SAYFIE PULLS THE PLUG ON ALL IN PERSON HEARINGS/TRIALS

 County court was at it again this week, doing another trial- this one about some sick horses, of course the potential for litigants and jurors and court personnel to get sick was not apparently a major concern- although the information we received is that the judge and all parties took all precautions. It was still unwise to proceed, in our expert opinion. 

And on Thursday afternoon our new Chief Judge, who has already had to deal with a collapsing civil courthouse- PULLED THE PLUG ON ALL IN PERSON HEARINGS AND TRIALS. 

No more county court judges bringing 25 unnecessary people into the REGJB to try those ultra important reckless driving cases, resisting without violence, and possession of undersize Snook cases. So while we expect Friday's NY Times to lead with "Dade County Misdemeanor Court halts jury trials-nation shudders as legal system teeters on the brink!"   somehow we will muddle through. *

THE NEWS RELEASE:

In order to protect the health and safety of the community and court staff, the Honorable Nushin G. Sayfie, Chief Judge of the Miami-Dade Courts, has temporarily suspended in-person trials and in-person hearings for two weeks beginning Friday, Sept. 3^rd, through and including Friday, Sept. 17^th.

 The suspension was enacted in consideration of the current high rate of COVID-19 community transmission in Miami-Dade County, as well as the advice of epidemiologists and infectious disease specialists who regularly consult with the Miami-Dade Courts.

 Only in-person trials and in-person hearings are affected by this temporary suspension. All other court matters that may take place remotely on the Zoom platform will continue as scheduled.Questions regarding specific cases or operations within a court division should be directed to the administrative judge of that division. A judicial directory for the Miami-Dade Courts may be found here.

Please continue to visit our website www.jud11.flcourts.org and social media @miamidadecourts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for future updates.

* Miami, Florida.

Special to the NY Times:

Miami, Florida canceled all pending misdemeanor jury trials on Thursday, causing legal experts to opine whether the nation's legal system can withstand the loss of jury trials adjudicating whether a defendant drove recklessly or resisted arrest without violence. The White House, already dealing with the Supreme Court's refusal to stay Texas's ban on abortions,  was caught by surprise: "The president is studying the order in Miami and legal experts will be briefing the President on the implications for the US legal system on Miami's suspension of critical misdemeanor trials on possession of undersized Snook. A senior White House official stated that "Our legal system is resilient. While the suspension of these critical proceedings is concerning, it is only temporary." 

HERE YE, HERE YE, ALL RISE FOR OUR NEW CHIEF JUDGE, NUSHIN SAYFIE

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

JUDGE NUSHIN SAYFIE ELECTED TODAY AS OUR NEXT CHIEF JUDGE .......

From the 11th Judicial Circuit’s Press Release:

The Eleventh Judicial Circuit is pleased to announce that the Honorable Nushin G. Sayfie, currently the Administrative Judge of the Circuit Criminal Division, has been elected Chief Judge of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, the Miami-Dade Courts.

Chief Judge-Elect Sayfie succeeds the Honorable Bertila Soto, who has served as Chief Judge since April 2013 for four full terms. Her current term will expire on June 30, 2021. Chief Judge-Elect Sayfie will assume her new post on July 1, 2021.

Chief Judge-Elect Sayfie was first appointed to the Circuit Court by Gov. Charlie Crist in 2007. Prior to her appointment to the Bench, she served as an assistant public defender with the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office since July,1994, where she rose in rank to eventually train and supervise other lawyers in the Felony Division.

She began her judicial career in the Miami-Dade Courts’ Juvenile Dependency Division, then transferred to the Circuit Criminal Division in 2009 and was subsequently appointed Associate Administrative Judge in July 2011, and Administrative Judge in March 2013. She was reelected as a Circuit Court judge in 2010 and 2016 without opposition.

Congratulations to Judge Sayfie on a well deserved honor. 

CAPTAIN OUT .......

