THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:
HERE COME THE JUDGE, HERE COME THE JUDGE ......
JUDGE DAVID MILLER AND THE JQC:
Judge David Miller, who has been on the Circuit Court bench for the past 20 years, found himself in the cross hairs of the JQC recently. Today the JQC issued their Findings and reported them to the Florida Supreme Court for their review and determination as to whether they will accept the Recommendations.
From the FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATION OF DISCIPLINE: (the entire nine page Report can be found here).
“On the afternoon of January 17, 2020, Judge Miller was presiding over a lengthy tobacco-related civil trial. After resumption from an extended lunch break, the trial proceedings were interrupted continuously by loud noise from the public lobby outside of Judge Miller's courtroom. The source of the sound was a result of many people congregating and not promptly disbursing from the public lobby at the conclusion of Judge William Altfield's investiture ceremony, which had occurred in the ceremonial courtroom on the same floor.”
“Judge Miller instructed his court Bailiff to go out and try to quiet the people in the lobby. When that was unsuccessful, Judge Miller sent the Court Clerk and his Bailiff back into the lobby. That too was unsuccessful.” “Judge Miller stepped down from the bench wearing his robe and proceeded into the lobby accompanied by his Bailiff. Several witnesses, including judges and lawyers, observed Judge Miller to be "yelling," and waving his arms at the people in the lobby while trying to get them be quiet.”
“While trying to quiet the groups of people in the lobby, Judge Miller observed one person shaking her head while looking at him. Judge Miller believed she was telling him, "no," indicating that she would not cooperate with his attempt to quiet the crowd. Responding to what he believed was contemptuous behavior, Judge Miller approached the individual and shouted, "Do not shake your head at me." Judge Miller then twice threatened the person with contempt, demanding to know, "Do you want to be held in contempt?" When the person answered that "no" she did not want to be held in contempt, Judge Miller continued to question the individual asking her name and whether she was employed in the Courthouse, before going back into his courtroom.”
“In this Stipulation Judge Miller admits that his conduct as alleged in the Notice of Formal Charges and outlined above was inappropriate, and should not have occurred.” “Because Judge Miller's conduct, including his inappropriate threat of contempt, plainly fell below the high standard of conduct required by the Canons and this Court, the Commission finds and recommends that the interests of justice will be well served by a public reprimand of Judge Miller.”
CAPTAIN OUT .......
Captain4Justice@gmail.com
31 comments:
david miller, total dickhead
A good judge that had a bad day. Nothingburger.
A judge is concerned that there is a disruption to his court and comes out to shush people? Not a big deal
A trial is a trial is a trial. All David had to do was declare a recess until the investiture ceremony was over. In 47 years in the system having tried many cases, what is a short recess? It was a bad hair day for a judge who works very hard and does a magnificent job accommodating the litigants. This was not worthy of a JQC inquiry. There are many more worthy cases to look into than what happened in Judge Miller's case.
Rump, you left out that Miller immediately stipulated and took his medicine.
Give me a break! What a useless discipline. The administrative judge of the Civil Division should be responsible to maintain order in the courthouse.
Who’s the snowflake who filed a JQC complaint? Seriously, Miller is tough and can be difficult to appear before at times, but the guy is a workhorse. He’s trying to have a trial and typical Miami investiture, they think it’s a damn party. Miller came out to try to quiet them and someone gives him attitude. Maybe he was a little brash but he has every right to maintain decorum so that the business of running a court - what taxpayers pay for - is properly conducted and those involved can Have their day in court. Taxpayers don’t pay their taxes so that Court employees can take three, four hours in the afternoon to have a party for a fellow government employee. JQC was wrong, should’ve declined to pursue this. Whoever made the complaint was just being vindictive and petty.
Give me a break! Among other things, I suspect the judge can tell when someone is gesturing NO, and I suspect someone who would do that might not remember it that way. And, the administrative judge of civil should maintain proper conduct and decorum of guests in the courthouse. What a shame that Judge Miller should be embarrassed in this fashion. I have seen alot worse and suspect all the readers of this blog have as well.
