DISBARRED!

 A sad ending on the horizon to the troubled legal career of former Miami Dade County Judge Mike Mirabal. Judge Dan Casey of Broward has filed a report with the Florida Supreme Court recommending the D word- Disbarment. 

The Bar proceedings have a tortured history, starting with complaints that became JQC complaints when Mirabal was elected a Judge. Those complaints increased exponentially when the "Mirabal Style of Campaign Financing and Reporting" was both uncovered and disapproved as rank fraud. 

The "Mirabal Amendment" ((c) 2018) finance scheme went something like this- raise $20,000.00 in donations or personal funding during a quarter; report $20,000.00 in money raised; then file an amended report for $21,500.00; then ... total up your initial report and the amended report and    VOILA! the 20 thousand looks to all the world (and potential candidates) as 41,500.00 raised. 

Insidious; petty; and fraudulent. 

There is more to the order and findings, including a long list of things the former judge "FORGOT" to add to his JNC application to be appointed as a judge, including small matters like a federal lawsuit for fraud that he lost, and cooperation in a federal fraud investigation. Various defaults on mortgages and accompanying lawsuits. Small stuff like that. 

Overall, the episode speaks very poorly to an election system that mostly selects judicial candidates by name. 

Oh, did we mention he and his attorney "THREATENED" and "DISPARAGED THE REPUTATION"  the Miami Judge who filed the Bar complaint? Judge Casey found those allegations to be proven. 

One small area of support has emerged. 

NY Representative George Santos has opined that the opinion is a "rush to judgement"; "a witch hunt"; and expressed confidence that it will be overturned on appeal. Santos did this, BTW, during a press release in which he expressed gratification for being named the Super Bowl MVP on Sunday night. 

Birds of a feather... cheat elections together. 

Here is the order: 

2021-1469_miscdoc_375549_f01 by Anonymous PbHV4H on Scribd

FORMER JUDGE ARRESTED

UPDATE: MIAMI FIRES CITY OF MIAMI POLICE DEPARTMENT CHIEF SIX MONTHS AFTER HIRING HIM AND CALLING HIM "THE MICHAEL JORDAN OF POLICE CHIEFS "

  We broke the story yesterday, on Twitter (@justicebuilding) to ace Herald Scribe @Davidovalle305 who wrote the story and graciously gave us credit for our scoop. 

The sordid details of a Miami condo/neighbor hating neighbor contretemps that naturally ended with a gun being pulled (this is Miami after all) are listed on the blog post yesterday.

"Hey, I left my phone in my cousin's apartment. Can you let me back in?"

MM:  (pulls out firearm) "Go ahead punk, I know what you're thinking. Did I fire five shots or six. So, are you feeling lucky? Go ahead, try and get back into the condo and make my day.  

The question we have today is ...who had a worse Monday? The former judge who was arrested, or former Las Vegas head coach Jon Gruden who was fired after a trove of racist, sexist and homophobic emails that would not be tolerated anywhere except in POTUS 45's White House, were released. 

Before the NY Times published the story about the numerous offensive emails, we were pondering what should be the response to the one racist email where Gruden referred to the head of the NFL player's union, who is an African American man, with a very offensive racist trope. 

Are things that bad? Can someone not like a man, and say why he doesn't like him without making reference to hundred year old offensive racial stereotypes? Are we that blind to racism that we never see things like this, and are shocked when they are revealed? Meanwhile the comments from many African American men were that they were not surprised to see a man referred to that way. And yet  we were shocked. 

It is troubling to think about how much we are missing. 

Speaking of racist tropes, City of Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo, who was hired as the Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods of Police Chiefs, WAS FIRED ON TUESDAY MORNING is about to be suspended and fired because of a rant he made about the City of Miami Police Department being run by the "Cuban Mafia." 

There's a Cuban Mafia? Are they bigger that US Steel (GFII reference). What's Spanish for Cosa Nostra? 

We are soooo out of the loop. 

Here are the lessons from this weekend.  Treat everyone as you would want to be treated, including a person who has been locked out of a condo without his phone and needs to get back in for a moment. And our advice to the former judge? Simple......

Leave the gun, take the pastelitos. 

TOP 100 SONGS

BREAKING Former Judge Mike Mirabal, who resigned in disgrace facing a massive Bar/JQC  complaint, was arrested last  night for aggravated assault with a firearm involving s dispute with a tenant. F21-017688. This is a breaking story. 

UPDATE2: Based on our tip, ace Herald scribe David Ovalle went to work. Here is his article.

