Random Friday thoughts

UPDATE -- we still need one more team for the Blog Fantasy Football league. Email Miguel De La O at delao13@gmail.com if you want in.

1. Bill Barzee has filed a complaint against David Rivera. From the Herald article: "David and his campaign have to learn that you have to play by the rules,'' Barzee said of his complaint. ``All I'm concerned about is that this will stop.'' The FEC confirmed it received Barzee's complaint on Aug. 26. The commission does not comment on a complaint's status, which is confidential.


2. "Still a virgin" signs are cropping up all over Florida.


3. Here's a picture from my DC trip yesterday. That's the Main Justice building, which is harder to get into than Ft. Knox.


4. I didn't know what a "cramming scheme" was. But it gets you a lot of time in jail. From the Sun-Sentinel: Willoughby Farr went into the Palm Beach County Jail in October 2003 and became a multimillionaire behind bars.
It's doubtful he will be able to perform the same remarkable feat during his next stint in the lockup — a 21-year federal prison sentence handed down on Thursday for bilking telephone customers across the country out of $34 million.
Federal prosecutors and regulators say Farr ran his "cramming" scheme — billing telephone customers for nonexistent long-distance charges — from the county jail by using a pay phone to direct a few employees on the outside.
"When the unscrupulous and the dishonest line their pockets with consumers' hard-earned money, we will hold them accountable," Tony West, assistant attorney general for the civil division of the Department of Justice, said in a statement. "As this sentence demonstrates, the Justice Department has put a priority on protecting the public from fraudulent schemes. This case should also remind consumers to carefully review their telephone bills for unauthorized charges."

MIA--->DCA

Just for the day. Be back soon my peeps.

Judge Carnes on the Armed Career Criminal Act

Like him or not; agree with him or not; Judge Carnes is a gifted writer. From United States v. Rainer:

• This is yet another felon-in-possession case involving yet another variation on the issue of whether a previous conviction qualifies as a “violent felony” for purposes of the enhanced penalties provided in the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1).
• Rainer’s non-frivolous contention is that the district court erred when it decided at sentencing that he qualified for an enhanced sentence under the ACCA, 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1), which applies to a defendant convicted under § 922(g) who has three previous convictions for violent felonies or serious drug offenses.
• The question is whether “building of Richie’s Shoe Store, Inc.”and “building of, to wit: Whiddon’s Gulf Service Station” in the indictments show that Rainer’s convictions were for burglary of a shoe store and service station, places that fall squarely within the scope of generic burglary.
• But a vehicle could not be used to carry on the business of a gasoline service station, which is mainly to dispense gasoline for sale. While a shoe store theoretically could be operated out of a vehicle, that possibility is too farfetched to undermine our conviction that Rainer’s two previous convictions were for burglary of a building in the generic burglary sense of the word.
• The ACCA is part of the real world, and courts should not refuse to apply it because of divorced-from-reality, law-school-professor-type hypotheticals that bear no resemblance to what actually goes on.

USAO adds to management team

I just received this announcement:

Eduardo I. Sanchez returned to the United States Attorney's Office on August 16, 2010, as Counselor to the U.S. Attorney in the Executive Division in Miami. Ms. Bowen, a veteran of the Office, will serve as the District Training Director. As Counselor to the U.S. Attorney, Mr. Sanchez will provide advice, analysis, and guidance on legal and policy issues, strategic planning, training, and other matters of district-wide significance.*** Assistant U.S. Attorney Dawn Bowen will serve as the District’s Training Director, effective September 1, 2010.

Ed and Dawn are both really good people; Willy is putting together a smart, respected team. Now we have to see if things are going to change...

Multiple Choice

Here are your choices this morning --

A. Read more about the Scott Rothstein case here.

B. Read more about the federal judicial openings here.

or

C. Watch the hilarious Jimmy Fallon intro to the Emmy's:

Wet Monday Mornings stink

How annoying -- US1 basically turns into a parking lot if there is the slightest hint of rain. Combine that with Monday morning. Ugh.

Anyway, we're almost to football season, and I'm thinking of betting against all of Rumpole's picks this year. I don't know what to make of this Dolphins. I'm trying to stay optimistic...

Miguel DeLa O is running the blog fantasy football league this year. If you want to play, email me or him. Alex Gomez (at Scott Srebnick's firm) beat me in the finals last year. I will get revenge this year.

Please let me know what's going on in the District -- it's pretty slow news wise. I've been wondering when the Federal JNC is going to announce that they are taking applications for the two open judicial slots... Will it be the same group of applicants or will the list grow because there are two openings? It'll be interesting.

And for the record, I believe you Paris.

Okay, well, that's your stream of consciousness this morning....

