MEDIA 7/18 - (See Lynch Campaign Memo Re ROC Court - Why does Broward need 2 anyway?)
Categories: Finkelstein, Lynch, KaplanCharles, KaplanStanton, Tobin
HERALD:
Tobin:
http://www.miamiherald.com/467/story/173867.html
"Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein welcomed the change as a ''watershed'' that he hopes will end what he called Ross' ''secretive and autocratic'' administration.
''They ruled through fiat and fear,'' Finkelstein said.
``The tools they used were vicious, rank rumor-mongering designed to destroy the reputations of individuals who differed with them.''"
Diversity Board (Rotate the judges!):
http://www.miamiherald.com/467/story/173869.html
Dhanji's Report to Ross (pdf):
http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2007/07/17/13/ChiefJudge.source.prod_affiliate.56.pdf
Charlie Kaplan (7/12):
http://www.miamiherald.com/467/story/168243.html
For Jenne, More Than Job At Stake (7/15):
http://www.miamiherald.com/467/story/171095.html
Jenne's Career Path:
http://www.miamiherald.com/1060/story/171106.html
SENTINEL:
Tobin/Dhanji:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbchief0718nbjul18,0,1477694.story
"Lynch, administrative judge overseeing the circuit civil division, has been a judge 12 years longer than Tobin and touted his years of experience as one of Ross' administrative judges.
His ties to Ross may have cost Lynch, 56, his chances of becoming chief.
"I think he could have been independent, but I don't think the judges wanted to take a chance," said veteran Circuit Judge Stanton Kaplan. "That's obvious from the results."
Kaplan said he thought both candidates were "well qualified," but "if you wanted change, you would want to stay away from the Ross administration.""
Disorder In The Courts:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbjudgebox0718nbjul18,0,5697366.story
Sentinel Editorial: New Chief Judge Has Work To Do (7/17):
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/editorial/sfl-editgscourtnbjul17,0,4646702.story
Mayo on the Side Blog - Tobin:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/mayo/blog/
DAILY BUSINESS REVIEW:
Tobin/Dhanji:
http://www.dailybusinessreview.com/news.html?news_id=44106
Broward to Add Business Court a la Miami?:
http://www.dailybusinessreview.com/news.html?news_id=44114
*Lynch's Campaign Memo* Exclusive to DBR (Discusses ROC Court):
http://www.dailybusinessreview.com/images/news_photos/44114/Lynch_Memo.pdf
TO: IN THE GLASS DARKLY OR ANYONE WHO KNOWS
As the local historian, do you know the evolution of Judge Ross's beloved ROC Courts?
How did we end up with 2? (Miami just got its first one a few months ago; none in Palm Beach). Is there anywhere else in the State that has 2 besides Broward?
Was ROC Court a quid pro quo for Drug Court or MH Courts?
How do the cases end up in there anyway? The State actually chooses the courtroom it gets to prosecute in?
Thanks,
Bill
Looks like Lynch did everything he could to insure he didn't win the election of chief judge. I guess working with Ross as closely as he has and for as many years as he has left scars, not the least of which is a mindset incapable of creative improvement. I don't think he was really ready for the hail storm of a real election, not one where Ross didn't control the outcome anyway where he could just hand it over to him like things have been done in the past. Some of these judges seem to be stuck in a time warp, time having passed them by in allot of ways. What's going to happen when they have credible opposition when election time comes? I wonder. As Broward becomes more enlightened and familiar with our sitting judges, there's going to be a few surprises they will inevitably have to face. Well, that's progress, and it's sorely needed if we are to progress at all. It looks like the days of judicial politics controlling all is over.
LYNCH: Another dinosaur sucked down into the primordial ooze. Evolutionary progress has a way of doing that. Change is the only constant in the universe. The last planetary mass extinction gave rise to humans as a species. Is it too optimistic at this point to hope that the results of this chief judge election will bring with it a degree of intellectual judicial reform? I would like to think it will.
The Judiciary hath spoken, and it was thumbs down for Ross and cronies. I'm glad the other good judges finally showed some character and strength in taking out the last vestiges of the Ross administration. That guy really messed things up here.
Yeah. Looks like the tides gone out for Ross. Now it's time to clean up the beach of the remaining debris.
Like any old surfboards?
That's allot of seaweed!
This Diversity Committee is a sham. Allowing only judges to sit on the committee will do nothing but insure that instead of an oversight committee, it will continue to serve as a cover up committee devoted to serving the interests of the judges only and not the communities they are supposed to serve. Haven't we seen enough of this nonsense? This so called Diversity Commissioner is nothing more than a hired lackey beholding to the fading influence of Ross in an effort to lessen the blow of concerned minorities. It should be composed of non-politically aligned civilians who have absolutely no ties to the judiciary. Other oversight committees are. This PR dude is from what I've heard is just another political jerk looking for an opportunity to get on the public dole. Keep an eye on him. Rumor has it he thinks he's going to be our next sheriff.
