THE FAMOUS CHEER YOU UP -DEATH POST.

UPDATE: The Anatomy of A Scam: How Rothstein did it. Bob Norman of the Daily Pulp has put together an interview with an investor who pitched by Rothstein.

Part I here.

Check out "You Make The Call" on the Broward Blog here.

Basically, in Broward the police have as much respect for the 4th Amendment as the Judges North of the Border have for Dade Lawyers.

Especially nifty is the warrant-less entry into the defendant's home to "make a protective sweep" looking for the defendant while the other part of the same squad has the Defendant detained at a traffic stop.

You make the call.

As if we didn't have enough to worry about, now comes word from medical researchers that men over 40 have a 1 in 8 chance of dropping dead from sudden cardiac arrest. The WSJ bad news is here.

From the article: "It's fairly astonishing data," said Muriel Jessup, a cardiologist at University of Pennsylvania who headed the program committee for the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions here, where the findings were presented Sunday, and who wasn't involved in the study.

Rumpole moans: "fairly astonishing data" doc? How about "it's the scariest f'ing thing ever printed in the WSJ"? That more sums up our feeling on the "data". This kind of news, like possible earth destroying comets, is just something better off kept in obscure journals. We mere mortals have enough to worry about. Every time we get a little whipped cream on our Starbucks we mope for days. We're gobbling fish oil capsules and Niacin like they're M&Ms. And the best we got is 8-1? We can foresee another several months of insomnia ahead.

As Bruce Springsteen sings in Badlands: "You wake up in the night with a fear so real, you find yourself waiting for a moment that just won't come. Don't waste your time waiting. ..."

Or as Woody Allen said "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it by not dying." and..."Death doesn't worry me that much. I just don't want to be there when it happens."

Sirius Satellite is thinking of putting on a "Scott Rothstein 102" news channel, right next to Howard 100 news.

Nothing new to report today on the Rothstein countdown to 360-to life sweepstakes. (Are we correct in our guideline calculations David? "Sophisticated means enhancement." " Has a yacht and house on the water enhancement." It all adds up.)

Meanwhile Bob Norman at the Daily Pulp continues to be the best source for stories in this case. From the emails from Rothstein detailing the paranoia he had with his operations center to trying to buy his way into the good graces of the Lord, Norman has all the juicy details.

Maybe we just have a surly personality, but we don't think Rothestein will be out through the weekend. This case has a Fed special Friday afternoon arrest written all over it, and the only thing missing is the long weekend special twist that would keep Rothstein on ice though Tuesday.

Risk of flight? Danger to the community? Kahlid Sheikh Mohammed (Arabic: خالد شيخ محمد) has a better chance of bond than Rothstein.

The Dolphins won and the Jets and Patriots lost this weekend. As any good trial lawyer knows, it ain't over till it's over.

THE SANCTION OF THE VICTIM.

For now and the foreseeable future, all posts should be assumed to be ...

Dateline: Truckee, California:

Where do you think it's more empty these days: The hallways of RRA in Ft. Lauderdale, or the hallways of City Hall Miami? For the moment the score is two-zero, City Hall Miami in the lead as two city commissioners find themselves facing criminal charges. But that should change shortly don't you think?

And as to those City Commissioner meetings? Well, if you're indicted, you're invited!!!

Here's the video of our hard working State Attorney announcing the criminal cases against Commissioners Spence-Jones and Angel Gonzalez.

One wonders why the State Attorney spends so much time at the news conference congratulating those who worked on the cases? She was announcing the arrests, not convictions. Well, sometimes you take what you can get.

THE SANCTION OF THE VICTIM:

We've been pondering the Rothstein mess, and perhaps a lesson can be learned, or better, illustrated from what occurred. It's what is called "The Sanction of the Victim" and is defined as follows:

I saw that there comes a point, in the defeat of any man of virtue, when his own consent is needed for evil to win—and that no manner of injury done to him by others can succeed if he chooses to withhold his consent. I saw that I could put an end to your outrages by pronouncing a single word in my mind. I pronounced it. The word was “No.”

Galt's Speech, Atlas Shrugged.

and...

"Evil requires the sanction of the victim."

Ayn Rand.

We do not necessarily agree with the absoluteness of the statement. There is much evil that is committed by random acts of violence, as there is much evil committed by totalitarian governments against people who consented to nothing.

But that is probably not what Rand was writing about. It is this Rothstein mess, as well as the Madoff mess, as well as the meltdown of the economic system that was caused by the blissful ignorance of multitudes of people. That's what she was talking about, and she was right.

NFL WEEK TEN

We start off Sunday with some sad news:

Judge Leonard Rivkind has passed away. As a former Chief Judge of the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida he instituted the domestic violence court. If you didn't appear before Judge Rivkind, you missed a good solid judge who was committed to the law and the people of Dade County. The attorney who alerted us to the passing of the Judge had this to say:

I never found a judge who treated all people who he met more decently.

A very bright and caring jurist.

The Herald Obituary is here.

