Lots of press coverage for the shooter's initial apperance

There was a ton of press at the airport shooter's initial appearance yesterday.  "The judge told him the maximum penalty -- DEATH!"  "He was shackled!"  "The prosecution is seeking detention!"  So basically, like every other initial appearance, except that the maximum penalty in this case could be the death penalty.  In every initial appearance, the defendant is shackled and the judge reads the charges and the maximum penalties.  And in every case of serious violence, the prosecution seeks detention.

In any event, he's very lucky  that he will have the Federal Public Defender's Office representing him in this case.  It will be extremely interesting to see if the government actually seeks the death penalty.  You would think it wouldn't based on all of the reports of mental illness and that the FBI returned the gun to him.  But with the new AG Jeff Sessions, who knows.  Perhaps he will use this case to start off his administration with a new direction by trying to reinvigorate the federal death penalty. 

Meantime, it looks like law enforcement is leaking again, which has become a real problem in this District and around the country.  This time, it leaked awful videos to the press.  Here's coverage on the leak:

Local and federal authorities think they know who leaked security video of the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport shooting to TMZ.
Broward Mayor Barbara Sharief told CBS4 News that she’s doesn’t specifically know who leaked the video, but she’s fairly certain it was a member of law enforcement.
TMZ obtained the dramatic surveillance video of suspected mass murderer Esteban Santiago calmly pulling a gun from his waistband and shot 15 bullets at Terminal 2’s baggage claim at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Friday.
Five people were killed and even more were injured.
It’s video that Sharief said the public was never meant to see.
“We’re not tolerating this,” Sharief said. “This is an ongoing investigation. That tape shows a victim being shot and we don’t want that out on the street.”
Sharief said it appeared that the video released to TMZ was taken by someone recording the surveillance video with a cellphone.
She said a reflection captured on the cellphone recording might give away the person by identifying the law enforcement agency the person works for.
“We were able to clearly see the association or agency that the person was with and identify some other significant characteristics,” she said.
Sharief said the identity of the person who recorded the video and possibly leaked it isn’t known, but the county asked the FBI to investigate.
Sharief said after airport officials and the FBI enhanced the reflection, investigators were able to rule out airport and FBI personnel.
She said it “leaves BSO and a couple of other law enforcement agencies that were in that room.”

Federal Criminal Complaint filed against Fort Lauderdale Airport Shooter, Esteban Santiago

The Feds have decided to bring this case, which may bring the death penalty.  Below is the Criminal Complaint. (It is not clear yet whether the State will also bring charges.)

The case will be prosecuted by Rick Del Toro with assistance from Department of Justice Trial Attorney Larry Schneider.  Esteban Santiago Ruiz will make his initial appearance on Monday at 11am before Magistrate Judge Alicia O. Valle in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Interestingly, Judge Valle used to be the press person for the U.S. Attorney's Office, so she will know how to handle the media, which will be packing her courtroom.  

If Ruiz and his family do not retain counsel, he will be appointed counsel, likely the Federal Public Defender's Office, which is well-equipped to handle a case like this. If the government seeks the death penalty (that decision will be made in D.C. by the new Attorney General), then learned counsel (a lawyer with death penalty experience) will be appointed to the trial team.  

The federal charges include: Title 18, United States Code, Section 37(a)(1), performing an act of violence against a person at an airport serving international civil aviation that caused serious bodily injury; Title 18, United States Code, Section 924(c)(1)(A), using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence; and  Title 18, United States Code, Section 924(j), causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm in the course of a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 924(c). The statutory charges authorize a maximum penalty, upon conviction, of death or imprisonment for life or any term of years. 

According to the complaint, on January 6, 2017, Esteban Santiago Ruiz was present in the Terminal 2 baggage claim area of the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when he pulled out a gun and started shooting until he was out of ammunition.  Santiago killed five people and wounded six more.  Moments later, Santiago was confronted by a BSO deputy.  He dropped his handgun on the ground and was arrested by BSO deputies.  According to the complaint, he then confessed after being read his Miranda rights.

Magistrate position open in Ft. Pierce

From the website:

The Judicial Conference of the United States has authorized the appointment of  a full-time United States magistrate judge for the Southern District of Florida at Fort Pierce.  The current annual salary for the magistrate judge position is $186,852 per year. The term of office is eight years.

A  full  public  notice  for the magistrate judge position is posted in the office  of  the clerk of the district court.   The notice is also available on the Courts website at: www.flsd.uscourts.gov

Interested  persons  may  contact  the  clerk  of  the  district  court for additional  information and application forms. The application form is also available on the Courts website www.flsd.uscourts.gov. Applications must be submitted only by applicants personally to; Flsd_magistratejudgerecruitment@flsd.uscourts.gov  and  must be received by February 6, 2017.

