"Liberty City terror suspect gets 6 years in prison"

The first of the Liberty City defendants -- 24-year-old Burson Augustin -- was sentenced today. The government sought the maximum -- 30 years. But Judge Lenard did the right thing and sentenced Augustin to 6 years. From the AP:

A judge on Wednesday handed a six-year jail sentence to one of five men convicted of plotting to blow up the tallest building in the United States, Sears Tower, and swearing allegiance to Al-Qaeda.
US District Judge Joan Lenard found that Burson Augustin, 23, played a minor role in the conspiracy and gave him a far lighter sentence than the 30 years that prosecutors had been seeking.
In handing down the sentence, Lenard said: "Islamic terrorism is one of the most tremendous problems that this country now confronts... this defendant took an oath to Al-Qaeda."
But she added that Augustin's actions might have been affected by other factors. "This was a young man who for whatever reason, perhaps lack of education or lack of direction, came under the influence of Narseal Batiste."
Augustin's attorney Louis Casuso, had asked for leniency, telling the court that "when you are young, you say a lot of stupid things and you go through a lot of stupid things."

Vamos a Cuba

Gotta love Miami -- Denials of cert are rarely newsworthy, especially front-page newsworthy. But the cert denial re Vamos a Cuba landed on the front page of the Miami Herald:


A three-year battle that pitted claims of censorship against the right of Miami-Dade schools to remove from their shelves a book that portrays an inaccurate view of life in Cuba ended Monday on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a huge win for the Miami-Dade School Board, the high court declined to take up the case -- leaving in place a decision by a federal appeals court that said the board's right to set educational standards is not equivalent to censorship.
``This is a great victory for the School Board and for Cuban Americans,'' said board member Perla Tabares Hantman, who from the beginning supported removing the book Vamos a Cuba from school libraries.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which sued the district after the book was removed from school shelves, called the Supreme Court's decision not to take up the case ``a blow to the First Amendment.''
``What the Supreme Court did was to give the School Board the power to cleanse the library shelves of various books,'' executive director Howard Simon said. ``That sets a dangerous precedent.''


Here's our prior coverage of the book banning case.



Bob Norman is churning out stories about Rothstein so fast that the rest of us can't keep up. It's really incredible what he is doing over at his blog. The investigation, insight, etc. Even if you are exhausted over the Rothstein coverage, his blog is worth a read. Here's one story about 1000 times chai. You can't make this stuff up!



And if you aren't watching Curb this season, you are really missing out. Here's a taste of this week's episode (be careful watching at work; rated R):

"WAWW"

That was the name of 22 of Scott Rothstein's corporations and it stood for "What a Wonderful World." Indeed. Here's the Sun-Sentinel story covering the genesis of the Rothstein spending, which started sometime in 2005.

I know, I know, enough Rothstein. But the Wall Street Journal got in the act, even including a slide-show. And here's the accompanying article, with some interesting stories including this one:

At an Eagles concert this year, Don Henley, the band's drummer, singled out Mr. Rothstein and his wife, Kimberly. "I don't normally do this, but this goes out to Scott and Princess Kimmy on their one-year wedding anniversary," Mr. Henley told the audience as the band ripped into "Life in the Fast Lane," its paean to the perils of excess. Mr. Rothstein paid $100,000 to one of Mr. Henley's charities for the dedication.

If you are sick of Rothstein, you're gonna want to puke after another story about how abysmal Obama has been with judicial selections. The New York Times has weighed in:

President Obama has sent the Senate far fewer judicial nominations than former President George W. Bush did in his first 10 months in office, deflating the hopes of liberals that the White House would move quickly to reshape the federal judiciary after eight years of Republican appointments.
Mr. Bush, who made it an early goal to push conservatives into the judicial pipeline and left a strong stamp on the courts, had already nominated 28 appellate and 36 district candidates at a comparable point in his tenure. By contrast, Mr. Obama has offered 12 nominations to appeals courts and 14 to district courts.
Theodore Shaw, a Columbia University law professor who until recently led the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc., said liberals feared that the White House was not taking advantage of its chance to fill vacancies while Democrats enjoy a razor-thin advantage in the Senate enabling them to cut off the threat of filibusters against nominees. There are nearly 100 vacancies on federal courts.
“It’s not any secret that among the civil rights community and other folks there has been a growing concern about the pace of nominations and confirmations,” Mr. Shaw said. “You have to move fairly quickly because things are going to shut down before you know it, given that next year is an election year and who knows what is going to happen in the midterm elections. No one wants a blown opportunity.”

Seriously, what is taking so long?

News & Notes (Scott Rothstein edition)

1. Bob Norman is killing this story, telling us about strippers, Bova Prime (SFL will like the picture in this post, which I included to the left) and Judge Zloch.

2. Chaz Stevens has done it again -- tracking down William Boockvor.

3. And in non-Rothstein news, Dan Christensen is covering secret dockets under USA candidate Daryl Trawick.

4. UPDATED -- SFL covers the bogus Judge Marra order here. Here's the "order" and the SunSentinel coverage. Here's what SFL has to say about the "order":

1. There's no case number.

2. An interior decorating dispute yet Rothstein allegedly obtains a $2 million judgment.

3. "Punitive damages for fraud" to the tune of $21 million.