I witnessed the entire incident. The crowd was loud and he made several attempts to quiet them but was disregarded. He did lose his cool but truly wasn't a big deal. Whoever lodged the complaint needs to butch up. Shit happens.
David Miller needs to be disrobed. This isn't the first time he has abused his office. He hit another female judge (pushed her) over a dispute over a copy machine. I was at Alfield's investiture. I remember he walking out and I wasn't sure exactly what he was doing. I left immediately after the investiture. But I did make eye contact with him and his eyes were peering as if it was looking for someone.
Really - he has a right to tell....no, order...people to shut the fuck up if it is interrupting a court hearing. The timing sucks, should not have scheduled it for when that would have been going on, but he has a right to issue and order in that case, and expect that it is followed.
I'm not a huge fan of Judge Miller but I think it was kinda of ridiculous for someone to report him to the JQC for this incident. Comparing his conduct to the Judge in the Howard Johnson incident is comparing apples to oranges.
10:13. After all these years do you understand how the blog works ? Or are you one of these people that think I write all the comments and all the posts ? THE CAPTAIN WROTE THE POST. and to make your comments worse - he also included that Miller stipulated to the facts. So borrowing a page from the Judge - STFU
I was trying the other tobacco trial on that floor. The crowd was extremely disruptive. My client was testifying he did not have a voice box and was talking through an electrolarynx. Extremely disrespectful for the crowd to continue to congregate in the lobby while two trials were underway.
I was at the investiture. The fact that this made it to the JQC is ridiculous. The investiture went on longer than was scheduled. If it ended when it was supposed to, there would have been no issue. We were very loud and the lawyers in trial complained to Miller. I think Miller was right for trying to maintain order. The bailiff came out first but was basically ignored. Some of the people at the event sounded like a bunch of laughing hyenas and had their feelings hurt when Miller said we were being disruptive. Grow up people! A JQC complaint??
Some "Snowflake" gets their feelings hurt for being scolded for acting like a Baboon and disrupting a trial? Come the hell on.. That's the problem with America. Miller did nothing wrong
judge Miller is overall a very good judge. He did not come from the SAO and did not seek the job looking for a bigger paycheck, like Aponte. He is extremely qualified, works harder than any other judge(except Judge Hanzman perhaps) and you get obtain a hearing on one or two days notice if the parties wish to come in at 7 or 7:30 in the morning. I would gladly accept him for all of my cases.On a case we had he granted SJ against us. The 3d reversed and when the case concluded for several million of dollars, he thanked us for getting him reversed and awarded more than full attorney fees for our litigation. The planners of the investiture should have warned all Judges on the floor about the interruption so they could plan accordingly. A bar complaint is not warranted. I hope Miller fights it. At best, a private reprimand is warranted.
Why is a Judge being reprimanded in trying to subdue a mob that is loud and disrespectful outside his courtroom? Signs are posted for quiet in the court hallways. Where is the court personnel in stopping the noise and dispersing the crowds and insisting that they exit the hallways? Citizens do have a right to watch courtroom cases. But does a loud mob have the right to close down other courts in progress? You can see that these people wouldn't exercise any courtesy while in the courthouse. They refused to adhere to the signs posted for noise and they disrespect courtrooms in progress. Judge Miller was reprimanded for trying to bring order to a mob in the hallway. Didn't he have the authority to request less noise when it interferes with your trial procedures? It's an injustice to blame Judge Miller for trying to improve the interference and continue his court? Didn't he have the authority to ask for this mob to leave the area? The sad part is the loudest and most difficult person in the Group was employed at the courthouse. She not only the loudest of the disturbance. but no disciplinary action was ever mentioned about her contribution to the situation. Judge Miller was the scapgoat in this? That's wrong!
What's wrong with this picture? Shouldn't judges and lawyers, who comprise the majority of attendees at investitures, know better than to mill around boisterously in the hallways of the courthouse especially when trials are being conducted? And, more importantly, shouldn't an Assistant General Counsel of the 11th Circuit know how to conduct herself in the courthouse where she works every day? And last, but not least, why would she disrespect a judge by shaking her head, regardless of whether the gesture was one of disbelief or refusing to conduct herself with some decorum. I've been in hundreds of courtrooms in the course of my career. If I shook my head in disbelief every time a judge pulled a boner move, I'd have been in jail for contempt for the past 30 years. The person who should be reprimanded is the "snowflake" Asst. G.C. who caused this debacle. IMHO it calls for a Bar Complaint.