In keeping with the overall theme of this post, Mirabal, when contacted for comment referred everyone to what he said was his favorite all time song: Billy Joel's I Am An Innocent Man. (Not really, but still...)

From the article: 

This is what happened, according to an arrest report: Mirabal was unloading groceries Sunday evening, with his dog, in the parking garage of his building on Orduna Drive. A man — the cousin of a resident in the complex — was on the other side of the garage gate, asking if he could be let in.

The man had left his phone upstairs in his cousin’s apartment. Mirabal refused because the man wasn’t a resident, and the two got into a heated argument, the report said. The man began yelling for his cousin to come downstairs and get him. The neighbor came down and let his cousin inside the parking garage, and they again encountered Mirabal. Mirabal’s neighbor told police he went to talk to Mirabal, who “pulled out a black gun with his right hand, points it at him and with his left hand pulls the slide of the weapon back twice. The victim says he steps back and begins calling police going back to his apartment,” according to the report. Mirabal, however, claimed the neighbor’s cousin had been threatening “he would fight him,” forcing him to pull out his gun, which he only held it behind his back. “He says he advised the witness that he is armed, and the witness stepped back and leaves,” the report said. Coral Gables police arrested Mirabal after saying 911 calls contradicted his version of what happened. After being booked in jail, he posted bond and was released.

TOP 100 SONGS 

Sometimes the so called experts get it wrong. That's where Rumpole steps in. Jack of all trades, and master of many, we have superior insight not just on cross examination techniques, but cosmology, where to eat, and in today's case, the top songs of all time, and we have a heavy bent towards rock and soul. 

Rolling Stone Magazine listed the top 100, and beyond the shocking insult of not listing the very best rock song of all time in the top 10, they pretty much got it wrong. We will not do all 100- our top 20 is enough to prove our point, and we will include Rolling Stone's choices in those slots so you can compare. 

Feel free to weigh in.  We have a feeling this will generate some discussion. 

RUMPOLE                                        ROLLING STONE 

20 Johnny B Goode                          20 Dancing On My Own 
(The first rock n roll hit)

19 My Girl                                      19 Imagine  (Genius- needs to be higher)

18 Purple Rain                                 18 Purple Rain (We can live with this)

17 Tiny Dancer                                17 Bohemian Rhapsody (Ground breaking. In our top 40                                                               but not top 20)

16 Good Vibrations                         16 Crazy In Love (not for us ) 

15 Blowin In The Wind                   15 I Want to Hold Your Hand (Beatles yes. This song.                                                                     No)

14 One (U2)                                   14 Waterloo Sunset (doesn't make our top 50)

13 I can't get no Satisfaction          13 Gimme Shelter (there are better Stones Songs)           (a better song) 

12 Like a Heatwave                       12 Superstition (A hard song to rank)

11 Like a Rollin Stone                    11 God Only Knows (Pure Genius. We rank it higher)

10 Imagine                                      10 Hey Ya. (Never heard it).

9  Thunder Road                               9 Dreams (A top 10? You must be dreaming!)           (The most poetic rock n roll song ever written:                                                                        "You can hide neath your covers and study your pain.                                                         Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain.                                                       Wait your summer prayin in vain for a savior to rise from these streets")

8  Stairway to Heaven                      8 Get ur Freak On. (Get outta here). 

7 Baby I Need Your Lovin               7 Strawberry Fields (This is tough to rank)

6  Get Up Stand Up                           6 What's Going On. (Brilliant Song We have it higher)

5 Let it Be                                          5 Smells Like Teen Spirit (Smells like an awful choice)

4  What's Going On                          4 Like a Rolling Stone (Can't argue with Dylan in the                                                                 top 5)

3  Be My Baby                                 3 A Change is Gonna Come (Too high. Sorry).

2  God Only Knows                          2 Fight the Power (Fight the ranking. Too high)

                                                            1. Respect (This choice gets no respect).

God Only Knows is the pure genius of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys. It's real hard, but it slightly beats out Be My Baby. 

THE GREATEST ROCK N ROLL SONG OF ALL TIME

There is no comparison. It's Bruce Springsteen's four and a half minutes of pure magic and genius about love and escape  on the New Jersey Turnpike. Four and a half minutes took over four months to record. The Big Man Clarence Clemons' sax solo, the hammering beat of Boom Carter on the drums,  and then a keyboard ramp-up that precedes the greatest pause and then release of rock ecstasy known to music...  "1....2.....3......Highways jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive. Everybodys out on the road tonight, but there's no place left to hide." Life does not get any better than that pure genius, 

It's more than a death trap and a suicide rap; it's more than a love letter to Wendy; its the rock n roll answer to the question "I wanna know if love is wild, I wanna know if love is real!" 

