THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC

What Rumpole is reading:

11/22/63: Absolutely Stephen King's finest. And even if you're not a Stephen King fan, this book is special.

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. When you're done with this shorter story you will immediately start re-reading it to see what you missed. Sounds weird? Read it and see.

Destiny Of The Republic: A Tale Of Madness, Medicine and Murder of A President. Candice Millard. Think you know everything there is to know about President James A. Garfield? Think again.

The bad thing about writing a good post over the weekend is coming home late Monday and feeling like we have to write something before people get bored. It's not like we have law professors at UM guest blogging for us.

First no soup, now no mail for Rumpole. The US Postal service will be making cuts in the spring.

Super size black holes are gobbling up the universe, and that has us worried.

North Miami Police Officers are casting Santeria spells on the City Manager (and getting fired for it.) Pure Birdseed.

The cost of fuel in Afghanistan has risen to $400.00 per gallon, but only for the US Military.

The Dolphins don't suck anymore after the drubbing they put on the Raiders on Sunday.

And only 19 more shopping days until Christmas (starting Tuesday).

See you in court.

LIAR LIAR POLICE ON FIRE

Jerry Sandusky's attorney tries again and has his client sit for a two day interview with the NY Times here.

Query: When, if ever is it appropriate to have your client sit down with the press?

NO SOUP FOR YOU RUMPOLE!

One of the pleasures of going to trial in federal court, or showing up for an 11:30 hearing was having lunch at Lil Anthony's Italian Restaurant. As of Friday, the restaurant had served its last piece of pizza or plate of pasta. Or in Rumpole's case, the very best Tomato Soup in Miami.

The New Times has brief bit on the closing here. If anyone hears if and where they re-open, please let us know. We had two bowls of the soup yesterday, and will be going into withdrawal shortly.

LIAR LIAR BROWARD COPS ON FIRE

Here's the scenario: The Broward SWAT team serves a warrant. The defense files a motion to suppress and alleges that the police did not knock and announce. The detective takes the stand and give detailed testimony on how he saw the knock and announce and how they always knock and announce without fail. Always.

Then the defense plays the outtakes from a local police show showing that the police did not even remotely come close to knocking and announcing when they served the warrant in the case being litigated.

Lets play: So what does the Broward SAO do?

A) Nolle Prosse and apologize to everyone for presenting perjured testimony?

B) Open an investigation of the Detective and his squad?

C) Argue exigent circumstances the next day and refuse to drop the charges?

If you said C, you've seen how they work in Broward.

The JAA Blog has all the dirty details here and here.

Here's the point. Is this an isolated incident? Did the defense in Broward just get extremely lucky and happen to get the exculpatory information they needed in the one case the police lied/or were mistaken?

Or does this happen all the time and this is the one time they got caught?

How many times have you told the prosecution that this was the only time your client made a mistake, and how many times have they sneered at that fantasy and responded that this was the first time they got caught?

Here's what concerns us the most- and this is directed at our robed readers: How many times do you hear in court that the police lied? That they planted the drugs they claim they saw the defendant drop? That they hit the defendant and tore up the first two Miranda forms before he agreed to waive his rights? And how many times have you ruled against the defense and reasoned that police have no reason to lie? That it is foolish to think any police officer would risk their badge to lie about one insignificant case?

How do you feel when you see what is clearly an institutional bias to commit perjury whenever it suits them?

See You In Court, and by the way, get that attorney in Broward who nailed these cops an award and re-read that idiot prosecutor his oath as a prosecutor.

WORLD AIDS DAY

Better late than never. Thursday was World Aids Day. But it's not too late to do your part.

Here is the Government's web site for World Aids Day. You can follow the links and find your own suitable charity and do your part.

We can't let this go. It's hard to imagine most of our readers passed the Bar. If you read the comments section from the last post, you will see speculation on who the young woman was referenced in our post. Most thought it was a prosecutor. Then we wrote that there was nothing in the post to confirm she was a prosecutor. Then someone wondered if she wasn't a prosecutor what could she be?

Co-counsel?

Counsel for the co-defendant?

Jury consultant?

Expert witness?

Come on people. Think just a little tiny bit outside the box.

It's all over the FACDL Listserv that great criminal defense attorney Roy Kahn tore it up in trial in civil court and got a 3.25 million dollar verdict.

Roy, can you spare a dime?