Captain4Justice@gmail.com

MURDER MYSTERY AND POLITICAL INTRIGUE

Jeffrey Epstein Murder Mystery: The plot thickens. No conspiracy theorists we, but a Rumpolian look at the evidence yields the following: 1) Mr. Epstein was taken off of suicide watch two weeks before his death when his attorneys told officials at MDC that the injuries to his neck resulted from being attacked by a murderous thug (former police officer) cell mate; 2) Epstein's last cell mate was removed from his cell a day before his death. In violation of procedure, he was left alone in his cell; 3) The corrections officers did not check on Epstein  for hours before his death. Two of three officers on duty were not actual corrections officers but other employees trained to fill in when needed; 4) The day before his death Epstein was reported to be in good spirits and telling his lawyers he felt the 2nd Circuit would order his release and that his double jeopardy motion would be granted. He told his lawyers he was looking forward to seeing them the next day; 
AND NOW THIS: 
The NY Times reports today here  that the Medical Examiner has currently listed Epstein's death as "unclassified" AND that the hyoid bone in Epstein was fractured. Long time and careful readers of the blog know that in his younger days Rumpole liked nothing more than a good murder and developed a bit of expertise in the manner and method of untimely deaths. While Hyoid bones are known to fracture in suicide hangings, especially in individuals over sixty, they are almost always fratured when death is caused by strangulation. Indeed the fracture of the Hyoid bone is a signature event in a strangulation (something a young medical examiner was forced to admit during an uncomfortable hour under the cross examination by your blogger many years ago in a successful murder defense in a galaxy far far away).

Former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara tweeted shortly after Epstein's death that there should be a full video of Epstein killing himself. He should know. To date there has been no discussion of the video. Does it exist? Have people, including the ME seen it? If the ME has seen it, there would be no reason not to classify the death as a suicide. 

Rest assured that Rumpole is taking a second and harder look at Mr. Epstein's demise. 

JUDGE FABER NEW ADMINISTRATIVE JUDGE FOR CRIMINAL COUNTY COURT
That white smoke you saw in the hallways of the REGJB recently wasn't some santeria ritual. It was the signal that the Judges had decided that Judge Robin Faber, long head of the jail division of county court, a blog reader and blog Fantasy Football participant, will don the scarlet robes (not really, but they do it in England and should do it here) and take over as head honcho of the criminal county court judges. Talk about a thankless job! And he has big shoes to fill with Judge Sam Slom retiring on Halloween. 

JUDGES VIE FOR CHIEF JUDGE SPOT
For reasons not entirely clear yet, Judge Soto will not be up for chief judge of the 11th Judicial Circuit (Motto: "Call us Dade-County, not Miami or Miamahh por favor") when her terms expires in about a year (the timing is also not clear yet). To be clear, we did NOT say she is retiiring from the bench, only that she cannot (or has decided not to)  stand for another term as Chief Judge. 

Two candidates have thrown their electronic hats into the ring via email: Judge Nushin Sayfie, currently chief Judge of the felony criminal dvision, and Judge Scott Bernstein, recently honoured with a judicial award. 
Predictably the fault line has appeared between criminal and civil. 
You think the democratic presidential nomination is hotly contested? To quote Ronald Wilson Reagan "You ain't seen nothing yet!". 
Judges Sayfie and Bernstein are both excellant choices. Well respected and quite able, each will be able to lead our gagle of Judges into the future.  We have more experience with Judge Sayfie who we have seen lead the criminal court judges through thick and thin, and a few scandals that she was on top of and handled admirably. We can always use a voice at the top that understands the trials and tribulations of an REGJB lawyer. However, that is not a blog endorsement. There is a lot of time between now and the election, and a week is a lifetime in politics. 

JUDGE SINGHAL NOMINATED TO FEDERAL BENCH
Mr Markus' federal blog, which has uncomfortably been dabling recently in state court toipics, broke the story yesterday that Judge Raag Singhal, who serves in Broward, has been nominated by POTUS to an open spot on the Southern District Of Florida. The nomination has long been rumored and is well deserved. 

ONLINE SCHEDULING SYSTEM .... POSTSCRIPT .....

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

UPDATE ON THE ONLINE SCHEDULING SYSTEM .....

I think it goes without saying that Chief Judge Soto and Administrative Judge of the Criminal Court Sayfie have always gone out of their way to respond to our issues and concerns at the GJB. While we may not always like the answer, at least they are honest and forthright.

 

Both Judge Soto and Judge Sayfie responded to our concerns about the Judicial Assistants (JAs) who are less than responsive, as well as the implementation of a Criminal Court Online Scheduling System.