At a time when a few misbegotten lawyers are giving the profession a bad name, Judge Rivkind's life serves to remind us that many lawyers find fulfillment in working honestly and to the best of their abilities. And when a lawyer of talent and dedication Like Leonard Rivkind is elevated to the position of Judge, we all benefit.

Lots of big games today and we start with the biggest.

Sunday night: Cheaters and their evil genius coach and pretty-boy QB play at the Colts. Take Indy at home -2.5. Indy is hurting, especially on defense. However The Cheaters have defense problems as well. Manning at QB has essentially refused to let his team be out-scored this year. Among many great years, this may be his most impressive effort yet. The last team with the ball scores and wins. The over under depends: if you can get 48 take over, if it's 50 leave it be. Indy +200 -2.5.

Buffalo at Tennessee. The number is 41. Tennessee is on a two game win streak having made a mid-season QB change to Vince Young. Buffalo has a Harvahrd boy at QB. While David O Markus may like that, we aren't particularly impressed. Nuff said. We like the under here for 100 Massachusetts Halls. *

Detroit at Minnesota. The Vikes are favored by 16.5. The Lions barely have a heartbeat. Many years ago Tampa Bay Head Coach John McKay who laboured through two non-winning seasons in the Bucs first two years as an expansion team was asked, after a particularly difficult loss, how he felt about his team's execution. He answered that he was in favor of it. The same goes for the Lions these days.

Vikes -16.5 +300 McKays.

SUICIDE POOL

On and on we go.....

Rick Freedman-Vikings; Ifitkhar Memon-Saints; Daniel Tibitt-Dolphins; Peter Sautter-The Fins, which even he says is surprising since he could pick the Vikes over the Lions.

You don't meet many women named Millicent these days.

* As David would tell you, it's the oldest building at Harvarhd.

MORE ON YOU KNOW WHO

FRIDAY THIRTEENTH EDITION.

Do you suffer from Triskaidekaphobia?

Before we begin, this guy is our kind of client. Click here. If he doesn't have any money, then he REALLY is our kind of client, unfortunately.

And this REALLY is our kind of lawyer. We'd co-counsel with her anytime. This is her honest to goodness picture up on the Texas Bar website.

Speaking of unlucky lawyers....

The media is chasing reports that Scott Rothstein falsified the election results in Florida and as a result John McCain is actually president. Al Gore called McCain to commiserate.

Speaking of Rothstein, lawyers with Bar Complaints are lining up to get them in front of his committee. Yup, Rothstein was the chair of a Bar Grievance committee. Really. Sort of like Dick Cheney being appointed to the Board of Amnesty International.

Rothstein was also applying to be on the Judicial Nominating Commission (you just can't make this stuff up. Like the emails of the Miami Judges, it's gold.) .

This way Rothstein could have ample opportunity to examine the signatures of potential judges. Never know when you're going to have to forge a signature. The mark of a successful lawyer has always included forgery. We got a 96 in forgery in law school. How did you do?

Speaking of the Miami Judges, just how happy are Judges Diaz and Faber that Rothstein has knocked them from the front pages?

The answer is Famous Miami Chef Michelle Bernstein, Ed Morse, and Scott Rothstein.

......

Name a Cook,. a Schnook, and a Crook.

Have a great weekend!

Suicide pool goes into week ten, plus football picks on Sunday.

We're getting swamped with spam comments so for a few days we're going to use the word verification to see if that stops it.

SCOTT ROTHSTEIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS

We were working out at the gym today when Renegade by Styx popped up on our Ipod. This goes out to you....

Oh momma I'm in fear for my life from the long arm of the law
Lawman has put an end to my running and I'm so far from my home
Oh momma I can hear you a'crying you're so scared and all alone
Hangman is comin' down from the gallows and I don't have very
long

The jig is up the news is out they've finally found me
The renegade who had it made retrieved for a bounty
Never more to go astray
This will be the end today of the wanted man...

SCOTT ROTHSTEIN -ALL DAY EVERY DAY

All the legal blogs are covering this story, so why not us?

Bob Norman and his Daily Pulp blog have had, and continue to have the lead in breaking this story.

Today's events:

1) A source is going on the record with Norman that Rothstein keep a female dancer (stripper) at the Ritz Carlton on Ft. Lauderdale beach.
What does this mean? Goodbye Mrs. Rothstein. Any pretense of being the loving devoted wife standing by her man just went out the door. You can click on the Daily Pulp link to see a picture of the very blonde, soon to be former Mrs. Rothstein cozying up to Dan Marino.

2) Rothstein's new book: "How to steal 57 Million from your client" goes on sale Saturday.

The Sun Sentinel has details of the fake orders Rothstein used to convince South Florida car dealer Ed Morse that his two million dollar contract dispute with an interior decorator had grown to a 20+ million dollar judgment. Just like any cheap Nigeran Internet Scam, Rothstein somehow convinced his client that he needed TO PAY MONEY TO MAKE MONEY.