FACDL SPY

Our FACDL spy says the following things are in the works:

1) The clerk's office will now accept checks and debit cards for payments. For a brief moment the clerk's office decided to only accept coin as payment and then only quarters and nickels minted 2009 or beyond and then only from the Denver mint.

2) Security pass: Regular working private defense attorney Joes and Janes will be able to join their brethren from the SAO, PDs, and Regional Counsel (RC?) and bypass the security and walk in the side door.

Register us as completely 100% against this idea. Everyone, and we mean everyone including Judges and Bailiffs should have to go through screening. Otherwise the building turns into a sieve.

The security of an area is directly related to the square of the number of people who can bypass screenings.* With what will now be 100s of people not being screened as they enter, the chances of their being an "incident" of some sort is now much more likely than not.

See You In Court.

*That's not our formula but one employed by respected security agencies.

EVE OF DESTRUCTION

The Scene:

Your favourite blogger in a hallway outside of a courtroom speaking with a young attorney.

Rumpole: Your description of what will occur if I proceed to trial is right out of Eve Of Destruction.

Young Female Attorney: Huh?

Rumpole. You know. Barry McGuire. Eve Of Destruction. A famous song from the sixties.

YFA: No. Never heard it.

Rumpole. Well, you weren't alive in the sixties. In fact, you weren't alive in the seventies. (Very long pause as we stared off in to space over her head. We think to ourselves that she is incredibly young and more than a bit attractive. Finally, after a few more awkward moments of silence:) Please tell me you were born in the eighties. Please dear lord don't say you were born in the nineties.

YFA: (Laughing) Why would that matter so much to you?

Rumpole: Well, for one thing it would cause me to go home tonight and drink much more than I had intended to.

YFA: (Laughing again) 1986. I was born in 1986.

Rumpole: Thank you. You've saved me just a bit.

Yeah, my blood's so mad, feels like coagulatin',
I'm sittin' here, just contemplatin',
I can't twist the truth, it knows no regulation,
handful of Senators don't pass legislation,
and marches alone can't bring integration,
when human respect is disintegratin',
this whole crazy world is just too frustratin',
and you tell me over and over and over again my friend,
ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

See You In Court.

JB Spence and Buddy Payne, long time law partners and giants among civil trial lawyers in Florida, both died a few days apart in November, 2011. The Herald dual obit is here.

Election Central

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

Election Central .....

Circuit Court Group 49. Richard Hersch now has an opponent. (ht to 5:48 pm).

Attorney Victor De Yurre, a member of the Florida Bar since 1977 has filed to run against Mr. Hersch. Many of you will remember Mr. De Yurre from his previous life in politics. He first ran for the Miami City Commission in 1987 against incumbent Commissioner Joe Carollo. He defeated Carollo and served on the City Commission from 1988-1995.

Like most politicians elected in our city, De Yurre attracted his share of controversy. In 1991, New Times did one of their many stories about De Yurre. The City of Miami was on the verge of bankruptcy, (so what’s new), and De Yurre had spent the taxpayers money on lavish trips out of the State and Country. De Yurre had taken nine trips in 1990, cultural missions is what I think they call them, to places like Italy, Washington DC, Seattle, San Francisco (supposedly to see programs for homeless people), and Brussels, among some of the places.

The trip to San Francisco must have been anything but eventful. I say that because, in 2002, New Times did a feature story called: “What Did You Do In The War On Poverty”? In the story they interviewed several past members of the Miami City Commission and they asked them each that exact question. When they got to De Yurre, he responded: “I can't put my finger on anything now. I can think of global things, like funding low-income housing projects. We also had those façades on Eighth Street, Overtown, and Liberty City -- injections of money that helped people spruce up places. I can't think of any individual thing I did. I really can't think of anything else I could have done.”

As a lawyer, De Yurre appears to have a solo practice in the downtown area. I have no idea what type of law he practices. I believe he has a son, Anthony, who is also a lawyer. Anthony works for Pathman, Lewis, and is involved in the political scene and is a mover and shaker in the community in his own right.

I would imagine that De Yurre could prove to be a formidable opponent to Mr. Hersch -of course, if Hersch happens to get tapped by Governor Scott to one of the three open Circuit Court seats, then he won’t have to worry about running for Judge again until 2014.

I also reported on November 21st on this BLOG that Fleur Lobree has drawn yet another opponent.

