UPDATE!!!! JUDGE FEDER Of MIAMI ORDERS CANDIDATE LEVY STRICKEN FROM BROWARD BALLOT IN ELECTION RUN-OFF. JUDGE DIJOLS BACK ON BALLOT. BREAKING NEWS. CHECK THE BROWARD BLOG FOR THE LATEST.
We note the irony of a Broward judge having to come to Dade for Justice.
"I said for Justice, we need to see Don Corleone!!!!"
Three very important trials are underway involving our humble little courthouse.
Abe Laeser and Laura Adams continue their relentless pursuit of justice in the horrific case of the abduction on Miami Beach a few years ago of a young couple in which the woman was executed by the side of the road on I-95. The multi-defendant case was severed and up now is David Markus (not the federal blogger) representing the youngest defendant in the case. Will Thomas is the Judge.
Meanwhile in the most interesting case of the trio, former Bahstan FBI agent John Connolly is on trial for his complicity in the slaying of Jai Alia executive John Callahan who was found in the trunk of a car at the Miami International Airport with a dime on his chest. The airport is furious no one has paid the parking tab for the car.
Connolly is alleged to have been mixed up with the Boston Mob and the Whitey Bulger crew. Bulger is on the lam from a federal indictment. Manny Casabielle for the defense, while the recently oft mentioned Michael Von Zamft and some Fed for the State. Wonder how that Fed prosecutor is going to feel without his case agent sitting next to him holding his hand and whispering little nothings in his ear during the trial? Welcome to the real world pal.
And finally, Judge John Schlessinger has taken his act on the road to Orlando where ace Herald Reporter Oh Susannah Nesmith is covering the Michael Hernandez murder trial. Hernandez brutally killed his 14 year old classmate. The defense is insanity.
This is the thing about our little courthouse. We get some of the most interesting, and tragically heart rendering cases in the country.
THE LATE JUDGE FRED NESBITT:
He sat on the 5th floor, back in a time when crimes and traffic/DUI cases were separate in County Court. He glared at you in his bright blue robe, red face, and white hair, and made the new lawyers feel as if there wasn't any other place they would rather be. "This is not what I signed up for" many of them thought. And yet, as David Markus remembers, there was a method to his madness. He trained many lawyers. David wrote this in the comments section based on our post yesterday about Judge Nesbitt's blue robe. It bears repeating here.
david s markus said...Your reference to the late Judge Nesbitt brought a smile to my face. He was my first judge and I learned a lot about being a lawyer from him. He had no time for egos and quickly dispatched mine.
My first case was a shoplifting case defended by Bob Josefsburg. The A-form had a NE address instead of a NW address. Bob sat back and asked very few questions. I knew I was on my way to victory in my first case against a respected lawyer. After laughing about those "new kids" who had just started in the SAO and thought they knew it all (surely an apt reference to me), the judge granted a JOA because I had proven that the crime occurred in the middle of Biscayne Bay.
After he dismissed a few more of my cases,I learned how to prepare a case and how to prove each element. He made you actually prove your cases and didn't act like a rubber stamp just trying to move things along. In his courtroom, legal research and county court were not mutually exclusive terms. He enjoyed a good argument and really challenged me to do my best. I rarely won those arguments; not surprising- he was a brilliant man and, I believe, the valedictorian of his law school class.
Most importantly, he taught me to respect the power of my office and the impact I had on the lives of others, lessons I never forgot. Many disliked him because he was intolerant of lawyers who were not prepared and afraid to go to trial, and let them know it. Many thought he was a crusty, cantankerous curmudgeon; I though he was a wise old man who exemplified how a judge should behave.
Rumpole says: Bob Josefsberg representing misdemeanors. Now that was truly the good old days! See you in court.