DeFede: Broward Judiciary Needs An Overhaul

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• 5/17/2007 7:22 AM Anonymous wrote:
  Defede tells it like it is! It's about time the media reports on this situation. You ask, just how long is this going to be the course Broward takes with some of these clowns. Reform within our judiciary is necessary to fix this problem.This Ross needs to take a hike to the unknown. Anywhere but where he sits now. This is a embarrassment to all who stand for real justice.
  
• 5/17/2007 7:53 AM Anonymous wrote:
  About time!
  
• 5/17/2007 7:55 AM Anonymous wrote:
  It's only taken twenty years for this guy to ruin the courthouse. WHy doesn't he just get out of the way, of progress I mean.
  
• 5/17/2007 8:09 AM Anonymous wrote:
  Dale's still taking it out on the world. Go away muscles.
  
• 5/17/2007 8:28 AM Anonymous wrote:
  Broward judiciary needs more than an overhaul. It needs to be flushed of all the hypocrisy.
  
• 5/17/2007 9:04 AM Anonymous wrote:
  Good move. I like that I can see it posted on the blog if I can't be home to watch it on the television. There's really a big problem with our judiciary.
  
• 5/17/2007 9:07 AM Anonymous wrote:
  This Judge Ross looks like he's a very unhappy man.
  
• 5/17/2007 9:25 AM L. Benson wrote:
  Although DeFede hit some important points--he doesn't go far enough. Dale Ross allows his judges to vilate the law, unlafully sabotage the state's lawful appellate processes, protects and supports instead of supervising and reprimanding errant judges, allows them to violate the judicial Canons, lie in their opinions and routinely violate the civil rights of those that come before the court. Dale Ross and his subordinates ara criminals that should be prosecuted and imprisoned--not just removed. However, it goes beyond Broward with the protection--it goes up to the 4th DCA jusged who aid and abaet These ctiminal Broward judges and prosecutors with the assistane of the AG and now they even have a mole, William Dimitrouleas--good ole Willy D--to sabotage efforts to get their constitutional violations into federal court. Further, the JQC is a protector of these judges, not a legitimate investigative body to review judicial criminal and ethics breaches--in fact--it would rather go after judges who speak out, to silence them.
  
  So it clearly goes well beyond Broward and is much more sinister in Broward and outside than DeFede considers.
  
  For that I challenge DeFede to do more.
  
• 5/17/2007 9:32 AM Anonymous wrote:
  Why isn't the way Ross' daughter became judge being discussed? What's with this Legal Dynasty stuff? It's the kind of topic that should be throughly investigated by the media. People with much more trial experience were simply looked over and discarded as contenders for position of judge because of Ross' influence on the JNC. Ross' influence and control over our entire judicial system is reprehensible. There's plenty of examples of extreme nepotism stretching back his entire tenure as chief judge. Some good journalist shouldn't find it that difficult to chronicle the entire episodic drama and do our community a great favor in exposing this kind of behavior.
  
• 5/17/2007 10:37 AM Orlando/Kaplan wrote:
  Like the stand-up guys they are Kaplan and Orlando won their seats through elections. This Stacy Ross thing is a total joke. How would you like to be judged by someone with relatively little experience who is a judge mostly because her Dad is one too. Are these the qualifications for a judgeship? Who you are related to?
  
• 5/17/2007 10:44 AM L. Benson wrote:
  There is currently a national organization with a Florida branch--FloridaJAIL4Judges.org which seeks to place a judicial accountability law with an independent review panel to review fraudulent judicial decisions on the ballot for the last 2 years. They have also filed a lawsuit against the Florida BAR for its complicity and defense of these judicial criminals and prosecutors. It is needed now more than ever but the legal establishement is clearly afraid of it. We need judicail and prosecutorial accountability with prosecution and punishment to these terrorists and offenders. We also need to remove immunity as it is the playgroung for their unrestricted criminal behavior. We also need to repeal the PCA law and force appellate judges to do their jobs and rule on the law, at least opining why the law as written and decided does not equally apply to petitioners, especially the poor and the pro se's who cant' afford or can't trust attorneys.
  
• 5/17/2007 11:17 AM Anonymous wrote:
  We have good judges, won't they come forward or are they afraid to take on Ross and Company. They selection of his daughter over others better experienced shows the depth of the problem with Dale. This guy stops at nothing. Ross needs to retire from public office and let the healing commence with our judiciary. Won't Ross have the decency to see what he's done?
  