ELECTION CENTRAL ..... GROUP 20 COUNTY COURT

JUDGE LOBREE DRAWS YET ANOTHER OPPONENT

On October 12, 2011, on the Justice Building BLOG, I reported the following:

And the newest filing has someone challenging newly appointed County Court Judge Fleur Lobree:

William Pena Wells; (he is the attorney that caused much discussion on this blog on the issue of his being suspended by the Bar for three years as the result of his criminal conviction).

The newest candidate:

Michelle Alvarez Barakat. Ms. Barakat has been practicing law since 1999. She worked for the Florida Bar in lawyer regulation. She now practices in a two person firm with her husband, former ASA Brian Barakat. According to her web site, her practice concentrates on criminal defense and commercial litigation.

JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS UPDATE:

We are waiting to hear from Governor Scott on several appointments:

Circuit Court open seats include: Judge Ivan Fernandez, Judge Amy Steele Donner, and Judge Robert Scola. Six names sit on Scott's desk for the Fernandez seat and the Donner seat. The JNC has not yet selected the names to replace Scola. Expect two new Circuit Court Judges to be named sometime during the week before Christmas.

Donald "DJ" Cannava
Miguel de la O
Richard Hersch
Norma Lindsey
Deborah White-Labora
Angelica Zayas

County Court open seat: Judge Rosa Figarola. The Governor has five names on his desk. Expect a new County Court Judge to be named around the same time as the two new Circuit Court Judges.

David Alschuler
Tanya Brinkley
Donald “DJ” Cannava
Ivonne Cuesta
Steven Lieberman


Cap Out .....

ON LINE MONDAY

Now we move to the internet sales which start today. This orgy of consumption is a bit intimidating. And somehow sad.

Another Miranda case, another small chip knocked out of the decision by the Supreme Court. In Bobby v. Dixon, decided per curiam, (a latin term meaning literally "you lost badly") the court reversed the decision of the sixth circuit. For Miranda purposes the court held no violation where the defendant invoked Miranda during a non-custodial "chance encounter" with the police two days before confessing after Miranda. The facts in this case were distinguished from the "two-step" method to undermine Miranda employed by the police (and disfavored by a plurality of the court) in Missouri v. Seibert, 542 U. S. 600 (2004)

Here's a tough and kinda sexy Brooklyn Judge profiled in the NY Times.

"Tanned, toned and blond at 50-something (long-divorced, without children), Judge DiMango speaks in a comfortable Brooklyn accent. She wears short knit dresses — black or fire-engine red — that show cleavage underneath a robe that casually falls off her shoulders; she drives an aqua Porsche."

This is the last few days of November. When does the "it's almost Christmas so I don't want to go to trial" motions start creeping on to the court calendars?

See You In Court.

IF FRIDAY WAS BLACK...

Then Saturday is?

The confusing thing about this "Black" labeling business is that Wall Street calls historically bad days "black" and retailers call the best day of the shopping year "black". Kinda confusing.

Johnny Walker Black? Good. Black Mark? Bad. In the Black? Good. Black eye? Bad.

I think some lawyers should get involved and resolve this inconsistency. Should only take a team of 20 and about 2000 billable hours to settle on a new word.

Speaking of lawyers, our old friends at Weil, Gotschal and Manages, have settled the NBA Strike! (The link is to the NY Times coverage).

Yes Virginia, there will be basketball this year. Your daddy can pay $500 a seat to see Dwayne Wade and Lebron James et.al., play at the AA arena starting Christmas day. Heat v. Mavs. Go Heat! Another under achieving over paid team of spoiled players.

And yet, this time around the players will not be so over paid. They capitulated. They caved. They didn't like their old deal so they went on strike. They didn't like the new deal offered, so they decertified the union. And then they settled for a pay scale that can go as low as 49% of revenues, or as high as 51%. Under the former deal that the players found so onerous, they were getting 57% of revenues.

The message is don't mess with the guys at WGM. They will eat your lunch and double bill you for it when the deal is done.

Except when they mess with yours truly.

So go hit those day two sales and see just how high your credit can go.

The Fins lost a close one in Dallas on Thanksgiving and say what you want but Tony Sporano and his team have showed real mettle in battling back from a disastrous start and not giving up. We think TS has earned another shot at coaching down the line. Unlike certain basketball teams in town, his players aren't spoiled brats.

