Did you know that the Sears Tower is now called the Willis Tower?

I sure didn't.

Anyway, the leader from the Liberty City group -- Narseal Batiste -- who was convicted of attempting to blow up that building was sentenced to 13 1/2 years by Judge Lenard. She sentenced brothers Burson Ausgustin, 24, and Rotschild Augustin, 26, to six and seven years in prison. Patrick Abraham, 30, received more than nine years and 34-year-old Stanley Phanor, eight years. Prosecutors had asked for 70 years for Batiste and 30 years for the others. I was happy to see that Judge Lenard rejected those requests. From the BBC:

Sentencing Batiste, US District Judge Joan Lenard said: "You've done great harm to yourself, your family, the young men who were your followers, and you've violated the trust of your country."
Batiste apologised for the plot in court, saying he had "wanted respect".
"I wanted to be this person that I really wasn't. I've never been a violent person," the Associated Press news agency quoted him as saying.

Anyway, hope you have a nice Thanksgiving week... I'm trying to figure out my new iPhone. I think I miss my BlackBerry....

News & Notes (Fins edition)

It's been a long day, so I'm trying to cheer up in watching the Fins. So far, so good. 14-3 as we speak. Here we go with some news & notes:

1. Who wants to be a Magistrate? There's an opening in the District. The salary is $160K and to apply, you need to be less than 70, a member in good standing of the bar for 5 years, and not related to any judge in the district. Chief Judge Moreno has put together this selection committee:


Chair:David Rothman, Esq.
Rothman & Associates, P.A.


Georgie Angones (non-attorney)
Assistant Dean, Development & Alumni Relations

Jacqueline Becerra, Esq.
Greenberg Traurig PA

Robert Brochin, Esq.
Morgan Lewis & Bockius

Maria Christina Enriquez (non-attorney)

Paul Huck, Jr., Esq.
Colson Hicks Eidson

Manuel Kadre, Esq.

Todd Omar Malone, Esq.
The Malone Law Firm

Sonia Escobio O'Donnell, Esq.
Jorden Burt LLP

Vivian Perez-Siam (non-attorney)

Abigail Price-Williams, Esq.
Miami-Dade County Attorney's Office

Joseph Raia, Esq.
Gunster Yoakley & Stewart, PA

Alejandro Soto (non-attorney)
President & CEO, Insource, Inc.


Let's hope the committee acts more quickly than Obama.

2. More Liberty City sentencings today (AP). Judge Lenard has been sentencing the defendants to what looks like reasonable sentences in light of the facts of this case even though the government has been asking for 30+ year sentences:

Four men described as soldiers in a terrorism plot to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices have each been sentenced to less than a decade behind bars, far less than federal prosecutors sought.
U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard, in sentencing hearings Wednesday and Thursday, said the four were followers who participated far less than ringleader Narseal Batiste in discussions about possible terrorist attacks. The conversations were recorded by the FBI using an informant posing as an al-Qaida operative.
The plot never got past the discussion stage, which has led defense attorneys and national terrorism experts to describe the case as overblown since the "Liberty City Seven" were arrested in June 2006. Lenard appeared to share that sentiment, at least for the four who were sentenced.
"As I see this case, these young men were looking for something. I don't know, maybe it was their naivete and youth that made them fall under the influence of a man with a need to control and they became his followers," Lenard said.
Prosecutors sought between 30 and 50 years in prison for each of the four men, with Batiste facing a maximum of 70 years when he is sentenced Friday. They were convicted in May in the third trial of the case following a pair of mistrials, and two of the original suspects were acquitted.
Lenard sentenced Batiste's self-described "No. 1 soldier," 30-year-old Patrick Abraham, to just over nine years Thursday. Stanley Phanor, 34, got eight years and two other men were sentenced to even less time Wednesday. Lenard said a terrorism enhancement that applies in each case would result in an unreasonably harsh sentence, so she opted for leniency.
Abraham, a Haitian native who has been jailed since his 2006 arrest, apologized for what happened but insisted he never sought to be a terrorist.
"I am not nobody's enemy," he said. "I am not the government's enemy."

Batiste to be sentenced next.....

3. Kathy Williams was honored by UM yesterday. I asked one of my favorite readers who was there to give me a quick summary of the event:

Kathy Williams received the Lawyers in Leadership Award last night from UM's Center for Ethics & Public Service for her "dedication to public citizenship and leadership." Examples of Kathy's professionalism, leadership, dedication, and intellect, were highlighted by several speakers (Michael Caruso, Celeste Higgins, and Ricardo Bascuas), and included the fact that Congress cited Kathy's FPD's office as a model defender's office. Spotted in the packed room were Judges Moreno, Seitz, O'Sullivan, and Palermo. Kathy's speech was short and sweet, thanking all those who guided her and expressing gratitude for being able to "work with her heroes."

Even if you don't know Kathy, you've probably benefited from her national and local work related to indigent defense. Congratulations to her for this well-deserved accolade.

4. Prof. Bascuas, a FPD alum, spoke at Kathy's event. If you haven't recently, you should check out his blog. Lots of fun stuff.

5. Tom Withers writes in re his case below:

Mark Shelnutt was and is innocent of each and every charge brought against him. Mark represents what is good and right about criminal defense lawyers. He tries to right wrongs when he sees them. He brings a passionate intensity to defending his clients. And, most importantly, he believes in our system of justice and trusted the jury to fairly listen to the evidence, which they did.

Lawyer acquitted in federal court in Georgia

Friends of the blog, Tom Withers* and Craig Gillen, walked a lawyer (Mark Shelnutt) today in Columbus, Ga. Shelnutt was charged with money laundering and drug offenses. The judge read 36 not guilty verdicts:

At 2:45, Land began to read.
“Count One, conspiracy to launder money,” the judge said. “Not guilty.”
“Count Two, aiding and abetting a conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Not guilty.”
“Count Five, money laundering. Not guilty.”
Then the judge’s words, cadence and diction took on a lyrical quality. The chorus, time and again, was “Not guilty.”
Thirty six times Land read a charge and followed it with not guilty.
By the time Land was finished, Shelnutt’s supporters, a combination of family and friends, many of them connected to St. Luke United Methodist Church, were cheering.

I'm sure Ben Kuehne and his legal team have been following the case...

*Tom runs his own blog here.

"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.