• 5/17/2007 11:19 AM Anonymous wrote:
  A better question is won't the judges of this circuit have the decency to say enough is enough.
  
• 5/17/2007 11:29 AM Anonymous wrote:
  The diversity board needs to be made up of citizens of this county, not the politicos picked by Dale Ross. Some Diversity Committee. Look at the makeup of this committee. Rubber stamps are all they are. Other committees are comprised of members of the public. But they don't want that. And Ross and friends can't have anything to do with the selection of the committee. Look at the finding of this DC concerning Greene. Who are they anyway to issue findings. How could they have any idea what was in Greene's mind when he made the statement No Humans Involved. What a sham. Just another panel of cronies doing Ross' bidding. That's all they can ever be viewed as. Especially trying to keep a member of the press from attending the meeting shows the public all they need to know about the real business of whats going on here.
  
• 5/17/2007 11:32 AM Anonymous wrote:
  His arrogance will just serve to embolden competent journalists to delve deeper into a system fraught with wrongdoing and secrecy to get to the bottom of this scandalous activity.
  
• 5/17/2007 11:38 AM Anonymous wrote:
  They're just trying to keep the lid on minority complaints by the usual method. You know, by promising advancement in their careers down the line at some point. THE MEDIA NEEDS TO BUST THIS WIDE OPEN. ONLY THEY CAN BRING PRESSURE TO Focus ON THESE ISSUES. Man, what a world unto itself this Broward County Judiciary!
  
• 5/17/2007 11:42 AM Anonymous wrote:
  Just another reason to have blackberrys in every courtroom and a reporter at every one of these meetings. Ross is just trying again to close ranks. How many times have we seen this?
  
• 5/17/2007 11:49 AM Anonymous wrote:
  Too many problems coming from within the judiciary itself. Ross can't hold it together like he used to.
  
• 5/17/2007 11:55 AM Anonymous wrote:
  He looks bad. Time to give it up Dale. The time for your leadership style if that's what you want to call it is over. There is allot more to life. Somebody else can clean up the mess, another judge that's a little more forward thinking.
  
• 5/17/2007 11:55 AM Anonymous wrote:
  We Get it!! Enough Already!!
  
  We get it L. Benson. You were charged with something...you lost your case...you lost your appeal...you're angry. Stop whining about how the world has treated you unfairly. Obviously you can't prove your position, or you wouldn't keep repeating it here...enough - you have a stalker kind of scary about you.
  
• 5/17/2007 11:57 AM Anonymous wrote:
  We Get it!! Enough Already!!
  
  We get it L. Benson. You were charged with something...you lost your case...you lost your appeal...you're angry. Stop whining about how the world has treated you unfairly. Obviously you can't prove your position, or you wouldn't keep repeating it here...enough - you have a stalker kind of scary about you.
  
• 5/17/2007 11:57 AM Anonymous wrote:
  Judicial overhaul? The oil in this machine hasn't been changed since 1991 when Ross took over as chief judge. You'll never get the sludge out of the engine now.
  
• 5/17/2007 12:46 PM Anonymous wrote:
  Don't knock this guy. He tried to get Dan Quayle.
  
• 5/17/2007 12:58 PM people against communist jaablaw wrote:
  No matter how much Bill Gelin is jealous of Stacy Ross, even the mafia does not take it out on the kids. I guess the Polit Beau has no problems with hate politics.
  
• 5/17/2007 1:09 PM JGatorman wrote:
  people against communist jaablaw - I agree with some of what you say in your posts at times but this issue does bother me. I know some of the people who were in competition for Judge S. Ross' position. It doesn't sit well with me still.
  I will say though that she has been a good judge, no matter how she got the appointment.
  
• 5/17/2007 6:25 PM John McNamara wrote:
  The judiciary in Broward County is so inept and incompetent that the citizenry should be fearful of being sent to prison having committed no criminal offense, at all. The judges are so fearful of their position that the liberty of the Defendant before them goes without concern if there is even the slightest chance that a favorable ruling might (MIGHT)be looked upon with disfavor by some political agency. Guilt or innocence of an accused is no longer material, and judges actively assist in promoting malicious prosecutions. Go to the web site included and examine the false evidence put forth by the City of Hollywood where two of their officers put the victim in the hospital for four days and, then, falsified the video recording capturing the incident, as well as falsifying their reports. Judge Michael gates admitted that false evidence was admitted, but that incompetent counsel did not advance the defense. Check it out, as these sets of facts are not uncommon in the 17th Judicial Circuit of Florida, i.e., Broward County. The only possible reason: INCOMPETENCE FROM THE BENCH, and INCOMPETENCE OF DEFENSE COUNSEL.
  
