THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:
MAJOR, MAJOR, BIG TIME BREAKING NEWS .....
Incumbent Judge Dava Tunis has drawn an opponent.
Candidate Rosy Aponte, who filed and qualified to run against Incumbent Judge Gordon Murray in Group 38 of the County Court has just switched to filing to run against Judge Tunis in Circuit Court Group 75.
Aponte has previously been unsuccessful in seeking a seat on the bench:
- she ran for a County Court seat against Judge Kristy Nunez in 2018, losing
that race by 52 % to 48%.
- she ran for a Circuit Court seat against Judge Oscar Rodriguez-Fonts and Carol Breece in 2016. Ms. Aponte failed to make the runoff as she gained only 26% of the vote compared to Rodrgiuez Fonts (34%) and Breece (40%) in the Primary.
Judge Tunis was first appointed by Governor Bush in 2005. She ran unopposed in 2008 and again ran unopposed in 2014. She has never faced an opponent. UNTIL NOW.
CAPTAIN OUT .......
Rumpole Notes...we are trying to be judicious here. An adjective we neither seek nor want. So we do not want call people names like "an unqualified slug" and such.
Aponte should be ashamed of herself. Judge Tunis is dedicated and hard working. She does not merit an opponent. Neither did Judge Murray for that matter. Aponte is singularly unqualified to be a judge in our opinion. Twice rejected by the voters of Miami who have had a chance to vet her, she should stop playing games and trying to bully judges. Go away. We do not want you on the bench. You are trading on your name to make up for a truly undistinguished career as a lawyer. You are becoming the Covid-19 candidate- a virus no one wants.
As always, we invite the person we have discussed to email us a response which we guarantee will be posted unedited. Equal time as it were.
Here is part of a prior post about Ms. Aponte:
Ms. Aponte luckily managed to avoid payment of her debts through a discharge she obtained in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Interestedly, Ms. Aponte's complete ineptitude has been highlighted recently by the Hon. A J Cristol who barred her from practicing before the United States Bankruptcy Court as a result of her confession that she had no clue what she was doing in a contested chapter 7 case. Ms. Aponte's stellar representation resulted in the debtor and multiple family members of the debtor, including his elderly mother being held in contempt of court, faced with incarceration and substantially sanctioned. Unbowed, in yet another case pending before the Hon. Laurel Isicoff, Ms. Aponte was ordered to show cause and sanctioned as a result of filing an unsuspecting alleged debtor in bankruptcy without ever having met her client. Her excuse was simple, someone in her office used her credentials .
Maybe Dava Tunis should stop interrupting everyone, talking down to everyone and start actually listening to everyone just once she would not be opposed. She may work hard but, she has pissed off just about everyone in that building.
ReplyDeleteIf she says one more time..."I don't want to be rude but,..."
Nobody likes Dava. That is why she has an opponent.
ReplyDeleteMichelle Delancy Cannot walk in to a Circuit Seat. For God’s sake. She only has 3,408 friends on Facebook! You know how dull you have to be to have so few friends? Please do not give me a racial reason to be a judge. You are qualified or unqualified. This lady is not qualified.
ReplyDeleteDo not let her walk in. Michelle Delancy iOS not the one. This is a bad precedent.
In case you are a race person. There is plenty of diversity on the bench and no one should get a free pass when unproven working as a lonely solo.
I have to respectfully disagree with your positive assessment of Judge Tunis and agree with the comments above. Judge Tunis is an expert in creating problems when none exist; in berating lawyers, usually defense lawyers; and in bending over backwards to help the State. Her interpretation on a daily basis borders on the obtuse. After working with her for years as a Public Defender, and then seeing her on the bench these last 15 years, I am surprised she has not drawn opposition. This week, even during coronavirus hearings, she had a hard time appointing the public defender because the Defendant posted more than a $5000 bond. Despite her public defender background, she is an expert at manipulating technicalities and ignoring the law in favor of the State. I would humbly suggest, that in my view, she is perhaps the most rigid and routinely unfair criminal Judge on the bench right now. That being said, her opponent does not deserve my yes vote, but Judge Tunis more than deserves and will receive my no vote.
