THREE NEW JUDGES IN MIAMI-DADE COUNTY .......

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

AND YOUR THREE NEWEST JUDGES IN MIAMI-DADE COUNTY .......

CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE ARIANA FARJARDO ORSHAN

Judge Fajardo-Orshan has been a member of The Florida Bar for the past 25 years. She was appointed to the bench in 2012 by Governor Rick Scott and served as a Circuit Court Judge from 2012 until 2016 . She was appointed by President Trump as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and served from 2018 until 2021. From 1996-2002 she served as an ASA in Miami-Dade County, her first job out of law school. Judge Farjardo-Orshan replaced Judge Rosa Figarola who resigned in July.

CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE DIANA VIZCAINO

Judge Vizcaino has been a member of  The Florida Bar for the past 20 years. She previously served as an Assistant City Attorney for the City of Miami from 2008 until 2015. She began her career as an ASA in Miami-Dade County from 2000-2005. In 2015 she was appointed to the County Court bench by Governor Rick Scott. She won election uncontested in 2016. Judge Vizcaino replaces Judge Martin Zilber who resigned in July.

COUNTY COURT JUDGE LAURA GONZALEZ

Ms. Gonzalez has been a member of The Florida Bar for 11 years. She is currently Of Counsel to the Law Firm of Kobre & Kim. She has been with that firm for the past five years. She previously was an associate at Holland & Knight. She focuses her practice on advising institutional and individual clients in cross-border white-collar criminal defense and internal investigations, regulatory enforcement matters and parallel complex civil disputes. Ms. Gonzalez replaces Judge Miguel Mirabal who resigned in July.

POST-SCRIPT:

The three appointees were informed of the news by Governor DeSantis on Monday, September 13. They were asked to keep the news to themselves until today because Governor DeSantis wanted to hold a Press Conference in Tallahassee today announcing the appointment of 20 new Circuit & County Court judges in five Circuits and ten County Courts: 4th, 9th, 11th, 15th, and 18th Circuits, and Citrus, Hillsborough, Lee, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Orange, Palm Beach, Pasco, Polk, and St. Johns Counties. Governor DeSantis' reasoning for holding the press conference on the holiest day of the Jewish year, Yom Kippur, was because he wanted to make the announcement on the day before Constitutional Day, which takes place tomorrow.

============================

Are expected to be named today by Governor DeSantis from the following finalists:

Replacing Judge Rosa Figarola & Judge Martin Zilber: (both having resigned from the bench in July)

(two names from the list below)

Christine Bandin
Karl Brown
Miesha Darrough
Javier Enriquez
Ariana Fajardo Orshan
Scott Janowitz
Jeffrey Kolokoff
Natalie Moore
Luis Perez-Medina
Christopher Pracitto
Stephanie Silver
Diana Vizcaino

Replacing Judge Miguel Mirabal: (resigned from the bench in July)

(one name from the list below)

Heloiza Correa
Javier Enriquez
Laura Gonzalez
Christopher Green 
Marcia Giordano Hansen 
Kevin Hellman 

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

GOV. SCOTT NAMES THREE NEW MIAMI-DADE JUDGES .....

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

THREE NEW JUDGES COMING TO A COURTROOM NEAR YOU .....

Tonight, Governor Scott, announced the appointment of three new Judges in Miami-Dade County. Scott leaves office on January 7, 2019; (maybe even earlier if he is confirmed to have won the Senate race), and he clearly wants to leave his final and lasting impressions on trial court benches throughout the State. He moved quickly to name replacements for Circuit Court Judges Stephen Millan and Ariana Farjardo Orshan and County Court Judge Wendell Graham.


CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE ALEXANDER BOKOR

Judge Bokor, age 40, has been a member of The Florida Bar for 13 years. Bokor was an Assistant County Attorney, when, in October of 2016, Scott named him to the County Court bench. Two years later and Bokor is now a Circuit Court Judge replacing Stephen Millan. Bokor had applied to open seats on the Circuit Court, 3^rd DCA, and Florida Supreme Court all within the past two months.


CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE CARLOS GUZMAN

Judge Guzman, age 48, has been a member of The Florida Bar for 21 years. Guzman was an ASA for two years, then worked for the FBI for six years as a legal advisor, followed by two years in private practice before working as a Chief Assistant Statewide Prosecutor for five years.  He was named a County Court Judge by Governor Scott in 2012. Six years later he becomes a Circuit Court judge replacing Judge Farjardo Orshan.


