Monday, July 29, 2024

MONDAY MONDAY

 How was your summer weekend?

In no particular order, here are some things on our mind. 

The Miami SAO ("Now that Satz is gone, proudly carrying the torch for being unreasonable") continues to investigate public defenders while ignoring the patent obstruction of justice by their own top prosecutor. 

In Oklahoma, teachers MUST teach the bible. Query? What  part of the bible? New and Old Testament? Or just the New stuff? What about the Koran? And Budda? In for a penny, in for a pound. 

NY Times has the coverage here. 

DEA agents joked about rape. And then one raped a woman.  AP article here. 

Gerald Ford was asked if and when a woman would be president. His answer?  The first woman president would assume the office as a vice president after the president died in office. Old Gerry was smarter than we give him credit for. 

Historic Vids on X: "President Gerald Ford's in 1989 when asked for advice on how a woman could become president https://t.co/ZfSFT14gRS" / X


This  sheriff in Texas really really wanted to prosecute librarians for allowing teenagers to check out certain books. Wouldn't you love to have a discussion of literature with this lunkhead? 

Hmmm.. maybe just maybe there is a retired Miami Prosecutor in Georgia looking for something to do. Withholding exculpatory discovery is just a few steps from burning books. 

And something fun to help you get through the hot Miami Monday blues. 


57 comments:

  1. Check out the GOAT Jay K’s comment in previous thread. Guy could try the sheeeet out of a case.

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  2. My additional thought of the day.
    Start each day with a task completed. Find someone to help you through life. Respect everyone. Know that life is not fair and that you will fail often. But if you take some risks, step up when the times are the toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden and never ever give up — if you do these things, the next generation and the generations that follow will live in a world far better than the one we have today.

    Thank you Admiral McRaven

    Watch his commencement speech on you tube if you need a pick me up.

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    1. Thank you! Have a wonderful day.

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  3. I LOVE the Marsh Family! WOW. Perfect Monday morning pick-up. Thank you.

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  4. Re: Gerald Ford. One of the most underrated presidents ever and the answer to a trivia question. Who was the last Republican to lose a presidental election and win Michigan, Illinois, and California.

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  5. Need some more drama out of the SAO it’s been quiet lately.

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    1. It’s brewing…

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    2. Ask and ye shall receive!
      Prosecutors’ missteps lead to tossed life sentence for Miami man in 8th-grader’s murder
      https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article290550044.html

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  6. Coffee drunk. Task completed. Time to call it a day.

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  7. Customer service / call center service at the SAO has reached abysmal levels of ineptitude.

    10+ minutes before coming off hold, not knowing how to spell the name of the ASA you are calling in reference to, no apparent familiarity with their own software ("Sorry, I don't know how to do this"), etc.

    Yes, yes, covid etc. We are nearly in 2025 and it does not seem like KFR can staff a government office with better customer service than, say, the DMV.

    Even the most routine calls take 30 minutes. Keep in mind, the only reason to call is that the ASAs do not, as a rule, respond to emails. So you have a legal team unreachable by email, and often unreachable by telephone.

    Given that communication with defense attorneys is the most efficient way of resolving cases - and making their work easier - you might think it would be a priority to encourage such communication, or at least not impede it.

    All of the protestation about corruption in murder cases, etc, is perhaps legitimate. But 99% of the business of the SAO is closing out county cases, resolving minor files, etc., and this likely impacts the defense bar and the citizenry 1000x more than a rogue prosecutor struggling with ethics.

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    1. This isn’t about a rogue prosecutor. It is, as you illustrate in a different context, about mismanagement. It is about a culture of win at all costs instead of doing what is legally correct. The office stinks. It’s run by incompetent boobs and dishonest creeps.

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    2. Goddamnit! That is so perfectly put!

      Amen! The lack of communication and responsiveness is why we have long calendars and county court judges starting their 9:15 calendars at 11:45.

      Answer the goddamn phone. Return the goddamn emails. There’s no reason it should take six months to close out a resisting without violence.

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    3. Agree support staff horrible and standards have dropped to an all time low. Even the way they answer the phone is as if it is an imposition to do their jobs. But turnover is probably so great that the phone lists aren’t kept up to date Which is why they need to ask you to spell asa names.

