POST ELECTION ANALYSIS ........ COVID STYLE

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

SOME POST ELECTION ANALYSIS .......

JUDGE TUNIS

The Blog has rarely received as much negative commentary about one criminal court judge. Peter Adrien comes to mind, but that was for a totally different kind of criticism. No doubt Judge Tunis was not a favorite of many of our readers.

First, Tunis got caught with her pants down. She sat on the County and Circuit Court bench for 20 years and she never once had opposition in an election. She expected the same in 2020. Her opponent, Ms. Aponte, it could also be said, never drew so much commentary compared to any other challenger to an incumbent. That commentary from our readers was certainly ignited by the explosive writings of our Blog's Author, Horace Rumpole.

Aponte filed against Judge Gordon Murray in Group 38 of County Court in September of 2019 and she Qualified for that race. She was in that race through Thursday of Qualifying Week. It was one day before the end of Qualifying when she pulled the switcheroo and jumped into the Circuit Court race against Tunis.

Tunis threw down $150,000 of her own money into her campaign war chest figuring that would scare off any opponents. In fact she did virtually zero campaigning through March of 2020. She had only raised $8,575 when Aponte jumped into the race. Contrary to some comments from yesterday, Tunis did go on to raise a total of $128,000 from 326 contributors for the overall campaign.

Aponte, as I reported earlier, had the least amount of contributors for a winning contested election in the history of Miami-Dade County, ten people gave a total of $6,300 (and two of them were Joe Klock ($750) and his Law Firm Rasco Klock ($500).

Anyone who actually thinks that the 209,895 citizens who cast their vote for Aponte had a clue as to the negative commentary about Tunis - well, you all have been smoking your client’s hydroponic weed.

Aponte lost in 2016 to Oscar "Rodriguez-Fonts"; (Carol Breece was also in that race; Aponte came in third). Aponte lost in 2018 to Kristy "Nunez".

JUDGE REBULL

Another incumbent who drew a last minute challenger. Ms. Martinez-Scanziani also filed on the Thursday of Qualifying Week, one day before the deadline. But, Rebull was prepared for a challenge. He raised more money than we have seen in a contested raise in probably the past two decades. Rebull raised a total of $408,400 and spent over $387,000 as of last week.

Ms. Martinez-Scanziani raised only $55,000 and spent it all. She also was a previous two-time loser having lost to Judge Bernie Shapiro in 2008 and then again in 2016 in a four way race against eventual winner Mark Blumstein, and Luis Perez-Medina, and Renee Gordon; (Martinez came in last).

For those of you who think that the 192,744 voters for Martinez-Scanziani knew anything about the "transcript" or about Rebull and his courtroom demeanor - well you all have been smoking the same weed.

JUDGE MANSFIELD

Joe clearly was not prepared for a campaign. Not sure why as he was an appointed judge facing the voters for the first time. He raised $17,800 while his opponent Miguel Mirabal raised over $68,000. (Does Mirabal’s campaign photo remind you of a 1970's porn star?). (Go here for a look).

A wise commenter pointed out that Anglos have beaten Hispanics in recent judicial contests. But, what they didn’t factor in was the very different kind of campaign we had in 2020. Pre-Covid was the time when every candidate attended a live breakfast in Homestead or Perrine, a lunch in Little Havana or Hialeah and a dinner in Aventura or Miami Gardens, every single day from April until August. Thousands upon thousands of voters had the opportunity to see and hear and speak with the actual candidates. They were much better able to separate the wheat from the chaff. Not so with this election - and that my friends made all the difference in the world. Heck, Rosy Aponte, not only didn’t have to attend those breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, she didn’t even attend the Zoom forums following her "colored people" comment to the Black Lawyers (Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. Bar Association) forum.