COUNTY COURT JUDGE LODY JEAN

Lody Jean, age 40, has been a member of The Florida Bar for 14 years. Jean was born in Haiti of Lebanese decent. For the first eight years of her legal career she was employed as an ASA in Miami-Dade County. She has been in private practice for the past six years handling immigration and criminal defense matters. She is the Immediate Past President of the Haitian Lawyers Association. She replaces Judge Wendell Graham.


NORTH OF THE BORDER .....

Congrats to Miami-Dade ASA Frank Ledee. Governor Scott named Ledee a Circuit Court Judge today in Broward County replacing Judge John Contini.

Scott named a total of ten new judges today, the four aforementioned judges as well as six others in Broward (County Judge Natasha DePrimo and Circuit Judge Gina Hawkins); 7^th Circuit (Circuit Judge Christopher Ferebee, Ponte Vedra Beach); Palm Beach (County Judge Paige Hardy Gillman); 5^th Circuit (Circuit Judge Gregg Jerald, Ocala); 14^th Circuit (Circuit Judge Dustin Stephenson, Panama City).

Governor Scott still has ten names on his desk for two open seats on the 3^rd DCA. We expect he will name those replacements sometime in the next 30 days.

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

EIGHT NEW JUDGES COMING TO A COURTROOM NEAR YOU .....

BREAKING SATURDAY AFTERNOON: JUDGE KAVANAUGH CONFIRMED TO US SUPREME COURT IN 5-48 VOTE. Rumpole not to be nominated to fill Kavanaugh's seat on DC Court of Appeals. 

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

BREAKING NEWS:

AND YOUR THREE NEWEST COUNTY COURT JUDGES ARE ......

Today, Governor Rick Scott announced the appointment of three new County Court judges to replace Judges Dawn V. Denaro, Andrea Ricker Wolfson, and Renatha S. Francis; all three were previously promoted to the Circuit Court.

JUDGE CHRISTINE BANDIN, age 39, currently a partner with Shutts and Bowen. She has been a member of The Florida Bar for 11 years. She currently handles the defense of class action and mass litigation cases for them. She replaces Judge Andrea Ricker Wolfson

JUDGE RAUL CUERVO, age 63, currently a shareholder at Carlton, Fields, Jorden, Burt. He has been a member of The Florida Bar for 33 years. He currently handled the defense of insurance claims, class action suits, and commercial litigation cases. He replaces Judge Renatha Francis.

JUDGE LUIS PEREZ-MEDINA, age 58, currently an ASA at Miami-Dade’s State Attorney’s Office. He has been a member of The Florida Bar for 12 years and has worked at the SAO for his entire career. He ran for an open Circuit Court seat in 2016 in a four way race coming in second place in the primary. In the general election run-off he lost a close contest to Judge Mark Blumstein, 51%-49%. He fills the vacancy created by Judge Dawn Denaro.


SO, YOU WANT TO BE A JUDGE .....

3^RD DCA & CIRCUIT COURT & COUNTY COURT .....

THIRD DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL:

Chief Judge Leslie Rothenberg and Judge Richard Suarez are resigning from the 3^rd DCA. As a result, the 3^rd DCA JNC is accepting applications for their replacements.

If you carefully watched the shenanigans that took place in 2016 with President Obama’s nomination of Merritt Garland to the then open Scalia seat, a nomination that was never even considered by the Senate’s Judiciary Committee for nearly a year, then you need to also think about these two open seats on the 3^rd DCA.

Over the next three months, despite the fact that Rick Scott is a lame duck Governor, he will likely appoint, or attempt to appoint a number of judges on the County Court, Circuit Court, DCAs, and yes, three open seats that will be on the Florida Supreme Court.

The 3^rd DCA JNC has provided only 19 days for applications to be submitted for the two open seats. The deadline is October 15^th. The Interviews are scheduled to take place the following week, on October 22-23. That means that Governor Scott should be receiving the finalists names on his desk on the evening of October 23, 2018. The Governor then has 60 days to choose the two replacements, with a deadline of December 22^nd.  Compare this to past history of DCA appointments by Scott and you notice that this particular appointment process has been expedited by approximately fourteen days; exactly the amount of days Scott will have remaining as Governor.   

So, in his final two weeks in office, Scott would likely be choosing the two new 3^rd DCA judges, despite the fact that, by then the Governor-Elect will have been known for a full 46 days.

CIRCUIT COURT:

With the resignation of Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan, (she is now the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida), Governor Scott also gets to name her replacement. Surprisingly, only ten applied for her seat. Those ten names were considered by the JNC and they have elected to interview two, consider four others who have already been recently interviewed, and not consider four others.