From the Sun Sentinel:

The Sun Sentinel Wednesday obtained copies of the fake court orders Morse says he was given, allegedly by Rothstein. They bear the forged signatures of two federal judges, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra, and U.S. Appellate Court Judge Susan H. Black. One of the documents threatened Morse into silence with a "strict" confidentiality order, even as he grew increasingly suspicious.

The documents Rothstein gave Morse bear no case numbers, and are instead marked "Under Seal.''

The first, with a fake Marra signature, said the kitchen designer was liable to Morse for "punitive damages for fraud,'' and owed Morse $23 million. It said the designer had illegally moved millions to the Cayman Islands, but that Rothstein "has facilitated the contact between the relative governments,'' and that the money would be returned to the U.S.

The faked order demanded that Morse "deposit to their attorney's trust account the sum of $15 million no later than 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, the 20th day of March, 2009'' as a bond to secure the funds. "If such funds are not so posted,'' it went on, "this order shall be null and void. …''

At some point even a used car dealer is going to get suspicious. It's not like they haven't built their business on selling undercoating and extended warranties, right?

So when Morse got his dander up, Rothstein sat down at this computer and voila', came up with this order from the 11th Circuit: (From the Sun Sentinel)

When Morse got increasingly suspicious this summer, Rothstein claimed to have filed an action in the 11th U.S. District Court of Appeals, and told Morse he was victorious. He gave Morse an order with a faked signature from appellate court Judge Black. The Aug. 13 order reassured Morse that he had money coming to him, but emphasized the confidentiality of the case.

"We again strongly caution all counsel and mandate that they caution and counsel their respective clients that this matter is governed by a strict confidentiality order … which this court strongly cautions, contains severe penalties for any violation of same.''

Morse never saw another penny of his money, his lawyers said.

Here is the Sun Sentinel's link to the Fake Judge Mara Order in full. It's fun reading.

Memo to Scott: One thing we would have seen right away is that Judge Mara is smart enough not to end every sentence in his orders with a semicolon (;) . He knows when to use a period (.) . period.)

:)

But you gotta give the big fella credit: He not only just wrote his own order winning the case (when in real life he lost) but he held the opposing counsel in contempt for good measure. In for a penny, in for a pound, eh Scotty Boy?

From the order:

Paragraph 13 for those of you keeping score at home or work: "That counsel for JONES is hereby found to have acted in contumacious disregard for prior orders of this and other courts and thus is found to be in contempt thereof."

Contumacious- that should bring out the word of the day guys. Scott may not know how to litigate a case, but he knows how to use a thesaurus.

Here's the thing: we hate standing in line at the Justice Building. We can't stand listening to Judges tell us how when they were in private practice they had every case prepped for trial within sixty days. But despite these horrors we slug through our simple practice and go to sleep every night. It's bad enough having to beg for a 30 day extension from the 11th Circuit to file our brief....We can't even imagine sleeping at night knowing that we are forging orders from the 11th Circuit.

On the other hand....they never ever do what we ask them to do. And it's sort of like Captain Kirk rigging the Kobayashi Maru exercise at Star Fleet Academy. (You never knew we are a Trekie? )

VETERANS DAY

Nothing speaks more eloquently as to why we celebrate Veterans Day than this piece by Dade Circuit Judge John Schlessinger, which appears in the Herald Today.


BY JOHN SCHLESINGER

The morning mist hung like a shroud over the endless rows of tombstones at Arlington National Cemetery. We had come to this sacred ground this past April to bury my Uncle, Edward Kielich, with full military honors.
Emotions washed over me as I walked past the graves of Congressional Medal of Honor recipients; many of the markers provided detailed accounts of the heroism of the American soldiers who lay beneath them. So much bravery; so much sacrifice; so much honor. I suddenly felt very small and insignificant in the presence of these men and women.
As we go about our daily affairs and plow through the mundane rituals of our busy lives, we tend to forget that the freedoms we enjoy in this great nation have been purchased and preserved at a very high price by the blood of these patriots. None paid a dearer price than my Uncle Edward.

Edward Kielich was a child of the Great Depression, one of 11 brothers and sisters born to working-class parents in Buffalo, N.Y. When his father died in 1934, my grandmother was forced to go to work in a chemical factory to try to feed her family, but her meager salary wasn't enough. These were hard times in America, nothing like the inconveniences that we dare call hardship today. With 11 children to clothe, shelter and feed, something had to be done. Edward and his brothers quit high school and went to work.

A few years later when their country called them, they went to war.
The oldest brother, Henry, enlisted in the Army Air Corps after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. As a tail gunner in a B-25 bomber, he would fly 60 combat missions over Europe and North Africa, receiving the Air Medal, Distinguished Flying Cross, six oak leaf clusters and other honors. Wounded in the leg by shrapnel, he never received his Purple Heart because his captain, responsible for the paperwork, died in the same mission. Henry would make it home alive, though, and became a U.S. Customs inspector at the Canada/U.S. border. He would live a long and happy life in Western New YorkThe next oldest brother, Eugene, was drafted into the infantry in 1943 and survived the D-Day landing at Omaha Beach. Suffering from severe frostbite that would trouble him for the rest of his life, he was taken from the field after the Battle of the Bulge and honorably discharged in 1945. Eugene became a railroad supervisor in Buffalo. He would also go on to a long and happy life with his family.