ReplyDeleteJudge Tunis has a temperament and demeanor problem. She micromanages lawyers and is generally annoying, but she is a competent, knowledgable, fair jurist. Her mistake was thinking the seat was hers to keep. Her opponent is completely unqualified, ethically challenged, and is running solely on the strength of her Hispanic name. The sad thing is that she might win. I hope that the lawyers who have appeared will put aside her personality issues and support her. I also hope that Judge Tunis, if she wins, will think about how to improve herself.
ReplyDeleteJudge Aponte sounds horrifying. The bench is getting worse and worse. For every DelaO, Lopez or Murphy, there are ten Blumsteins.
!!:!2 Slow down on the Blumstein line. the man works very hard. Unlike almost all of his colleagues, he actually reads and frequently will not sign arrest warrants. he is polite, am==maybe a little slow. But, when you leave his courtroom, at least you do not DESPISE the judge. Every negative comments about Judge Tunis in these comments was correct. She is lucky to have you as a friend, because you are able to scrape down the lawyers of abuse and disrespect of others to a day and time when she deserved nice things said about her. I would vote for anybody rather than her, and Rosy Aponte has her flaws but she does a lot of pro bono work, knows criminal law, and will treat everyone with respect. A criminal defendant leaves her courtroom hammered and pissed on. One is bad enough.
ReplyDeleteOh yes. Finally the truth about Tunis. Sorry but she won't get MY vote!!!!! NO WAY, JOSE!!!!
ReplyDeleteFunny on the “no way, jose” comment. Disbarred and disgraced Jose Maria “Pepe” Herrera must be behind Aponte targeting Tunis.
ReplyDeleteThe comments remind me of Broward Judges Lynn Rosenthal, Cynthia Imperato, and Gisele Pollack.
ReplyDeleteGood morning. Jack Thompson here. Yes, THAT Jack Thompson, the one who endured the outlandish refereeing of Dava Tunis that gave The Bar wanted: my permanent disbarment.
ReplyDeleteLet me begin, after reading the news that Tunis finally has an electoral opponent, by thanking Rumpole for his character assassination of anyone who dares suggest that Tunis is not the second coming of Supreme Court Associate Justice Brandeis. Such attacks give one the option of either reading Rumpole's vitriol or watching a Trump "press conference.:
Secondly, please note this ruling of Florida's Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee, which has a direct bearing upon Tunis:
http://www.jud6.org/LegalCommunity/LegalPractice/opinions/jeacopinions/2000/2000-18.html
The holding proves that it was improper of Tunis to accept The Florida Bar's Annual Award of Merit given her, specifically and on its face, for her doing what The Bar wanted her to do as to me. By the way, the Bar official was so inebriated at the moment that Tunis received the Award at the annual Bar convention, that the recipient was called "Tuna Davis." How sweet.
So, whether you agree with me on anything or not, if you agree with Rumpole that I am Satan incarnate for securing $4.5 million in FCC fines against Howard Stern (for which I was disbarred), you cannot refute the clear application of the above-linked to MADD ruling that prohibits Tunis from sitting as a Bar referee in any proceeding after mine.
This is just one example of how and why Tunis couldn't care less what the law is when she rules in the way that others want her to rule. More later, kids. Jack Thompson at amendmentone@comcast.net
I strongly disagree regarding negative comments about Judge Tunis. Please read about the following case.
ReplyDeleteJudge Tunis is a fair and even-handed judge. Several years ago I had a client that was arrested for kidnapping and L&L after he was on a cruise to Bahamas. The case was very complicated. Cruise ship was over 12 miles out to sea when the incident occurred. Client was out on bond. State wanted to take my client into custody to force him to take a plea. Judge Tunis denied the state's motion. The day of trial, the state had to give my client a breakdown to simple battery and withhold. Judge Tunis followed the law and was always well prepared.
And in this case, Judge Tunis held the state's feet to the fire.