We're back (and forth) on the blogging thing these days, so enjoy it while it's here. And please continue to check back infrequently, just in case we're feeling it ...
Made For Each Other - what do you get for the guy and gal who have everything? That's what we've been asking, despite the fact our invitation to this weekend's wedding of David Bogenschutz and Gardiner up in North Carolina must have gotten lost in the mail. In any event, everyone must have breathed a sigh of relief that the Supreme Court didn't deliver their gift to the new Mrs. Bogenschutz before the nuptials, although it's sure to arrive shortly. But let's not detract from the good thing that came from so much bad, namely Broward's newest legal power couple. Congratulations!
Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner - Ed Merrigan's promotion to U.S. Army Colonel was confirmed by the Senate earlier this week. Anyone even remotely familiar with reruns of M*A*S*H will tell you that's a big deal indeed, as very few ever achieve Full Bird status, especially during peacetime. Could a General's Star be in Ed's future? And a circuit judgeship as well? The sky's the limit, when you're a thoughtful and patient guy. Well Done!
Oh Marni! - guess who came in last for all county judges in both the Knowledge & Application Of Law and the Impartiality (Freedom From Bias & Prejudice) categories in the 2013 Palm Beach County Bar Association's Judicial Evaluations? Marni Bryson, that's who! Check out all the poll results here, and the 2014 PB Judicial Rotations here. It's going to be a long hot summer ...
Tell Me Why (I Don't like Wednesdays) - everybody knows Bobby Diaz typically insists on two days to try a single misdemeanor case, which means if he doesn't get something started on Tuesdays, he often doesn't have court Wednesdays. Accordingly, we checked in to see how many discs were available for purchase from digital court reporting services at the courthouse from the last eleven Diaz Wednesdays. THREE was the answer. One day for roughly three hours, one for about 25 minutes, and one all day affair. The other EIGHT Wednesdays, stretching back to August 28th, reportedly don't have any recordings at all, meaning eight of the last eleven Diaz work weeks found him off the bench all day at least once. A call to his office Thursday confirmed Diaz was Relief judge one Wednesday and not expected to be in court, and that he was not sick or on vacation during the period in question, meaning a whole ton of precious and expensive courtroom time is being squandered by Peter Weinstein's judicial administration. Diaz may prefer to work in his office while most judges are busy in their courtrooms, but the same Chief Judge who certified the need for SIX new $134,000 a year county judges in 2013 (plus pension/benefits/judicial assistant's salary) ought to examine why Diaz's courtroom isn't being utilized by someone wearing a robe to move cases most Wednesdays. Your tax dollars at work, as if anybody cared ...
Unhappy Halloween - nobody can accuse Matt Destry of not utilizing his courtroom time to the max. Last week Thursday may have been Halloween, but that didn't stop Destry from keeping everyone in court way past 11:00 PM, no matter how many ghouls and goblins were swirling about. That's right, since it wasn't a nationally recognized holiday, lawyers, witnesses, and staff lost out on sharing Halloween with family. Apparently, the ensuing courthouse-wide disbelief and backlash was extreme enough for Destry to reportedly announce in court that he will never again keep anyone past 7:00 PM, so a lesson may have been learned. Stay tuned to mainstream media on this one, as we hear a full story is in the works ...
Reversed! - it's not often the Fourth DCA gets to reverse a Florida Supreme Court justice, but it happened on October 30th. The Palm Beach appellate court sent a 2005 Jorge Labarga case back for a new trial, calling the conviction "fundamentally flawed" because of improper jury instructions. Labarga was still a lowly trial court judge at the time, but his unusual meteoric rise to the Supremes, after a brief pit stop on the Fourth, made it possible for the current District Court of Appeals to turn the tables on one of their bosses. The opinion is here, and pro se to boot ...
Speaking of the Supremes - did Barbara Pariente reference the blog during a speech at the recent Broward Bench & Bar Conference? The demands of fighting against the racist drug war kept us from personally attending the judicial suckfest, but we're told there was indeed a nice comment about Broward's love of blogging. Oh well, obviously we have no choice but to keep writing, since absolutely everyone seems to be reading ...
A First Time For Everything - it's not often a lawyer gets to blame the need for a continuance on the President of the United States. A BSO Deputy called off a deposition set for November 8th earlier this week, due to a last minute assignment working the presidential motorcade for Friday's fundraising visit. Barack Obama now owes us the cost of serving a subpoena and a witness fee check, but we'll let it slide just this once ...
Blog Mother Bows Out - here is Eileen O'Connor's resignation letter, effective April 30th, 2014. It's not without a touch of nostalgia we bid her adieu, as her jailing of a damn near illiterate potential juror and the subsequent scandal dealing withher judicial application got the Broward reform movement started. In any event, it's all water under the courthouse now, that dank, dark place where many once promising judicial careers lie trapped and stagnant ...
Coming Soon - Bob Belanger, meet Mrs. Bucket ... sorry, Mrs. Bouquet; The new Ken Marvin; Mickey Rocque restores law and order to the City of Sunrise; FELONY VOP BLITZ; Catching up with Garret Cunningham; On the Road with Eugene Pettis ...
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Meyer Lansky and Joe Varon
Pending Criminal Charges Got Korda Disqualified ...
... Yes, the Judge is entitled to the presumption of innocence in his
criminal case. But that hardly generates a coincident supposition that
litigants in cases over which he presides while his own criminal charges
are unresolved need have no reason to fear his impartiality has been
impaired. We are bereft of reasons to escape reversal on this ground ...