4. Rothstein allegedly gilds the lily with repeated references to how "clear and convincing" his evidence and presentation was.

5. A "contempt of counsel" award and Rule 11 sanctions too (where's the 28 USC Section 1927 award as well??)

6. Jones somehow waived her right of appeal "based on the doctrine of fraud in the inducement" and "unclean hands"?

7. This is friggin' loony tunes.

FURTHER UPDATE -- Rumpole has joined the party here. He even gets all Kobayashi Maru on us. The original is worth a watch:

This is not a post about Scott Rothstein

Who's going to the ADL lunch today honoring Albert Kreiger and Edith Osman? Come by and say hello.

Those who aren't can try betting on the Supreme Court.

Or watch some clips of Curb Your Enthusiasm, the best comedy on TV right now:



You prefer Glee, you say. Well here you go.

Fine, and if you must, here's a Scott Rothstein story. Blech.

Ed Morse duped for $57 MILLION

According to this Herald article, he wired Scott Rothstein $57 million based on this story:

What began as a dispute over a $2 million decorating bill for Morse's new Boca Raton and Maine homes transformed into a $57 million scam, in which Rothstein allegedly ripped off his wealthy clients with an elaborate series of lies, delays and forged court orders, sources familiar with the matter told The Miami Herald.
Ed and Carol Morse -- who were family friends with Rothstein -- sued Boca Raton decorator Jan Jones in 2006 claiming he botched their job. Rothstein told the Morses earlier this year that they had won the breach-of-contract case and that the decorator owed them $23 million, sources said.
It wasn't true. In fact, the Morses lost the case.
Rothstein also produced purported federal court orders signed by a judge, saying the Morses could claim the judgment by seizing a Cayman Islands bank account belonging to the decorator, sources said.
There were no such court orders, nor any fat bank account, court records show.
To confiscate the money, the Fort Lauderdale lawyer allegedly told the Morses they had to post a bond 2 ½ times larger than the judgment, or $57 million, the sources said. The large amount was required as a guarantee in case bank officials confiscated the judgment from the wrong account, Rothstein told them.
So the couple wired the $57 million to Rothstein in installments earlier this year, the sources said. It is not clear whether Rothstein paid any of that money back.

PAINFUL. Too bad Morse didn't have the force:



Okay, I was sick of Rothstein stories too, but $57 million.....

Drinks at the Capital Grille over lunch

Bob Norman has been all over the Scott Rothstein case and had the (good?) fortune of running into him at the Capital Grille today. He even took video:



Here's another post about the encounter.

Why is this guy out in public at the Capital Grille talking to reporters? I understand that this was just happenstance, but he was bound to run into someone at lunch at the CG... Right now, he needs to be holed up somewhere not talking. (Hat tip: JA)

Schadenfreude

Sure, there's a lot of that going on with the Scott Rothstein case, but the guy isn't doing anything to help his cause. SFL covers his Herald interview, which was a total train wreck:

"I am sitting here smoking cigars with [my lawyer] Marc [Nurik]."

"Doing pretty good."

"During the brief interview with Nurik, Rothstein could be heard heartily laughing in the background."

It only gets worse:

Nurik would not disclose Rothstein's whereabouts -- a Florida location that Nurik said he -- not federal authorities -- chose.

"I have him hidden," Nurik said. "I'm not going to tell anybody where, including the government. I don't know where people are coming up with this stuff. I have been discussing his case with the government as any defense counsel would under these circumstances.

"I have been in contact with the government," Nurik said. "My client is at an undisclosed location of my choosing and he is talking to no one but me. He hasn't even met with his family."

Nurik declined to discuss the case, but added that Rothstein wanted to say goodbye.

"I'm doing really good," Rothstein said. "Marc is a great lawyer, a great friend. We will speak when the time is right."

YIKES! I'm not even sure that Alan Shore's closing argument on Schadenfreude could help Rothstein:

From the German words, Schaden and Freude, damage and joy. It means to take spiteful, malicious delight in the misfortune of others. We used to dismiss this as simply an ugly side of human nature, but it is much much more than that. Recently a Stanford professor actually captured Schadenfreude on a brain scan. It’s a physiological medical phenomenon. When we see others fall it sometimes causes a chemical to be released in the dorsal striatum of the brain which actually causes us to feel pleasure. If you watch the news or read the papers, which of course you don’t because the Judge said not to, but if you did, you would see the undeniable delicious joy of the media and the public over Kelly Nolan’s plight. I have no doubt that you want Kelly Nolan to be punished. She married for money, she had an affair, she carried on naked in the pool with her boyfriend. She’s cold, materialistic, unlikable, and it might bring you all pleasure to see her go to jail. But as for evidence to establish that she committed a murder beyond all reasonable doubt? It just isn’t there. The only possible route to a guilty verdict here is Schadenfreude.