Here is what each Judge had to say:

As the one who often handles complaints about access to a judges calendar I would love an online system. I can certainly discuss it with the COC (this would be largely their show) and our IT team (CITES). I am guessing the big obstacle will be CJIS. And the fact that it is antiquated. And that we must still work through CJIS. Also - while Criminal is theoretically "efiling" the reality is that you, the attorney, are emailing your motions & pleadings to the COC, and the COC prints it out & then puts the paper in the paper file. The judges do not have any electronic access to your "efiled" motion. The system in civil was updated. As was the system in family. We are at the bottom of the list and while a CJIS overhaul has been in the works for over 5 years at least...I believe we will see it when we see a new courthouse. This is a matter of funding, and the county I presume, has not yet been convinced that our inefficient paper based & ancient non-web based computer system is wasting money. For what it is worth Chief Judge Soto & I have been in their faces about it regularly.

In any event, I will speak with CITES and see if there is something simple we can put in place in the meantime. And if there are "frequent flyers" among the JAs or judges who are limiting or denying access, rather than blog about it, please contact me with specific information. I promise you I will take care of it.

Nushin G. Sayfie, Circuit Court Judge

Administrative Judge, Criminal Division

-------

Captain Justice,

Thank you for your email. Online scheduling is something we would like in all our courts. Unfortunately, due to budget constraints and ITD’s timeline for CJIS that may be easier said than done. The last meeting we had with the County a price tag of fifty million dollars to revamp CJIS with a web based solution (I’m not techy but I think that’s the lingo). ITD has been observing and studying each CJIS function to come up with a solution for over 2 years (33 municipalities in addition to all of the stakeholders ie corrections, pd, sao, rcc, probation, etc use CJIS).

Judge Sayfie and I have met with ITD on numerous occasion encouraging a new system, but as expressed above we have not made much progress. I will reach out my trial court administrator and our cites department to see if there is something we can do internally but that may be problematic since most of the setting is done by the clerk’s office.

 

Bertila Soto

Chief Judge of the 11th Judicial Circuit

 

-------

You want more funding for our criminal justice system?  Two thoughts: first, in November, vote for the candidates that are more likely to provide money in the state budget for items like CJIS; second, sign the Petition called the Voting Restoration Amendment, aka "Say Yes To Second Chances" which can be found here. 

So, there you have it. It’s all about the moolah and, as it always has been, the criminal justice system comes in dead last when it comes to the State and the County spending $$$$ for our little ole Gerstein Justice Building.

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

JUDGES SARDUY & KELLY HAVE OPPONENTS, JUDGE SAYFIE DOES NOT .....

AND NOW A WORD FROM JUDGE BLAKE: 

 Stan Blake said...

As a prior administrative judge in the Criminal Division for 9 years, the average person has no idea about all the extra work with no additional pay. Almost daily meetings and putting out fires are just a small part of the job. Because of the experience, administrative judges often teach others and sit on commitees. I know personally how hard Judge Kelly and Judge Sayfie work.

Wednesday, May 04, 2016 2:54:00 PM

 

This is Rumpole. We want to thank the Captain for doing a great job staying on top of this ever-changing judicial election landscape. The thought that comes to us is....where is Albert Zemlock when you need him?

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

BREAKING NEWS ROUND THREE .....

INCUMBENT JUDGE SARDUY HAS AN OPPONENT

AND

INCUMBENT JUDGE SAYFIE LOSES HER OPPONENT

AND

INCUMBENT JUDGE KELLY HAS AN OPPONENT .....

Incumbent Judges beware.  No seat in safe in Miami-Dade County.  Today, very quietly, Circuit Court Judge George Sarduy, currently assigned to the Family Division, drew an opponent.  That opponent is none other than attorney Elena C. Tauler AKA Elena "Ortega"-Tauler; which is the name she used to file for Judge.

Judge Sarduy was in private practice until April of 2006 when he was appointed to the County Court bench by Governor Jeb Bush.  Less than two years later, Sarduy was elevated to the Circuit Court bench by Governor Charlie Crist.  He ran unopposed in 2010 to retain his seat and he is currently running for reelection.

Elena C. Tauler is an attorney licensed by The Florida Bar since 1988.  On the other hand, Elena Ortega-Tauler is not an attorney licensed to practice law in the State of Florida.  Despite that, Elena Ortega-Tauler is running for Circuit Court Judge.

Tauler filed to run in Group 52 more than one year ago, and until today, was running against Carol "Jodi" Breece, Raul Perez-Ceballos, and Oscar Rodriguez-Fonts.  This afternoon, Tauler jumped into Group 74 filing against Incumbent Judge Sarduy.

