MEDIA 9/28
DAILY BUSINESS REVIEW:
FACDL, FIDA Fight Conflict Counsel Office:
http://www.dailybusinessreview.com/news.html?news_id=45124
SENTINEL:
APD Dale Miller Throws a Block:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbescape0928nbsep28,0,2450412.story
"The guy fought tooth and nail but he didn't get very far," (Neysa Sosa) said. "It definitely got things going on a Monday morning."
FACDL, FIDA Fight Conflict Counsel Office:
http://www.dailybusinessreview.com/news.html?news_id=45124
SENTINEL:
APD Dale Miller Throws a Block:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbescape0928nbsep28,0,2450412.story
"The guy fought tooth and nail but he didn't get very far," (Neysa Sosa) said. "It definitely got things going on a Monday morning."
That poor guy is going to ge busted down to misdemeanor drug court. Howard has made it clear its all about the Defendants. It was unethical and a move from the Schrieber days to do go an alleged wrong doer like this. Even worse to get involved with a client represented by a private defense attorney, how dare he.
P.S. Bill read the attached link to the comments on this article to see how much this community really cares about mental health issues
http://www.topix.net/forum/source/south-florida-sun-sentinel/TOQ3K7VTV7F3S61G5
a real old school pd would have been waiting by the stairwell exit on 3rd with the engine running to drive the getaway. times have changed.
and apparently not for the better. I agree with the old school pd comment.
blazing a fattie with 24 on ice .....
"a move from the Schrieber days to do go an alleged wrong doer like this."
i think i speak for most of us collectively--those that worked for the bossman--when i say bite my ass. now get back to work plea-monkey.
Funny to hear Sentinel report "as Judge Weinstein launched his morning docket.."
I wouldn't and couldn't use the word "launched" pertaining to Judge Weinstein under any circumstances. He never been able to move much of anything along beyond a snail's pace. Nice enough guy though.
As long as judges have no discretion in seeing who gets the business, the wheel wasn't a bad system. The problem arose because judges violating the law were seeing to it that friends, family and their political cronies were getting the bulk of the cases, in other words, manipulating the system. It is more than well known in Tallahassee that Broward Judges were the biggest offenders of this practice. It is also know that Broward outspent our larger neighbor in cost budget overruns. There's no end run around this problem or the truth. The ISC Committee with Ross as chair worked in concert with certain members of BACDL and others to continue to insure this practice untill the Office of Conflict Counsel was created. We have no one to blame but ourselves for knowing this practice was continuing and for allowing it. Judges were ultimately responsible for going off the wheel repeatedly to feather their own political nests when time came for re election and to keep sons, daughters, friends and politicos close and in the money. There is no disputing this fact. And still there has been no actual accounting, beyond what the media reported which was incomplete, of these abuses despite repeated public record requests to ascertain the extent of the problem. All you had was Ross step down and a transfer of administrative power to Judge Tobin to quell the search for the truth. Corruption is an insidious disease that is very difficult to diagnose, particularly when the people in power as we have seen refuse to abide by the rules.
Now thats what I call meaningful contact!
Denaro's application (no criminal experience)"
http://www.dailybusinessreview.com/images/news_photos/45124/Conflict28.PDF
Justice Building Blog:
http://www.justicebuilding.blogspot.com/
DBR ROCKS GEORGE
The Daily Business Review got down to business today with an article on the new Regional Counsel Office in general and Mr. George in particular. The article is
HERE.
When you get past the unfortunate picture of our colleague Mr. Denaro, who is leading the FIDA efforts detailed on the blog earlier this week, you come away with a feeling of distaste for the whole mess. This is not about Mr. George personally. But beyond the issue of the whole ROC system, people have raised questions about his qualifications to run the what is the second public defenders office in the largest and busiest circuit of the State.
From the Article:
Some critics note that Crist’s newly appointed director of the Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel in Miami hasn’t worked a criminal case since he was a law student 22 years ago and has never tried a case of any kind before a jury. According to the appointment application obtained by the Daily Business Review, newly appointed director Joseph P. George Jr. wrote that none of his cases during his 13-year law career involved jury trials. George said Wednesday that he tried criminal cases as an intern clerk as part of his practice program at Samford University’s law school, and in his career has done some work involving the Baker Act — the civil state law that allows for the involuntary committal of mental patients. ...
Addressing critics who assert he lacks sufficient criminal experience for the Conflict Counsel job, George said: “I don’t think it gives an appropriate context. When people have their civil rights taken away [under the Baker Act], I think it disserves them to think that they’re a second thought.” “All I can do is the best I can do, and that’s going to be trying to hire the best people the most qualified people, and I’ve already taken steps in that direction,” he said. George conceded he initially failed the Florida Bar exam after he graduated law school in 1985. He worked as a legal investigator in the 16th Judicial Circuit in Key West until he passed the bar in 1994, after being told he needed a bar card if he wished to keep his job.
