"DEA’s most corrupt agent: Parties, sex amid ‘unwinnable war’"

 That's the title of the AP's explosive report on DEA agents and federal prosecutors.  The article, by Jim Mustian and Joshua Goodman, is a must-read.

The story centers around testimony provided to federal prosecutors by former Miami and Colombia-based agent José Irizarry, who has been portrayed as the DEA’s most corrupt agent. Irizarry spent his final hours of freedom with the AP in his native Puerto Rico confessing his crimes before reporting to federal prison to begin a 12-year sentence for money laundering.

The article takes a wider look at other federal agents and prosecutors who he says turned a blind eye — and sometimes joined in — his flagrant abuses.

Among the AP investigation’s key findings:

1. Irizarry has described to federal investigators — and the AP — how other federal agents, prosecutors, informants and in some cases cartel smugglers all joined on a three-continent joyride known as “Team America” that chose cities for bulk cash pick-ups mostly for partying or to coincide with Real Madrid soccer or Rafael Nadal tennis matches. That included stops along the way in VIP rooms of Caribbean strip joints, Amsterdam’s red-light district and aboard a yacht in Cartagena, Colombia, that launched with plenty of booze, booming music and more than a dozen prostitutes.
2. An ongoing federal investigation has focused on one of Irizarry’s partners who was briefly detained on allegations of sexual assault during a trip to Madrid, Spain, in 2018. The agent’s brother, a Florida wedding photographer, has been jailed since March for civil contempt after he refused to provide testimony to a Grand Jury in Tampa even after being granted immunity.
3. Three current and former federal prosecutors have faced questioning about Irizarry's raucous parties, including one still in a senior role in Miami, another who appeared on TV’s “The Bachelorette” and a former Ohio prosecutor who was confirmed to serve as the U.S. attorney in Cleveland this year before abruptly backing out for unspecified family reasons.
4. Central to the Irizarry investigation are overly cozy relationships developed between agents and informants — strictly forbidden under federal guidelines — and loose controls on the DEA’s undercover drug money laundering operations that few Americans know exist but which generate a huge windfall every year for U.S. law enforcement. Spurred by Irizarry’s crimes, the new DEA Administrator Anne Milgram has ordered an outside review of the agency’s foreign operations.

Former Miami AUSA and Bachelorette contestant still making news

This time Mike Garofola makes news for dating habits in NYC.  From the New York Post:

Ever since Michael Garofola, 36, moved to New York in October, his calendar has been packed with different women penciled in for dinner or drinks.
As a former “Bachelorette” contestant, Garofola knows he has no problem scoring with women — he goes on up to five first dates a week, which he says usually include a drink or two and nothing beyond a goodnight smooch on the cheek. But in the past two months, he’s been feeling spent by the mating game.
“In New York, everyone has this feeling that they have limitless options,” the Gramercy-based lawyer tells The Post. “We have this mentality of, ‘Why should I settle for Susan, who’s beautiful and smart, when I could turn the corner and meet Jessica, who’s just as smart and beautiful?’”
Garofola meets most of the women he dates on Tinder, Bumble and the League. But while he claims he only swipes right on less than 10 percent of profiles, his good looks still net him more than 100 matches a week — and it’s tiring trying to keep up.
“It can be mentally and physically exhausting, and I start to question the time and money I’ve spent,” he says.

Former AUSA Michael Garofola (and Bachelorette contestant!) back in the news

S.F. Lawyers beat me to it. 

Earlier this year, Garofola, a former Davis Polk & Wardwell associate and federal prosecutor, took a break from his job as general counsel for Trans Pacific Polymers and Gulf Energy and Chemical Company to appear on "Bachelor in Paradise," a spinoff series of the reality TV hit "The Bachelorette." In 2013, he took an even longer break from the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami to appear on a season of the original show featuring fashion designer Desiree Hartsock.

Garofola was eliminated from "The Bachelorette" in the seventh episode, when Hartsock passed him over for other suitors. His run on "Paradise" ended just two weeks ago, when he was edged out by other contestants vying for the attentions of Tenley Molzahn. ("She's just not that into [I.Q.],” Garofola tweeted to his nearly 16,000 followers.)

