TO: ALL JUDGES, JANUARY 12, 2015

Pursuant to Florida Rules of Judicial Administration 2.215(c) the election of Chief Judge for the term July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2017 will take place on Thursday, February 12, 2015 at 12:00 PM in Courtroom 840.  The Chief Judge shall be chosen by a majority of the active circuit and county court judges within the circuit.  All ballots shall be secret.

Nominations for Chief Judge along with two seconds in writing will be accepted by my office from Tuesday, January 13, 2015 through Friday, January 23, 2015 at 4 PM.  These must all be in original hard copy format on letterhead.

The Rules of Judicial Administration prohibit proxy voting.  Therefore, if you (are) unsure that you will be able to be present at this election meeting, absentee ballots will be available in Court Administration Room 880A.  Voting by absentee ballot will be permitted starting Monday, January 26, 2015 until Tuesday, February 10, 2015 at 4 PM.  If no candidate receives a majority of the Circuit and County Court Judges’ votes, then a runoff election between the two judges receiving the highest number of votes will be held Friday, February 20, 2015 in courtroom 840 at 8:30 AM.  At the runoff election the judge who receives the highest number of votes will be elected Chief Judge.  The term for Chief Judge commences July 1, 2015.

If you have any questions regarding the election, please contact this office at x7741.

Thank you.

KATHLEEN PUGH – TRIAL COURT ADMINISTRATOR

Rumor has it Gisele Pollack resigned her judgeship today.

Developing …

UPDATE:  Eric Schwartzreich returned a call at 5:41 pm and confirmed Gisele’s resignation was made around 3:30 pm this afternoon.

Sun Sentinel subscription to JAABLOG up and working

January 5th JQC Hearing Panel Recommendation

You can now subscribe to JAABLOG, just like under the old format.

Simply send in your email address through the Subscribe to JAAB Blog header in the upper right hand corner of the blog, and all entries will appear in your inbox as soon as they’re published.

Don’t miss a thing as the Chief Judge Election heats up after the holidays …

(caption and photograph courtesy of Laura Chukwuma)

The jury has found Cindy Imperato guilty as charged in WPB at 3:07 pm …

We’re told the jury started day two of deliberations a few minutes ago, at roughly 2:25 p.m.   Most of the day was taken up by readbacks.

This one is a real nail biter.  Take a stiff drink to steady your nerves, if you’re so inclined, as Cindy Imperato’s freedom and career must be flashing before her eyes while awaiting the jury’s decision …

2014-50-Gen – click the link for Friday’s AO assigning judges.  It should post online Monday.  All changes were predicted, except the civil rotation.  Tuter takes over Streitfeld, Murphy goes to Tuter, and Imperato takes over Murphy.  Rosenthal gets Imperato’s foreclosures division, D. Bailey gets Feren’s family duties, Schulman takes Merrigan’s dependency, Merrigan gets Rosenthal’s old criminal division, which Levenson has been covering since Feig-Rosenthal got busted, Gold goes to Grossman probate, and Contini takes over Gold criminal.  C. Robinson has Richards’ position in south satellite.  Rumor has it there will be more changes after the February CJ election, if Weinstein wins …

Trial! – Cindy Imperato stares down a Christmas jury this week, unless a last minute deal has been struck …

Miami Herald: Florida’s chief justice hunts for goof-off judges

Florida You Judge: Peter Weinstein’s act of humility

Credit where credit is due - it took a lot of guts for Peter Weinstein to apologize to Nadine Girault Levy, the Chief Assistant Public Defender who has been battling Jay Hurley over the right to representation for defendants accused of municipal ordinances.  According to Nadine, it happened Tuesday, shortly after Weinstein sent his email to the judges blasting Finkelstein for the clown house comments.  The chief judge asked to speak to her, and offered an apology on behalf of himself and all the judges for the way she was treated when things got heated a few weeks ago in First Appearances court.  Weinstein also mentioned he hoped Hurley would offer a mea culpa as well, but Nadine’s not holding her breath.  In any event, check out Bob Norman’s report for all the updates on the municipal ordinances issue, where public exposure once again seems to have gotten the job done …

Coming Soon – More tough talk at Judges’ Night 2014 …

Wa Post: George Will on the overcriminalization of America

Circuit Criminal Division Meeting - Peter Weinstein addressed the North Wing judges today, and from what we’re hearing, he’s rattled.  Having to deal with the most recent barrage of bad publicity, concurrent with a challenge for the chief judge’s docket-free throne, seems to have him a little out of sorts.

Apparently there was talk of possibly involving the local and State Bars to try to curb Howard Finkelstein’s three ringed criticisms of the 17th Circuit’s performance under Weinstein’s leadership, which is awfully confusing,* seeing as how neither body has any authority over the Public Defender.  In fact, the Broward Bar has no authority over anyone, let alone an elected official, who answers only to the Governor.

From the Florida Bar’s website:

The State Commission on Ethics deals with complaints about misconduct by some elected officials. The Florida Bar does not have jurisdiction to discipline lawyers who occupy constitutionally created positions including judges. The (JQC) investigates allegations of misconduct by judges. The conduct of State Attorneys and elected Public Defenders is overseen by the Governor of Florida. 

And from Florida Bar Assistant Director Public Information Zannah Lyle:

In reference to your question about whether The Florida Bar has the authority to investigate elected public officials, the answer is no.