See You In Court Monday, turkeyed out.

psatb/rposttd/bfsat?/rit

TURKEY DAY

Lots of interesting chatter in the comments section from the previous post.

Sitting home tonight and watching the Verdict.

Query: What's the best legal movie?

Certain lawyers with an affinity for blogging about federal court will tell you that it is A Few Good Men. But for our money, it's Paul Newman in The Verdict. Rocky for trial lawyers. Our favourite part is not the courtroom scenes, as good as they are, but the scene where the Archbishop offers Newman $210,000.00. Newman asks how he arrived at the sum and the archbishop says he thinks it's a fair offer. Then Newman says that he is struck by how well the offer is divisible by three and the Archbishop responds that was the idea of their insurance company. Newman turns the offer down.

The scene where Newman yells at the Judge and calls him a "bagman for the boys downtown" also makes us smile for some unknown reason.

Can't beat Miles O'Shea as the Judge either.

Enjoy your turkey and the holiday.

HR

TURKEY WEEK

Front page of the NY Times: "What They Don't Teach in Law School: Lawyering."

Front Page of the NY Times Magazine: "Teaching Good Sex".

And they accuse the comments section on the blog over the weekend of being weird.

Law and Sex. The question is how much are our readers influencing the editors of the NY Times?

FIU MOOT COURT

They are teaching good lawyering at FIU Law School. Over the weekend Professors HT Smith and Scott Fingerhut ran their annual Moot Court Competition. Judges from the 3rd DCA and the REGJB took time out of their weekends and presided over the trials while dozens and dozens of lawyers from the PD, SAO and private practice attended the trials as "jurors" rating the law student participants. We heard via a few emails (some apparently while the competition was in full swing) it was a great success, and congrats go to the law students and thanks to the Judges (it's almost the end of the year, we need to be nice to robe wearers at least once) and lawyers who gave selflessly of their time.

Anybody going to trial with two and half days of work scheduled for the week? Clerks and courts should close Wednesday at noon if tradition holds and the chief judge issues an order pardoning a local turkey and court and clerk personnel.

Anybody ever try a Turducken for Thanksgiving? It's a turkey stuffed with a chicken which is stuffed with a duck. Throw in some sausage and cornbread and it takes 12 hours in the oven. We saw one being prepared. Looks amazing.

See You In Court. Enjoy the holiday week.

ITS A LONG LONG ROAD

Mr. Black was pondering rebuttal arguments. Actually he was beyond pondering. He was mulling though his collection of great rebuttals of the past. Want to know why Mr. Black is a great lawyer? Read his blog. He loves and respects his craft. And he constantly studies it.

Mr. Black calls the prosecutor's rebuttal in the prosecution of Dr. Conrad Murray "as good as it gets." and "It was a coup de grace." High praise from a lawyer who knows a good rebuttal when he hears one.

Speaking of rebuttals, we were always of the belief that a good piece of defense evidence was more than worth sacrificing the right to a rebuttal argument. This was back in the day when the defense had the rebuttal closing argument unless they introduced a piece of evidence. However, now that the defense no longer has the chance at a rebuttal closing argument, we miss it.

True the prosecution has the burden of proof. But they get to proceed first at every critical stage, from voire dire to opening. Sometimes a good last word works wonders.

Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez thankfully does not join the historical litany of multi-named assassins, as his attempt on the life of President Obama was not successful and he is now in custody. Ortega-Hernandez shot at the White House while the President was a continent away. However one projectile struck the facade over the Truman Balcony where the President and his wife sometimes sit and relax. Do we now have to sequester our President in a physical bubble at all times? Maybe so. But the important point is Mr. Ortega-Hernandez's Second Amendment rights were not infringed before he shot up the White House, right? Right?

"It's a long long road, from which there is no return..."

The Hollies*. He Ain't Heavy. He's My Brother.

*HT to Scott Saul for correcting us.

Happy Birthday, Six & Counting

JUROR ARRESTED FOR THEFT! (This is why we started the blog). David Ovalle has all the details here as a juror who was going through security snapped up a Mac Lap top. Surprisingly good police work solved the "Case of the pilfered 'puter" in record time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG

Congratulations to Horace on his 6th Birthday as Administrator of the Justice Building Blog. And with due deference to South Florida Lawyers, Southern District of Florida, and the Broward Blogs, we here would like to say that your BLOG is Number One in our book.