If Garofola is smarting from the rejection, he doesn’t let on. “I’m proud of all of my decisions,” he said in an interview after the show. “They’ve all been net positive, and I really wouldn’t change a thing.” And he has no patience for those who would question the choice to flaunt the search for love.
Lawyers enjoy reality shows as much as everyone else, Garofola said. But among reality TV’s critics, they’re “the most hypercritical and judgmental group.”

"I don’t fit that mold,” said Garofola, insisting that he’s always embraced risk. His biggest fear, he said, is having regrets.

Best posts of 2013

By far the post with the most hits this year was "Local AUSA Mike Garofola to be on The Bachelorette," (with over 20,000 hits) followed by "Go, Dore, Go" (which was about his novel motion to compel NSA records, with almost 15,000).  Make your own conclusions about the readership... 

But before you do, know that other top hit posts were mostly the scoops regarding JNC lists, judges, and magistrates --  including Robin Rosenbaum being vetted for the 11th Circuit seat and the Rubio/Thomas blue slip controversy.  With these posts in particular (of the almost 2,500 in total), the blog was able to fulfill its mission of getting District news out quickly and accurately to the local federal court family.  

  

AUSA Michael Garofola doesn't get a rose

This was Michael G.'s last episode (prior blog coverage about the federal prosecutor on the Bachelorette here).  He had a good run on the show, making it to the final five. 

 
 


Gossip Cop has the recap of the show.  Some highlights:

Next up was Michael G, getting to have a 1-on-1 with Hartsock for the first time.
After going tobogganing, the federal prosecutor opened up about his estrangement with his father, his battle with Type I diabetes, and finding out his live-in girlfriend was cheating on him.
“The silver lining to all this is that — I mean this from the bottom of my heart — is I’m feeling these feelings again,” he told Hartsock, adding to the camera later that he’s “falling in love.”
For her part, the reality star told the camera that “Michael is one of the greatest guys I ever met.”
***
At the rose ceremony, Hartsock ultimately gave roses to everyone except Michael.
She explained to the shell-shocked contestant her other relationships were “growing differently.
“I’m heartbroken,” he confessed as Hartsock went on to praise their “friendship,” before wishing each other “the best.”

Happy Birthday to the Blog!

Yesterday, the blog turned 8 years old.  Pretty neat.

This was the original post, asking the President to appoint a Floridian to the Supreme Court.  We are still waiting 8 years later....

Since then, your first local legal blog has had 2,361 posts and almost 2 million page views. 

The most popular post this year was breaking the story that AUSA Mike Garofola was going to be a contestant on the Bachelorette.  Second, was Dore Louis' NSA motion.

After the United States, the blog's readership is as follows:

Entry	Pageviews
United States	918641
Russia	12746
Germany	12597
United Kingdom	11530
Canada	10289
France	8799
Norway	7695
Netherlands	3722
Ukraine	3142
Malaysia	1532

The blog has broken a number of stories this year, including your newest magistrate judges and the nomination of Will Thomas to the federal bench (he needs to get confirmed already!).  Speaking of magistrates, Alicia Valle was officially named to the bench yesterday.  Congrats to her!

It's been really fun for me to post over the last 8 years, and I hope you have enjoyed the blog as much as I have had doing it.

Happy Fourth of July!

--David

What was Chief Judge Roberts' favorite case of the Term?

A.  DOMA

B.  Voting Rights
C.  Affirmative Action
D.   DNA
E.  Fane Lozman's house boat case

Yup, you got it -- E.  The Chief Justice loved the case from the Southern District of Florida about whether the floating structure was a house or a boat.  From Forbes:

