When we last left the young circuit judge Liz Scherer, she was calling balls and strikes like any good republican Judge...and having presided over the horrific Parkland School Shooting penalty phase of the case, she hugged the prosecutors when they lost their quest to have the defendant executed.
Umpires hug ballplayers all the time after a called strike three. Right? No one witnessing the sentencing would have had ANY inkling that this young judge was just itching to make a name for herself by condemning the defendant to death.
But the jury saw it differently, and as we correctly predicted that day, the State of Florida lawmakers leapt into action virtually outlawing jury recommendations in death penalty cases. "While we have the greatest legal system in the world, it only works and justice is only done when juries do what they are told and vote guilty and for death. Only then can we look a defendant in the eye and tell him or her that they have had a trial by a jury of their peers...who hates them and what they did." Etc.
Now comes along Randy Tundidor who has a rule 3 motion to vacate a murder case in front of our unbiased balls and strikes calling, lawyer hugging Judge. And he files a motion to recuse her because he doesn't feel comfortable with judges who hug lawyers. And who can blame him? On the first day of law school we were told to avoid Broward Judges who hug prosecutors...no easy task north of the border.
Judge Scherer does what any good republican judge is told to do...she denies the defendant's motion and the case makes it way to the Florida Supreme Court, who, in an uncommon fit of rationality, issues this opinion, with this highlight below:
Judge Scherer left the bench and, while still in her judicial robe, exchanged hugs with the victims’ families and - 3 - members of the prosecution team, one of whom was Assistant State Attorney Steven Klinger, who is also the prosecutor in Tundidor’s case. Tundidor also alleged that while off the record at a status hearing in Tundidor’s case on November 4, 2022, Judge Scherer “sympathetically” asked ASA Klinger how he was doing. According to Tundidor, “Klinger responded to the effect that ‘words cannot describe’ how he felt” and that “he was doing better than his mother,” “ ‘who follows the news.’ ”
Broward is such a warm and fuzzy place. Judges are just so caring and sweet- as long as you're a prosecutor or a victim. Everyone else? Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here.
Meanwhile watch these pages for a Go Fund Me for Klinger's Mom. She's suffering, poor soul.
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