THERE IS NO "DIVERSITY" ON THE BENCH .... NEW COUNTY COURT JUDGE .....

 

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

GOVERNOR NAMES NEWEST COUNTY COURT JUDGE IN RECORD TIME ...... Breaking tonight

It was just last week, October 26th to be exact, that the 11th Circuit JNC sent the following six names to the Governor's desk as a result of a vacancy on the County Court bench due to the elevation of County Court Judge Diana Vizcaino:

Karl Brown

Heloiza Correa

Javier Enriquez

Christopher Green

Kevin Hellman

Christopher Pracitto

To the credit of the JNC, half of the nominees had a background in criminal defense as Chris Green began his career as an APD, Kevin Hellman has been with the PD's office for his entire career, and Chris Pracitto is a practicing criminal defense attorney.

Of course this means that none of those three nominees ever had a chance once their names arrived on the Governor's desk. DeSantis has been in office for 34 months now and to date he has only named two PD's to the bench, Ayana Harris (AFPD) and Barry Dickson (APD - appointed to the Escambia County Court).* Contrast that with the fact that our Governor, who likes to brag about the diversity of his appointments, has named 94 ASAs, AUSA, AAGs to the bench of which 57 were working in that capacity at the time of their appointment.

Congratulations to our newest County Court Judge Javier Enriquez, who is currently the General Counsel to the Department of Children & Families (DCF). Judge Enriquez has been a lawyer for - wait for it - exactly seven years. His current assignment has him working in Tallahassee. Enriquez' name was recently on the Governor's desk back in July of this year when he was a finalist for the two open Circuit court seats (Rosa Figarola and Martin Zilber). In 2018, Enriquez ran for State House District 114 against Incumbent Javier Fernandez losing 53% to 47%. Enriquez is a member of the Federalist Society (shocking, I know).

He now joins our Miami-Dade brethren on the County Court bench. Welcome Judge Enriquez.

FACDL-MIAMI 2021 AWARDS GALA - VIRTUAL

The Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers - Miami Chapter will Zoom into your living rooms this Saturday evening at 6:00 PM. If the event comes close to last year's Emmy winning performance hosted by Matthew ("Mike") Meyers then this is must see TV.

You can catch all the action here:

Please click the link below to join the webinar:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87327565273?pwd=NUVrb1E0VDlkVUtsdm1ic1paa0d3dz09

Congrats to all of the honorees:

Judge Andrea Wolfson - The Gerald Kogan Judicial Distinction Award AKA "The Kogie"

Jeffrey Weiner - The Pearson-Prebish Founders Award

Audra Cohen - The Rodney Thaxton "Against All Odds" Award

Yanelis Zamora - The Gregg Wenzel Outstanding Young Lawyer's Award

Let's all congratulate and recognize our great profession and our colleagues, and judges, who strive to make a difference.

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

*Governor DeSantis has also named seven former APD's to the bench.

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.

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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