We have written several posts about Elena Tauler, including on April 24, 2008 and March 8, 2015, that can be found here and here.

We were recently sent a brochure from Florida Mediation Group where Tauler is a Mediator.  The brochure touts "Elena C. Tauler", Esq as a Florida Supreme Court Certified Circuit Court mediator.  It does not mention anybody by the name of Elena Ortega-Tauler in the brochure.

INCUMBENT JUDGE SAYFIE .....

Also happening this afternoon, Judge Sayfie lost her opponent, Rosy A. Aponte.  Aponte has now decided to run against Incumbent County Court Judge Carroll Kelly in Group 23. 

And thank you to the alert reader who pointed out that Sayfie's campaign account has grown since last Friday.  On Monday she reported that for the month of April, 2016, she raised an additional $41,990, bringing her total raised to $96,000.  It is also remarkable how the legal community rallied around her candidacy in opposing the filing by Aponte.  I say that because, of the $41,990 raised in the month of April, $41,465 was donated on Friday, April 29th, the day Aponte filed.  Sayfie also loaned her campaign an extra $25k on the same day).

INCUMBENT JUDGE CARROLL KELLY .....

Judge Kelly has been on the bench since 1998.  Since getting elected that year, she was reelected in 2004 and 2010, and she is running for reelection this year.  Her web page can be found here.

Judge Kelly is currently the Administrative Judge of the Domestic Violence Division.  She previously served as President of the Florida Conference of County Court Judges, teaches as an Adjunct Professor at the UM law school, and serves on the faculty of the Florida Judicial College and the Florida College for Advanced Judicial Studies.

Her opponent is Rosy A. Aponte, who we wrote about on Friday, April 29, 2016.

Three days left until filing closes and by all accounts there will be a lot more action in the final 72 hours.

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

JUDGE SAYFIE HAS AN OPPONENT

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

BREAKING NEWS ..... JUDGE NUSHIN SAYFIE HAS DRAWN OPPOSITION .....

UPDATED BELOW

In a stunning move, Judge Nushin Sayfie, Chief Administrative Judge of the Criminal Division, has drawn an opponent.  Judge Sayfie is running for reelection in Group 59 of the Circuit Court.

Her opponent is attorney ROSY APONTE, who has been a member of The Florida Bar for, hold your breath, a whopping seven years.  Ms. Aponte maintains a law office in the City of Doral.  Ms. Aponte filed to run against Judge Sayfie earlier today.

Judge Sayfie began her career with the Public Defender's Office and worked for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit PD from 1994-1999 and from 2001-2007. She also spent two years with the PD in the Second Circuit from 1999-2001. Judge Sayfie became a Circuit Court Judge in 2007.  She was appointed by Governor Charlie Crist in 2007 and ran unopposed in 2010.

Judge Sayfie has currently raised $54,000 and loaned her campaign a total of $5,000.

We know nothing about her opponent.

UPDATE:

If Aponte decides to leave Group 59 and jump into another race, here are the Incumbents currently running unopposed. One of them may end up having a long, hot summer filled with shaking lots of hands:

John Schlesinger - $61,000**; $100,000***
Rudy Ruiz - $118,000; $3,500
Scott Bernstein - $76,000; $50,000
Bertila Soto - $108,000; $2,000
John Thornton - $189,000; $100,000
Jennifer Bailey - $156,000; $5,000
Rosa Rodriguez - $89,000; $0.00
Barbara Areces - $64,000; $10,000
David Young * - $222,000; $250
William Thomas - $188,000; $500
Milton Hirsch - $174,000; $100,000
Samantha Ruiz Cohen - $111,000; $25,000
Monica Gordo - $144,000; $0.00
Jorge Sarduy - $105,000; $500
*former judge with no current opposition
**the first number represents the amount raised
***the second number represents the amount the candidate loaned to their campaign

If Judge Sayfie is lucky enough to have Ms. Aponte move to another Group, I'm thinking that Scott Bernstein is shaking in his boots right about now.

COUNTY COURT .... GROUPS 15 & 35

The latest on Group 35 is that Judge Wendell Graham is down to one opponent; Antonio "Tony" Jimenez.  That's because his other opponent, patent attorney Ruben Alcoba, has jumped into the Group 15 race against Linda Luce and Eleane Sosa-Bruzon.

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