But still for these brothers, the butcher's bill would come due. Edward was drafted into the infantry in 1943. He served as an anti-aircraft gunner in the artillery. Edward survived the invasion of Normandy where so many of our best and bravest perished, fighting his way westward into Germany. Returning home in 1945, he seemed one of the lucky ones who made it back without a scratch. But it soon became apparent that something had changed inside him.

He acted strangely and became distant and paranoid. He would often pace the floor of the family home, then suddenly crouch down, pulling his frightened siblings down and telling them to ``be quiet . . . they're coming . . .''

Edward was sent to a Veterans Administration hospital in 1946. ``Shell-shock'' was the term of the day for his condition, what we now call ``post-traumatic stress disorder.'' The VA doctors knew little about the condition or a proper course of treatment. Edward would remain at the VA hospital in Canandaigua, N.Y., for the next 62 years.

As a child I visited him from time to time with my mother. It was a frightening place; patients sedated with thorazine and other heavy-duty drugs. Electroshock therapy was in vogue. Edward spoke haltingly, never more than a few words in hushed tones. He seemed grateful for the cigarettes and toiletries my mother brought. Each time she would leave sobbing and devastated, mourning the loss of her big brother.
So it was for 62 years, a once vibrant young man held a prisoner of his own mind, unable to get past the horrors of a war his body had survived. No bullet wound or shrapnel would provide the merciful release of death for Edward. But on that April morning at Arlington National Cemetery, I knew that his own sacrifice stood up well to those of the heroes he would join in that hallowed ground.

This Veterans Day, take a few moments to remind your sons and daughters that freedom isn't free. Teach them that our precious liberty is not preserved by lawyers, or judges, or politicians. It is the veterans to whom we owe the blessings of our liberty; they are the ones who answered the call and paid the bill when it came due. By teaching this lesson, we venerate their sacrifice and honor their devotion to America.

John Schlesinger is a circuit court judge in Miami-Dade County

LIFE FOR JUVENILES

The US Supreme Court on Monday took up the arguments in two cases examining the constitutionality of life in prison for juvenile offenders who commit non-homicide offenses. The cases argued were Graham v. Florida and Sullivan v. Florida.

In both cases the Petitioners were Florida inmates sentenced to life in prison as juveniles for offenses that did not involve murder.

One issue that obviously plagued the jurists was where do you draw the line and why? It seems arbitrary to create a bright line rule prohibiting life in prison without parole for juveniles who commit serious offenses a day before their eighteenth birthday and allowing life in prison for people who commit serious felonies and the day after their eighteenth birthday. This was evidenced by the following question:

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: But you haven't answered

Justice Alito's point, which is: What's the difference

between a month before he's 18 and a month after? What

makes us more capable at the 18th birthday to -- to

affirm a judgment that someone can't be -- can't be rehabilitated?

The Petitioner's answer seems to us weak- that you have to draw the line somewhere and society has drawn it at age 18. And that was just what Justice Scalia was waiting for:

JUSTICE SCALIA: A line has to be drawn

somewhere only if we accept your approach that there has

to be a categorical exemption. A line does not have to

be drawn somewhere if you adopt the approach of case by

case decide whether this is proportional, given how old

the individual was, given the nature of the crimes and

all of the other factors. You don't have to draw a line

then, and that's the attraction of that approach.

But bless her ACLU soul, Justice Ginsberg was  waiting with an answer:

JUSTICE GINSBURG: You see, how do you answer the argument that unlike an adult, because of the immaturity, you can't really judge a person -- judge a teenager at the point of sentencing? That it's only after a period of time has gone by, and you see: Has this person overcome those youthful disabilities? That's why a proportionality review on the spot doesn't accommodate the -- what is the driving force of the -your -- the Petitioner's argument is you can't make a

judgment until years later to see how that person has --

has done.

And that's the problem here- on the one side the argument against drawing the line at 18 years of age is that you should just legislate that age is a factor that must be taken into consideration and then you don't have to worry on what side of the 18th birthday the defendant committed the crime on. But that approach still allows for the imprisonment of life without parole for juveniles. So on the other side you ask the court to draw a bright line at age 18.

It seems to us both approaches work well together- you draw a bright line and still require sentencing judges to take age into consideration. That approach plus adding mandatory parole for all juveniles sentenced to more than ten years in prison solves all the issues at hand.

What say you?

CHAOS AT THE COURTHOUSE

UPDATE: You're an attorney on the run.  Your firm is in the hands of receivers and the Feds are getting ready to pounce. You may just be Ft. Lauderdale's Bernie Madoff. What do you do? 

Why, since it's North of the Border, and you're Scott Rothstein, you go to the Captial Grille with your attorney for martinis and lunch. Check out Bob Norman's Daily Pulp blog  AND THE VIDEO (they mix a great martini at the Capital Grille) here. 