Don't know if you'll be around for another six years, but many of your loyal readers and posters will stick with you for as long as you are willing and able to continue with your fine administration of the BLOG.


On a lighter note:


The Captain Reports:

As mentioned by one of our loyal readers, attorney Miguel de la O, who filed many moons ago for an open Circuit Court seat in Group 42, now has an opponent. That opponent is attorney Greer Elaine Davis Wallace, a solo practitioner with an office in Florida City, she specializes in family law and has been practicing since 1979.


Captain Out .....

JAIL TIME

Although Mark Twain wrote "regret for wasted time is more wasted time" we fall squarely behind Carl Sandberg who wrote "Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you." Not bad for a second baseman for the Chicago Cubs.

Very secretly we have been conducting an experiment. With the help of twenty attorneys, we have tracked the wait time to see a client at the various pre-trial holding facilities. Our attorneys faithfully emailed us their experiences, and we have now correlated the data. *

The Best facility to go and see your client is.....DCJ! With an average wait time of 16 minutes from entering the facility to when the actual interview begins. Comments about DCJ tended to be that the hardest part of the visit was clearing the screening process. The only major obstacle that our attorneys ran into at DCJ was the limited interview rooms on each floor- usually one. If someone was already seeing a client ahead of you on the same floor as your client, then the wait time significantly increased, usually more than tripling.

Second place was....Metro West. Putting aside travel time, the average wait time to see a client a Metro West was 34 minutes. The problems at Metro West are well known. The interview rooms fill up; the staff can take over an hour to bring your client. But when things go well at Metro West the visit tends to run smoothly. But horror stories included waiting 94 minutes for the client to be brought and waiting 67 minutes only to be told the client was ill and couldn't come down. When the interview rooms were full the average wait time tripled to 110 minutes, with most attorneys feeling that after having made the drive, they were trapped into having to wait to see their clients.

Third place was the Stockade with an average wait time of 41 minutes. Most attorneys expressed surprise that when they timed it the wait was as long as it was. The experiences attorneys had varied, with one public defender swearing that he/she averaged 16 minutes in wait time over 11 visits over three months. On the other end of the spectrum, one hapless attorney said he was turned away four times over the course of one week, including twice in one day when he was told the facility was on lock down.

Last place was TGK. One memorable comment about TGK was that "it is the Eeyore of jails". The average wait time was 53 minutes, with the main problem being that about half the time the attorneys were allowed access to travel to the area where their clients were held and the other half of the time the attorneys were forced to wait for an escort. Without an escort, TGK vaults into second place with a wait time of 21 minutes. But the wait time skyrocketed when the attorney was told to wait for an escort, with times averaging well over an hour.

What can be done?

The Feds have a system that allows an attorney to email ahead and request a client be brought down to the interview room. Even the Broward County Jail will bring your client down if you call ahead and tell them you are on your way.

But this is Miami, where reason and common sense have no place in matters such as these.

See you in court.

*Over a period of the last six months, over 20 attorneys took part in collecting data for us. Some attorneys emailed us dozens of reports faithfully detailing all of their jail visits, while other attorneys participated once or twice and then opted out. All times do not include travel time. We cannot vouch for the accuracy of what was reported to us and the highest and lowest reported wait times for every facility was discarded in formulating the averages we arrived at.

11-11 NONSENSE

Don't know about you, but we've had more than enough of this 11/11/11 crapola. Only one more year of having to deal with this nonsense (12/12/12) and then the human race does not have to deal with this again for another 89 years.

Maybe next time around we'll be more mellow in our middle age years.

Mr. Black's final critique of the defense closing in the Dr. Conrad Murray case is worth a read here.

Mr. Black summarizes the defense failures:

When you are speaking on a national stage, it has to be first class. How many opportunities does a lawyer get like this? Why waste it with inanities? I would have walked the jury through a list of the strongest points I had with excerpts of the testimony. Hit them hard and make them unforgettable. Once again missed opportunities.

