Update: Check out the Broward Blog post PSCC Lovefest.
It's about the success of Broward's First Appearance Court. And it really is working. As PD Howard Finkelstein pointed out, it only took Broward 35 years to finally follow Florida's first appearance law. Prior to this happening, this was the kind of backwards jurisprudence, or absence thereof, that really drove attorneys from other counties to distraction over the unbelievably unfair practices in Broward.
Former Judge Chumbley:
There is no joy here. We are all human beings. Even judges. We all put our pants on one leg at at a time. We all have our positive qualities and we all have our negative qualities and we all have private matters we never want publicised. Unfortunately for Judge Chumbley he has been charged with the misdemeanor of indecent exposure. He is of course innocent until proven guilty and indeed he may very well be innocent of this conduct.
The point is that even the best and brightest among us- Judges, or Sheriff Ken Jenne in Broward, are not perfect. And it is in that spirit that we write this so that those who do Judge- Judges and Prosecutors- might consider the human element in the difficult work we do. And we acknowledge that many Judges and prosecutors do just that. But some do not, and this is an occasion to remember that the criminal justice system is not "just-us." It is not us against them ("them" being the defendants).
Martin Luther King wrote that "justice is truth in action." And some times Justice is remembering that not one of us can cast the first stone, because in some manner all of us have sinned.
We sincerely wish Mr. Chumbley the best.
See you in court, a bit sadder.