While Judges Blake and Slom were figuratively and perhaps literally relaxing in their chambers and sipping a cup of coffee while perusing the comics section of the Herald, this was the scene outside of the courthouse as lines stretched around the block and even attorneys found themselves waiting for upwards of 30 minutes or more as the security screening apparatus in the back of the courthouse broke down. 

Several 12th Street Irregulars sent missives:

Rumpole- It's 9:31 and I've been in line since 8:50. Something's happened to the machine at the back of the courthouse and the line is not moving. Even worse, the clients are on the verge of revolt and they've barged into our line and now I have to stand next to some large sweating woman whose son is going to be sentenced by Judge Miller today.  Send help!

Rumpole: I'm back in my office after waiting 25 minutes in line to get into the building this morning. There is no help at the back and the security people don't do anything to enforce the attorneys only line. People who aren't attorneys wait in the line, then have to go back through the machine several times because they're too stupid to take out their keys and cell phone and when I complain to the security people they shrug and say "no english".  Isn't Blake supposed to be in charge of this? Can you do something to let him know we can't get into the building now?

Rumpole says: There you have it. A massive problem. Will the judiciary respond? 

UPDATE: LT Arrested for LSA! Click here. 

NFL WEEK NINE

Friends, Dol-fans, countrymen, lend me your ears. Today in New England will not be pretty. The leaves have turned. It is a crisp fall day. And the despised Cheaters will pound our Dolphins. Take our advice. Go for a walk. See a movie. Don't watch the game. Oh...the humanity.

The game that we really like is the Ravens at the Bengals. The surprising Bengals are in first place in the AFC North. They have already beaten the Ravens in Baltimore and the World Champ Steelers in Cincinnati, and yet the Bengals are 3 point home dogs. Cincinnati at home getting points is a lock, right? Nope. The Ravens are the better team here by far. The total here is also a bit out of wack at 46. Ravens -3 +200, under 45 +300.

The Eagles are -3 at home over the resurgent Cowboys who are led by the second worst coach in the NFL- Vanilla Phillips. Take the Eagles -3 for 400 Cheese steaks

("with" (pronounced "wit" in south Philly) of course, and if you have to ask "with what?" you're a hopeless cheese steak novice and should not be reading this blog). And of course we mean Pats Cheese Steaks, not Genos which as any Philly fan knows are both right across the street from each other.

We've got a pretty good feel for the Monday night game of Steelers at Broncos, but lets see what happens here.

SUICIDE POOL:

Our famous writer of bitingly funny emails, super PD Daniel Tibbitt picks the Seahawks; Ifitkhar Memon-Falcons (NOTE -we erred and wrote in the wrong pick earlier); Rick Fredman- Falcons; Peter Sautter-Seahawks.

PLAYERS- PLEASE EMAIL ME YOUR PICK FOR STEELERS BRONCOS- PLUS TOTAL POINTS SCORED- TOTAL TDS SCORED- TOTAL FIELD GOALS SCORED. WE ARE APPROACHING A POSSIBLE TIEBREAKER SCENARIO. TELL ME WHAT SHOULD I DO IF ALL 4 OF YOU LOSE TODAY? RESET IT FOR NEXT WEEK, OR GO TO A TIEBREAKER. I WILL LET A MAJORITY VOTE OF YOU 4 DECIDE.

HR.

JUVENILE JUSTICE ?

"There are just over 100 people in the world serving life without possibility of parole for crimes they committed as juveniles in which no one was killed. All of them are in the United States. 77 of them are in Florida."

Thus begins a NY Times article on the US Supreme Court's consideration of whether sentencing a juvenile to life in prison without parole is cruel and unusual punishment. The title links to the article.

What an absolute shame 77 of those children were sentenced by Florida Courts.

In the article a few local names are mentioned including retired Juvenile Justice Judge Tom Peterson and a special guest appearance by former Reno ASA Shay Bilchik who had this to say:

Shay Bilchik, who served as a state prosecutor in Miami from 1977 to 1993 and is now the director of the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown , said the state took a wrong turn.

“We were pretty aggressive in those years in transferring kids into criminal court,” Mr. Bilchik said. “There was a feeling that we needed to protect our streets.”

He said later research convinced him that his office’s approach was much too aggressive and had not served to deter crime. “My biggest regret,” Mr. Bilchik said, “is that during the time I was in the prosecutor’s office, we were under the false impression that we were insuring greater public safety when we were not.”

Gee Shay, it's always nice when a prosecutor says "woops, I blew it." The problem is that your office's "approach" sent thousands of children to prison when the research on the development of the brains of teen-agers and their decision making abilities were already well known.

Well, better late than never.

THE LIFE OF A PD

Just to prove that our dear robed readers are not the only ones that can behave badly through email, we report to you today on the emerging "DUES CONTROVERSY" involving the Miami Chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys.

Earlier in the week an email was sent on the FACDL Listserv, which is a private service in which if you're a member of the FACDL you can send out emails that reach all the members. Most emails are usually something like "does the 4th amendment prohibit unreasonable searches AND seizures? It's been a while since I've read it."