Jenne looks like he's going down hard
Bill,
Having served in both ROC courts I can tell you a little bit.
The courts were created by Administrative Order. The latest order is III-07-I-1. There is a reference in one of the original assignment orders to the previous ROC court order III-99-I-7 although I believe the court was created in late 1996.
Drug Court was created in 1992 and mental health court more recently. There is no apparent quid pro quo with those courts.
ROC court may have come from the Gort shooting and the resulting legislation.
Procedurally, the State must designate a defendant to ROC court although it is rare to get the designation with other paperwork. As we know, Habitual Offender or PRR does not automatically trigger a ROC court designation. How Satz decides is anyone's guess.
What's with Broward County? Is every public official on the take? Judges, the Sheriff, Diversity Committee Puppets, This Diversity Committee Clown handing out his cards in the courthouse, The Clerk of the Courts, Massive Abuses on the now debunked Court Appointed Counsel Wheel, The Local JNC's appointment of Judge's kin; What's happened to this town? Why isn't the media looking into all of this? Why isn't the Governor's Office looking into this? What is going on here? The public has every right to know about this. A good investigative reporter who isn't afraid to do a little work could bust this place wide open, and for all the right reasons too. What are they waiting for, someone to hand it to them?
I've come to the conclusion that minority bar leaders beyond their hopes of self advancement through the system, so many of them desiring to become minority judges, really deep down don't care about what's going on here in our communities. Sad, but true.
To Bill Gellin,
Hi Bill. I believe the genesis of the ROC's goes back to 1971. However, with the coming of the drug boom in the 1980's and violent reoffenders coming out of prison in the 1990's, the ROC's were created as a specialty court. The first of these courts emerged in the mid-1990's.
I think that the ROC concept may have predated Ross, but he has since passed numerous administrative orders defining, redefining and reinventing the ROC concept and setting aside divisions of the court for that purpose.
FS 775.082 and 775.084, 775.0841, etc. principally cover some of the repeat offender penalties.
Its disdainful that we have these specialty divisions, but then again, it seems since the 1990's we've had specialty divisions and even a super-secret federal court that handles special warrants. So what else is new?
Its not the fact that we have repeat offenders, its whether the offenses that they are charged with really qualify as repeat offenses and whether the SAO abuses ROC's to score more convictions or pleas than they ought to.
Finally the Broward Judiciary have made Good Newspaper Headlines by electing a progressive, open minded judge as their chief judge. Tobin has the experience of working for the public (public defender) and working in private practice for over 15 years having to pay bills, collect client fees, juggle calendars, try to get new clients and still maintain his sanity. He was one of us and will always be one of us which makes for a better way for us in the courthouse. Now if we can only get the Clerk of Court to adopt the Federal System for filing pleadings we all will be better off. The public and the practitioner will has access to the records 24/7 with less staff needed to wait on us.
Why does the Clerk's office charge exhorbitant fees to access online dockets?
It seems to me that the civil and criminal online dockets should be accessible for free and appear to be operational 24/7 whether people pay to access them or not.
PACER/ECMF are nice, but you still have to pay to access the federal dockets, and scanned documents are available, except they are purged after a short time.
What we need is a system that scans the documents and allows 24/7 free access to the docket itself, and paid access to the documents.
Dade county has a free online docket system and I think so does Palm Beach.
The Los Angeles Superior Court system has this in place and it works quite well and makes sense. You see the docket for free and can download scans for a modest fee.
The Los Angeles courts allow optional online or fax filing for an additional fee.
PACER/ECMF allows and in some cases its mandatory electronic filing. That saves a considerable amount of time.
From Miami's Justice Building Blog
http://justicebuilding.blogspot.com/
BROWARD PD SPEAKS HIS MIND
The Broward Blog quotes Broward PD Help Me Howard Finkelstein on the election of a new chief judge:
Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein welcomed the change as a ''watershed'' that he hopes will end what he called Ross' ''secretive and autocratic'' administration.''They ruled through fiat and fear,'' Finkelstein said.
``The tools they used were vicious, rank rumor-mongering designed to destroy the reputations of individuals who differed with them.''
Rumpole says: "They ruled through fiat and fear" and that was with the people they knew and worked with every day. Imagine how they treated the poor misguided Miami attorney that said to him/herself "what they heck? Sure I'll take a case in Broward. How bad could it be?"
Hahahahahaha.
See you in Court. I'm the guy with the Cubs hat on.
"They ruled through fiat and fear" and that was with the people they knew and worked with every day. Imagine how they treated the poor misguided Miami attorney?"
imagine how Ross treated poor, weak, mentally ill, drug sick, scared, or just plain uneducated or ignorant defendants?
goodbye bully boys
To Good point Rumpole, who wrote:
"[i]magine how Ross treated poor, weak, mentally ill, drug sick, scared, or just plain uneducated or ignorant defendants?"
