TWO NEW COUNTY COURT JUDGES COMING TO A COURTROOM NEAR YOU .....

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

AND YOUR TWO NEWEST COUNTY COURT JUDGES ARE:

LAURA SHEARON CRUZ. Ms. Shearon Cruz is 39 years old and she has been a member of The Florida Bar since 2007 out of Tulane Law School. She spent her first four years working as an ASA, then left the office in 2011 to join Wicker Smith doing civil litigation (defense insurance cases). She returned four years later in 2015 and she is currently a DC and handles homicide cases. She was born in Memphis and she grew up in Alabama. Her father was an attorney and her great grandfather was criminal court Judge in Tennessee. She is married to Erick Cruz, former ASA and current criminal defense attorney. Judge Cruz replaces Judge Ivonne Cuesta. ***Up until today, Shearson Cruz was a candidate in Group 18 of the County Court running against Mike Mirabal. (Group 18 is an open seat due to the retirement of Judge White Labora).

CHRISTINA DIRAIMONDO. Ms. DiRaimondo is 33 years old and she has been a member of The Florida Bar since 2010 out of Nova Law. She is also with the State Attorney’s Office and she replaces Judge Laura Ann Stuzin. She is also a Division Chief and has been with the office for all seven years of her career.

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

SO, YOU WANT TO BE A CIRCUIT/COUNTY COURT JUDGE .....

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS ⚖:
(MM - check out the emoji; that's supposed to be the scales of justice. You are no longer "the only blogger in the history of the Justice Building Blog to use an emoji").

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

CIRCUIT COURT

The Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC) for the 11^th Circuit has completed their interviews for the candidates wishing to replace retired Judge Rosa Rodriguez. The six names sent to Governor Scott include:

Judge William Altfield
Judge Tanya Brinkley
Judge Carlos Guzman
Ayana Harris
Judge Spencer Multack
Judge Andrea Wolfson

Governor Scott is expect to name our newest Circuit Court Judge by no later than January 27, 2018.

COUNTY COURT

The JNC has also completed their interviews to replace Judge Ivonne Cuesta and Judge Laura Ann Stuzin. They were both recently elevated to the Circuit Court. The 12 names that have been sent to Governor Scott are:

Milena Abreu (current candidate for County Court Judge)
Ramiro Areces
Karl Brown
Laura Cruz (current candidate for County Court Judge)
Raul Cuervo
Christina DiRaimondo
Peter Heller
Elijah Levitt
Jonathan Meltz
Julie Harris
Luis Perez-Medina (current candidate for Circuit Court Judge)
Natalie Rico

Governor Scott will name the two replacements by no later than February 13, 2017.

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

NEW JUDGES

"No Judge writes on a wholly clean slate."
Felix Frankfurter, 1937. 

Judges Ivonne Cuesta and Laura Stuzin were elevated from county court to circuit court this week, replacing the vacancies that occurred with the retirement of Judge Cardonne-Ely, and elevation of Judge Lindsey to the 3rd District Court of PCA Appeals. 

Judges Altfield, Brinkley and Multack, along with ASA Luis Perez-Medina were among those whose names were sent to Tallahassee but were not given a seat when the music stopped. 


Judge Rosa Rodriguez, a former Dade Public Defender, resigned from the Circuit court after 18 1/2 years on the bench, effective Halloween, 2017. Boo!

Judges ought to be more learned than witty, more reverend than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.
Francis Bacon, "Essay LVI: Of Judicature", Essays (1625).

PD EXODUS/ WEEKEND JAIL/ RUSSIAN DIVORCE

Several PDs are leaving their office this month for good, including new FACDL President Eduardo Pereira, who also sent out an email with this message about weekend jail:

[R]ecent emails have circulated regarding the cancellation of 'Weekend Jail.'  I can report to you that we were in receipt of Director Ryan's memo and that I met with Mr. Ryan along with Chief Judge Soto, Judge Leifman, representatives of the Public Defender's Office, Regional Counsel, and the State Attorney's Office.  All stakeholders involved agreed that Mr. Ryan's concerns were legitimate but that the course of action suggested in his memo should be discussed, rethought and delayed.  We discussed Constitutional issues, statutory requirements and alternative proposals, the strongest being a Corrections run program of weekend work in lieu of overnight jail stays.  To that end, we agreed to meet next week to discuss what options are available and how to transition to a new framework for future clients who would benefit from non-'straight time' sentences, at this time their is no circuit wide prohibition on new weekend jail sentences and current sentences are not being 'cancelled.'  I will report to the membership next week with any developments. 

INVESTITURE:

Judge Ivonne Cuesta (late of the PDs office) is being invested today at twelve noon at the Dade County Courthouse. Judge Cuesta took over for the retired Judge Shelly Schwartz. 

DIVORCE: Family law (yuck) rarely invades the pages of this criminal blog. However, some divorces are more news-blogworthy than others.

In 1698 Peter the Great divorced his wife. Until now, no other sitting Russian leader had dissolved his marriage. Therefore, it is with great sadness that we announce the pending dissolution of marriage between Valdimir Vladimirovich Putin and Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Putin after 30 years. 

                                                 It's over.

Nice weekend coming up.

What's the temperature going to be this weekend? Maybe somewhere between 92-88....HAhahahahahahaha. 


Enjoy it.