Turns out the Chief Justice felt the same way. In this interview on C-SPAN, John Roberts called the lawsuit over whether a floating house was a boat one of his favorites from the last term.It’s surprising to hear this, given the momentous cases that were also before the court: The Voting Rights Act, gay rights, affirmative action, human gene patents — nearly all of them had broader implications for society at large than Fane Lozman’s Quixotic battle with the authorities of a coastal city in Florida over whether they had the power to haul his home away.“There are going to be  half-dozen cases people are going to be talking about,” Roberts said in the interview with Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III.“The littler ones can be quite fascinating,” he said, however. “My favorite from last term was a case called Lozman."“The way cases develop in the law, you have something that seems to fit not comfortably on either category,” Roberts said. “Depending on which side you were on, it was either a floating home or a house boat.”In Lozman’s case, it was a seedy-looking house on a floating platform, connected to shore with a garden hose and an extension cord. Lozman had towed it hundreds of miles around the Florida peninsula, but the house didn’t have any power to move itself. City officials argued it was a boat for purposes of obtaining a maritime lien and impounding it. The court decided otherwise, in a decision with implications for much more significant structures like floating casinos.“We had a lot of fun with it …looking at the different characteristics and posing a lot of interesting hypotheticals at the argument,” Roberts said. At one point, the justices seemed to be toying with the lawyer for Riviera Beach, trying to back him into ridiculous definitions of a boat.Roberts asked if an inner tube qualified. After all, it could support a human and move him from place to place. Then Justice Stephen Breyer chimed in: “This cup. what about the cup?” Justice Sonia Sotomayorasked, “what about a garage door?” And Elena Kagan followed up with: Take the inner tube, and you know, paste a couple of pennies on the inner tube. Now it carries things.”

On a separate note, I haven't been watching the Bachelorette, but I'm told that local AUSA Michael Garofola has made the top 5....  And that he is very against other contestants cursing on the show.  

Friday news and notes

1.  People were worried about DNA collection....  now our government is mining our telephone calls with secret court orders.  James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, responds here.

2.  In lighter news, AUSA Mike Garofola is still on the Bachelorette. Reality Steve has this summary of him from the first episode:

Michael: He takes her back to the fountain to try and retrieve the coin she threw in with Sean since it’s defective now cuz’ he didn’t choose her. Which she said 5 months ago was the biggest mistake he’s ever made, but now she’s over it. I don’t think I’d be dipping my hand in that fountain water anytime soon. I’m sure drunk PA’s probably use that as their toilet during the late night hours. So in addition to his diabetes, I’m guessing we can expect Michael to contract Hep C this season.

And in the second episode, the gang raps. Mike G. comes in at the 1:43 mark:



3. While you are watching video, apparently this hearing on kosher meals in the prisons will be posted at this link soon.  In the meantime, Curt Anderson has this:

Florida is moving ahead with a plan to offer kosher meals in all state prisons by the end of the year, a corrections official testified at a hearing Tuesday on a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit demanding such a program.
James Upchurch, assistant Department of Corrections secretary for institutions, said food following the strict Jewish dietary rules would be served beginning in July at the 2,000-inmate Union Correctional Institution in north Florida and then would expand through the fall to 60 facilities across the state.
"We will make the policy work," Upchurch told U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz at the hearing. "When you run a prison, there are security problems with everything you do. We don't see any that are insurmountable at this point."
Florida previously offered kosher meals at selected prisons for three years until 2007, then began a pilot program at a South Florida prison in 2010. The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division filed a federal lawsuit last year demanding that the state be required to offer kosher food at all prisons.
A Justice Department lawyer, Michael Songer, said that despite the state's assurances, the U.S. wants the judge to issue a kosher food order so that the policy couldn't simply be changed in the future. Kosher diets and other tenets of religious faith are protected for prisoners by the 2000 Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, he said.
"The state is not willing to make an enduring commitment to providing kosher meals," Songer said. "We believe Florida has been refusing to provide kosher meals in violation of the law for years."
The judge did not immediately issue a ruling, nor did she decide on a motion by attorneys for Muslim inmates seeking to join the case so they can get halal or kosher meals in prison. Seitz said Florida and the U.S. should be permitted to respond to that motion in writing before she rules.

Should judges be a part of plea negotiations?