Clay Kaeiser has this great remembrance of Judge Phil Knight:

I'll never forget a marijuana possession case that I tried in front of Judge Knight in which he called us all sidebar halfway through the trial and told the prosecutor that he was going to grant my motion to suppress. One problem--I had not even filed a motion to suppress. Needless to say, sensing immediate victory, I remedied this problem by making an "oral motion" that was quickly granted. Many months later, in a social setting, Judge Knight explained the incident by telling me "Clay, nobody has ever gone to jail for marijuana in my court." He'd done so many jury trials that he must have sensed a guilty verdict and decided to abort the whole proceeding.

Despite this, Judge Knight was no bleeding heart--god forbid that you had a client convicted of a violent offense in front of him for sentencing--but he did have a very developed theory of punishment that minimized victimless crimes. He was an armed services veteran who had worked his way through law school (as either a librarian or in the post office) and eventually became a partner in one of the big downtown law firms (Fowler White?). Despite his well-documented problems, he was one of the most intellectually gifted and hardest working judges who have ever served in the Justice Building. And he had a great sense of humor. Once, around Christmas time, a young female defendant, represented by Sy Gaer, said to the Judge "you look just like Santa Claus" As Judge Knight smiled (trying to look even more like Santa Claus), Sy said to his client, "but wait until you see what he has as a present for you." The whole courtroom--including Judge Knight--cracked up.

CK

Justice Scalia (DOM's BFF) has little patience for federal habeas claims attacking state court convictions. Greene v. Fisher.

a federal court may not grant habeas relief to a state prisoner with respect to any claim that has been “adjudicated on the merits in State court proceedings” unless the state-court adjudication “resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as deter- mined by the Supreme Court of the United States.” 28 U. S. C. §2254(d)(1). We consider whether “clearly estab- lished Federal law” includes decisions of this Court that are announced after the last adjudication of the merits in state court but before the defendant’s conviction becomes final...

We have said that its standard of “contrary to, or involv[ing] an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law” is “difficult to meet,” because the purpose of AEDPA is to ensure that federal habeas relief functions as a “ ‘guard against extreme malfunctions in the state criminal justice systems,’” and not as a means of error correction...

The retro- activity rules that govern federal habeas review on the merits—which include Teague—are quite separate from the relitigation bar i

mposed by AEDPA; neither abrogates or qualifies the other. If §2254(d)(1) was, indeed, pegged to Teague, it would authorize relief when a state-court merits adjudication “resulted in a decision that became contrary to, or an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, before the conviction became final.” The statute says no such thing, and we see no reason why Teague should alter AEDPA’s plain meaning.

The weather is beautiful. Enjoy your weekend.

JUDGE PHIL KNIGHT PASSED AWAY IN MAY

Judge Phillip Knight passed away in May of this year.

We received this email:

Rumpole, you missed the fact that Judge Phil Knight passed away in May 2011. Could you please post something?

The reader is correct. We did miss the fact that Judge Knight passed away. The title of the post links to his obit.

Judge Knight was a brilliant man. An accomplished attorney and a great and well respected trial Judge, Judge Knight set the standard for running an efficient courtroom. Judge Knight often was in his chambers by 7:00 AM, reviewing files, reading motions and generally preparing for the days cases. It was not unusual for Judge Knight to have his calendar concluded by 9:30 and a trial started by 10:00 AM. Judge Knight was so efficient, and his court audit was so low, that we often heard from other disgruntled colleagues that Judge Knight must have had some agreement with the clerk's office to assign less cases to his division. Of course nothing could have been further from the truth. Judge Knight's audit was low because he was a hard working judge.

Judge Knight was human and like all of us he battled his demons. But Judge Knight was a great Judge and a valuable addition to the REGJB for the time he served as a circuit judge. It was gratifying to read that upon his retirement he lived a full and happy life in Sun City, Tampa,. Judge Knight was a true Miami original and we will not see his like in these parts again.

FEILER WINS IT!

Michael Feiler, civil lawyer extraordinaire, blog reader, football wiz, is your 2011 Blog Suicide Pool winner!

After an epic battle that lasted into week 9 of the NFL season, Feiler secured the victory with a strategy over the past two weeks of picking teams playing the slumping Cleveland Browns. Feiler was never in danger. Meanwhile, the ever eclectic Clayton Kaeiser survived a scare last week as Ravens came back from three touchdowns down to eek out a win over the visiting Cardinals and keep him alive for one more week. This week CK returned to his MNF strategy and surprised many blog readers by picking against his beloved Chicago Bears who traveled to play the supposedly surging Philadelphia Eagles, although no less a source than Rumpole had warned him that all that glitters was not Eagle Green in Philly. It was not the first time this season CK had picked against the Bears, but it would be the last. The Bears rewarded loyalty and punished those who picked against them by beating the Eagles and sending Mr. Kaeiser to a loss.