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    4. Just file a speedy demand

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    5. Most ASAs don’t have the decency, much less professionalism, to return phone calls or emails. Yet another area where they feel that the rules of professional conduct don’t apply to them. Then they go into the private sector and get their asses handed to them because they were never trained to be all-around lawyers.

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    6. Why even compare the two? One inconveniences you, the other ruins peoples lives…

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  8. Re: Gerald Ford. Not appreciated how close he came to winning in 1976. He lost Ohio by one third of one percent and Mississsipi by 14,000 votes. If those states had gone the other way, would have been a different outcome. Carter was weak even when he won when you consider that Watergate and the Nixon pardon was still fresh in the minds of the electorate and that the Republicans were crushed in the 74 midterms. Ford was 30 points behind in August and had come off a brutal primary battle with Reagan. I think he ran the most effective presidential campaign ever.

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  9. 855. What about george pino case in todays paper.

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    1. I’m not surprised at all. That wouldn’t have happened during Janet Reno’s tenure there.

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    2. The Pino investigation (more like the lack thereof) is one of the shoddiest and poorly handled by FWL - and, well, now enter the SAO. The gift that keeps on giving. It runs the gamut in that place. From curruption to incompetence. My heart goes out to the families of the victims because they’ve been victimized all over again. First by Pino, who got away with a BUI, then by law enforcement who failed to conduct a proper BUI investigation, and now by the SAO who couldn’t manage to conduct a thorough investigation in order to charge Pino with obstruction of justice for lying about the other boat. Hopefully they’ll do so before the SOL runs out.

      And as to the lack of communication with the defense on cases, that’s a chronic problem. Especially in county court. No common courtesy. No sense of duty to follow basic rules of professional conduct. Is there anything in their training manuals about communication with defense? Or is this another MVZ training special?

      Disgraceful all around. No ethics, no integrity, no diligence, no accountability, only corruption, vindictiveness, and incompetence. Our community deserves better.

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  10. Rumple already knows about the Pino case. Reizenstein was interviewed about it and quoted in the Herald.

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  11. Strongly disagree 10:19 PM. Those death penalty cases represent but a very small portion of the cases yet the State's abysmal and embarrassing issues with communications is a widespread institutional problem. It is shocking how bad some of the support staff is, their equipment is wretched and the apathy is screaming. Even the DCs are not all diligent at returning emails and calls. I honestly think that their lack of communications is so alarming that it should be viewed as an ethical violation upon the whole office. It is not that I am deaf to the horrible MVZ fiasco but as we all know, the world of death penalty is a completely separate cabal from the rest of criminal law

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  12. Phone calls and emails should be returned within 24 hours. This is the most connected humanity has ever been. There is no excuse not to return phone calls or at the very least emails. All we are trying to do is work toward resolutions on cases, get depositions scheduled, and move things along.

    If division judges are not going to insist that their division prosecutors communicate with opposing counsel, do not be upset when we come to you at sounding asking for another continuance because we have not been able to schedule depositions and we have not made any progress on negotiations

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    1. What do you expect from minimum wage call center employees those are children out of high school.

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    2. Anything brewing? Yawning

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  13. Steve any comment? Where are you?

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    1. Which Steve? We have two controversial characters now??

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  14. Who’s handling the Corey Smith case now?

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  15. SAO policy is emails be returned within 24 hours, at least acknowledging receipt. Start complaining to Jose and Rundle because none of the other chiefs give a crap. They have run this place into the ground.

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  16. Some DCs and ECU attorneys are barely in the office as is Timmy V who “works from home” at his whim. Pull the reports from last 30 days on who actually comes to office and who is violating the three day work from home policy per month. Hey Herald, look at that bro rather than the Gozney bullshit.

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    1. Timay come back to the office someone misses you!!

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    2. You sound like a mistress wanting Timay back.

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    3. There are many “ghost” equivalent attorneys in that office. Joke joke joke - depends on who “looks the other way” and who is the favorite of who - you wonder why we are not getting emails back and our cases are not being prosecuted timely, run the reports of who’s been in the office when the last couple of months. You will be stunned. I have three sources in three separate units who tell me same is still happening. Ask for the days Rundle has been there. Oh wait,!! Years ago they abolished having her have to swipe at gate on way in…. Why could that be??? Is there any record in SAO that would ahow her actual working days. Me thinks not but let’s ask ourselves why.