• 5/17/2007 6:28 PM Anonymous wrote:
  I too know a number of the people who applied for the position she now occupies. Although she is a nice girl, it still is a matter of allot of resentment how the system was manipulated to place her ahead of those with much greater experience.
  
• 5/17/2007 6:43 PM John McNamara wrote:
  You are so correct. Recently, I spoke with a friend who has been in the State Attorney's Office for about 20-years. He tells me that we have a judge on the bench who is totally deaf; another that sleeps throughout his proceedings, among other infirmities. How can they do their job? They turn their chair's back to the parties and after all the evidence is taken, advise the parties to submit written memoranda. As far as Judge Gates is concerned, we have a case that was sent back to him to hear a Rule 3.850 motion. He waited approximately 30 days to enter his order to show cause, gave the State 60 days to respond. 91 days after the Order, the State moved for continuance, saying, "Our response is overdue." Thirty days after that, the State Moved for another continuance; however, the State Attorney's Office was in the possession of the court file, having checked it out in February, and whether Gates ever received their motion is in doubt. The case was left in limbo. A Petition for Writ of Mandamus has been filed, seeking to force Judge Gates to act on his finding of the admission of false evidence by the City of Hollywood and the State Attorney's Office. The 4th DCA gave the AG 20 days to respond. On the 20th day, they requested a continuance. The case was originally sent back to Gates (the gutless wonder) in October of 2006.
  ABSOLUTELY, the judiciary in Broward needs overhauling. Actually, the JQC should follow cases to see what is happening, and if the judge is not functioning properly, he should be stripped of his position, as well as his pension.
  
• 5/17/2007 6:45 PM Anonymous wrote:
  We that continue to allow these things to happen are just as guilty as those committing the offenses. Ross has used the system to promote those of his choice and everyone has stood by until now. Be ever vigilant and take a stand against these kinds of things and maybe it won't be as easy for him in the future.
  
• 5/17/2007 7:41 PM Anonymous wrote:
  DeFede: Broward Judiciary Needs An Overhaul
  Jim DeFede Is A Commentator For CBS4 News
  (CBS4) FT. LAUDERDALE The Broward judiciary is a mess.
  
  One judge was caught smoking marijuana in a public park, while another makes a fool of himself on national television presiding over the Anna Nicole Smith circus. The chief criminal judge wrapped up a recent trial by suggesting the defendant and the victim and the witnesses--all of whom were poor and black--didn't really matter. "NHI" he said. No humans involved.
  
  The Broward judiciary is rife with allegations of bigotry, racism, nepotism, sexism, cronyism -- and just about every other ism you can imagine.
  
  You have judges telling crime victims they have to speak English if they want to be heard, while the county's top judge, Dale Ross, has been accused of ridiculing Mexican and African-American defendants from the bench.
  
  "Broward County is a major metropolitan area," said Bill Gelin. "It's a majority minority community, and it is still being run by boss hog and his adjutants."
  
  Gelin is a Broward attorney who has had enough. Along with a group of other attorneys, he created The Justice Advocacy Association of Broward (JAABLOG), a website and blog dedicated to chronicling the problems within the Broward judiciary system.
  
  “Many of the judges getting into trouble are the more senior judges because they basically feel invincible," said Gelin. “They don't feel accountable to the community any longer and that's the real problem.”
  
  And that is one of the big issues on JAABLOG -- changing the way judges are appointed in Broward and encouraging competitive elections. Today judges rarely face opposition, and as a result they feel like they are appointed for life.
  
  And since the system rewards seniority, younger judges are afraid to speak out.
  
  “Here it's a situation where this good old boy network is so entrenched, so powerful that these young judges, these smart young judges who want reform, they are basically handicapped because their careers will be hurt,” said Gelin.
  
  The first step toward change is obvious. Judge Dale Ross, who has been chief judge in Broward since 1991, needs to step aside. Embarrassed by his own conduct as well as the conduct of his brethren, Judge Ross recently embarked on a public relations campaign, promising sensitivity training for members of the judiciary.
  
  But no reform can occur as long as he remains. There should be term limits on how long you can serve as chief judge.
  
  But since Ross is unlikely to go voluntarily, Gelin and others will have to take this fight to Tallahassee and demand the Legislature impose limits on how long you can serve as chief judge.
  
  I asked Gelin if he was afraid of retribution.
  
