As follows: (click here to download)

While Zooming around yesterday, we stumbled upon State v. Jerrod Watson, Jr. , 16-008459-CF10A, before Tim Bailey. It’s a major Brady scandal, featuring former ASA Amy Bloom, fired in June from the SAO for insensitive Facebook posts. The Sun Sentinel was present for yesterday’s hearing, which time didn’t allow us to attend. They have a full story in the works.

By way of background:

Alex Arreaza, counsel for Watson, filed this Motion to Vacate Plea, which he reports was granted after the SAO conceded. Watson, thirteen days past his eighteenth birthday, had been convicted on May 17, 2018 of Attempted Murder in the First Degree and Discharging a Firearm From a Vehicle, and sentenced to a year and a day in prison followed by ten years of supervision, concurrent with other matters.

From the motion:

The motion to vacate was filed after these SAO plea & closeout memos were discovered by Alex, information he says he learned about pursuant to a public records request.

From the plea memo:

And from Bloom’s closeout:

This morning, Arreaza stated the following:

“Jerrod was a minor, African American that was direct filed. After finding there was a sworn statement the state withheld the affidavit. This is disturbing because these constitutional violations seem to happen to African Americans and Hispanics that don’t have enough money to fight it. I was court appointed spd (special public defender). Now we go back to square one. We’re going to try the case. I’m surprised that the State has decided to go forward after reading Amy Bloom’s memo stating that they have no evidence and a victim recanting.”

Stay tuned for the full story from the Sun Sentinel …