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    4. Everyone knows that! Tell us something new.

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    5. No, some would just like him to work to collect his 150+ paycheck.

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  17. Don’t the rules of professional conduct require communication and responsiveness? Don’t private lawyers get in trouble with the Bar for these violations? Why not government lawyers?

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    1. Yea but if no one complains in writing to Rundle and Jose, it will keep happening

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    2. There is no professional conduct at the SAO.

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    3. Because no one complains. File a complaint with proof

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  18. 305 547 0100 number is no longer answered....what a joke

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  19. The next step on the SAO's unresponsiveness is to simply attach a PDF of unanswered emails and a phone log of unreturned phone calls to a motion asking the court to enter plea negotiations (as no one else is negotiating).

    Thing is, you'd embarrass and make an enemy of one particular ASA, on whose discretion you could well depend for a final resolution. Does your paying client want you to make an enemy of his ASA?

    It's something that needs to be brought to judges' attention systematically, so as to not make any particular defendants pay the price.

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  20. For every stressed out division ASA drowning in too many cases, if you just took 30 minutes to an hour out of your week to respond to emails and return brief phone calls, you would close out a good number of your cases.

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  21. 15 ECU attorneys who mostly don’t show up for work!

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  22. 15 economic crimes attorneys at sao, when the rest of the office is suffering, and they barely show up for work… Dirty little secret, everybody knows…

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    1. I don’t think there are 15 maybe 5

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  23. Someone, anyone, please tell us who at the SAO has issued the “win at any cost” mandate? Because I have worked here more than 15 years and have never heard that. Ever. I have heard chief assistants mock ASA’s who claim to have never lost a case as cowards who cherry pick trials; so who issued that mandate?

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    1. Dumbest question/comment ever. Exhibit A Corey Smith. Exhibit B Taji Pearson.The rest of the exhibits are coming. Stay tuned.

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    2. 15 years in the mailroom? LOL what rock have you been under? Or is your head in the sand?

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    3. Aaaaaand you didn't answer the question, either of you.
      WHO ISSUED THE MANDATE YOU IDIOTS KEEP REFERING TO??? Give us a name and a date. You don't have to be exact; just tell us the month and year when someone at the SAO issued the "Win At Any Cost" mandate. It would have to be KFR or a Chief Assistant, so please- name them.

      (insert various personal attacks and a complete failure to you answer a very simple question)

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  24. For every division chief with a narcissistic personality disorder take a vacation come back refreshed with a kinder attitude.

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    1. Problem is they are on a perpetual vacation.

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  25. If Pino was not drunk, then, all they have is a misdemeanor for careless operation with injury/death. If he lied to the police, that two is a misdemeanor. So, who cares?

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  26. Support staff standards at sao are absolutely ridiculous, lowest in decades. No accountability and no work ethic.

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  27. Hundreds of fraud complaints went ignored. Two demoted in Miami-Dade prosecutor’ office
    Two Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office employees have been demoted after supervisors discovered a backlog of hundreds of fraud complaints stretching back years. Two Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office employees have been demoted after supervisors discovered a backlog of 700-plus fraud complaint so stretching back years. The result: Hundreds of cases cannot be filed because the allegations are now too old, and taxpayers have lost out on potentially millions in restitution. The complaints had been referred to prosecutors by Florida’s Division of Public Assistance Fraud, which investigates people suspected of abusing programs that help families buy food and baby formula, get disability benefits and receive Medicaid benefits.

    Prosecutors may now be unable to file hundreds of those criminal cases because the statute of limitations, generally three or five years depending on the charge, has expired. They’re still trying to figure out exactly how many cases will be lost.

    An analysis by the State Attorney’s Office, for example, showed that 226 cases from 2017 have been lost because they are too old, cases that could have netted $2.3 million in restitution through the criminal court system. Another 185 cases expired in 2019, the state said. “ In law enforcement, it is always disappointing to have trusted employees failing to do their jobs responsibly,” said Ed Griffith, a State Attorney’s spokesman.

    Her supervisor, Taline Starr, was also demoted because she knew about the backlog “for several years,” and the problem only worsened. Her inability to “coach or counsel” Davis led to the “pending workload to grow to an unmanageable level,” according to her discipline memo.

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