  “I'm not afraid to be taking this public stance. We need change now. We need reform now. And quite frankly I'm more concerned about what will happen if I don't act,” he said.
  
  (© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
  
• 5/17/2007 8:44 PM Anonymous wrote:
  What's worse in Broward: The Judges or the State Attorney's?
  
• 5/17/2007 10:32 PM Anonymous wrote:
  SAO, much worse, they are trained to be evil and then bring it to the bench
  
• 5/18/2007 6:46 AM David Lindsey wrote:
  very well put. we need not be afraid of what will happen if we do the right thing but instead afraid of what will happen if we do nothing. would u all like to see the transcripts and email where under oath attorney marilyn lindsey(tobkin) made allegations of rape against judge ross and 2 other judges. what happened to the investigation. lets get rid of bubba and his clan.
  
• 5/18/2007 7:22 AM Anonymous wrote:
  Who's in posession of these transcripts and email?
  
• 5/18/2007 8:38 AM L.Bwnson wrote:
  You are absolutely correct--they intentionally delayed my 3.850 for 2 years including a mandamus for 15 months of those 2 years by my 4th DCA panel including Larry Klein and George Shahood whose individual separate case law I cited, stated it was a violation of Rule 3.850 right to a timely ruling and a violation of R. Jud. Admin 2.050(f) . In my mandamus petition, I cited tha fact that the only case law available at the time regarding deliberate delays was against Broward judges and their pattern of abuse and violation of this 3,850 Rule with the complicity of Ross as the supervising judge. Klein and Shahood et al refused to rule on the mandamus which they stated was the only and required remedy for 15 months and 8 summarily granted abatement and extension (read it as requests for continuing violations of the Rule 3,850) which is also a violation of Fla Const right to access to the court and meaningful access to the state's lawful appellate processes. Now go look up 28 USSC 2254(b) which allows for federal habeas corpus and excuses exhaustion of further state remedies when the state's system is is clearly ineffective and futile. Just don't allow Dimitroleoas to get the case--file it in Miami--Dimitrouleas will violate the law and sabotage your case as Broward's mole in the fed courts to cover up Broward Co. judges fraud upon the court. Also note, the USSCt in Blackledge v. Perry, 417 U.S. 21, 26 n.4; 94 S.Ct. 2098 at 2101 n.4 (1974) that it is a violation of due process and equal protection of law, once the state has established "avenues of appellate relief", for the state to sabotage, undermine or prevent those lawful avenues from taking place and to be promplty heard, and Hendricks v. Zenon 993 F.2d 664 at 672 (9th Cir 1993) (no second bite for the state after prejudicial delays exposed to federal court invoking federal jurisdiction and intervention "once the due process whistle is blown") Candid camera is coming.
  
• 5/18/2007 9:04 AM L.B3nson wrote:
  No-you don't get it--While you hide behind your anonymous and ignorant (of facts and law of the case) you now want to stigmatize as stalking what I call refusing to give up. Care to identify youself so we can all see your bias?
  
  Perhaps you would also call thsi blog a stalking blog because it is persistent in commenting on the exact judicial corruption that avoided and prevented a full and fair and impartial hearing and ruling of my case and the many others that have been referenced.
  
• 5/18/2007 2:04 PM Anonymous wrote:
  What's your inmate # first - or, if your an attorney your bar# so a complaint can be filed for your racist, misogynist "vagina...Hispanic" comments about one of our sitting judge's in violation of our Code of Ethics. Or, should just continue to address your paranoid, extremist conspiracy "terrorist organization" theories you seem to have proof from the ground level of our legal system all the way up to the FL Supreme Court. Know who killed Kennedy too?
  
• 5/18/2007 8:57 PM L. Benson wrote:
  Coward--stand up and be identified--Gardiner is both or are you denying the fact that she is a woman and Hispanic as being 2 minority hits for promotion--nothing mysigynist or racisist about it. Hispanics are a minority and if you consider that racist, then that's your call, not mine.
  
