HAGUE RETURNS

In an "Ali like" return to the ring, Judge Andy Hague (Ret)., has returned to his roots, soon to be joining the Dade County State Attorneys to begin where he left off- Gang Prosecutions. 
All things come full circle in life and law. 

Judge Hague joins his colleague Judge Brennan (Ret) at the SAO, where there is no truth to the rumor that their offices are secretly referred to as "chambers." 

Longtime and careful readers of the blog may recall that Judge Flor Lobree, currently of the 3rd DCA returned to the SAO when she lost an election. Things seemed to work out for her.

What's going on over there? Is there free lunch? Is it the parking, or do men and women just swoon over a badge? 

In any event, Judge Hague was a great prosecutor, and Dade County is lucky to have him back working to keep our County safe. 

JUDICIAL ELECTIONS 2018 .... MARIN & HAGUE OUT ..... UPDATED

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

JUDICIAL CAMPAIGN UPDATE ... 2018 .....

It has been a busy couple of months since we posted on December 27 and December 28 about the candidates for Circuit and County Court. Several new candidates have filed and many more have  either withdrawn or switched Groups. Here are the highlights from the past three months:

CIRCUIT COURT

In Group 14, Louis Martinez filed on February 6 and Vivianne del Rio joined the Group on March 1. They face Renee Gordon.

In Group 25, "Joe" Perkins, who had filed in Group 79, withdrew his name on March 9^th. He filed in Circuit Group 31 on March 12th; then switched to County Group 18 on March 19^th only to withdraw three days later on March 22nd. The next day he  switched once again and filed to run in this Circuit Group against Yery Marrero.

BREAKING NEWS:

Circuit Court Judge Antonio "Tony" Marin, who was expected to serve out his term in Group 79, suddenly and unexpectedly resigned effective March 9, 2018. As a result, the two candidates that had filed in this Group, Luis Medina and Joe Perkins, were forced to withdraw from the Group as Governor Scott will fill this seat through the JNC.

COUNTY COURT

See if you can keep up with these moves:

In Group 2, Kristy Nunez filed to run on March 20 only to withdraw six days later. Then Rosy Aponte withdrew from Group 32 of the County Court and on March 26^th moved into this Group against Jeff Cynamon.

In Group 18, Betsy Alvarez-Zane joined the Group on March 14^th. Laura Cruz withdrew her name on March 1 and Joe Perkins withdrew his name on March 22. That means that, for the moment, Zane is unopposed.

BREAKING NEWS:

County Court Judge Andrew Hague (Group 21) and I communicated on a few occasions back in December. He explained his three options to me: resign before the end of the filing deadline; serve out his term; or run one more time. Well, he finally made his decision known last week. And it appears that candidate Jacqueline Woodward was smart enough to stay in touch with Hague because on March 23^rd, she withdrew from Group 2 and was the first candidate to file in Group 21. Hague has made his decision and it is to serve out his term and then retire from the bench.

(NOTE: Not only was Woodward the first to file in this now open seat, but in order to scare off any opponents who are thinking about running against her, she plucked down a cool $375,000 of her own money, loaning that amount to her campaign war chest).

In Group 32, Lizzet Martinez filed on February 1. She faces Chris Pracitto.

In Group 33, Madelyn Diaz withdrew on December 29. Mike Mirabal switched from Group 33 to Group 18 to Group 43. That leaves Olanike Adebayo and Eleane Sosa-Bruzon, for now.

In Group 43, Steve Paulson withdrew on March 1. Milena Abreu currently faces Mike Mirabal.

No doubt there will be many more changes before the filing deadline which is on May 4, 2018.

CAPTAIN OUT .......
Captain4Justice@gmail.com

RUMPOLE ON TWITTER/PROBLEMS AT THE HAGUE

Before we get to Twitter, a quick report from the Colonel of County Court:

Attention All County Court Soldiers! The Colonel is in the House.

At ease soldiers, take a knee.

The major shake up in County Court has been the replacement of Judge Bloom with Judge Hague. Things are not going smoothly in Judge Hague's Courtroom, mostly because of Judge Hague's intransigence, which the comment below perfectly states:

Anonymous said...

Dear Judge Slom et al. Why did I have a case infront of Judge Hague at 9:30 am but did not leave his court room until almost 11:30 am? Please tell me why he must go through the calendar in alphabetical order, refuse to take attorney's out of turn and then wait to be done with every other calendar before going back to a certain time! I lost valuable time, I wept on the inside as precious seconds, minutes, then hours passed away from my not so young life and then were gone forever! Which in turn made me late for every single Judge I had to see that morning. Really annoying. Give the bar some respect.

Thursday, February 24, 2011 12:50:00 PM

The Colonel adds- The problem is even worse! Lets say you have Ansel Adams on the 9:30 Calendar and Zela Zelon on the same calendar. When the Adams case is called Judge Hague will normally NOT accommodate you and let you call your other client(s) on the same calendar. You have to sit down and wait. This is not even the "Slom Rule" (no switching between calendars- the clicking predisposes the judge to carpal tunnel syndrome.) This is a complete refusal to recognize that most attorneys in county court have several clients on several calendars before all the judges and IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to sit in Judge Hague's courtroom and wait until he calls each case in turn and make a living by handling the other obligations in other courtrooms. Something has to give because this type of inconsiderate conduct by the Judge turns heads.

Ok Soldiers, the Colonel is out, fall out. As you were.

RUMPOLE ON TWITTER:

@JusticeBuilding.....

A few thousands Egyptians brought down a regime with Twitter so lets see what one slightly dyspeptic and disgruntled blogger can do with the local Court administrators.

Our Twitters promise to be exciting and chock full of exclusive content that you will get nowhere else, including: our Twitter Diet Tip of the Day ( (c) Rumpole 2011); our Twitter Stock Picks ( (c) Rumpole 2011) among others.

Someone told us there is some way we can Twitter our posts so that, upon signing up you will be immediately alerted when our posts go up (usually between 5-6 am). There will also soon be some button you can click on to automatically follow us.

Twitter: It does a blogger good.

Coming soon- Rumpole deposes Castro with a keyboard, a Twitter account, a piece of string and two cups and a half a roll of scotch tape (and some scotch). Just watch. Also Judge Brown suffers a nervous breakdown, but that's for another day.