BORN TO RUN is  the greatest rock n roll song of all time. 

Music Critic Robert Christgau noted that it was all Be My Baby was and wanted to be, and more. It was more than the Phil Spector Wall of Sound. It was innovational, inspirational, and an invitation to lose yourself in all of the music and words. 

THANK YOU NO-THANK YOU

 We just got finished with a few days of travel- even in this time of Zoom some judges want lawyers in court. Plus we can use the miles to keep our  Platinum status on American. So let's review some history and catch up. Truman beat Dewey. Nixon resigned and so did Mike Mirabal. His paperwork has been filed, he's out the end of April and lawyers everywhere in Dade are pulling out those JNC applications and updating them: "Conducted 54 Zoom hearings in 2020 and redid the back room and achieved a 2210 rating on Chess dot com. 

 

 Think Daryl Dawkins. Moses Malone. Kareem. Wilt. Standing in the center and REJECTING the layup of the hapless NBA'er who dared to drive the lane. Dikembe Mutombo wagging a finger after an epic rejection. 

That is what the Florida Supreme Court did on Thursday when it wrote an order that was basically a "thank you...no-thank you" to Judge Martin Zilber and his erstwhile quest to put the whole "Whistling Dixie" complaint behind him.  The Tallahassee Nine  Seven rejected the settlement Zilber and his counsel to the stars and judges -David Rothman- obtained. The case was sent back for a full evidentiary hearing. A judge will be appointed. Witnesses will be called. Cross examination must be conducted. Sounds like a job for....nah...we do not represent those who wear black robes to work. No Harry Potter for us and no Judges as clients. 

There will be a trial. There will be findings (dum da dum dum) and there will be a recommendation and there will be endless speculation on whether The Florida Supreme Court will accept the punishment or impose its own as is its wont. 

DIXIE 
I wish I didn't hire Dixie
as my JA as my JA 
Against Dixie's complaint I'll take the  stand  
and defend my job she wants me to aband
Away, Away, Away with you JA  Dixie!

THE NON RESIGNATION RESIGNATION

Where, you must be wondering, are the DBR and El Herald articles on the resignation of embattled county court Judge Mike Mirabal? The articles are on hold until  Double M sends his papers to Governor DeSantis. And it appears, although we have it on very good authority MM told the JQC he was outta here, he has not sent the papers to the governor. 

"Why"? You as the inquisitive reader may be asking, have the papers not been sent? And while we are on the subject of mysteries, do you need a license of any sort to fly a helicopter on Mars as NASA did on Monday? 

We do not know. And when we are stumped, we follow that age old journalism advice- follow the money. 

First, MM is resigning. We stake our considerable reputation on it. 

Maybe he is waiting for a last paycheck. Former Judge Harvey Shenberg had a problem sending a kid to college on a judicial salary (so he took an undercover FBI  bribe to sell an informant's name and went to prison for a while and a bit).  Maybe he wants to do the right thing and give his staff a few days to find a new job, although that would be out of character for a person whose character is well documented by doing a Pacer search with his name. The federal lawsuits say it all, and the order  where  Judge Williams bounces him out of court where he is the plaintiff is a doozy. 

Let's just say you do not want to have MM involved in any real estate transactions you care about. Things tend to go horribly wrong when he is involved, and there are title double switches, deeds and misdeeds abound, and a real estate game of three card monte usually follows. "I can't be sued for foreclosure, I sent the deed to my mom and then the dog ate it " kind of stuff. Really, 

Maybe there is some comp time at stake. The truth will out and it will not be pleasant. All we can tell you is this,  people who do know are being very very silent. So something is rotten in Denmark, to quote our Bard in Hamlet. And while we are on the subject of Billy  Shakespeare....

"The fault dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in our resignation letter". 

JUDGE RESIGNS!

 We know what you're thinking...but it's not a Judge whose name begins with a Z.

County Court Judge Mike Mirabal resigned Friday afternoon in the face of some very serious JQC allegations that carried over from a Bar complaint that was pending when he was elected- so much for the educated discernment of Miami-Dade voters. 

More on this as it breaks. But we have verified this with multiple- very political sources. 

Judge Mirabal- took office  January 5, 2021- resigned: April 16, 2021. 

Quite the tenure.