Rumpole responds: Try telling "I did my best" to the parents of an 18 year old boy who gets a life sentence because the lawyers were inexperienced. This is the real game here. The legislature is passing minimum mandatory sentences as fast as they can get out of the bar and vote, and State Attorneys Offices are enforcing the law. Is this really the appropriate place to start learning about voire dire, much less the other parts of a criminal trial? We would tell Mr. George to take his good intentions, get a job with Mr. Brummer's office, get some training under supervision of lawyers who know what they're doing, and then apply in five or ten years. Or in other words- do like the rest of us have done and get the training and experience necessary before saying you are competent to run a criminal defense office where you will be litigating against the very best prosecutors who may very well be trying to have your client executed.
Racism?
In late August, Crist appointed George, who is white, director to the Conflict Counsel Office in Miami. The five Conflict Counsel Offices cover regions based on the state courts of appeal. Crist passed over Tampa attorney Belinda Noah, who holds a doctorate in law, to pick George. Noah, who is black, said she believes she is the victim of racial discrimination. “I feel it was a miscarriage of justice. It’s totally unjust what happened,” she said.
Rumpole says: We've said this before. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. We are tired of hearing about Mr. George's good intentions. In all honesty he would not hire someone like himself to represent a family member who was charged with murder or drug trafficking. Why would he seek to force his inexperience upon the poor of Dade County who don't have a choice in legal representation? The real honorable thing would be to decline the appointment and let someone who knows what they are doing run the office. That would really show his good intentions. We are left to conclude that Mr. George is merely a rank opportunist willing to balance his own personal ambitions upon the backs of clients who will suffer because of his ineptitude.
See You In Court, where the more we think about this, the angrier we get.
PS. When soemone decodes Mr. George's defense of his exprerience as reported int he DBR, please let us know. If that is the best he can do defending himself, prosecutors will be lining up to try cases against him and his office.
Rump, nice job as always.
Sad that the supposed champions of justice around here only write about spending time finding out who occupies the courtrooms and toilets in the courthouse
Wow, Dale Miller did something eventful. What a nice change. It's brutal seeing him in action as an attorney.
well it does seem one of your judges was caught in a you know what. at a govt. function, no less?
from https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19039943&postID=7545279805592524434
I have several a couple of comments on the conflict office debacle which I have not seen much about. 1. I, and I am sure numerous other criminal trial lawyers did not apply because the application had embarassing questions about the life of the applicant which would be public record. Any recovering alcoholic, drug addict or person who had been arrested or disciplined by the bar would not receive serious consideration or be appointed. You can get elected if you have those things in your past, i.e. the president or pd of broward, but NOT appointed by a governor. That eliminated from consideration probably 20% of the 500 wheel attorneys doing the dirty work for the judges of Miami, handling the worst cases that the pd conflicted off because brummer has a bunch of lazy 20 year veterans who are overpaid and no longer have the aggressiveness and enthusiasm of young attorneys out of law school. 2. If this system is not replaced I suggest that the 5 districts use this as an opportunity to purchase or build a small office building near the Miami courthouse where the conflict office can have its office AND where all criminal depos are done for dade, preferably within a half mile of the gerstein building. it is time to do away with depos at the sao and pd, a neutral site is necessary and the state can make up some of the money for these offices by eliminating depos in nonviolent felonies and felonies where there is no hfo status and the legislature should pass a law that victims of agg. assault, agg. battery and other offenses who file police reports and demand the arrest of people and then want the charges dropped should face a penalty for costs of initiating a prosecution and then failing to appear for prefiling conference etc. or come up with some other remedy for the thousands of cases a year that enter the system and then are nolle prossed several weeks later, you know all the boyfriend girlfriend bullshit like a burglary arrest when someone comes back to the apartment to pick their clothes. It is time to start doing away with depos in most felony cases, we are one of the only states that have them and they are such a pain in the ass and the witnesses show up 1/3rd of the time so we should have a motion and court order for depos in 2nd and 3rd degree felony cases. I would say that at best 25% of my cases yielded worthwhile info from the depos. 3.If the conflict offices are upheld I have a news flash for the approximately 1000 attorneys statewide who will no longer get felony cases on a regualar basis and the ones doing the most griping are the death penalty and life felony people: STEAL AND MARKET. that's right boys and girls, advertise and take the cases from the conflict office by letting the felons know how much they will be screwed by having their murder case handled by a man who drafted wills for 15 years.
Pt. 2:
So you can either keep whining like little schoolgirls or you can roll up your sleeves and fight.Pick up a mirror- how many of you have tried to market yourselves to get cases or made your availability known that you will take cases for the same amount of money the wheel paid, how many advertisments are there where you say I will defend the armed robbery for 2000 with no money down, that's how the wheel worked. None. that's what I thought. stop your bitching and 10 of you should buy a small building and start your own sy gaer type of office and steal the conflict offices caseload. Oh , none of you thought of that, just bitch to each other. take the offices caseload you dummies.
We did it to ourselves and now we bellyache and cry about it? I agree with the above post, roll up your sleeves and get to work. We got used to judges controlling the amount of work we did through the old system of political patronage and now you want to whine and be babies about it? Get with it. It's not going away anytime soon so do what you have to do and quit acting like idiots.