At which point a few hundred lawyers' blackberrys start beeping and they leave meetings or bow out of secret assignations to answer the call of their colleague in distress.

The email that went out this week was an application for 2010 with a reminder for members to pay their dues.

One member responded that the FACDL's policy of offering discounted dues to Public Defenders should be discontinued, since, and we're not quoting exactly here "PDs have generous salaries not to mention full benefits."

Faster than you can say "Judges Diaz and Faber", hundreds of responses began flooding the FACDL listserv, causing at one point Bill Gates to exclaim "what the F is going on with those lawyers in Miami?"

You see, here's the thing: Most members of FACDL got their start as public employees in the PD or SAO office. Most remember their service as a great time, when they learned the law, made great friends who all pitched in to help make it on tight budgets. This email was, to put it mildly, asking for trouble. Kind of like going into Judge Diaz's courtroom and citing precedent written by a County Court Judge.

The responses varied from the profane (one well respected lawyer wrote that it was time to "shut the f up") to the funny. In that light, we present the famous Daniel Tibbitt. Mr. Tibitt shows he's not just an ace PD; he's not just a football savant as he has survived to the final four in our suicide pool, but he is very funny to boot (although he shouldn't get any ideas about writing a blog):

On 11/6/09, Daniel Tibbitt wrote:
As a current PD, I must wholeheartedly agree that we are simply way overpaid. The number of tens of thousands of dollars I make a year requires almost one full hand of fingers to count. My real problem is where to spend it all. After repaying my law school loan and paying the rent for my palatial one bedroom apartment, I am left with literally hundreds of dollars every month to spend on anything I damn well please. Now sure, some of that has to go towards food, and bills (for instance, my incredible salary allows me the luxury of having a non-corded "cellular" telephone) and gas (I drive a 1998 Chrysler Cirrus, it is straight pimping and represents the ultimate in decade old Detroit ingenuity, for instance it has air conditioning that works beautifully as long as its not too hot AND the seats recline, oh yes).

I had hoped that I would be able to keep riding this PD gravy train forever but I fear the discussion on this listserv indicates the rest of you may be onto us and how overpaid we are. We may have to discontinue our proud tradition of PD Friday lunches at Joes Stone Crab and renting out the Versace mansion for our PD Christmas party. And, I haven't mentioned that we do indeed get "full benefits". That's right, in addition to our overly generous salary we also are blessed with a little thing called "health care." If I get sick, there's no trekking down to the local ER to wait and
see the emergency physician for me. No, I get on the phone, call my own personal doctor, get a convenient appointment for 2 weeks from now, and presto, I'm cured (provided I haven't healed on my own in the intervening 2 weeks). You wouldn't think the State of Florida would waste money on keeping its employees healthy, but believe it or not, they do, and thats money that goes right into my pocket (well not so much my pocket as the health care industry's pocket, but who's counting).

And then, on top of all that, I get to pay 50 dollars less than you suckers in the private bar in annual dues to FACDL. If you don't think I'm chuckling to myself about my good fortune in that regard as I'm spending that 50 bucks on champagne and caviar every year, you are sadly incorrect.

In conclusion, I can only hope that Ms. Wear's email does not start a groundswell of activism that will overturn the "confiscatory" $75 in annual dues private attorneys pay to FACDL. That word was as well chosen as was the attack on the PD's, since as we all know joining FACDL is a mandatory obligation.

In seriousness, thanks to all of you at FACDL for the services you provide and I hope everyone enjoys their weekend.
Dan Tibbitt

3rd DCA ROUNDUP

We don't know about you, but we were getting awfully tired of looking at Davis's mug.

A few quick house keeping announcements before we begin:

The 11th Circuit's Symposium: "Mediation, Arbitration, and A Spirit of Reconciliation in the Work Place" Hosted by 11th Circuit Judges Reemeberto Diaz and Robin Faber has been canceled and will be rescheduled.

The CLE Seminar "Sentencing in Fraud and Theft Cases- how high is high enough?" by Judge Beatrice Butchko has been rescheduled for January 8, 2010.

And Chief Judge North Of the Border Vic Tobin's lecture "The Privacy of Inter-Office emails, leaks, plumbers, and acting like Nixon" a preview of which can be found here, will be given as scheduled. (Here's what we love about the Broward Blog. Not only do they get Tobin's emails as he sends them, they get his emails COMPLAINING about them getting his emails. It must be frustrating for the Chief Judge. Kind of like swatting at gnats. )

OK. On with the show.

Hernandez v. State: Here's a question we've never seen before: Defendant is indicted for first degree murder. Judge Schlessinger transfers the case to Orange County for trial based on the publicity. The defendant is convicted. The Appellant files a motion to transfer the appeal to the 5th DCA. Now why in the world wouldn't a criminal defendant want the Judges of the 3rd DCA to hear his appeal? Well, for whatever the reason the 3rd DCA is eager to hear this case, so they denied the motion, but did certify a conflict with other courts. Query: has a criminal appellant ever tried to get his case transfered to the 3rd DCA?

