When you see something that is not right, not fair, find a way to get in the way and cause trouble.
Congressman John Lewis
JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG
WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RICHARD E GERSTEIN JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO JUSTICE BUILDING RUMOR, HUMOR, AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT AND BETWEEN THE JUDGES, LAWYERS AND THE DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, CLERKS, COURT REPORTERS, AND CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS WHO LABOR IN THE WORLD OF MIAMI'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE. POST YOUR COMMENTS, OR SEND RUMPOLE A PRIVATE EMAIL AT HOWARDROARK21@GMAIL.COM. Winner of the prestigious Cushing Left Anterior Descending Artery Award.
1) The SAO has a culture that not just tolerated the underhanded actions of MVZ and his minions, but encouraged and applauded them?
2) That the State Attorney wants real change or just to sweep this under the rug.
3) Do you think ALL of the cases that MVZ and his gang prosecuted and obtained convictions on should be reviewed? And if so, by whom?
4) Who do you think the Dolphins should draft in the first round? We like the center from Oregon Jackson Powers-Johnson (JPJ) but he might be available in the second round.
Update: Want to know how it was working for Janet Reno? Read this comment :
Anonymous said...
One day, while I was in trial, I got the dreaded message that Miss Reno wanted to see me. I wondered what I had done to warrant a visit to the boss. I walked into her office and she pleasantly asked how my trial was going. I breathed a sigh of relief and was amazed that she even knew I was in trial. We chatted about the trial, and then she looked at me with a steely-eyed stare and told me that a victim in one of my cases had called her to complain that I had not returned her phone call. I arrogantly replied "Janet, I have been in a trial for almost a week, and I have been working nights also to keep up". I explained that this victim was a pain in the ass who would never be satisfied. I noticed the vein in her neck start to throb, a sure sign that I had said the very worst thing. If you were an ASA in those years, the neck vein throb was one thing you never wanted to see. She calmly replied that she returns every phone call before she ends her work day because it is the professional thing to do, and inquired if I thought that I was busier than her. Impression made- I never again left work without returning all my calls. She taught me a lesson in professionalism i never forgot.
The tone of the office is set by the leader. I do not believe that KFR communicates that returning phone calls to defense attorneys or being available for case discussions that lead to plea agreements are a priority. She is about politics- kiss the victim's ass, and don't piss off the cops.
If I am wrong, I hope that some current ASAs will reply with their view of why the defense bar thinks they are so difficult to reach. Today, with email on your cellphone, there is no excuse.
Tuesday, March 15, 2022 10:09:00 AM
Chatter on the not to be mentioned listserv (but here's a hint- it rhymes with EF-A-CEE-DEE-HELL) is that prosecutors cannot be reached.
Lawyers are frustrated. And frustrated lawyers drink Titos vodka and that doesn't help anyone but bartenders and bars.
So why aren't prosecutors returning calls and emails?
Here is one reason we shall posit- there aren't that many prosecutors.
The dream job- the one that had dozens of applicants for everyone accepted, has fallen in disfavor.
First, because defense is in our blood, let us defend Ms. Rundle, her office, and her minions.
Being a prosecutor in Miami-Dade is a dream job. It's the very best job any lawyer who wants to practice criminal law can get. This is one of the best and most active prosecutors' offices in the nation with a tradition of excellence that is hard to match. Manhattan DAs office; LA DA's Office; Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office. These are great offices with legendary prosecutors and legendary prosecutions.
Second, the Dade SAO has suffered, like all jobs and all legal offices, lots of turnover. In times of Covid19- and don't ask us how because we do not know- people are not working. We go to our favourite restaurants and see signs asking us to be patient because they are short staffed. Maria's Greek on Coral Way, were we used to see Janet Reno having a late supper, has such a sign in their restaurant when patrons walk in.
So in general all businesses are short staffed these days.
Third, the appeal of being a prosecutor in The Magic City was trials. Come to Miami and try a lot of cases against the likes of Rumpole and others. Covid19 wrecked that but good. We have a generation of young prosecutors sitting around not going to court and fending off the sharp elbows aggressive PDs and crafty defense attorneys throw in the heat of battle. Not hardened by battle, these young prosecutors are leaving in droves for the 85k a year drudgery of insurance defense.
Your emails aren't being returned? Your calls go unanswered? Don't take it personally. There aren't as many prosecutors as there used to be.