I've been saying Miller was a jackass for years.
This is such a crock. Echarte does ten times worse during his daily UMC.
It is so disheartening to see that with all of the serious issues occurring in the world today, that we are focusing our attention on reprimanding a well respected judge that has been in the circuit court for 20 years.
Judge Miller, was simply attempting to to conduct a trial and was unable to do so, due to the loud noise coming from the lobby.
We should be focusing on the important issues that are affecting our nation.
Abusive prick. He needs to go. Notice that he didn't even get a lawyer.
When Miller was in criminal, he was a nightmare.
David, grow up and resign.
10:13 AM. CAN YOU READ? That was rhetorical. Obviously not. First, the post is written by THE CAPTAIN. As in THE CAPTAIN REPORTS. Maybe you’ve heard of me. I’ve been writing for the Blog for nearly 15 years. The giveaway as to my Blog Posts is at the beginning and at the end: CAPTAIN OUT ....
Second, did you read the last paragraph where it said “In this Stipulation Judge Miller admits ....”
No? I forgot. You can’t read.
Signed
Captain Justice
for the Justice Building Blog.
Maybe this charge against Miller was bs but for years he was a total a- -hole in criminal. He regularly treated defendants like garbage rotting in his courtroom. And this episode is not his first with abuse of the contempt power. He’d threaten it in circumstances that didn’t remotely call for it. So even if the investiture episode was a questionable use of JQC process, what goes around comes around.
A well-meaning Judge doing his best to assure the litigants have a fair trial in an obsolete Courthouse. The Broward, Palm Beach and even the Miami-Dade Criminal Courthouses all have a door from the hallway to a vestibule and then a second door for going from the vestibule into the Courtroom to keep the sounds from the hallway out of the Courtroom. In the Dade County Courthouse, on the sixth floor the doors from the large waiting area lead directly into the Courtrooms, without any vestibule to dampen the sound. This is another example evidencing that Miami-Dade County needs a new civil Courthouse.
When you've been a judge for any period of time, you will get lawyers that are upset over your decisions. It's easy to take cheap shots on a blog. Miller has ruled against me in the past but I think he was always generally fair. I think the primary complainant is a militant activist that is always looking for a fight and quick to make an accusation.I think the JQC member dealing with the complainant was afraid to stand up to the complainant due to the current social climate. It's like the Publix employee that tells a customer to wear a face covering. In the current social climate, the customer can pull the race card and the employee has a higher chance of being called wrong; as management is so afraid of being accused of being racist. It's easier for management to discipline the employee rather than investigate and make a fair decision and feel the wrath of the "militant accuser". A court employee has shown me social media screenshots from the complainant and they were clearly activism posts that indicate a very angry person.
So this complaint seems so petty! How in the world did the JQC not kick this back to the chief judge. Seems like loud and out of control parties at a Miami-Dade Courthouse that disrupt trial proceedings should have led to disciplinary action against the Administrative Judge or Chief Judge and not the Trial Judge that was forced to try to be the bar bouncer for out of control court employees. As there seem to be videos that show all attorneys complaining about the court employees noise disrupting the trial, should have been clear to JQC (if they reviewed the video) that there is a bigger problem than Miller telling someone to quiet down that gets their feelings hurt.
8:13 is right on. Echarte acts like a complete ass at his motion calendar at 8:30. He is loud and abusive towards most lawyers, especially younger attorneys. I am waiting to witness where his conduct merits a JQC complaint. Too bad there is not a camera there to let the public know how bad he is.
That JQC Judge Marx is a tyrant. She will fall and fall hard one day.
Many comments noting the de minimis nature of the controversy, and wondering why on earth it merited JQC attention at all. They are correct.
Moreover, when a judge (or other law-related respondent) immediately admits the behavior, and makes no excuse for it, that is a strong demonstration of the professionalism we all say we want, and so rarely get.
I truly hope that the Supreme Court dismisses the case, as they can do.
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