ASA Justin McCormack, recently of the Special Prosecutions Unit, has filed to run for State Attorney.

Justin is the ninth candidate to submit paperwork to Tallahassee so far, and he is now the fourth active ASA running.

The filing is found here …

*UPDATE/UPDATE* – Kevin Beach, defendant:

*UPDATE* – Robert Gregg was reached at 8:58 AM and asked if the incident was simply a case of a disgruntled or out of touch individual targeting a sitting judge.  Gregg declined comment, citing confidentiality rules …

———————————————————————————

Thanks to Anonymous, November 16 at 11:59 AM, for alerting JAABLOG readers to the recently filed Petition For Injunction For Protection Against Stalking by Petitioner Kevin Tyrell Beach, against Respondent Bobby Diaz.

Barry Stone, senior judge in the 17th Circuit, dismissed the petition for insufficient evidence on November 12th, after a special assignment to preside over  the matter was signed by Jack Tuter.  No circuit-wide recusal was requested.

The whole thing seems strange, which is why we texted Diaz for more information on Saturday, as follows:

” … do you know Kevin Beach?  Did you have any interactions with him in North Lauderdale in late August, as he alleged in his Petition?  Is he lying? … “

There’s been no answer to date.  In the meantime, we’ll follow-up with Diaz’s attorney from the AG’s Office Robert Gregg, and try to speak with Beach to learn what the whole thing was about …

Thank you for your emails.  The response has been excellent.  Rest assured, ticket requests have been received and properly logged, and you will be contacted shortly with specifics.

Lastly, now is the time to finish sending in questions for consideration by the panel members to put to the candidates.  Send to us here, or click on Rafael Olmeda or David Ovalle.

Accordingly, the following email was sent to the candidates earlier this afternoon:

Good Afternoon … I am pleased to announce the tickets for the December 4th debates have been reserved to venue capacity.

At this time there are five tickets reserved for each of the candidates to disperse, although more may become available as the event date gets closer to be prioritized to be equally distributed to candidates.

The plan is to have a very professional, presidential style debate, with a podium and microphone for each candidate, with questions, follow-ups, and the opportunity to debate your opponents. The League of Women Voters has kindly offered to provide the time keeping function, with Mr. Ovalle from the Miami Herald moderating.

Mr. Olmeda, myself, the League, and Mr. Ovalle will be sitting down shortly to go over some specifics, and I will update accordingly …

Gordon Weekes has bailed out of participating in the PDO Debate sponsored by FIU College of Law and the League of Women Voters.

After confirming his appearance on September 17th, Weekes this morning stated he is unavailable, citing a scheduling conflict.  He would not elaborate further.

This is surely disheartening news to the other candidates running for the Public Defender spot, and to his colleagues at the PDO who have already sent emails to secure tickets for the December 4th event.  Weekes is the only one of twelve confirmed candidates for both SAO and PDO to cancel an appearance.

To all those PDO employees who have reserved tickets, kindly email SAOPDODEBATETICKETS@GMAIL.COM if you no longer want to attend.  Interest has been high, and your tickets can be redistributed.  Otherwise, anyone else wishing to attend please finish getting your requests in.  You will not receive a confirmation email, but rest assured your requests have been appropriately logged.

DISAPPOINTING …

We’re told Rita Ugarte has left the building.

She’s no longer listed on the 17th’s General Master page.

Stay tuned …

African-American Research Library and Cultural Center Auditorium

Wednesday, December 4th, 6:00 to 9:00 PM

FREE

Tickets are on a first come, first served email date/time-stamped lottery basis.

At this time, tickets are allotted in blocks to attorneys from the following groups/agencies:

ASA’s, APD’s, PA’s, Judiciary.

Tickets have been set aside for sponsors FIU College of Law and the League of Women Voters, media, and the participants.

Interested ASA’s, APD’s, PA’s, and members of the judiciary please email at your earliest convenience with your name and title:

SAOPDODEBATETICKETS@GMAIL.COM

Unclaimed tickets will be distributed to the general public.

Water and Snacks provided …

SAO/PDO DEBATES BACKGROUND

More everyday scenes from Broward County Circuit Courts, brought to you by JAABLOG.

Daddy, what did you do during the Drug War?

Following the JAABLOG update this morning requesting an answer to the PRR concerning the applicants for the recently filled GM positions,  the 17th Circuut responded earlier this evening, as follows:

(click to enlarge images)

A telephonic status conference was held this afternoon at 4:00 PM in JQC v. Hawkins.

Here’s the update:

The JQC is standing on its Notice of Formal Charges, offering no amendments at this time.

Trial will be in the Broward County Courthouse either January 7th-8th, the week of January 20th, or February 13th-14th.

The litigants are available those days, but witnesses and JQC Commissioners need to be coordinated.  The JQC currently has a regularly scheduled meeting January 9th and 10th, possibly complicating a trial shortly after the New Year.

Witness Lists and exhibits from both sides are due December 2nd, with a twenty day window following for objections, etc.

Hawkins’ attorney David Bogenschutz anticipates “probably” asking for more than the usually allowed three character witness, while acknowledging the number of character witnesses at some point becomes “superfluous“.

The JQC website, linked above, should update shortly …

The receptionist for Joe D’Amico just told us after an in-person request to see the general counsel for the 17th Circuit that our public records request for the names and applications of all those that applied to replace Barbara Beilly as Family Court GM is “being reviewed“.

For some reason,  D’Amico is not otherwise responding to multiple calls and emails, after we specifically asked him to acknowledge receipt of the PRR on October 18th, which he did.  In fact, we also specified to send over the names first, if the applications had to be gathered and reviewed, which could be time consuming.

In any event,  we will be sure to post as soon as we learn who else was in the pool for consideration for the GM positions ultimately filled by both Rudy Morel and Allana Robinson Woods.

Stay tuned …