Good Monday morning. Congrats again to Clay Kaeiser who won the world famous REGJB Blog Survivor Pool. Look for the lawyer wearing the "I won the Blog Survivor Pool 2021 and all I got was this lousy t-shirt". Runner up Retired Judge Jon Colby was betrayed by the Chargers who got trounced by the lowly Texans. Yesterday we won 2 of 3 picks, and more importantly, after just squeaking into the REGJB Fantasy Football playoffs in the last slot, we upset the number three seed and advance to the semi finals along with Judge De La O, and top seed Born Tua Be Wild and second seed Norwood's Revenge. We have one standout player- WR Cooper Kupp who has carried us all year. But in the playoffs, anything can happen.
If you get the emails from the SAO then you know yesterday they decided to alert everyone that they had SEVEN more employees test positive for covid the prior week and decided to tell us all the places their employees had been in the following week, including Whole Foods, a few dive bars in Hialeah, a crypto-mining emporium, Gulfstream racetrack (Not Guilty in the Fifth), and various houses of worship.
Where is the leadership here? Why aren't SAO and PD employees required to wear masks? Or is the SAO all of the sudden concerned with individual rights that don't concern the Fourth Amendment, which they trample without a Second Amendment thought.
This is why Judges must require all people in their courtrooms to wear masks, because the "leadership" of those two offices are too busy counting pens and paperclips. Especially since the Miami-Dade Jury Trial task force recommended suspending jury trials until Mid-January but the Florida Supreme Court will not issue the order (there is apparently spotty internet in Aspen).
You think our New Year's resolution was to become kinder and gentler? Think again. We are riled up to mix it up in 2022. Bring a little Alex Michaels to the blog- what do you think about them apples?
Get vaccinated. Get boosted -in Israel they are testing a fourth booster. Wear a mask. Avoid Venezuelan made voting machines with Chinese Spyware. Stay safe.
Last week, before the start of the holiday weekend, as many as a dozen (count em- like a container of eggs or two six-packs of Michelob Ultra, or a jury in a death case in Florida) ASAs quit! Quit as in "I am outta here". There is a morale crisis in the SAO. The pay is not great. Victim's control all plea offers, and there are at least 14 layers of supervisors that a prosecutor has to go through to set a deposition, Want to offer a plea to the bottom of the guidelines? Add a zero to that number after the 4. Miss one step and you're on probation; miss two steps and to quote POTUS 45 "You're fired!".
It's all bad and no one wants to work there once they get there (so we hear from multiple sources). The other side of the story is welcome to be told. Send us an email.
SURVIVOR POOL
It is back and better than ever. The world famous, earth shaking, Viagra-taking, REGJB Survivor pool.
The rules: Simple- pick one team every week, starting Thursday night (if you wish) that will win, no spread is considered. Texans over the Bills? Go for it. Once you use a team, you cannot use that team anymore.
ALL PICKS MUST BE EMAILED TO FBPOOL12@GMAIL.COM
Do not send your picks to Rumpole at our email address. We will not use it. You are warned.
Ties survive.
Plan your bye week. Everyone gets one. WEEK ONE SPECIAL- email us your pick to FBPOOL12@GMAIL.COM and include the point total for the Dolphins -Cheaters game Sunday. Player(s) who hit the total or are closest win another bye week.
We recently visited the REGJB this past few weeks, checking in on some courtrooms, seeing some old friends, bow tie affixed, bowler in hand. Trying to maximize our time, we previously scheduled a deposition, something we do less and less these days. Finishing our appointed rounds, we perambulated down the street to the SAO, expecting to spend the afternoon inquiring "what happened next...and then what did you do (see, hear, etc)?"
But we didn't expect to be confronted with this law-school-entrance test-like puzzle:
We started our ill-fated journey at Depo window # 5. But it was not occupado and we were re-directed to window #4.
But window #4 had a surprise- an arrow pointing to window #5. Now what? We confess to being flummoxed.
Our eyes darted back and forth. No way in. No way out. Foiled again!
The state doesn't like depositions. But this is a little underhanded don't ya think?
Darren Rainey was an inmate at Dade Correctional Institute. On June 23, 2012, he died while locked in a hot shower. Almost five years later the Dade State Attorneys Office is giving the guards and staff at DCI a pass. If you have insomnia and need help falling asleep then read the report. If you want to skip the gobble-gook butt-covering bureaucratic double speak, then just skip to the Dr. Lew's ME's report which is, in our humble opinion, a complete abandonment of an ME's job. The deceased had atherosclerosis? What 50 year old poor black man in America doesn't have some calcium in his arteries? So that, along with his underlying schizophrenia caused the ME, after much hand-wringing and dithering and Macbeth-like indecision, the ME came to the conclusion that the mentally disabled inmate who was locked in a hot shower for an extended period of time died...accidentally. Blame the SAO if you will, but the fault dear Brutus, lies in the ME not the SAO. We've never seen an autopsy protocol that screams "decision to fit the facts" like this one. But that's our opinion. You can read the report and arrive at your own opinion. From Occupied America...Fight the Power!