NORTH OF THE BORDER

STATE ATTORNEY

A complete shocker in Browierd as heavily favored candidate Sarahnell Murphy, a 24 year veteran of Mike Satz’ office and the candidate Satz endorsed lost in an eight way battle to a black attorney named Harold Fernandez Pryor. Pryor has been an attorney for all of seven years; (he served as an ASA for three of them). In fact Murphy could do no better than third behind Pryor and Joe Kimok (who lost to Pryor by a mere 2,600 votes out of the 206,200 cast).

Expect to see a major shake-up of the policies and procedures in the Broward State Attorney’s Office and they are both welcomed and way overdo.

PUBLIC DEFENDER

No surprise in Broward’s newly elected PD Gordon Weekes, who was Howard Finklestein’s number two for the past decade. What was a shocker is what Finkelstein did the day after the election.

He fired Weekes opponent, Ruby Green. Weekes faced retired judge Tom Lynch and Green; (Ruby came in a respectable second place). Green is 33 years old and had spent her entire eight year career working for Finkelstein and under Weekes. Weekes was the anointed successor to Finkelstein but Tom Lynch, and Green, decided to take their best shots.

Green is the current President of BACDL and she told the Sun Sentinel that she had no doubt she would be terminated after the election. From the Sun Sentinel:

"I was told not to run, I was told I couldn’t do it and I was told I was going to get fired," she wrote. "Nevertheless, I persisted because I know I am the change we seek. I know that there are so many things that happen in this office that are just down right WRONG, and I refused to sit back and let it happen ... This is not going to stop me."

Green received the following email from Finkelstein, on Wednesday at 8:34 AM:

"Thank you for your service. Your services are no longer required. Your termination is immediate."


T-74 days until the real Super Tuesday, November 3, 2020

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

TUNIS GETS AN OPPONENT

The Captain is all over this. 

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

MAJOR, MAJOR, BIG TIME BREAKING NEWS .....

Incumbent Judge Dava Tunis has drawn an opponent.

Candidate Rosy Aponte, who filed and qualified to run against Incumbent Judge Gordon Murray in Group 38 of the County Court has just switched to filing to run against Judge Tunis in Circuit Court Group 75.

Aponte has previously been unsuccessful in seeking a seat on the bench:

- she ran for a County Court seat against Judge Kristy Nunez in 2018, losing
that race by 52 % to 48%.
- she ran for a Circuit Court seat against Judge Oscar Rodriguez-Fonts and Carol Breece in 2016. Ms. Aponte failed to make the runoff as she gained only 26% of the vote compared to Rodrgiuez Fonts (34%) and Breece (40%) in the Primary.

Judge Tunis was first appointed by Governor Bush in 2005. She ran unopposed in 2008 and again ran unopposed in 2014. She has never faced an opponent. UNTIL NOW.

CAPTAIN OUT .......

Rumpole Notes...we are trying to be judicious here. An adjective we neither seek nor want. So we do not want call people names like "an unqualified slug" and such. 

Aponte should be ashamed of herself. Judge Tunis is dedicated and hard working. She does not merit an opponent. Neither did Judge Murray for that matter. Aponte is singularly unqualified to be a judge in our opinion. Twice rejected by the voters of Miami who have had a chance to vet her, she should stop playing games and trying to bully judges. Go away. We do not want you on the bench. You are trading on your name to make up for a truly undistinguished career as a lawyer. You are becoming the Covid-19 candidate- a virus no one wants. 
As always, we invite the person we have discussed to email us a response which we guarantee will be posted unedited. Equal time as it were. 

Here is part of a prior post about Ms. Aponte:
Ms. Aponte luckily managed to avoid payment of her debts through a discharge she obtained in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Interestedly, Ms. Aponte's complete ineptitude has been highlighted recently by the Hon. A J Cristol who barred her from practicing before the United States Bankruptcy Court as a result of her confession that she had no clue what she was doing in a contested chapter 7 case. Ms. Aponte's stellar representation resulted in the debtor and multiple family members of the debtor, including his elderly mother being held in contempt of court, faced with incarceration and substantially sanctioned. Unbowed, in yet another case pending before the Hon. Laurel Isicoff, Ms. Aponte was ordered to show cause and sanctioned as a result of filing an unsuspecting alleged debtor in bankruptcy without ever having met her client. Her excuse was simple, someone in her office used her credentials . 