  She is the violator of your code of ethics, your Rules of Judicial Admin., Your Fla Bar Rules and rules of profesasional responsibility as well as the rules of court, the law as writen and decided, the Constitution of Florida and the US, a perjurer, a fraud under robe of a sitting judge, and Ross as a supervising judge is just as guilty for refusing to stop her.
  Unlike you, I have identifies specific acts of each individual--judge and prosecutor, not theories, but you apparantly can't stand the truth--maybe a bar complaint should be filed again you for makinf frivolous statements you can't back up--
  I can also prove a clear and stated bias of Gardiner through court transcripts where she said she would only do what prosecutor Scott Raft tells her to do as well as I have stated specific evidence of a conflict of interest by 4th DCA Judge George Shahood involving protection of Gardiner when she refused to to follow Rule 3.850 while my mandamus against her for not doing her lawful duty and "timely ruling" was before him. Since both Klein and Shahood were on that panel and both had opined in case law the requisite necessity for a mandamus to compel an inferior court judge to do his or her lawful duty, but refused to issue it against Gardiner, so at least both of them knew and since they were all obsructing justice, due process and equal protection of law and Constitutional Access to the courts and the states lawful appellate process and remedies to protect and maintain an unlawful conviction and false imprisonment and because Fla. Stat. 777.04(3)states a person who agrees, conspires, combines or confederates with another person or persons to commit [this offense] commits the offense of criminal conspiracy. So now you can finger point and denegrate the statutes as paranoid, extremist conspiracy all you want--you may even know who killed Kennedy--it just shows your contempt for the statutes and the law when it suits your opinion under you Code of Ethics, but it doesn't speak well for your feeling bound by it. So maybe you should report yourself as GArdiner should report herself--but we all know such criminals won't out themselves. Sorry if you don't like it, but if you were an honorable person or lawyer, then you would seek facts and truth instead of trying to conceal it.
  
• 5/20/2007 10:29 AM L. Benson wrote:
  It is not that the judiciary is inept and incompetent and it is knowingly corrupt. The standard of a judge is that he/she knows or should know the law and is presumed to know the law. When a judge violates it or makes a fraudulent decision or obstructs a lawful appellate process from going forward, it is clearly "beyond accident, mistake or inadvertance" And this is terrorism when a citizen is in fear of being sent to prison for having committed no criminal offense as I was and actually for "doing what the law (Fl statutory and constitutional) clearly allows" And this is a crim. and when the courts cannot be relied upon to to impartially review and fix or prevent this. we all live in terror from these terrorists.
  
• 5/21/2007 8:26 AM David Lindsey wrote:
  so true about cops, hollywood cops are doing illegal wire taps, destroying evidence that prove innocence and lying under oath. judges will not dismiss the case because of pressure from those above them. be afraid real afraid
  
• 5/21/2007 9:50 AM Anonymous wrote:
  Inmate #???
  
• 5/21/2007 6:11 PM David Lindsey wrote:
  i have the transcripts and email. i have shed it with media and they do nothing.
  
• 5/22/2007 11:36 AM John McNamara wrote:
  The Attorney General has asked for an extension in the Mandamus action, not to extend the time for filing in that action, but for the AG to respond to the 3.850 in the trial court. The AG advised the 4th DCA that is has attempted to communicate with Satz's office and has left messages prompting a reply. Satz refuses to respond to the AG's calls or messages. Why not? He has his head in the same; he knowingly used false evidence in the Baker case, so (if I can't see you, you can't see me) seems, now, to be the play of the day.
  
  John McNamara
  
• 5/22/2007 11:49 AM anonymous wrote:
  John McNamara--what is your website?
  
  Apparently you and the maligned Benson person experienced similar problems with Broward ASA deliberately delaying a postconviction motion from happening, direcrtly contrary to the Rule itself. So it is clearly not "whining" as his detractor stated, but a genuine legal problem that the courts and the JQC are vehemently unwilling to acknowlegde or address or protect against. This is a very scarey scenario if the ASA can obstruct an appelants motion from going through and appears to be in direct violation of Florida's constitution--right to access to the courts and also habeas corpus.
  
• 5/22/2007 11:40 PM John McNamara wrote:
  I know who falsified evidence in the prosecution of Baker. I know that the state attorney's office knew of the falsified evidence, and from their own mouths, they directed the city to re-alter the evidence to remove the evidence of alteration; I know that Judge Gates knew that the evidence was false and admitted it; he merely ruled that the evidence was not "newly discovered." Well, forget about all that; I really don't think that you have any knowledge of the situation, anyway. Nor do I think you care, except to hear yourself talk.
  
  John McNamara
  
• 5/22/2007 11:48 PM John McNamara wrote:
  Just click on my name on any of my posts and follow the link. There, you will find all of the evidence needed to convict the city, the PD, the SA, and Judge Gates. I truly give praise and respect where it is due. Simply, there is no respect due in this case.
  
  John McNamara
  
• 5/22/2007 11:58 PM John McNamara wrote:
  Just click on my highlighted name on any of my posts and follow the link. Thanks. I am sure that we are not alone.
  

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