JAABCAM CRS EDITION
1.) The Professor gives JAABLOG an "A" in Obnoxiousness; 2.) Debbie Garr, Director of Court Reporting Services, gave us the grand tour of the 17th's electronic court reporting facilities on Tuesday. Debbie is responsible for all the electronica, and supervises twenty-seven Digital Court Reporters. She didn't know how much the whole shebang cost, but told us she has heard that it paid for itself within eighteen months of its inception in 2002. As far as reliability, she said the only problems that ever surface are due to Courthouse AC failures, which explained all the portable AC units nearby. Debbie also wanted everyone to know she's happy to give anyone the tour, so long as they make an appointment first; 3.) Every word in County Court (Central and the Satellites), First Appearances, Mental Health and Drug Courts, and Juvenile is captured on these servers (Circuit Courtrooms are wired, but not monitored or recorded). The live hearings are digitized, and then monitored after a three second delay by a real human being (the aforementioned Digital Court Reporters), to verify proper conversion and storage. The top right hand blue circular lights blink when a judge goes off the record, and stay on when recording is in progress (the little Blue Man would be lit in the courtroom). The horizontal blue lights are automatic DVD burners, which periodically archive the digital records. Four copies of the primary record are kept of every hearing since the inception of the Broward program (two on site, and two off site, in the care of the Iron Mountain Corporation); 4.) Digital Court Reporters monitor and tag the recordings on one of the two banks of terminals in the server room. One reporter handles two courtrooms simultaneously, except for trials, which are monitored by a single reporter. There are also video feeds from every courtroom running with the live audio, which the reporters rely on for tagging purposes, in case they don't recognize the attorney or whoever is speaking. The tags are essential to the whole process, so hearings can be quickly identified and located when required for transcription or other purposes. The video feeds are not recorded, except from First Appearances and Juvenile (video feeds are also available from every Circuit Courtroom); 5.) An example of an audio and video feed from a County Courtroom, and 6.) from a Juvenile Courtroom. (Thanks to CLO & DG)
I give the professor the well earned title of the most obnoxious. Looks like Pee Wee Herman on steroids. Chuck the bow tie stupid. You look like Jay Hurley.
He's definitely an over the top turkey! He'd get my vote for most obnoxious.
Everyone is entitled to their own look. The professor goes for the whole C. Everett Coop thing and Hurley goes for the 1920s Scopes Monkey Trial judge thing with his.
Let them have their own taste. They both pull off the look.
Interesting article on Dan Christianson's blog about Tobin with one interesting quote.
http://www.browardbulldog.org/?p=450#more-450
"A judge who is a Tobin ally said, “I don’t think for a moment that Vic has done anything vindictive. He wants to be elected again. He’s bent over backwards to do the best he can.”
So is Vic a liar after vowing not to run after his current term completed?
So lots of grumbling coming out of the Clerk's office about a judge not wanting to have any hearings set until January since that judge is going to be out on vacation for what seems to be 6 of the last 8 weeks of 2009.
Where's a JAABWalk when you need one?
Who gets to take most of the last quarter of the year off as vacation?
You'd want to use your vacation right away if you knew you weren't going to be able to take any in 2010 either.
Give you 3 guesses of which judge this is about. Ok, too easy. You get 2 guesses.
The role of County Court Judge Lee Jay Seidman for the next three weeks will be played by Judge Joe Murphy as well as cameos by Gary Cowart, Vic Tobin and Sharon Zeller.
After a brief return Judge Seidman will be away for another two weeks with cameos by the above as well and possibly a few surprises.
VOP clients waiting to get their cases resolved beofre the holidays? No worries Al Lamberti will be dressing up like a pilgirm to serve turkey bolongna. Out by Chrsitmas? If not no worries, Al Lamberti will be playing Santa this year.
So Bill, how about some Jaabwalks or maybe a counter to track how many days he is out of court before the end of the year. Arent there a certain number of days a Judge can take off in a year?
Seidman seems to want to be on TV so much. Hope he gets the gig in Magistrates, so we can watch him insert his tiny foot in his mouth every day.
"Human Torch" will be the least of his gaffes.
How many trials has the guy done this year? 2? And you're saying he's taking the last two months off?
Rumor has it there will be a change in the fall TV linup come January with Seidman going Magistrates and Hurley to a criminal Division.
I can imagine Lee is working on a catchphrase maybe
"Stay classy inmates"
"Goodnight, good luck and dont bend over for the soap"
Maybe a top ten list or better a daily shout out to certain condo honchos.
Of course gotta end with a your hand pointing like a gun and he blows on the finger tip.
Hoo wah
Or he could adopt the catchphrase of yore usually attributed to Dale Ross "you're gonna become a lollipop"
If Seidman worked as much as he ran his mouth, he'd have tried a few more cases than just 2. Man, this place is really weird. That goes double for him.
If you work out the math, the weirdness of the place goes quadruple for him, since he's twice as weird but only half as tall.
So I remember earlier this year the Blog did a records request for each judge's trial stats.
Are we going to get a Year-End edition so we can see who worked a real schedule and who just phoned it in......
It may not matter after a cetain female enters his race at the request of the Hollywood Gang.