While all of you were having Bachelorette viewing parties last night, old time blog friend Vanessa Blum was covering the debate about judges participating in plea negotiations in this Recorder article.  A snippet from the lengthy interesting piece about the case just heard by the Supremes:

The scope of that prohibition could be clarified by the U.S. Supreme Court in a pending case, U.S. v Davila, which addresses the limits on judicial involvement in plea discussions. The case has largely escaped notice locally despite its possible implications.
To Beeler, the benefits of the conferences are both practical, such as saving court resources, and human.
"It brings the defendant back to the table," she said in an interview. "People make decisions better if they're part of them."
The process can be intense, sometimes requiring all-day sessions and the sort of difficult, honest conversation more commonly associated with a therapist's office than a federal courthouse.
Also, it doesn't always end in a meeting of the minds. By one count, roughly one-third of criminal cases referred for settlement talks since 2011 resulted in plea agreements that obviated the need for trial. An additional 12 percent ended with some but not all defendants pleading guilty, an outcome with less systemic and cost-saving benefits because a jury trial must still be held.
In the state system, judges play a larger role in plea bargaining. However, direct judicial involvement is explicitly banned by federal rules, making criminal settlement conferences sensitive, as well as a rarity nationwide.
The local practice has started to draw more attention from other districts, particularly in the current federal budget crisis, said Northern District federal public defender Steven Kalar.
"Every defender I've spoken to is envious of our system," said Kalar. "I've personally spoken with judges in other districts about how this works and emulating our model. I think we're on the vanguard, but in a good way."
Kalar's counterparts in the U.S. attorney's office are somewhat less enthusiastic. A common gripe from line prosecutors is that participating in criminal settlement conferences is time-consuming and mainly helps defense attorneys to persuade clients that pleading guilty is their best option.
For now, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag isn't putting a stop to them.

I see these settlement conferences as a good thing and don't really see the downside.  What say you readers?

AUSA Mike Garofola's profile on ABC.com for the Bachelorette

Well, you all remember that local AUSA Mike Garofola is going to be appearing on the Bachelorette.  Now, his profile is on ABC.com.  Here's the picture:




Below is the questionnaire that he filled out for the show, and here are the highlights posted on the site:


What do you hope to get out of participating in this television show?
I hope to find the woman I am going to marry and have a blast doing it while friends watch it unfold on television.

If you were stranded on a desert island, what 3 things would you bring and why?
1. Insulin - to survive
2. Food/water - see #1
3. Fully charged cell phone - To ask for transportation off said island

Describe your best friend of the opposite sex and why she deserves that title.
Ashley - She has always been there for me during my worst times, is very perceptive and very feisty. She sugar coats nothing, which is good because I can't have sugar.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
I will be married with two children and another on the way, in an amazing home, and at another stage of my professional career.

If you wanted to approach a woman you had never met before, how would you go about it?
I just go up to her and introduce myself. Nothing to it. No gimmicks.

What's your biggest date fear?
I don't have any "fears" when I go on a date.

Thursday news & notes

1.  While one prosecutor is appearing on The Bachelorette, another is writing op-eds for the Wall Street Journal saying that the feds should have the right to search everything, including your computer and phone, are the border.  I'll leave it to you all to decide which is worse. 

2.  Sri to the Supremes? (via the New Yorker)

3. Seems unlikely because Obama is still not doing a good job with his judicial appointments.  How long has Will Thomas been waiting now?  (via NY Times)

Of 856 federal district and circuit court seats, 85 are unfilled — a 10 percent vacancy rate and nearly double the rate at this point in the presidency ofGeorge W. Bush. More than a third of the vacancies have been declared “judicial emergencies” based on court workloads and the length of time the seats have been empty. By far the most important cause of this unfortunate state of affairs is the determination of Senate Republicans, for reasons of politics, ideology and spite, to confirm as few ofPresident Obama’s judicial choices as possible.

Numbers compiled by the Senate Judiciary Committee tell the story. Mr. Obama’s nominees for seats on federal courts of appeal, the system’s top tier below the Supreme Court, have waited an average of 148 days for their confirmation vote following the committee’s approval, more than four times longer than Mr. Bush’s nominees. For Mr. Obama’s nominees to federal district courts, the average wait time has been 102 days, compared with 35 days for Mr. Bush’s district court choices.

4.  Too many lawyers in Miami.  Bennett County, South Dakota, not so much.  (via the NY Times)

5.  The Federal PD in Columbus, Ohio is resigning because of sequestration.  It's getting really bad.  (via NPR)

6.  Meantime, the DOJ is spending like crazy.  (via Politico)

Looking good for Hollywood: Tax dollars are also used at the department to help the entertainment industry. The FBI has its own Investigative Publicity and Public Affairs Unit, which is dedicated to helping Hollywood make movies and TV shows, including “The Kingdom,” “Fast and Furious 4,” “CSI,” “Numb3rs” and “Without a Trace.” This perk for Hollywood comes with an annual price tag of $1.5 million to the American taxpayer.
Meet and greets: In addition, the DOJ staff hosted numerous conferences around the country. In 2010 alone, the department spent nearly $100 million on conferences, which is twice what was spent two years earlier. This includes more than $600,000 in event-planner costs for five conferences, even though the need for this was not shown.