Even if either body could go after Finkelstein for exercising his free speech rights, would it be wise to do so?  Of course not.  Long time readers will remember large ink spills when the local and State Bars went after JAABLOG, only to end up looking silly.  Imagine how much greater the coverage would be if a local celebrity like the Public Defender was the target?  Additionally, there’s no love lost between the general public and the perennially leader-less Broward judges, who have relentlessly disappointed and embarrassed the community as long as anyone can remember.  The bottom line is Weinstein would be foolish to let this go any further than the letters to the editor column of the DBR, and even then, the chief judge shouldn’t copy the entire judiciary when somebody says something nice about him.

We’re told there was also some discussion relating to the Get to Work! AO at today’s gathering, in advance of the statewide Chief Judges meeting which closes out the week.  Believe it or not, judges were told to make themselves something akin to visible, interpreted by more than one observer as a suggestion for judges to work in court instead of their offices after public duties have concluded for the day.  Granted, this audience was full of hard-working circuit criminal judges, but we’re told the impression was given that face time is now an overriding concern, while terms like work harder, and diligence were never used.  Let’s hope the message is much different for judges in other divisions, particularly those with a reputation for being bone idle.  In the meantime, we’ll have to step up our attendance-taking JAABWALKS, just to make sure the Get to Work! AO is being taken seriously …

(* The Bar talk was also confusing due to the fact Weinstein was observed being extra nice to Finkelstein yesterday, the same day he sent the email to judges complaining about the DBR clown comments)

Mike Lynch for Judge! - the younger Lynch makes it official, filing for the retiring Jack Luzzo’s circuit seat.  The paperwork should post Thursday.  Congrats!

Movement update - Marc Gold is indeed going to Probate, departing Criminal mid-January.  Cindy Imperato’s promotion to Civil may be on hold though, pending the outcome of her DUI trial in Palm Beach next week.  We’re told some judges are mighty upset that Imperato may end up with a coveted assignment basically due to being arrested, which could cost Weinstein some votes come February, making it a wait and see.  There’s also some talk of Jack Tuter taking over for Streitfeld, but that would still leave a nice Civil slot open.  Ongoing …

Coming Soon – Where are Grossman & Feren, and did they have anything to do with the issuance of the Get to Work! AO?; Somebody should tell Peter Weinstein that Ian Richards didn’t actually retire; A tale of a media savvy PD, a media savvy Blog, and a Luddite CJ; Your tax dollars at work – senior judge payouts!

Peter Weinstein sent the following email to all judges Tuesday afternoon.  He seems to have taken great offense at Howard Finkelstein’s comments to the DBR relating to the new AO, although Weinstein attended a meeting with the Public Defender at roughly the same time judges discovered the chief judge’s missive in their inboxes, described by sources as being “conciliatory and cordial” to Finkelstein.  Oh well, it is an election season for the embattled Weinstein, who may be reacting to criticism that he takes too many punches instead of throwing them on behalf of his badly bloodied judiciary.  Oddly enough, most of the judges we’ve spoken to believe the email backfired, making Weinstein appear overly defensive and, as usual, slow to react, and may have ultimately cost him votes come February.  From our perspective, he’s also opened a can of worms, since we’re now obligated to ask Dave Simmons, Jorge Labarga, and others a lot of tough questions to clarify some of the strong assertions Weinstein makes in the email regarding the genesis of the ground-breaking and historic AO that seem to conflict everything we’ve learned thus far.  And the beat goes on …

Email signed by Peter M. Weinstein:

I am writing in response to the article entitled  “Chief Justice’s Order Says Buck Stops at Chief Circuit Judges.”  The article contains statements by Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein wherein he describes Broward judges as “misfits” and the Broward court as a “clown house.”  These comments are not only offensive and highly unprofessional but simply untrue.  Mr. Finkelstein’s statement that the Supreme Court’s recent Administrative Order entitled “Diligent Performance of Judicial Duties” was issued because the Supreme Court is unhappy with Broward judges is a complete misstatement of the facts. The Administrative Order does nothing more than reiterate what is already the law and as spokesman for the Supreme Court Craig Waters states, was issued to simply remind the judges throughout the state of their ethical duties.  As a member of the bar for over forty years and completing my seventeenth year as a judge, I am disturbed by an elected official such as Mr. Finkelstein making such comments.  As a young attorney, I always aspired to become a judge and am proud of the service I and my colleagues are providing to the people of Broward County.  Every single day people appear in our courtrooms to have a multitude of problems adjudicated by our judges.  As I said in the statement I issued in reference to the problems encountered by three of our judges, the judges in Broward County “are hardworking, conscientious, and do not condone in any fashion any sort of impairment or substance abuse that would prevent their handling of each case that comes before them with the utmost care, consideration, and attention that every case deserves.  We recognize that judges make serious decisions affecting people’s lives each day they are in court and that with that weighty responsibility comes a duty to be fully accountable.”  I stand by that statement today as I did then.

Coming Soon – Guess who’s running for judge?; Gold confirms he’s going to Probate; Build it and they will come – Catching up with Haydee Oropesa; Cynthia Imperato on Trial December 17th …

Bob Weir talks fame, fortune, and carrying Jerry’s stash (p.52)