CAMPAIGN 2016 ..... NEW FILING IN CIRCUIT COURT

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

UPDATED:

Your next County Court Judge .....

The JNC has met and narrowed the list of applicants for our next County Court Judge.  We posted on November 25th the names of the 23 applicants which you can find here.

The JNC will be interviewing 16 of those applicants on December 14th:

2:00 p.m. Elijah A. Levitt
2:15 p.m. Griska Mena Rodriguez
2:30 p.m. Karl S.H. Brown
2:45 p.m. Luis Perez-Medina
3:15 p.m. Alexander Spicola Bokor
3:30 p.m. Paul Aiello
3:45 p.m. Gina Beovides
4:00 p.m. Joseph J. Mansfield
4:30 p.m. Ramiro C. Areces
4:45 p.m. Norman Powell
5:00 p.m. Julie H. Nelson
5:10 p.m. Peter S. Heller
5:35 p.m. Gordon C. Murray, Sr.
5:45 p.m. John W. Wylie
5:55 p.m. Jonathan Meltz
6:05 p.m. David Alschuler
 

ELECTION CENTRAL 2016 ....... UPDATE

The number of candidates running for Judge will be growing by one sometime this afternoon when attorney Antonio G. Jimenez's papers are filed with the Division of Elections in Tallahassee.  Jimenez will be running, at least for now, in Group 34, an open seat due to the retirement of Judge Gill Freeman.

Mr. Jimenez has been a member of The Florida Bar for nine years.  He served in the U.S. Navy for five years, went to law school at Stetson and then joined the Miami-Dade SAO.  He spent two years there gaining trial experience before going private.  He has been in private practice for the past seven years.  He has two web sites: duimiami.com and jimenezlegal.com.  He is a member of the Florida Traffic Court Rules Committee.

The races are beginning to get very crowded and we still have five months until the filing deadline of May 6, 2016.

There are currently four contested races in Circuit Court:

Group 9: 

Incumbent Jason Bloch v. Marcia Del Rey

Group 34:  (open seat)

Renee Gordon v. Denise Martinez-Scanziani v. Luis Perez-Medina v. Antonio G. Jimenez

Group 52: (open seat; Judge Michael Genden retiring)

Jodie Breece v. Elena Ortega-Tauler v. Raul A. Perez-Ceballos v. Oscar Rodriguez-Fonts

Group 66:

Incumbent Robert Luck v. Yolly Roberson

Also, Group 39 is an open seat due to the retirement of Judge Jorge Rodriguez-Chomat.  Currently David Young is the only candidate that has filed for that open seat.

There is currently one contested race in County Court:

Group 5:

Incumbent Judge Fred Seraphin has not filed yet, but presumably he will do so.  He already has opposition in Milena Abreu.

Group 7:

Incumbent Judge Ed Newman v. Lizzet Martinez

NORTH OF THE BORDER .......

Yet another Broward Judge is in hot water.  This time it is Judge John Patrick Contini, Circuit Court Judge in the Criminal Division.  What did the Honorable Judge do?  Well, it appears he sent a private email, on his personal email account, to an Assistant Public Defender that regularly appeared before him.  Judge Contini had obtained a well written Downward Departure Sentencing Order from a Judge in Palm Beach County.  Contini thought that it would be a great idea for the APD to read it and adopt it to his cases, where appropriate.  The email was circulated around the PD's office and one APD sent the email to an ASA, and well, you can write the rest of the story for yourself.

Suffice it to say that State Attorney Mike Satz moved for Judge Contini to remove himself from a whole bunch of criminal cases; the judge denied the motion; the issue went up to the 4th DCA, and Contini, to add fuel to the fire, decided to spit in the face of the pit ASAs on several occasions subsequent to the issue going to the 4th.  The JQC report called this conduct by Judge Contini, "discourteous, impatient, and undignified conduct."

Here is "one" of the worst parts of the JQC Report:

"During the course of the State's appeal, a stay was placed on hundreds of cases in your Division.  As a result, many of the cases before your division were effectively frozen, and defendants who were incarcerated had to remain behind bars because you were unable to make any rulings or determinations in their case."

Contini is charged with violating no less than 16 different Canons of the Code of Judicial Conduct.

You can read the entire 71 page JQC's Notice of Formal Charges Report here:
 

CAPTAIN OUT .......
Captain4Justice@gamil.com