls brother - or Jimmy Two Times? Yes?
Kenny W. - go get the papers - the papers?
Ashley Moody's father is former Circuit Court Judge James Moody of Tampa. He is now a federal judge. I had a med-mal before him when he was a state judge and he was excellent. I am sure his being a Judge had nothing to do with his daughter being AG or his son's position. Sounds a little like Broweird, e.g. Ross Backman and Scheyer and the rest of the clowns north of the border
Ayana is superqualified by whatever standard you choose. She also happens to be black and female and a FPD/ex-PD. Only the first sentence matters when considering how she will be as a judge. Only the second matters in judging how we are doing as a society at achieving the worthy goal of bringing diverse perspectives to bear on our diverse citizenry.
Is 8:41 kidding? The previous administration spent 8 years genuflecting to right wing white guys. Is he saying that there were no qualified women or men of the color black who were qualified to be judges during the Scott administration? The black community has a right to be represented in the appointed judge community. Before last week there was one black woman sitting as a judge in Dade county, Tanya Brinkley, she is fantastic but she was elected. I'm not black and I didn't vote for DeSantis but I recognize that he considers himself the Governor for all Floridians and has been governing accordingly. It is going to be hard for me to not vote for him next time. Merry Christmas.
Are there currently PDs and AFPDs who want to be Judges? I saw Ms. Harris put in her name a bunch, but she was / is the only one i was aware of. Who are the best PDs and AFPDs who actually want the job?
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Agreed ayana is superqualified. And being appointed by a Republican no one can even argue race was even a factor. Sadly libs more generally do believe skin color alone is a qualification. No one actually cares about "diverse perspectives." U are just parroting what libs say to make themselves feel pure and holy. Consider libs choosing between a closely qualified white male and black female. The white grew up rural Appalachia, his mom was hooked on opioids, went to school in then midwest, worked his way up, while earning the respect of his peers. Lets say the black went to DC prep schools, was a legacy pick for an ivy league school, then went to dads big firm. Does anyone even seriously believe libs would want the white male to be picked because he has more "diverse perspectives" than the black female? No way. U dont want the white male. Ever. He is bad. Its as simple as white bad black or brown good. Dont pretend otherwise.
Yes, 4:00, there are. To name two very talented/qualified PDs: Kevin Hellmann for Circuit and Elsa Fernandez for County.
Kevin Hellman? The dude practiced in kiddie court for 15 years
Sorry, but I don't buy into the 'Desantis is doing the right thing'. He does this in Dade but no where else in the State. And ALL of these guys have been kissing the ass of the Federalist Society to get the gig because that's the only place he looks. Can you say 'litmus test' anyone?
"Sadly libs more generally do believe skin color alone is a qualification."
Put down the pipe brother. No one believes that.
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