Will Judge Ursula Ungaro be the next U.S. Attorney?

The rumors are swirling, and apparently many are pointing to Judge Ungaro as the next U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. (For a list of the other potential candidates, see here).  

I've received emails from numerous sources on this, so I reached out to Judge Ungaro for comment.  She said: "We have a fine U.S. Attorney and, to my knowledge, he has not resigned.  In the event he chooses to do so, and I hope he does not, the U.S. Attorney's position is extremely important, interesting and challenging, and whoever is appointed should have maturity, good judgment, and value the rule of law in the pursuit of justice."

Well, Judge Ungaro certainly has all of those characteristics.  I've had lots of cases before Judge Ungaro (both as a PD and in private practice) -- she is wickedly smart and is really fair (as an example, see the sentences she handed out in the Greer case).   She would whip that office into shape, that's for sure.

Feds drop "weak" case

This is an example of why the grand jury is such a waste.  There is no check on the government from the grand jury and it is simply used as a way to investigate.  From Paula McMahon:

Federal prosecutors are dropping the criminal case against a man accused of issuing a Facebook threat to "exterminate" gay people in South Florida, according to a court document filed Tuesday.
The decision to drop the case against Craig Jungwirth comes about six weeks after prosecutors publicly acknowledged in court that the evidence against him was "weak."
Jungwirth, 50, of Orlando and formerly of Wilton Manors, has been jailed since early September.
He was arrested on allegations that he posted an online threat that read, in part: "None of you deserve to live. If you losers thought the Pulse nightclub shooting was bad, wait till you see what I'm planning for Labor Day."

2017!

Nothing like starting off the new year with the Chief Justice's year-end report.  This one is about how great and important district judges are.  The intro:

As winter approached in late 1789, Justice David Sewall of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court received unanticipated correspondence from President George Washington. Washington informed Sewall that he had been appointed and confirmed as United States District Judge for the District of Maine, then still part of Massachusetts. The matter was not open to discussion; Sewall’s commission was enclosed. Writing from his home in York, Sewall noted that the appointment was “unsolicited and unexpected,” and he expressed concern that his service as a state supreme court justice would not fully prepare him for the task. “In this new appointment,” Sewall explained, “the Judge is to stand alone, and unassisted, and in some instances in matters of the greatest magnitude—Such as relate to the life of Man.” Grateful for the privilege of national service and the honor of appointment, he hoped to vindicate the President’s confidence and secure the “approbation of my fellow Citizens.” “All I can promise on the occasion, is, that I will endeavour to merit them—by striving to discharge the duties of the office with fidelity and impartiality according to the best of my abilities.”President Washington appointed all thirteen original United Statesdistrict judges in like fashion, and most responded with similar humility and trepidation. Despite their modesty, however, they were a distinguished group. John Sullivan of New Hampshire had been a general in the Revolutionary War, delegate to the Continental Congress, and—before the formation of the Union—President of New Hampshire. James Duane had served five years as Mayor of New York. William Paca had signed the Declaration of Independence and served as Maryland’s governor. David Brearley signed the Constitution for New Jersey, as Gunning Bedford, Jr., did for Delaware. William Drayton, appointed in his native South Carolina, had served more than a decade as Chief Justice of the British colony of East Florida. Francis Hopkinson of Pennsylvania, a poet and musician as well as
a lawyer, designed key precursors of the Great Seal of the United States and the United States flag famously attributed to Betsy Ross. These individuals are not well known in our era, but they launched the new system of United States district courts and set the course for the important role those institutions would come to play in the new republic.

Speaking of District Judges, there is a rumor going around that one of our own DJs is interested in the new U.S. Attorney slot.  Anyone else hearing this?

RIP Murray Greenberg

Good riddance to 2016.  Murray Greenberg, all around good guy and father to Ben and Jerry, passed away on Saturday.  Here's the Miami Herald obituary about the mensch:

Both of Greenberg’s sons grew up to be lawyers, although 42-year-old Gerald stressed that they were never pressured.
“Ben and I would both aspire to be half the lawyer he was,” Gerald said.
He never missed a baseball game or school event, Gerald said. Baseball stayed a passion for the Greenberg men. They attended a final baseball game together this summer, when the Miami Marlins played the Cincinnati Reds. They sat behind the plate and cheered when the Marlins won.
“If you live your life like he did,” Gerald Greenberg said, “you’re going to be happy.”

R

eadmore here: \

I am one with the Force. The Force is one with me.

Very very sad.

She "drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra."

Looking forward to 2017.

It's a quiet week... so unless something earth-shattering happens, we'll see you next year.