Tuesday notes

1. Big decision from the 11th Circuit yesterday in the sports agent case -- United States v. Gus Dominguez. Judge Cox wrote the decision invalidating some of the convictions and Judge Tjoflat dissented because he would have invalidated all counts. Nice win for Ben Kuehne. The blog's prior coverage of this Judge Moore case is here.

2. Brian Tannebaum has a new gig at Above the Law. Very exciting.

3. I hate mosquitoes too, but should we really be genetically engineering them? Doesn't this ultimately lead to the apocalypse?

4. Justice Stevens seems to be everywhere.

Baseball agents gets 5 years

Yesterday Judge Moore sentenced baseball agent Gustavo ''Gus'' Dominguez to five years in prison. Legendary pitcher Sandy Koufax wrote this letter in support of Dominguez. The Herald covers the sentencing here. And here's a snippet from the article re Koufax:

Koufax, a southpaw and three-time Cy Young winner while pitching for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1950s and 1960s, met Dominguez through friends at the Dodgers training camp in Vero Beach.
''I have always considered Gus to be a person of strong character and high moral principles,'' Koufax wrote. ``He has an unshakable love for his culture and does his best to serve as a role model to the players he represents, especially Latin players.''
Dominguez's defense team said the agent asked his old friend to travel from Southern California for the sentencing -- but he could not make the trip. Koufax, ranked 26th among The Sporting News' ''100 Greatest Baseball Players,'' instead wrote the letter.

"Sports agent guilty in Cuban ballplayer case"

That's the headline in today's Herald re the smuggling trial of Gustavo Dominguez. The same jury found Roberto Yosvany, charged with operating the boat, not guilty of the conspiracy and smuggling charges.

I won't really be able to post much today or this weekend as I won't have computer access....

Trial dogs...

There isn't a better District to be a lawyer (or to be a blogger!) -- we've got the most interesting cases and the most trials. Jose Padilla starts Monday and I've been writing a bunch about that. But right now, there are two other very high profile trials proceeding.

The first is the Kenneth Wilk cop-killing death penalty trial before Judge Cohn. From reading the coverage (Vanessa Blum is covering it almost every day -- here's the latest article -- and here is Nikki Waller's coverage), it looks to me like the defense may need to focus on saving this man's life instead of going for the NG. It's a very difficult decision in a DP case -- do you go full guns blazing for the NG and perhaps alienate the jury or do you try to keep the jury sympathetic enough to your client so that they don't want to kill him. I've never done a death penalty case before (unlike Wilk's very experienced DP lawyer Bill Matthewman) so thankfully I haven't had to make that crazy hard decision.

Then we've also got the Gustavo Dominguez, sports agent smuggling case going on in Key West before Judge Moore. The Defendant has taken the stand (according to today's Herald). There is no better drama than that. It's also the most difficult decision a defense lawyer makes in any trial. Apparently the defense is that Dominguez paid the drug smuggling convict $225K not to help smuggle but because he was afraid for his and his family's life. If the jury believes him, he'll walk. If they don't, bye bye. Forget about reasonable doubt when the Defendant testifies.

Where else can you get this kind of great stuff?

Picking a jury in federal court

This week, lawyers have begun jury selection in the Kenneth Wilk case. The Sun-Sentinel has coverage here. And jury selection started and was completed yesterday in the baseball smuggling case in Key West. The Miami Herald covers that story here. On the 16th, the Padilla trial gets up and running with voir dire.

Jury selection in Padilla and Wilk will take days, which is not the norm in federal court. Typically, as was the case in the Keys, jury selection in federal court lasts less than a day and sometimes less than a half a day. Lawyers are lucky to get 15 minutes a side to conduct voir dire.

Thoughts?

News and Notes

Julie Kay writes today about Judge Moore's preclusion of the wet-foot, dry-foot defense in the baseball player smuggling case. Here's Judge Moore's order.

Jay Weaver discussed more discovery in Padilla here: " reputed al Qaeda member told U.S. authorities that the terror network scrutinized Jose Padilla as a recruit for Islamic extremism in 2000-01, according to a new document filed in federal court in Miami." And you can view the document discussed.

And to complete our federal court reporter trio, Vanessa Blum discusses the Hollywood cop hearing yesterday, in which Judge Seltzer granted the parties' request for extra time to resolve the matter before arraignment.

No Pinch Hitters?

Julie Kay has an article in today's DBR about the Gus Dominguez trial. Judge Moore had refused to grant a continuance in the past. This time, he granted the government's request for a continuance, but he was not happy about it. Apparently the government threatened to dismiss the entire indictment if the continuance wasn't granted. Both sides have reason to be upset -- the defense prepared for trial, made reservations for hotels in the Keys, flew in witnesses and so on because this was a firm trial date. The prosecution is rightfully upset because the lead prosecutor has been ill and in the hospital, which is, of course, good cause to continue the case. What a mess....

And here's the pitch...

The DBR covers (here) the upcoming trial of sports agent Gustavo Dominguez, which is scheduled to begin in front of Judge Moore in Key West on January 16. "Federal prosecutors have indicated they will call Seattle Mariners shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt and Chicago Cubs catcher Henry Blanco to testify, according to Miami attorney Susan Dmitrovsky, who represents Dominguez. However, the government may have some difficulty in getting the players to testify as many players, including Blanco, are out of the country playing winter ball in South America, Dmitrovsky said." Also alleged: "Co-defendant Hernandez smuggled the wife and daughters of Chicago White Sox pitcher Jose Contreras into the country, and that Hernandez was taped by a cooperating witness admitting doing so. Prosecutors are not alleging that Contreras, who earned $9.6 million in 2006, was smuggled into the country. He is not expected to testify at the trial."

The case is being prosecuted by Ben Daniel and Nathaniel Mandel.

Betancourt's stats can be seen here.
Blanco's here.
Contreras's here.