It's not "Hey 19",* but 17 ASA's and counting have left the SAO in the new year. A careful reader of the blog suggests this is the SAO's response to the exodus:
The story of the Exodus And someone said to the State Attorney...Let my people go. (It's such a good line. Every spring around passover we use it at least once during a bond hearing). But the State Attorney's heart was hardened and should would not let the people go (before the expiration of their three year commitment...)
And Moses came down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey...
To be continued...
In our next episode of The Exodus, the people are freed from bondage...but the State Attorney changes her mind...
What will happen? Will anyone be chased? Who will part Biscayne Bay?
From Occupied America...Fight the Power!!
*Steely Dan is an American Jazz-Rock band founded in 1972, disbanded in 1981, and reunited in 1993. Their music was played on AM and progressive FM radio stations, and their music could be purchased on Albums, which were spherical disks that needed a corresponding player-machine with a needle to play the music. In college, an individual's "coolness" was measured by the size of their speakers which played the music from the player-machine via wires which connected the machine to the speakers.
We received two comments with two different views on the SAO under State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle. Here they are for your consideration:
Anonymous said...
It is such a tired line the worship of Reno and the hatred of KFR. Reno was a great person and we have not had an AG Since with her integrity. That said, Reno was the State Attorney when crime was totally out of control in this city. There were double the number of murders and robberies that there are today. German Tourists were being killed regularly by armed robbers. Kathy has been SA during one of the greatest drops in crime and has done many innovative things such as setting up states first human trafficking unit, insurance fraud unit. She disbanded the narcotics unit and increased the staffing of the career criminal unit. All the while Rick Scott destroying her ability to retain staff by giving no raises for 8 years and cutting all employees pay by 3 percent.
Not saying she or that office are perfect but all you whiners go defend a case up in Broward and try to reason with one of the robots employed by that office and you will realize it could be much much worse.
Friday, February 24, 2017 7:20:00 PM
And
Anonymous said...
Most of the ASAs forced to attend this ego-driven event sat seething for two hours, as speaker after speaker reminded us of the wonderfulness of all that is her. It was regarded as an unnecessary imposition, not a pleasure. When the rabbi finally gave the ending benediction, the ex-judge celebrity who served as MC decided it was appropriate at that point to add another 10 minutes of her remarks.
The capper was that absolutely NO thought was given to what was ostensibly the purpose of the gathering, i.e., for the ASA's to be sworn in and have their oath signed by one of the several judges present. Rather than prearrange and announce that the judges array themselves in an organized manner so everyone could line up and do this quickly and easily, a mad crush ensued as ASAs scrambled to get out of there so they could then get into the fun of downtown rush hour traffic.
A good time was had by none. The comparisons made to Ms. Reno only reminded us that she would've never staged such an event. Saturday, February 25, 2017 6:05:00 AM We report. You decide. From Occupied America...Fight the Power!
White House in crisis? How about the SAO in crisis? We received this comment:
Anonymous said...
Morale at the office is at an all-time low. So many people have dropped papers that almost no one with experience is left to replace the open positions. At some point, this is going to mean that an important case is mishandled because really how can you expect ASAs who've been at the office barely 3-4 years to handle serious cases? And why is everyone leaving? Shit pay, zero appreciation, nonsensical administration, and a State Attorney who is so far removed from actual office and court life that she thinks the biggest problem in the office is the dress code. Money could be better distributed. The office could be better organized. But that would require a better leader. Leaving the office will be bittersweet but necessary.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017 11:37:00 PM
What we want is to hear from the other side.A spirited defense of the Miami SAO, once the premier state prosecuting office in the nation. Lets hear from those prosecutors who want to say all is well, morale is great, and things couldn't be better. Let's get to the bottom of this. Is there an internal crisis of confidence at the SAO or not? From Occupied America...Fight the Power!
Attached is the close-out memo of the SAO which dropped the DUI charges against former Miami Heat star Alonzo Mourning's wife. We'll leave it to the DUI mavens to debate the particulars of the case. This is way outside of our milieu. The question is whether this case, with conflicting evidence at best, was treated like the hundreds (thousands?) of other DUIs that were similarly situated? Over the past decades we've tried a few DUIs to jury with facts much worse than this for the state and the schlepper ASA in court always had the same mournful song:"My supervisor won't let me do anything other than try the case." So, is this case different? A more reasonable officer? A new attitude at the SAO?
