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.

Tuesday, July 20, 2021

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

 The US Attorneys Office keeps lining up convictions like bowling pins...

And Mr. Markus and his wife Mona Markus keep knocking them down like bowler Don Carter did in Miami in the 1960s and 70s. 

The latest prosecution derailed is a story that first broke a few years ago when it was learned that  the US Attorneys used a cooperating defendant who had also signed a Joint Defense Agreement to infiltrate and spy on defendants and their attorneys as they prepared for trial.

We are just guessing here, but the disclosure of the use of the snitch to spy on the defense probably went something like this- a thumb drive with 15,000 pages of bank statements which were shuffled several times before being scanned and disclosed to the defense. And around page 7,890 was a typewritten paragraph "The government used one of the defendants as a cooperator during the time he was part of the joint defense agreement. But we promise he did not tell us anything we did not already know except that one defense attorney is apparently a vegan." 

 The case, an insidious sweepstakes fraud fiasco, had been awaiting sentencing for over a year when last Friday Judge Gayles threw out the convictions and ordered a new trial.  

Jay Weaver of El Herald has the story here, where he quoted Judge Gayles as saying the prosecutors "knowingly invaded the defense camp, which is improper."

Rumpole doesn't really like JDAs. We find most of the defense attorney meetings go something like this: 

"Who ordered the California roll with extra avocado?  I ordered four of the tuna sushi with brown rice, anybody see those?"

But apparently in this case, there was some real strategy discussed which the snitch told the AUSAs about and Gayles had had enough. Good for Judge Gayles, and meanwhile, in an office on top of a garage in downtown Miami, another notch was etched on the "victory  wall" of the Markus firm. Well done. Well done indeed. 

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Burying the lede that one of the responsible prosecutors is now a Miami-Dade judge.

Anonymous said...

Rumpole, why don't you name in your story that the now Judge Elijah Levit was part of that prosecutor team that acted unethically????

Anonymous said...

Knock knock
Who's there
The JQC

Kissimmee Kid said...

Only in Miami: the lying sack of shit who traded his integrity for a badge is now, "Your Honor."

"Since his removal from the case, Levitt left the U.S. Attorney’s Office and was appointed as a Miami-Dade County judge in 2018 by then-Gov. Rick Scott."

I think I liked Miami corruption better when it was grifters filling their own pockets than now when it is the fascist flunkies trying to created a Cuban-flavored omnipotent state. I'd much rather have crooked judges looking out for themselves than crooked judges giving more power to the state. I want my crooked judges to be libertarians, not Republicans.

Anonymous said...

nice work guys

Anonymous said...

The article cites now Judge Levitt as being the keeper of said defense documents while he misled the court with the agents false testimony.
A defense lawyer would be in a world of trouble for this. Will anything ever happen to these guys?

Anonymous said...

Actually, the govt hid the cooperators existence from the court too by burying it in the notes on page 3 of a supposedly joint motion to postpone trial. Judge Gayles was enraged about it back in 2016. AUSA Davidson still has his job. Even after supposedly misleading his own supervisors about the whole thing.

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...

Man on the moon. 52 years ago today. July 20, 1969.

Anonymous said...

Recently, Tinkler-Mendez threw 2 prosecutors out of her courtroom, said they lied to her, told them she was filing Bar complaints, banned them for life from her courtroom and no story. I heard the two prosecutors then had a secret ex parte meeting with her and apologized to avoid the Bar complaint. No story.

If a defense lawyer did that, story.

Anonymous said...

Can someone post the order?

Anonymous said...

cant beleive rmpole tried to bury this

Anonymous said...

Judge Levitt was appointed to the bench after misconduct. We can’t trust judicial appointments. Appointments are given to those who know the Governor regardless of what they do.