Well done to to both gentleman and all hail the victor Michael Feiler.

DOWN GOES FRAZIER.

Joe Frazier has died. The NY Times Obit is here.

Joe Frazier was underrated. He was one of the very best boxers to ever practice the sweet science. In March 1971 he and Muhammed Ali met for the first time in a 15 round fight matching two undefeated heavy weight champions, as Ali had lost the title when he was stripped of it for his decision to refuse to be drafted. It was truly the fight of the century.

In our busy world very little occurs that stops almost everyone from what they are doing and makes them pay attention. Ali Frazier I stopped the world. You can't imagine the anticipation and the atmosphere as the world literally stopped to watch two undefeated champions fight.

Anybody who was anybody was there. Frank Sinatra was a ringside photographer for Life Magazine. Burt Lancaster was a ringside announcer. Leroy Neiman painted the men as they fought. Somehow, with tickets reaching astronomic prices with scalpers, we got inside the Garden and saw the fight. Frazier stalked Ali for 14 rounds. He never let up the pressure. And then in the 15th round Joe threw the best left hook of his life and Ali was down. Ali got up and Joe won the decision.

Frazier would go on to lose his next two fights with Ali and be pummeled by a monstrous George Foreman, but on that crisp spring night in March in the greatest city in the world, Joe Frazier was indeed the greatest. NY Time sports writer Dave Anderson calls Frazier in a column today, "the better fighter. And the better man." Rest in peace champ.

At the tone, the standard time will be.....

Long time and careful readers of the blog well know our appreciation of a life well lived.

Dr. Norman Ramsey, The Nobel Laureate whose research led to the atomic clock, passed away over the weekend at age 96. The NY Times obit is here.

STOP THANKING JURORS

DR. Conrad Murray found guilty. But you probably already knew that.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SY GAER. We were remiss in not reporting that yesterday, Sunday, was Sy's birthday. But it seems appropriate to remember it today, Monday, the start of the trial week in the building Sy spent his life working in. Stop by his picture on the second floor (across from the elevators) and read the wonderful words of Judge Milt Hirsch and share a few thoughts about our wonderful friend.

CLOSING ARGUMENTS:

Roy Black looks at the closing arguments in the Dr. Conrad Murray case. His analysis, as always, is worth a read, but his first point is something we have been harping on for years: DON'T WASTE TIME THANKING THE JURY!

The most dramatic moment of the case arrives. The attorney stands up with his/her case on the line. Those first few minutes of persuasive argument may well swing the jury. Come out with your best points. Make a dramatic statement so powerful that it will ring in the jury's ears long after you've sat down. The jury will never be more ready to hear it than in these first few moments.

And what do most attorneys do? "I want to take a few moments and thank you for your service. It has been a long and hard case and we all know that you've been paying attention and the case is almost over and on behalf of (insert your client here) I want to thank you for blah blah blah blah blah blah blah..."

Here's what Mr. Black says:

If you want to thank the jury do it in the body of the argument not at the beginning. Everyone knows you really don’t mean this. It is condescending and pandering. They know this intuitively. So stop it. It sounds and is phony.

Mr. Black is right. Stop it. Nobody cares and nobody really believes what you're saying. Do you really think the jurors go into the back and say "Well I think the defendant is clearly not guilty but the prosecutor took the time to thank us for our service and the defense attorney didn't so maybe we should teach her a lesson and find her client guilty?"

Dolphins win! Nuff said.

See You In Court.

RACE DAY

It's race day here in NYC. Nothing like it. We will be nicely ensconced along First Avenue watching the runners, sipping some hot beverage.

Clayton Kaeiser, having barely escaped with his pool life with his faith in the Ravens last week, puts it all on the line with the Eagles against his beloved Bears! CK is picking against his Bears, who are A) Coming off a bye week and B) have done well against Vick in the past. Good luck CK. (Interesting, but this is CK's third or fourth pick of a MNF game. any strategy in that?)

Michael Feiler puts on his Stetson and boots and for the second week in a row picks against the Cleveland Browns and rolls with the Texans in Houston. Good luck.

