Mentorship Opportunities in the SDFLA

By John R. Byrne

The latest issue of The Federal Lawyer carries an article by Judge Bloom spotlighting the Judicial Intern Academy and the Civil Discourse and Difficult Decisions program (“CD3”).  If you’re interested in mentoring high school or law students in our district, it’s a must read. I think nearly every federal judge in South Florida has participated in CD3 at this point. If you want to get involved in CD3 specifically, reach out to attorney Stephanie Turk, who, along with Judges Bloom and Rosenberg, helped export the program to other federal districts.

USAO goes after Miss Rhode Island for trying to get into Krome to see her boyfriend

North Bay Village Commissioner Convicted After Lying to See Lover in Detention Center https://t.co/MY9zuG2UBn

— NBC 6 South Florida (@nbc6) October 27, 2022

 Julianna Strout was also a North Bay Village Commissioner.  

From NBC6:

A North Bay Village commissioner who lied to get her way into a federal detention center so she could see her lover has been convicted, prosecutors said Thursday.

Julianna Clare Strout, 36, pled guilty to a federal information charging her with attempting to enter, and entering, a federal facility using fraud and false pretenses, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida.

Following the guilty plea, Strout was sentenced to one-year probation and 50 hours of community service.

Prosecutors said the incident involving Strout happened in October 2021 at Krome Detention Center.

At the time, the detention center had temporarily suspended social visits because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but legal visits were still permitted.

Three times Strout entered Krome by lying to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials about her reason for visiting, prosecutors said.

Strout told officials that she worked as a paralegal for a law firm and that she needed to visit a detainee to have legal documents signed. Strout also presented officials with a letter on the law firm’s letterhead.

Seems so silly to be using our federal resources like this. 

SCOTUS deciding whether Lindsey Graham should have to testify before the grand jury

 CNN has a post about Justice Thomas' stay here.  

SCOTUS covers Graham's request for the stay.  And here is Georgia's response.

Of course, it's time to get rid of grand juries altogether.  They don't serve as protection for citizens in any respect and are simply a tool used by prosecutors to investigate and lock witnesses in.  A complete waste of resources if the goal is to act as a barrier between prosecutors and an indictment.

Klugh Takes his Talents to the Civil Side

 By John R. Byrne

The City of Miami has been sued for an "illegal" parking tax. It's a class action. One of the named plaintiffs? Criminal defense attorney Richard Klugh, who's now taking the good fight to the civil side of a court docket. The Miami Herald covers the case here (if you can make it through the pay wall....).

11th Circuit to live stream oral arguments

 The 11th Circuit is now going to audio stream all oral arguments.  The announcement is here:

The Court is pleased to announce oral arguments held in open court in all court locations will be live streamed – audio only – beginning October 25, 2022. The live stream may be accessed through the Court’s website (www.ca11.uscourts.gov). Audio recordings of oral arguments held in open court will continue to be posted on the Court’s website. Oral arguments in national security cases and other cases not heard publicly will not be live streamed and recordings of those arguments will not be posted on the Court’s website.

MDLs in the SDFLA

 

By John R. Byrne 

More and more multidistrict litigations (MDLs) are coming to our district. They’re often complicated and a lot of work goes into them, so, when the Joint Panel on Multi-District Litigation (JPML) assigns one to a judge, it’s considered an honor. The JPML is composed of federal judges from each Circuit selected by Chief Justice Roberts. They hold quarterly argument on whether to create a new MDL and, if so, where to send it. It's often a very big deal in the world of federal civil litigation. 

Some districts and judges are frequently assigned MDLs and come to be regarded as "MDL Districts" and "MDL Judges." As an example, Judge M. Casey Rodgers in the Northern District of Florida is on her second major mass tort MDL (this one about 3M earplugs) and is considered by many to be an "MDL Judge." (In 3M several of our SDFLA judges have travelled to Pensacola and presided over bellwether trials.)

The SDFLA has 7 pending (open) MDLs now (listing them below, oldest to newest, with a short summary on what they’re about; some are fairly old and probably not all that active). In terms of sheer numbers, we’re about in the middle of the pack, nationally. We should move up in the next few years. It would also be great to get one of our judges on the JPML (we’ve never had one serve on the JPML).

I'm going to try and blog more about the interesting aspects of MDLs, particularly as they relate to the SDFL and 11th Circuit.

Judge	Case Name	Case No.	Summary
Kenneth A. Marra	In re: Chiquita Brands International, Inc.	MDL-1916	Victims contend that Chiquita funneled approximately 1.7 million dollars to the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, a Colombian terrorist organization, during the Colombian civil war.
James Lawrence King	In re: Checking Account Overdraft Litigation	MDL-2036	Customers challenging the overdraft fees charged by the federally chartered banks on the ground that the charges were exorbitant
Federico Moreno	In re: Takata Airbag Products Liability Litigation	MDL-2599	Takata made airbags for various car makers. Plaintiffs alleged they exploded, killing or injuring people.
K. Michael Moore	Liquid Toppings Dispensing System (Patent Litigation)	MDL-2832	Kona Ice--that company that sells shaved ice from trucks with a penguin on it--alleged the competitors stole their topping dispensing system.
Darrin P. Gayles	In re: MONAT Hair Care Products Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation	MDL-2841	Claim is that products that were supposed to promote healthy hair growth did the opposite, causing hair loss and scalp irritation.
Robin L. Rosenberg	In re: Zantac (Ranitidine) Products Liability Litigation	MDL-2924	Claim is that ranitidine—an ingredient in Zantac and other heartburn drugs—causes cancer and that drug manufacturers knew it.
Cecilia M. Altonaga	In re: January 2021 Short Squeeze Trading Litigation	MDL-2989	Litigation over Robin Hood Securities’ handling of “meme stocks”—stocks whose price is being mostly driven by social media postings.
Rodolfo A. Ruiz	In re: Mednax Services, Inc., Customer Data Security Breach Litigation	MDL -2994	Mednax (now called Pediatrix) is a company in the health care space. In June 2020, its e-mail system was breached, potentially compromising the personally identifiable and health-related information of nearly two million individuals. Lawsuits ensued.
Raag Singhal	In re: Johnson & Johnson Sunscreen Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation	MDL-3015	Claim is that sunscreen manufactured by J&J defendants contained excessive amounts of benzene, a carcinogen linked to leukemia and other cancers.

 

S.D. Fla. Ties to Trump Investigation

 By John R. Byrne

A lot of South Florida connections to the ongoing DOJ investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents. Last Thursday, one of our district’s alums, Kash Patel, reportedly appeared before the grand jury. Patel was an AFPD down here before rising to high level positions within the Trump administration (the last being Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense).

According to reports about the investigation, no charging decision will be made before the November elections.

Parkland and the Future of the Death Penalty

 

By John R. Byrne

Fallout continues from the death penalty phase of the Parkland shooter. The Sun Sentinel covers recent court rulings on Florida’s death penalty here. Before 2016, Florida law allowed just a majority of jurors to recommend the death penalty to a judge. In Hurst v. Fla., 577 U.S. 92 (2016), the Supreme Court overturned that law in an 8-1 decision. Although Florida law now requires a unanimous jury vote recommending death, there is talk of changing the law (Alabama allows a 10-2 vote, for example).