We say a fond REGJB Blog goodbye to a blog friend, supporter, and all-around great guy - ace Herald reporter David Ovalle. Like other Herald reporters before him, he is going to the Washington Post to cover the Opioid crisis. Yes, the Washington Post needs a reporter dedicated to the opioid crisis. Meanwhile the Miami Herald has trouble getting a reporter to cover Miami.
David carried on the tradition of great Miami crime reporters. Edna Buchanan. Susannah Nesmith. And then David Ovalle.
Along with covering crime in our beloved REGJB, David covered more hurricanes than anyone from San Diego should have to, and he was part of the Herald Pulitzer prize winning team of reporters that covered the Surfside building collapse tragedy. They won the Pulitzer in the Breaking News category.
David was and is a great reporter. He quickly consumed the Miami REGIB lore. He covered the greatness of Sy Gaer, Richard Sharpstein, and knew about Janet Reno and Richard Gerstein and Bennett Brummer. The Lozano riots were before his time, as were the McDuffy riots, but he knew about them and how they affected Miami and the REGJB. He took the time to learn about our legendary building and our legends. And that helped him do his job in the superb manner he did. He covered murders, and REGJB characters. He covered justice and injustice and reported on the each with the same fervor and ferocity for the truth.
David became part of the REGJB for the last twenty years or so. When the story of this unique building and people is finally written, he will be in chapters integral to who we are as a legal community. He reported our stories without becoming part of the stories until his leaving us became the story.
We do not know if he will keep his @davidovalle305 twitter feed. @davidoxyDC doesn't have the same ring to it. February 1 will be his first day at the Post.
But in this day and age of social media, media feeds, on-line stories, twitter, IG and the like, David will only be a click away. Until otherwise you can wish him well in a tweet.
Woodward. Bernstein. Ovalle. Has a nice ring to it. He will be perfectly positioned to cover the second presidency of Donald Trump, and his criminal trial(s).
Meanwhile: WRITER WANTED Must know about crime and law and be comfortable drinking mediocre coffee while huddling in wifi hot spots of a 60+year old building while covering trials before prima donnas who wear black. Must not be squeamish and ok to view crime scene pictures. Must not be susceptible to the charms of prosecutors who hide discovery, judges who take long lunch hours, and criminal defense attorneys who pass off murders as simple batterys with an unhappy ending. Long hours and low pay a must. Inquire at the Miami Herald.
10 comments:
News and sports reporters who make their last stop in Miami are literally a dying breed. You list some of them. Recently, Hank Goldberg died on July 4th. Now, instead of taking it the grave with them, they take it to another area code. Other cities had their legends. Mike Royko in Chicago and, very recently, Ray Kerrison in New York. Journalism, once the bailiwick of ink stained wordsmiths who knew as much about a dry martini as they did a dry quip, have given way to the podcasters and internet wizards of today. I guess they call it progress.
David has been a standup guy. I will miss him.
Can confirm David will not be dropping the 305 from his Twitter handle. You heard it here first.
Fake David Ovalle
All I can say about David’s reporting of the RGJB trials and tribulations over the years ,was that he was consistently factually accurate , and captured the essence and soul of every story. (I imagine that’s good reporting).I for one will miss his contributions to the Herald. Good luck in D.C.David , our loss their gain.
I never read any of his stories where he got it wrong. He's also a nice guy and very fair. Sorry to see him leave.
Another nail in the coffin of the once-great Miami Herald, becoming more and more irrelevant by the day
How about a story on the judge who held Derrick Morales in contempt for speaking too long during closing argument?
David, who will be sorely missed in Miami, will join at the Post another Miami Herald veteran, David von Drehle, who wrote the best book on the death penalty, including commentary from the Florida Supreme Court justices, defense attorneys, prosecutors, and families of the defendants: "Among the Lowest of the Dead (The Culture of Death Row)," published in 1995. Many on the blog will recall (even have known personally) the people portrayed in the book, which commences with the re-institution of the death penalty with the John Spenkelink case.
I stopped reading the Herald because of the editorial board’s judicial endorsements and hatred of criminal defendants. They literally just make stuff up. The Herald doesn’t deserve Ovalle.
I often wonder if David’s jury service in the building is what piqued his interest in all things justice building - or - did he downplay his involvement in crime reporting during voir dire in order to sit?
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