9 weeks these guys have lasted. Not a blog record, but still impressive.

The Fins roll into KC and we think the wheels are off the bus. The Dolphins usually play better on the road, and they didn't play that badly last week in New Jersey against the Giants. But KC had a nice win against the Chargers on MNF and are in first place and this is no time for a let down. Give the 4 and take KC.

The Bears are 2-1 against the spread against the Eagles over the last three years, including a very impressive 31-26 win last year against Vick and the Eagles. Both teams are riding two game winning streaks and both teams are 2-0 against the spread during those games. The line is anywhere between -7.5 and -9 Eagles, who are at home. The money line is Chicago +400 (meaning if you take no points and bet the Bears to win, you get back 400 for every 100 you risk). Have some fun, go with our initial pre-season assessment- the Eagles are not as good as everyone says they are. Take the Bruins for 50 or a 100 and have a few beers an enjoy the game.

TO has an arrest warrant for failing to show up in court on a case about his child support payments. Anyone know a good lawyer?

See You In Court Tuesday- Monday is a travel day.

FALL

There's a certain crispness to the mornings here in NYC that just quietly whispers that Fall is here and Winter is coming. We are not running in the NYC marathon but for the last few mornings we have quietly arisen before dawn and plodded through Central Park and the West Side. Sometimes running, sometimes walking. always enjoying the sunrise and then a hot cup of coffee and pastry at a local patisserie.

We love South Florida, but we do miss the change of seasons.

DOM asks if Judges should be able to ignore joint sentencing recommendations? We note that in Federal Court the only thing a defendant has a right to is a jury trial. A judge has to accept and approve a plea of guilty and many times they don't. So to answer DOM, A judge does not have to accept a joint sentencing recommendation, although we think they should. Indeed a Judge should not accept a plea of guilty where there is a joint sentencing recommendation if there is even a shadow of a doubt in their mind as to whether they will accept the parties recommendation.

We have never seen a judge reject an agreed upon plea in state court. Please post your stories on this subject.

The Dolphins are on the road at KC facing a Chiefs team coming off a MNF upset of the Chargers. 0-8 looks likely.

Meanwhile, take your hats off to Michael Feiler and Clay Kaeiser continue their battle in the suicide pool to week nine. Mr. Feiler barely escaped alive after the Ravens mounted a furious comeback last week and saved their season and his skin.

Enjoy the weekends. The lamb chops for us tonight at Ai Fiori, and then some sushi at Nobu for us tomorrow night.

MARATHON WEEK

It's Marathon week in NYC. Who's running? Over the years the REGJB has been well represented in NYC.

We're not really sure who or what a "Kim Khardashian" is. Can someone explain this to us?

Occupy Oakland has turned into burn Oakland. The question is whether that is good or bad?

We mean, it's Oakland after all. There's no "there" there.

Ivan Fernandez Investiture at the 3rd DCA Friday at 3pm.

Bill Altfield Investiture at the Dade County Courthouse Friday at Noon. We received several emails informing us that everyone is invited to attend.

There was a disturbance at the Dolphins training facility yesterday. Several members of the offense were late for team meetings and were stuck in the team's parking lot.

Turns out they had trouble crossing the white line in the parking lot because it looked awfully similar to the goal line.

Remember the wardrobe malfunction of Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl in 2004? The litigation over fines to TV stations continues. The Third Circuit struck down a 500K fine 2-1.

It's comforting to know that in these troubled times when over 35 million Americans are on some form of government assistance that law firms and courts are devoting so much time to an exposure of a female breast for 9/16th of a second.

American Exceptionalism.

See You In Court.

AAH WHAT'S THE USE?

YOU CAN'T SHUT OFF THE RISK AND THE PAIN

WITHOUT LOSING THE LOVE THAT REMAINS

WE'RE ALL RIDERS ON THIS TRAIN....

Bruce Springsteen, Human Touch.

Supreme Court:

Justice Clarence Thomas was the lone dissenter as the Court refused to review the 10th Circuit's decision that crosses placed along Utah’s highways near the places where state troopers have died in the line of duty, to commemorate their sacrifice, was unconstitutional.

11th Circuit:

Partial win for Ben Kuehne in the sports agents/alien smuggling case here.

Liberty City 7 lose here.

Sometimes we're too bored to write,

sometimes we're too busy...

See You In Court.