This was on Buddy Nevins earlier and thenDid Rothstein $$$ Influence Judicial Appointments?from BrowardBeat.com by admin
BY BUDDY NEVINS
The Feds are looking into the possibility that contributions by scamster Scott Rothstein had a role in Broward judicial appointments, according a source familiar with the investigation.
The judges are not suspected of anything.
Rothstein gave large sums of money to the Republican Party of Florida within days that three Broward judges were appointed.
In one case, the money was given the same day.
The source says Rothstein is boasting to investigators he bought the appointments from Gov. Charlie Crist and RPOF chief Jim Greer.
I put little credibility in the babbling of a con artist desperate to cut his looming jail sentence.
However, I will report what I have been told from this good source.
Here is what I found out:
On January 26, 2009, Rothstein and his law firm Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler gave $100,000 to the RPOF. Two days later, Judges Carlos Rodriguez and Barbara McCarthy were appointed by Crist.
On July 28, 2008, Rothstein’s firm gave $52,000 to the RPOF. That was the same day that Jay Hurley was appointed to the county court. One day later, Rothstein’s firm donated another $25,000 to the RPOF.
Once again – I can’t emphasize this enough –the judges are not suspected of anything.
All three are running for re-election.
McCarthy received a $500 contribution from former RRA name partner, Stuart Rosenfeldt. It was her first campaign contribution.
Hurley got $150 from Ken Padowitz, a lawyer once at RRA.
This fiasco is becomming more interesting all the time. One wonders just how this might be taken in view of the facts. I suspect additional revelations casting an even wider net of impact on this practice of coincidences.
I heard Padowitz has since opened a bagelry. Isn't he running for judge?
Oh let's see. Buddy has a "source" - someone connected to the Republican party, someone who has no ties with Crist (or burned that bridge), someone who has an issue with hispanics and a beef with Judge Hurley.....
Gee, wonder who that could be.
Is she blond and wear a wire?
If they ever really connected all the dots, you don't know what they might find.
Crist ain't gonna skate completely clean of this one. Several appointees will be looked at more closely now.
Was Hurley at Lemiux's swearing in DC with Rothstien?
So what Buddy. People give to judicial campaigns all the time. What of it? Just because a few lawyers from his firm gave to a few judges and to Governor Crist who made some good choices for judges doesn't prove a thing. We as Republicans feel that it's important to participate in the political process hands on.
Yes
McCarthy's appointment was all judge Birken, her husband, Tobin/Rothstein.
Mccarthy wanted Rothstein as her campaign manager and Rothstein passed it off to Rosenfeldt. McCarthy's judgeship is tainted.
ya, Rothstein gave money to make Hurley a county judge. Sure thing when I get up off the floor from laughing.
We know Hurley's golden goose and it sure as hell wasn't Scotty Rothstein.
remember: birkens son is a long time atty at RRA, campaign mgr-rosenfeldt, large sums given to rpof-no, not suspicious at all
did hurley ride on rothsteins plane to dc for the swearing in
Sounds like the Golden Goose could well be cooked! And just in time for Thanksgiving.
It's clear Barbara McCarthy and Jay Hurley's appointments have Scott Rothstein fingerprints all over it. The courthouse is permeating with the stench of these appointments. Hummmm
They are both up in 2010.
Make up your feeble mind. First you say Hurley got in because he's Crist's frat bro and friend. Now you say it's due to Rothstein. Which one is it?
Jay Hurley has been a lawyer for nearly 2 decades. He was also a decorated Navy serviceman. As a Republican, he raised money for his friend and fraternity brother, Charlie Crist and for other Republicans.
That he got a County Court Judicial Appointment should not be a surprise to anyone. Was he more qualified or less qualified than the others that were seeking the appointment? Each side will have arguments there, but he certainly is more qualified than many that put their name in.
Did the fact that he had a relationship with the Governor help him? I can't imagine that it wouldn't -- but the JNC system we have is the system we are working with now (you can thank the "smart" Bush brother - Jeb, for screwing up the system even more than it was before). But guess what, governors appoint friends and supporters to every kind of office in this State and most others in the US. If the person was otherwise qualified, big freaking deal.
But I can't imagine for 1 second that Hurley's appointment had anything to do with Scotty Rothstein. Scotty was sending money to the Republican Party of Florida like it was growing on trees in 2007-2008-2009. That some donations were around the time that Hurley was appointed shouldn't surprise anyone.
Hurley had the connections to the governor already, had been a frat brother and booster of his for years, and a decent background which passes the pure qualification test.
And other than a few snafus since taking office (including the misfortune of being out and letting Seidman cover and give his "human torch" comment), Hurley's done a pretty damned good job.
Jail overcrowding -- down.
More consistent bonds/release conditions.
He seems to enjoy the job -- which is more than I can say for about 75% of the people in that building -- and it shows in the work he does.
There are criticisms you can make of Judge Hurley -- like you could criticize any judge or other elected official. But on balance, he's done a good job, and a far better one than many people would have expected.
To tie him to a bullschmidt con-artist sleazeball like Scott Rothstein is just pathetic.
Although I still question the bowtie.
"Jay Hurley has been a lawyer for nearly 2 decades. He was also a decorated Navy serviceman"
A cake is decorated too.
A fruit cake.......