Fire at Tre downtown

Boy

I was about to write up this (unpublished?!) opinion by the 11th, but SFL beat me to it, as did the DBR:

During 14 years of litigation over his claims that he was denied a promotion because he is black, John Hithon has twice been awarded jury verdicts of more than $1 million. His case prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to say using the word “boy” to describe an African-American man could by itself be evidence of race discrimination. But Hithon and his lawyer have not persuaded the federal appeals court in Atlanta. On its fourth stop in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the case generated a 2-1 unsigned opinion sending the case back to trial court for judgment in favor of Tyson Foods. The split panel reaffirmed an 11th Circuit ruling concluding evidence of the use of the term “boy” — allegedly by a white poultry plant manager to address Hithon and another plaintiff — wasn’t enough to support a jury finding of racial discrimination. Hithon’s lawyer, Alicia K. Haynes of Birmingham, Alabama, said Circuit Judges Edward E. Carnes and William H. Pryor Jr., who ruled Aug. 17 over the dissent of a visiting senior judge, missed something in their review of the paper record of the case. “The concern is that any time you present that type of evidence, it is the jury who is listening to how those words are being said,” Haynes said. “They’re listening to the tone that was used in saying those words. They’re listening to the inflection. They are able to judge who the speaker was and what effect those words had on the person that it was being said to, and the appellate court is missing all of that. They are reading a cold, written record.”

Rothstein takes down Mafia player

Curt Anderon and Jay Weaver cover the story of the 4 year deal for Roberto Settineri. Jeff Weiner, Settineri's lawyer, had this to say:

"Our initial intention was to go to trial,'' Weiner said in an interview. ``My client had no criminal record. He was actively targeted and set up by Rothstein.
``But my client made a terrible mistake in judgment by agreeing to help Rothstein,'' he said, pointing out that the FBI's sting generated tape recordings and text messages incriminating his client. ``The bottom line, when the evidence came in . . . it would have been a foolish choice to go to trial at that point.
"[Settineri] took the bait, hook, line and sinker, to help someone he thought was a friend,'' the lawyer added. ``He was one of Rothstein's victims.''

Election night

Rumpole and JAABlog are covering your Dade and Broward elections. Even though I think judicial elections are ridiculous, it's still fun to watch the election results.

While you wait for the results, check out the new trailer for Square Grouper by the boys at Rakontur (who made The U and Cocaine Cowboys):



Finally, Efraim Diveroli is back behind bars, this time ATF nabbed him in Central Fla. He's still awaiting sentencing for the Miami conviction on the illegal Chinese ammo. The Complaint is quite a read.

First day of school

And there goes another summer...

This one seemed to go by really fast, no?

School shouldn't start in August. After Labor Day. That's the way it should be.

Enough about school. What's going on in the SDFLA?

1. Two Magistrates are up for reappointment -- Patrick White and Frank Lynch. Send in your comments if you want to be heard.

2. There isn't much time left to comment on the proposed 11th Circuit Rules. Rick Bascuas has some commentary here.

3. And of course, the King building needs drapes. You like the ones I picked?

4. More Rothstein indictments coming soon? (via DBR)

Should federal judges be writing books?

That's the question this Boston Globe article raises in light of Judge Nancy Gertner's new book, In Defense of Women: Memoirs of an Unrepentant Advocate --

The 64-year-old Boston jurist said the book being published by Beacon Press focuses on her two decades as a prominent criminal defense and civil rights lawyer before she joined the bench in 1994. As such, she might not have to worry about the federal Judicial Code of Conduct, which prohibits judges from making public statements about cases that could come before them.
But by devoting a memoir to her years as an “unrepentant advocate’’ for notorious criminal defendants and women who brought sex-discrimination suits, Gertner will almost certainly give ammunition to those who say she tilts toward those litigants instead of prosecutors and corporations.
Gertner, whose sentences of criminal defendants have drawn criticism from federal prosecutors and who was accused of bias by lawyers defending the Boston police in a civil rights suit, said she is not worried.
“The unrepentant advocate stuff ends at my swearing-in,’’ she said, referring to the day in April 1994 when she officially became a judge.
She also emphatically denied that she is biased on the bench in favor of criminal defendants or people fighting corporations or police departments. Just last week, she noted, she dismissed a lawsuit by several customers of Bank of America, N.A., who al leged the bank engaged in deceptive business practices.
“I do believe my record speaks for itself,’’ she said in a telephone interview last week, adding that news outlets tend to cherry-pick rulings that reinforce the stereotype of her as a liberal.

**

Several lawyers who insisted on anonymity because they might have to appear before Gertner said a judge should not be an “unrepentant advocate.’’
In contrast, Harvey Silverglate, a criminal defense and civil rights lawyer and former law partner of Gertner’s, dismissed the notion that judges should be silent about their personal and professional backgrounds or even their views on jurisprudence. Judges, he said, had lives before they entered what he called the “monastery,’’ and it is foolish to pretend otherwise.
“Judges, like other human beings, have predispositions,’’ said Silverglate. “Some are called liberals. Some are called conservatives. To hide these facts doesn’t make them untrue. And so by encouraging judges to talk more, when you have a case before a judge, you have a better idea of what that judge might be interested in and what you might have to say in order to overcome that judge’s predispositions.’’
Asked whether the book will expose his friend to criticism, he said, “Of course. If your question is, ‘Will it expose her to legitimate criticism?’ the answer is no.’’
To be sure, Gertner is not the first sitting federal judge to write a book or even a memoir.
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote a critically acclaimed 2002 memoir with her brother called “Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest,’’ that described her childhood in Arizona and New Mexico.
Richard A. Posner, an influential judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago and appointee of President Reagan, has written about 40 books on jurisprudence and legal philosophy, some of which plumbed current events. He also blogs and writes magazine articles.