LETS GET TO WORK v1.0

UPDATE: ROC ROLL AND REMEMBER WITH TUNIS IN 2011.....Breaking today: Judge Dava Tunis to ROC court to fill the Julio Jimenez division. Julio to civil(??). Hottest unconfirmed rumor is that Darrin Gayles, the peripatetic former County Court Judge, who was sent to Seff's old division and never made it (promotion) and then was tentatively scheduled for Juvie/Dependency may never make it there and may end up in Tunis's old division. Stay tuned...bulletins at once (or at least after the gym and spa, or if not then, then after dinner as there is limited internet connection in Bourbon Steak in the 4 Seasons where we have been dining lately.)

Our new Governor is sworn in today at 11:00 am. There will be a parade and fireworks afterward and then a Governor's ball tonight.

So much for Republican austerity.

Although he pledged to get Florida back to work, one of our new governor's first acts was to disband a state agency and put all those employees out of work.

Birthdays:

One of our favourite biographers- Doris Kearns Goodwin turns 68. Don't miss her Lincoln work- Team of Rivals, as well as her "No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor."

Don Shula turns 81 today. Happy Birthday Coach: any interest in returning?

Obama's Day: AF One lands around 11:00 am with the first family and then the President is in the oval office in the afternoon. Only scheduled meeting is with Sec Def Gates.

This week in Congress: The 112th Congress is sworn in and then an alphabetic voice role call for a vote for the Speaker of the House. First official order of business? On Thursday they will read the Constitution from 10:30-12:30. Then they will crumple it up and move on to their own special interests.

REGJB ROTATION UPDATE: (via the Colonel of County Court)

Judge Vicki Brennan will leave her comfortable digs at Family Court/Domestic Violence and roll up her robe sleeves and take over Judge Seff's (nee Gayles) DUI division and dive right into to the world of breath samples, roadside exercises, HGN, and such.

Welcome Judge B.

Check out the JAA Blog for their coverage of the new Broweird Judicial assignments. See "Courthouse Feng Shui".

Hall of Fame QB Brett Favre has in all probability left the NFL. No more sports for him. But he will be in a courtroom for a while to come, as a few masseuses from the NY Jets have sued him for losing their jobs after they complained about receiving sexually suggestive text messages.

If he thought D-Line took cheap shots, wait till he gets a load of a bunch of civil lawyers trying to make a name for themselves.

It's nice here in DC. We may stay for a bit.

See you in court.

YOU ASKED FOR IT

Readers have been emailing us and writing comments asking about Judge Dava Tunis, her decision as a Florida Bar Referee in a disciplinary proceeding, and the State Attorney's Office's recent close out memo on the Loyalty Oath fiascoes.

Courtesy of the Daily Business Review, here is the link to the close out memo:
MEMO

Apparently Judges Orlando Prescott, Linda Singer-Stein and Dava Tunis have signatures on their loyalty oaths ("are you now or have you ever been Rumpole?") that were forged.

As the close out memo states, there was no criminal motive for the Judges to execute forged loyalty oaths (other than them being Rumpole), and while it appears that the notary for all three oaths was the same employee in the Court's large bureaucracy, no criminal charges are being brought because of the statute of limitations.

As to Judge Tunis's findings in some obscure Bar disciplinary proceeding, do you really care? Some lawyer did a bunch of stuff he shouldn't have done...blah blah blah...there will be some form of punishment, and life in our humble little courthouse will go on. In the scheme of things, aren't the Marlins and their surprising success this season much more interesting and relevant?

See you in court, where we don't read the reports of bar disciplinary proceedings, but we do peruse the box scores.

PS. If such things interest you and you really have nothing better to do, the sentencing phase of the disciplinary proceeding is on Wednesday June 4, 2008, courtroom 6-3 at 2:00 PM. Tickets on sale at your local Ticketmaster.