Wall of Shame: Judge Pinero here.

DOWN GOES DAVIS!!!

GUILTY!!!

Two Broward Economic Crimes prosecutors did what an army of Federal Agents and Federal Prosecutors could not do some twenty years ago when a jury today found former Judge Phil Davis guilty of nine felony counts including money laundering, fraud, organized scheme to defraud (which is a first degree felony last time we looked) and grand theft. 

A shocked and sullen looking Davis was handcuffed and led away.  Sentencing was set for January 8, 2010. 

Davis will now spend his foreseeable future in a place once unimaginable for him- the same jail he sentenced countless defendants to, while taking bribes from attorneys and snorting cocaine in his chambers. 

Karma baby. 

Here's reporter/Blogger Tim Elfrink's New Times post on the conviction. 

WHY PHIL DAVIS MATTERS

UPDATE: DAVIS JURY OUT- if someone could email us when the verdict comes in that would be appreciated. 

Far removed from the familiar confines of NW 12th Street and 12th Avenue, we have been wondering why we have taken such an interest in the current trial of disgraced former Judge Phil Davis.

Here's why.

Phil Davis was a one of three sitting Circuit Court Judges to be arrested in Operation Courtbroom. Judges Alfonso Sepe and Roy Gelber were the other two sitting circuit court judges to be arrested along with sitting County Court Judge Harvey Shenberg, former Circuit Court Judge David Goodhart and a few other criminal defense attorneys. There were a few separate crimes and conspiracies going on at the same time, the chief offense being that defense attorneys were giving circuit judges kick backs for what was then lucrative court appointments. Along the way County Court Judge Harvey Shenberg agreed to sell the name of a CI that he was led to believe would be killed, for $50,000.00.

Davis and his cohorts represented both the end of innocence at the Justice Building, and a shattering of the belief that Judges-like them or not- were there to do justice. Sometimes wrong, often arrogant and seemingly uncaring, many Judges seemed to us at the time as petty and insecure, and not really suited for the responsibilities they had been entrusted to shoulder. But never in our wildest imagination did we believe that a Judge- not to mention four sitting judges- would be actively striking against the principles we all stood for.

Suddenly, every ruling a Judge issued resulted in whispers. "They're on the take, just like the rest of them" people would say, and what could we as lawyers do to respond? For all we knew, our world having been turned upside down, maybe there was another shoe or two to drop.

An innocent cup of coffee between a Judge and a lawyer now looked like a conspiracy.

In short, Davis and his conspirators turned our courthouse into an outhouse. They defecated in it, and then they left. Hustled out in handcuffs. We- the lawyers and judges who remained- were left to clean up their effluent waste.

Today, the court appointment system is almost gone. Interaction outside of court between Judges and lawyers is much rarer. And perhaps that's a good thing. Our building survived, our reputation has slowly been rebuilt and in many ways our system of justice in Miami is stronger and wiser because of Courtbroom.

And then, almost like a one night stand you regretted once the sun rose, there is Davis, back in our courthouse, a defendant once again. And all the memories of the disgrace and pain and shame he brought upon all of us is dredged back up to the surface once again.

Davis was acquitted in Courtbroom, mostly due to the eloquent closing argument of former Federal Judge and now Congressman Alcee Hastings. And just to show that Courtbroom was not an isolated incident, Davis managed to find more trouble shortly thereafter and was disbarred. And now for the second time in twenty years, Phil Davis will stand before a Jury to hear his fate. This time, Alcee Hastings won't be standing next to him.

It doesn't really matter what happens to Phil Davis. The damage he did remains, although the scars have faded. He is clearly a tortured soul. He had a job many aspire to- and he threw it all away. He had a profession many envied. And he threw that away too. He set up charitable organizations to ostensibly help the underprivileged, and now he stands accused of the reprehensible act of stealing from the poor he promised to serve.

In the final analysis, it's not the damage Davis did, but the lessons we learned.

It's not the money he stole, but the integrity we refused to relinquish.

It's not the office he disgraced, but the proud service of those who came after him.

Which is why, in retrospect, Phil Davis doesn't matter at all.

PHIL DAVIS UPDATE

Whilst on our travels, we received this email from a 12th Street Irregular:

Rumpole- quick and sparse update on the Phil Davis trial. I was in the building today and was told closings would be in the afternoons. No surprise the JOA motions were denied. It's a big nasty paper case and the jury will probably not be charged until 5pm. Most insiders are predicting a verdict Wednesday, but there is no real consensus as to whether it will be guilty or not guilty. 

Rumpole says: Thanks. Anybody see the closings? 

Here's New Times Blogster/Reporter Tim Elfrink on the case. 

DRUG COURT FOR MENTALLY ILL DEFENDANTS

Lets give credit where credit is due.

The Dade SAO has allowed drug court to expand to include defendant's who are mentally ill.

If the client enters and completes a drug court type program supervised by Judge White-Labora, then the client can have the charges dropped.

The Herald article is here.

The program sounds good.