Thursday news and notes

1. Rocket indicted.

2. Big opinion out of the 11th today on jury instructions -- a reversal for not providing the good faith instruction as requested by the defense. It's 67 pages and I haven't digested it yet, but here's the money quote:"The requested instruction properly placed the determination with the jury as to whether they acted in good faith in seeking advice, fully and completely reporting to their accountant, and acting strictly in accordance with the advice."

3. Joel DeFabio says his pimp (of Haitian descent) is being selectively prosecuted when compared to Jeffrey Epstein:

Johnny Saintil, a Fort Lauderdale native of Haitian descent, sits in jail awaiting a federal trial Monday on charges of recruiting two girls for an Internet-based prostitution ring in Broward County. The 28-year-old faces up to life in prison if convicted.
Jeffrey Epstein, a Palm Beach billionaire, ended his one-year probation last month after serving 13 months in jail on two state convictions for soliciting a prostitute who was a minor. He also had to register as a sex offender.
Epstein, 57, came within a whisker of being indicted by the U.S. attorney's office in Miami on essentially the same charges as Saintil -- but involving a much higher number of victims.
Now Saintil's defense attorney, Joel DeFabio, is urging a Fort Lauderdale federal judge to throw out the indictment against his client, arguing ``selective prosecution'' by prosecutors while citing the race and class differences between Saintil, a poor black man, and Epstein, a rich white man.
***
DeFabio points out that Epstein didn't just pay for sex with high school girls -- he also schemed with aides to recruit them for his personal pleasure.
``Epstein was both a pimp and a `john' (an individual who pays the prostitutes for sex),'' DeFabio said in court papers. ``He recruited and paid individuals to go out into the public and find minor girls to have sex with him for money.''
Two other defendants charged with Saintil -- Michael DeFrand and Stanley Wilson -- have joined his selective prosecution petition filed with U.S. District Judge William Zloch.
The U.S. attorney's office countered in court papers that DeFabio's claims are ``unfounded.'' A spokesman declined to comment.

Slow news day in the SDFLA...

...so we'll have to turn to Alabama, via CNN:

"Former Alabama prosecutor arrested on enticement, child porn charges"

Here's the quote from the former prosecutor's defense attorney:

"The facts of the case will turn out to be interesting and (we will) address those when we go to trial."

Interesting? Perhaps not the best choice of words... From the article:

A former Alabama assistant district attorney who specialized in prosecuting sex crimes against minors is accused of enticing what he thought was a teenage girl online for sexual purposes, authorities said.
Steven Giardini was indicted on charges of enticement and solicitation crimes over the computer with the intent to produce child pornography, the Alabama Attorney General's Office said in a statement. Giardini, a former prosecutor in Mobile County, was arrested Tuesday.
The charges stem from the suspect's alleged communication with what he thought was a 15-year-girl, Alabama Attorney General Troy King said in a statement Tuesday. But instead he was communicating with an agent from the FBI's Internet Crimes Against Children division.

More on Judge Huck

Last Monday, I posted about Judge Paul Huck's decision to take senior status. Today, the DBR has more on the story:

District Judge Paul Huck in Miami will take senior status at the end of the month, opening a third seat on the federal bench in South Florida. Huck is the second South Florida judge to announce he’ll take senior status in the past month. U.S. District Judge Alan S. Gold will be going senior in January. Public Defender Kathleen Williams has been nominated to replace U.S. District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley, but judicial confirmations are on a slow track in the U.S. Senate.

***

Huck, 70, was appointed to the bench a decade ago by thenPresident Bill Clinton, following a 36-year career as a lawyer. Huck said he is going senior because he is able to do so under the court’s “rule of 80.” Under the rule, when a judge’s age, added to his or her years on the bench, totals 80, the judge has the option of staying put, going senior or retiring. The judge receives the same pay for all options. Huck, who is known as one of the hardest-working judges on the bench with a penchant for moving cases to resolution, still plans on working full-time. But he hopes to help out busy districts in other states and to do more teaching at the law schools of the University of Miami and University of Florida — his alma mater — and in high school civics classes. Huck has been hosting high school students in his courtroom to teach them about civics and turned his hallway on the 13th floor of the Miami courthouse into a civics training area with enlarged copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. “I want to try some cases in some other places,” he said. “Some of our districts are overloaded with long trials and need help, such as in Houston. Plus, I’m getting old.”

***

Huck did say he wants to “allow the position to open up and bring another person on.” Huck also said his decision does not signify any frustrations with the job, saying: “This is the best job in the world. It brings me a great deal of satisfaction. I wrestled with this for awhile.”

In addition to all the comments about Judge Huck being hard-working, the guy is also a mensch. He tries to go to every bar function and to all the going-away parties for PDs and AUSAs. You can tell that he loves the law and being around lawyers.