One need not imagine. Ross often treated the poor, weak, mentally ill, drug sick, scared, uneducated and ingorant defendants with enmity, abuse, and horror. He treated those he saw as lower than him and less than human, with no compassion whatsoever.
He violated probation of those he considered beneath humanity, for even the most technical of infractions. He held himself out as a "solution" but in fact he was the problem.
He bullied nameless, civil litigants on behalf of those who had big names, big deep pockets and even bigger wallets. He favored politicians over the common taxpayer. Big business always won in his courtroom.
He would not hesitate to violate the canons of judicial conduct if he felt he would not be caught.
And yes, he ruled through "fiat and fear .... and the tools he used were vicious, rank," intimidating and without mercy.
Ross subscribes to the school of thought that a leader is one who should be feared rather than loved. Hence, when Howard Finkelstein who always has something diplomatic to say about a judge, outright accuses Ross and his cronies of being bullies, its because theirs is the way of the bully. It is the nazification of the Broward County courthouse.
Ask Howard ... he knows.
I sincerely hope that Vic Tobin will bring common sense and decency back to the court system here in Broward.
Will he be a messiah or the anti-christ? Only time will tell.
.
RE: PACER
Nice post Glassman. I too hope they address the docket access issue. The Broward premium system certainly has an adverse impact on indigent/pro-se Plaintiffs (and of course pro-se criminal defendants). Such persons can easily obtain free computer access at a Broward library, but must proceed to the courthouse to review the file (God help 'em).
CM-ECF is up and running for all florida US district courts. the system provides free copies of all e-filed documents. I generally like the system--for any flaws it is still lightyears ahead of Broward.
for those who had to appear before Tobin as a PD, we know well how condescending, and rude that asshole can be.
Does anyone know how many times Tobin had to come out the next day and apologize to the PD he had berated the day before? that ass.
need to concentrate on the big issue, controlling these guys with laws that can bite their ass
i heard this about tobin too. i also heard he had no patience for garbage satz cases and made the state do the right thing, when he could.
at least, as you admit, he was man enough to apologize. that in and of itself is more manly than any of the old bully boy administration could do and at least a sign that tobin might have it in him to clean this rats nest out once and for all.
can you ever remember the ross gang ever accepting responsibility for anything?
I LOVE THE GLASSMAN - WHO IS THAT MASKED GLASSMAN?
What a bunch of bureaucratic bullshit on this blog. Tom Lynch is a great judge and a good person. He takes the most difficult civil cases in the cths.He works hard and would of been a good Chief Judge. The same goes for Vic Tobin, great Judge and he will work hard at the top spot.To attack Lynch because of who he associates with is a pathetic excuse and chickenshit.To blame Dale Ross for any other Judges blunder is pitiful.Ive seen Lynch in his dealings and he is compassionate and fair.Good luck to Vic and Tom don't let these morons get you down.
Chicken!!! I love you! Call me.
These are the same guys who complained about me cooking up crack cocaine for us to sell to the so called poor black people in the slums. Call me.
Nick
How did Lynch get assigned all those big money cases?
Follow the money.
Stan. Great guy. Handing out SPD cases to your former ASA buddies, stupid "caps" on pleas so your ASA(s) can send people to prison. You handed out light sentences for first time offenders because you were too lazy to try the cases. But you were proud to proclaim yourself a "hanging judge" during the 48 hours (CBS) special. You love to talk about your background as a guy from "Queens" - Mr. tough guy. Fu.. you.
We all remember your JA showing up in your courtroom and "covering" for you because you were out sick. Jeff Harris was the only guy to question the lady as to why a non-lawyer/non-judge would do such a thing. Try it now and the blog would fry your ass. Where were you Mr. seniority when Ross was pulling his crap during the last 10 years.
Oh yes, you could not move to the north wing because the accommodations - so you kept your mouth shut. Real leadership. We would love to see you run for sheriff. You would not get 20% of the vote. Why don't you show up to court before 10:00am, and why do you call the docket so the private bar has to wait hours before their cases are called.
Ron Cacciatore. Now that's a blast from the past. Still hanging out with your mob, er, ex-mob buddies?
And King, er, Sheriff Nick. It wasn't so much the fact that you cooked up crack, it was that a lot of it disappeared between the lab and the streets.
But hey, you guys were a lot better than old Sheriff Stack, right? Remember that old bum?
Is that really you Navarro? I thought I saw you yesterday lunching at Lester's.
The story about Stan the Man turning his back on defense witnesses. I heard he would swivel his chair all the way around, sending a clear message to jurrors . Something about the jqc getting involved or more courthouse legend?
Nice. Taking the piss out of Stan Kaplan.
I guess they have wifi in the hospital.