*UPDATE* - SS - Imperato requests transfer to Foreclosures, Paul Backman to cover
Made For Each Other - what do you get for the guy and gal who have everything? That's what we've been asking, despite the fact our invitation to this weekend's wedding of David Bogenschutz and Gardiner up in North Carolina must have gotten lost in the mail. In any event, everyone must have breathed a sigh of relief that the Supreme Court didn't deliver their gift to the new Mrs. Bogenschutz before the nuptials, although it's sure to arrive shortly. But let's not detract from the good thing that came from so much bad, namely Broward's newest legal power couple. Congratulations!
Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner - Ed Merrigan's promotion to U.S. Army Colonel was confirmed by the Senate earlier this week. Anyone even remotely familiar with reruns of M*A*S*H will tell you that's a big deal indeed, as very few ever achieve Full Bird status, especially during peacetime. Could a General's Star be in Ed's future? And a circuit judgeship as well? The sky's the limit, when you're a thoughtful and patient guy. Well Done!
Oh Marni! - guess who came in last for all county judges in both the Knowledge & Application Of Law and the Impartiality (Freedom From Bias & Prejudice) categories in the 2013 Palm Beach County Bar Association's Judicial Evaluations? Marni Bryson, that's who! Check out all the poll results here, and the 2014 PB Judicial Rotations here. It's going to be a long hot summer ...
Tell Me Why (I Don't like Wednesdays) - everybody knows Bobby Diaz typically insists on two days to try a single misdemeanor case, which means if he doesn't get something started on Tuesdays, he often doesn't have court Wednesdays. Accordingly, we checked in to see how many discs were available for purchase from digital court reporting services at the courthouse from the last eleven Diaz Wednesdays. THREE was the answer. One day for roughly three hours, one for about 25 minutes, and one all day affair. The other EIGHT Wednesdays, stretching back to August 28th, reportedly don't have any recordings at all, meaning eight of the last eleven Diaz work weeks found him off the bench all day at least once. A call to his office Thursday confirmed Diaz was Relief judge one Wednesday and not expected to be in court, and that he was not sick or on vacation during the period in question, meaning a whole ton of precious and expensive courtroom time is being squandered by Peter Weinstein's judicial administration. Diaz may prefer to work in his office while most judges are busy in their courtrooms, but the same Chief Judge who certified the need for SIX new $134,000 a year county judges in 2013 (plus pension/benefits/judicial assistant's salary) ought to examine why Diaz's courtroom isn't being utilized by someone wearing a robe to move cases most Wednesdays. Your tax dollars at work, as if anybody cared ...
Unhappy Halloween - nobody can accuse Matt Destry of not utilizing his courtroom time to the max. Last week Thursday may have been Halloween, but that didn't stop Destry from keeping everyone in court way past 11:00 PM, no matter how many ghouls and goblins were swirling about. That's right, since it wasn't a nationally recognized holiday, lawyers, witnesses, and staff lost out on sharing Halloween with family. Apparently, the ensuing courthouse-wide disbelief and backlash was extreme enough for Destry to reportedly announce in court that he will never again keep anyone past 7:00 PM, so a lesson may have been learned. Stay tuned to mainstream media on this one, as we hear a full story is in the works ...
Reversed! - it's not often the Fourth DCA gets to reverse a Florida Supreme Court justice, but it happened on October 30th. The Palm Beach appellate court sent a 2005 Jorge Labarga case back for a new trial, calling the conviction "fundamentally flawed" because of improper jury instructions. Labarga was still a lowly trial court judge at the time, but his unusual meteoric rise to the Supremes, after a brief pit stop on the Fourth, made it possible for the current District Court of Appeals to turn the tables on one of their bosses. The opinion is here, and pro se to boot ...
Speaking of the Supremes - did Barbara Pariente reference the blog during a speech at the recent Broward Bench & Bar Conference? The demands of fighting against the racist drug war kept us from personally attending the judicial suckfest, but we're told there was indeed a nice comment about Broward's love of blogging. Oh well, obviously we have no choice but to keep writing, since absolutely everyone seems to be reading ...
A First Time For Everything - it's not often a lawyer gets to blame the need for a continuance on the President of the United States. A BSO Deputy called off a deposition set for November 8th earlier this week, due to a last minute assignment working the presidential motorcade for Friday's fundraising visit. Barack Obama now owes us the cost of serving a subpoena and a witness fee check, but we'll let it slide just this once ...
Blog Mother Bows Out - here is Eileen O'Connor's resignation letter, effective April 30th, 2014. It's not without a touch of nostalgia we bid her adieu, as her jailing of a damn near illiterate potential juror and the subsequent scandal dealing withher judicial application got the Broward reform movement started. In any event, it's all water under the courthouse now, that dank, dark place where many once promising judicial careers lie trapped and stagnant ...
Coming Soon - Bob Belanger, meet Mrs. Bucket ... sorry, Mrs. Bouquet; The new Ken Marvin; Mickey Rocque restores law and order to the City of Sunrise; FELONY VOP BLITZ; Catching up with Garret Cunningham; On the Road with Eugene Pettis ...
Meyer Lansky and Joe Varon
Pending Criminal Charges Got Korda Disqualified ...
... Yes, the Judge is entitled to the presumption of innocence in his
criminal case. But that hardly generates a coincident supposition that
litigants in cases over which he presides while his own criminal charges
are unresolved need have no reason to fear his impartiality has been
impaired. We are bereft of reasons to escape reversal on this ground ...
*UPDATE* - SS - Imperato requests transfer to Foreclosures, Paul Backman to cover