Chris Hansen to speak at Federal Bar Luncheon

This month's guest speaker for the Federal Bar Association's luncheon series is Dateline NBC's Chris Hansen on January 21st at the Banker's Club. Mr. Hansen is a 7- time Emmy winner and renowned correspondent with Dateline NBC. He is perhaps best known for the "To Catch a Predator" series but his investigative reporting includes efforts to expose international identity thieves, child sex rings in Cambodia, counterfeit prescription operations out of China, and international child labor violations. He has also received numerous reporting awards for his coverage of the federal building bombing at Oklahoma City and the mass murders at Columbine, Colorado. Attendance is expected to be high so please RSVP to Celeste Higgins at (305) 530-7000, ext. 109.

"How a mother of two ended up in a plot to smuggle high-tech gear to the enemy."

The Miami New Times covers Shahrzad Mir Gholikhan here. You remember Ms. Gholikhan -- she's the woman who hung a jury before Judge Cohn and then represented herself at the second trial. The New Times has a cover story on her. It's a great read.

That's her in the picture above.

I'll never understand...

...why people don't move their stalled cars out of the center lane of rush hour traffic on US1. ARRRRRGHHHHHH!!!!!!$^!%$(&!%(!*&^%($

Anyway, some interesting stories this morning:

1. Jay Weaver covers the sentencing before Judge Lenard on the Frank Duran Venezuelan suitcase trial. Here's the intro:

A rich businessman convicted of working as an illegal Venezuelan agent in the United States says he should be sent to prison for no more than three years, asserting that the judge in the case said he and his co-defendants had done no harm to this country.
Franklin Duran, who will be sentenced Monday, was the only defendant among five Latin American men indicted in 2007 to fight charges at trial that they had come to South Florida to cover up a hemispheric political scandal.
The men were charged with working on behalf of Venezuela's spy agency to silence a colleague who had been caught with a suitcase stuffed with $800,000. Prosecutors say the money was a gift from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavéz to Argentina's new president.
In November, a federal jury found Duran, 41, guilty of conspiring and operating as an illegal foreign agent who failed to register with the U.S. government -- a pair of offenses that carry up to 15 years in prison.

2. Vanessa Blum discusses the "honest services" statute here in connection with the Palm Beach Commissioner Mary McCarty. Milton Hirsch has this funny quote:

But some defense lawyers complain the law is too vague and public officials have no warning what conduct might land them behind bars."When someone is accused of stealing a box of apples, we know what that is," said Milton Hirsch, a Miami defense attorney. "When someone is accused of stealing the public's right to honest services, what does that even mean?"

3. Speaking of Milton Hirsch, he is running for Circuit Court judge in state court. First fundraiser is February 3 at my office. Email me off-line if you are interested in helping Milt out.

4. And for our out-of-district news, check out this very disturbing NY Times article about a sheriff in Alabama who kept inmates in jail starving so he could make a few extra bucks. And the law may have allowed for it!! Here's the intro:

The prisoners in the Morgan County jail here were always hungry. The sheriff, meanwhile, was getting a little richer. Alabama law allowed it: the chief lawman could go light on prisoners’ meals and pocket the leftover change.
And that is just what the sheriff, Greg Bartlett, did, to the tune of $212,000 over the last three years, despite a state food allowance of only $1.75 per prisoner per day.
In the view of a federal judge, who heard testimony from the hungry inmates, the sheriff was in “blatant” violation of past agreements that his prisoners be properly cared for.
“There was undisputed evidence that most of the inmates had lost significant weight,” the judge, U. W. Clemon of Federal District Court in Birmingham, said Thursday in an interview. “I could not ignore them.”
So this week, Judge Clemon ordered Sheriff Bartlett himself jailed until he came up with a plan to adequately feed prisoners more, anyway, than a few spoonfuls of grits, part of an egg and a piece of toast at breakfast, and bits of undercooked, bloody chicken at supper.

You gotta read the whole article. Crazy.

Today I have a sense of déjà vu. I wish I could say this is the last corruption case, but I fear it is not."

That was Alex Acosta during his press conference re Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty and her husband, Kevin, accusing them of a "wide-ranging and long-running" conspiracy to enrich themselves through the misuse of her political position. Here is Vanessa Blum's article on the case:

Mary McCarty, 54, an influential Republican powerbroker and longtime commissioner, is charged with conspiring to deprive the citizens of Palm Beach County of their "intangible right to her honest services," federal prosecutors said. She faces up to five years in prison.Prosecutors charged Kevin McCarty, 59, with taking part in and failing to report his wife's crime. He faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison.The new details emerged one day after McCarty resigned and said she would plead guilty to honest services fraud, making her the third county commissioner in recent years to leave office under the cloud of federal corruption charges.

McCarty could plead guilty as soon as next week. She is being prosecuted under the same statute that landed former commissioners Tony Masilotti and Warren Newell five year prison terms.

Chuckie Taylor sentenced

The government was asking for 147 years. The over-under was 100 years. So if you took the under, call your bookie -- he was sentenced to 97 years.... With good time, that's about 82 years.

Here's Jay Weaver's coverage.

“I’m still clinging to my BlackBerry. They’re going to pry it out of my hands.”

No, that wasn't one of the recently sentenced white-collar defendants in our district. It was our President-Elect Obama. Gotta love the guy. Here's the ABA Journal article on the BlackBerry dispute.

Speaking of Obama, is it possible that he keeps Alex Acosta as U.S. Attorney? Read Julie Kay's article here.

News and Notes

1. Pharmed sentencing: 9 years, top of the guidelines. From the Herald article:

Saying she was concerned about maintaining community values, U.S. District Judge Patricia A. Seitz Wednesday sentenced Carlos and Jorge de Céspedes to nine years in prison.
Despite testimony that they had given millions to charity, the judge decided the brothers -- who built up and then destroyed the Pharmed medical supply company -- should be sentenced at the top of the recommended guidelines of seven to nine years.
She said the brothers had been ''two-faced for too long'' and noted that the fraud against Kendall Regional Medical Center had gone for 14 years. The brothers had also pleaded guilty to a count of tax evasion. They will serve the sentences concurrently.


2. Helio Castroneves: The already great legal team adds superstar Roy Black to represent Helio along with David Garvin. Roy's partner Howard Srebnick represents sister Kati, and Bob Bennett and Lily Ann Sanchez represent the third defendant, an attorney. AUSA Matt Axelrod represents the government.

Govt appeals order in Ben Kuehne case

Here's the text of the notice:

Notice is hereby given that the United States of America, plaintiff/appellant in the
above-captioned case, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3731 and Fed. R. App. P. 4(b)(1)(B)(i), hereby
appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit from the Order Granting
Defendant's Motion to Dismiss Count One of the Third Superseding Indictment (Docket Entry
192) entered in the above entitled matter on December 22, 2008.
DATED this 7th day of January, 2009.
Respectfully submitted,
MATTHEW W. FRIEDRICH
ACTING ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL

PAUL O'BRIEN, CHIEF
Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section
Robert Feitel
United States Department of Justice
Criminal Division Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section

I wonder why this was filed so quickly, and why they didn't wait until after President-Elect Obama became President. The case likely will now be placed on hold for a while during the appeal.