WILL BE INTERVIEWED ON 10/9/18:

DiRaimondo, Christina Marie
Guzman, Carlos

WILL BE CONSIDERED WITHOUT THE NEED FOR AN INTERVIEW:

Altfield, William I.
Bokor, Alexander S.
Brinkley, Tanya J.
Perez-Medina, Luis

WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED:

Barton King, Michelle
Guitian Barker, Maria A.
Cabarga, Carmen R.
Perkins, Joseph

The finalists’ names will likely reach Governor Scott’s desk on the evening of October 9, 2018 with a deadline to name Judge Fajardo Orshan’s replacement of December 8, 2018; again, a full month after the Gubernatorial Election of 2018.

With the resignation of Judge Stephen Millan, the JNC interviewed seven applicants for the open Circuit Court seat including: William Altfield, Alexander Bokor, Tanya Brinkley, Ayana Harris, Gordon Murray, Jorge Perez, and Luis Perez-Medina.

The following names have been sent to Governor Scott:

Judge William Altfield
Judge Alexander Bokor
Judge Tanya Brinkley
Ayana Harris
Luis Perez-Medina

COUNTY COURT:

With the retirement of Judge Wendell Graham, the JNC interviewed one applicant for the open County Court seat: Ariel Rodriguez. They also considered all those applicants that were interviewed for the Denaro, Wolfson, and Francis vacancies.

The following names have been sent to Governor Scott:

Julie Harris Nelson
Jonathan Meltz
Gavin N.L. White

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

BAD DAY FOR JUDGE MILLAN AND JUDGE ORITZ; GOOD DAY FOR JUDGE FAJARDO ORSHAN .....

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

BREAKING NEWS ..... AND IT'S NOT GOOD NEWS FOR EITHER JUDGE STEPHEN MILLAN NOR JUDGE MARIA ORTIZ

The Florida Supreme Court does not take Friday's off.  Today they issued two rulings, one each affecting the future of Judge Millan and Judge Ortiz.  For very different reasons each judge has faced an Investigative Panel of the JQC.  Both judges woes have been well documented on this Blog, on Ortiz here, and on Millan here and here.

JUDGE STEPHEN MILLAN:

The Florida Supreme Court issued an Order today rejecting the proposed Sanctions against Judge Stephen Millan.

On May 21, 2018, Judge Krista Marx, on behalf of the Investigative Panel of the JQC, issued the following recommendation:

"... the Investigative Panel of the Commission recommends to the Court that Judge Millan be suspended without pay for a period of 30-days, that he receive a public reprimand, and that he pay a $5,000 fine, to cover the administrative costs of providing judicial coverage during his suspension."

The Florida Supreme Court weighed in today stating:

"Upon consideration of the Judicial Qualifications Commission’s Findings and Recommendation of Discipline and the parties’ Stipulation, the Court rejects the Stipulation and disapproves the proposed sanctions.

We remand for further proceedings to include a full hearing before the Judicial Qualifications Commission in order to fully develop the facts regarding any misconduct that occurred, so that the Court, in determining the appropriate discipline, will be apprised of all the facts and circumstances bearing on the alleged violations."

JUDGE MARIA ORTIZ:

The Florida Supreme Court issued an Order today rejecting the proposed Sanctions against Judge Maria Ortiz.

On May 4, 2018, Judge Krista Marx, on behalf of the Investigative Panel of the JQC, issued the following recommendation:

"... the Investigative Panel of the Commission submits to the Court, that a public reprimand and a fine of $5,000 are sufficient to address Judge Ortiz’s conduct, and likewise serves as a reminder to all judges about the importance of monitoring their personal finances, and accurate reporting on their financial disclosures."

The Florida Supreme Court weighed in today stating:

"Upon consideration of the Judicial Qualifications Commission’s Findings and Recommendation of Discipline and the parties’ Stipulation, the Court rejects the Stipulation and disapproves the proposed sanctions.

We remand for further proceedings to include a full hearing before the Judicial Qualifications Commission in order to fully develop the facts regarding any misconduct that occurred, so that the Court, in determining the appropriate discipline, will be apprised of all the facts and circumstances bearing on the alleged violations."

IN OTHER NEWS .....

Congratulation to Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan who got the phone call she had been waiting for.  Pres. Trump yesterday nominated her to become the next U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.  Judge Fajardo Orshan is a graduate of Nova Law. Directly out of law school in 1996, she became an ASA and worked for KFR for six years before joining a family law firm where she spent the next nine years. In 2012, Gov. Scott appointed her to the Circuit Court. She then won a six year term in 2014 unopposed.  The nomination is subject to Senate confirmation.

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