Mentally ill people need help.

Query: Why are we prosecuting people who are mentally ill anyway?

Why are we jamming mentally ill people into a drug court program? Certainly the statistics show that many mentally ill people self medicate and have a concomitant drug problem that needs treatment.

Would we prosecute diabetics for having a high blood sugar count?

Would we prosecute epileptics for having a seizure in public?

Do we expect Judges in Broward to know and follow the law? OK. Bad example, but still.....

Then why do we arrest and prosecute individuals who have a recognizable disease that prevents them from understanding how to act in a law abiding manner?

Simple question. Simple answer. Money. We don't want to spend the money to give these people the treatment they need. The drug court program is a nice start. We hope it works. But its a long way from where we need to be.

Good luck Judge White-Labora.

DAVIS TAKES THE STAND

An email on Former Judge Phil Davis testifying is below. But first....

In Broward, there was some big shot lawyer named Scott Rothstein. He hired ex-sheriff Ken Jenne when he got out of federal prison. He hired ex-prosecutors and ex-judges, and set up shop as a big, politically connected lobbying firm.  Personally, being North of the Border, our opinion was WGAS? (it's not to hard to figure out- hint: G=Gives, A=a") Now comes word Rothstein, who was also running an investment program(scam) has flown the coop and millions of dollars of investment funds are missing.  Rothstein has been reported in Morocco and/or Venezuela, both of whom coincidently enough do  not have extradition treaties with the US. (which just goes to show you he's smarter than Bernie Madoff.) 

The Broward  Blog has coverage here and David Markus has an interesting take here that essentially with the layoffs at newspapers, the blogs are the one that broke and followed this story. WGAS? 

We received this email:

Rumpole: Please accept this as an application (I didn't see any formal forms) to be included in your 14th Street Irregulars. As such, I file my first report from the courtroom of Judge Beatrice Butchko, and State v. Phil Davis. 

Your readers will remember Phil Davis as the former circuit court judge arrested and disgraced (but acquitted) in the federal bribery investigation famously known as Courtbroom. Soon after his acquittal Davis managed to get himself disbarred based on some shenanigans he pulled before a Federal Judge in California. 

Davis is being charged in some sort of paper case fraud arising, I think out of money he received from state and federal grants from some misbegotten charity he was running. 

I saw the cross. Davis will be acquitted. 

This prosecutor did not lay a glove on him. Davis, looking much older and sporting a shock of gray hair and a gray beard has not lost his touch. Plus he was well prepped. He was soft spoken but did not give any ground.  He was erudite and well knowledgeable about the forms in question to the point that he several times assisted the befuddled prosecutor who was cross examining him. 

Your readers will remember that before winning election against Fritz Mann, Davis was a trial lawyer himself. It showed. He assumed command and did not give ground to the prosecutor. He could see every question coming, he knew when the prosecutor was trying to lay the ground work for a trap, and he answered everything in a professorial and forthright way. He peppered his responses with soft mentions that he was running a charity that was taking kids to Viscaya and helping the underprivileged in the community. In short- he ate this guy's lunch. I haven't seen the whole trial, but from what I saw, they should call this before the prosecutor hurts himself anymore. 

It should come as no surprise Davis is accused of stealing from the public. He sold his robes for some bus and cocaine money. But it doesn't seem to me these wonky paper case prosecutors were any match for Davis's ability on the stand. He will skate again. 

Rumpole says: Thank you and consider yourself the first in what is hopefully many 14th Street Irregulars.  I am not fooling when I say I will be out of town until the end of the year and beyond and I cannot keep this blog running without helpful reporting and tips.  Indeed, I can no longer sign off with my famous "see you in court" because for the next few months, sadly, I won't. 

ANOTHER MONDAY..ANOTHER BLITZ

Before we begin, we have some shocking news. You'd better sit down.

Sorry we have to be one the one to break this to you.

Vice President Dick Cheney.....LIED when he was interviewed by the special counsel investigating the leak of the identity of CIA Agent Valery Plume. The NY Times has all the details here.

There is another blitz going on today. We hope it works.

Query: why does county court need a blitz? What causes the problems that the blitz remedies?

Speaking of football, the best football player on the planet is Ted Ginn of your Miami Dolphins. At least for this past Sunday he was. Two, count em J...E...T....S.. fans, two kickoffs taken to the house for TDs. 290+ return yards, second all time for one game. One hot dog eatin pretty boy QB planted in the turf, and all around a great Dolphin win!

TURN YOUR CLOCKS BACK.

If you're like us, then you're fascinated by time. We once went until Thursday until we actually turned our clocks back. But with appointments today in the Big Apple, we will awake for our morning workout at 6, and blissfully turn over as we set our clock back to five and sleep another hour. But then we must join the rest of the working world and set out clocks back an hour.

WANTED:

A small coterie of individuals to work as "12th Street Irregulars" and help report on the comings and goings on (not to mention more emails if possible) at 1351 NW 12th Street, while circumstances beyond our control require that we will be absent for the next few months. Discrete inquires gladly accepted.