MONDAY JUNE 8 NEWS AND NOTES

 We have some good news. See below. 

The Pino trial began today, and we heard it was broadcast live on television. We did not watch it, but overheard someone say that the defendant was sobbing so badly at one point during his counsel Scott Srebnick's opening that Judge Tinkler-Mendez stopped the trial.  Never a good sign. 

Once we had a jury come back in less than thirty minutes and our client started taking off his belt and watch and handing it to his wife. We walked over and snarled "put your f'ing belt back on. You ain't going nowhere." And he all he did was go home that night. It's a hard enough job. Client's need to have a little faith in their counsel. 

Laura Adams leads the prosecution and she's as good as it gets. 

GUESS WHO IS BACK? 

He's like a bad penny that keeps turning up. 

Everyone's favourite Miami crime reporter extraordinaire- David Ovalle- is back as the failing NY Times Florida Correspondent. 

Florida needs a reporter devoted full time to a national newspaper. We lead the country in weirdness. It's not like the NY Times has a New Mexico reporter, or a South Dakota reporter. 

Here is part of the Times news release announcing David's position: 

For years, many of the wildest and most memorable stories coming out of Florida bore the same byline: David Ovalle. 

Covering crime and criminal justice for The Miami Herald, David wrote about a murder rooted in Miami’s niche world of pigeon racing. A businessman who used $2.1 million in pandemic loans to buy “the peak Miami status symbols,” including a Lamborghini. The brazen theft from a warehouse of thousands of pairs of the body-shaping undergarments known as fajas – think Spanx, but Spanish.

In his more recent job at The Washington Post, David spent three years covering addiction, illegal drugs and public health policy. Steve Smith, his editor for most of that time and now a deputy on Metro, says: “David reports with intensity and empathy. He writes with precision and elan. He can spot a great story — and a charlatan — a mile away. And his talents as a writer and a reporter are eclipsed only by his decency and caring as a colleague.”... He owned the crime and courts beat thanks to deep sources that he built in police departments and courthouses. He wrote about police shootings and alleged misconduct; the Parkland school massacre, and complex legal cases involving the Stand Your Ground defense and the death penalty.

We’re pleased he’s joining the National desk as Florida correspondent.

Just who were they speaking of about Ovalle's "deep sources"? We'll never tell.