7.  According to this article by ProPublica, no one is policing prosecutorial misconduct, so it appears unlikely that they will care about the above spending.

8.  Finally, Justice Thomas said he didn't know it was news when he spoke at an oral argument recently.  Do you believe him?  (via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Clarence Thomas, the U.S. Supreme Court justice who has become known for his silence from the bench during oral arguments, made national news a few months ago when he spoke, briefly.
So, on Tuesday, when he visited Duquesne University to speak, expansively, a law school student asked the obvious question -- what was Justice Thomas' philosophy about the role of justices in oral arguments?
"Well, first of all, my philosophy about the news is never watching it," Justice Thomas said, to applause and laughter, adding that it was the first he'd heard of the widespread notice given to the moment when, with just a few words, he broke his self-imposed seven-year silence during oral arguments.

"He's smart, witty, compassionate, good-looking, nice."

That's Chief Judge Federico Moreno about his former law clerk and current Bachelorette contestant Mike Garofola.

 Rafael Olmeda from The Sun-Sentinel has more in this article:

A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Fordham Law School, Garofola worked at the firm of Davis Polk and Wardwell for two years before becoming a clerk with U.S. Chief District Court Judge Federico Moreno in Miami.
"He's smart, witty, compassionate, good-looking, nice," Moreno said Friday. "He's a great lawyer. He was a great clerk. And he's a great prosecutor."
Would Moreno let his daughter date Garofola? "I can't answer that!" the judge said. "My daughter knows him. And she's a federal prosecutor."
Moreno declined to say what he thought of Garofola's venture into reality television, reflecting that at age 60, the judge is not part of the show's target audience.

You gotta love Judge Moreno for being a good sport here. 

Friday wrap-up

Well, the blog was dominated this week with The Bachelorette post (which was updated with additional pictures), drawing links from Reality Steve, Above the Law and others.  Interestingly, a number of people emailed me criticizing me for posting it.  The guy is going on national television in prime time, so I'm not sure how posting about it on this blog is harmful to him or anyone else.

Speaking of dating, did you know that Justice O'Connor dated Justice Rehnquist in law school:

She also discussed dating William Rehnquist while at Stanford Law School. "He was fun. We had good times." As for Byron White, O'Connor said, "I thought I was going to die" the first time she experienced his iron-grip handshake.
Then it was time to sign books, which O'Connor said she would do "provided you bring me a glass of wine." Wine was brought and dozens of lawyers queued up with books in hand, good reviews or bad.

SCOTUSBlog has an interesting post on cert-stage amicus briefs and which ones are successful.  NACDL does an excellent job, but the Chamber of Commerce is the best:




Finally, it's furlough Friday, and the Federal Public Defender's office is closed.  But big ups to the Federal Defender himself, Michael Caruso, who is manning the fort in Magistrate Court today (and every Friday) making sure that newly arrested indigent defendants have counsel. 

Local AUSA Mike Garofola to be on The Bachelorette

Thanks to numerous tipsters, the buzz around the courthouse is now confirmed -- Assistant United States Attorney Mike Garofola will be a contestant on the new season of The Bachelorette.  He will be competing with two dozen other men for the love and affection of Desiree Hartsock.

He's used to competing, beating out hundreds of applicants for a federal clerkship and then a job at the United States Attorney's Office.  And as a trial lawyer, he's used to performing for an audience.  So he stands a good chance.

Here's a picture of AUSA Garofola from one of the upcoming episodes in which the contestants play dodgeball:

        

And here's Desiree:






























I asked the U.S. Attorney's office for comment, and Alicia Valle on the office's behalf said: "We wish him luck."  I like that they were good sports about it.

UPDATE -- the initial post had his name misspelled.  It has been corrected, I hope.

UPDATE #2 -- some additional pictures of Mike: