Haitian Senator appears in Southern District of Florida; Snow Day in Miami; Jon Sale meets with Mayor Guliani

Interesting questions about whether he was lawfully taken from Haiti or not.  The Miami Herald has some coverage:

With dozens of T-shirt clad supporters and his wife looking on, former Haiti rebel leader and Senator-elect Guy Philippe pleaded not guilty Friday to drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges in a Miami federal courtroom.
Philippe’s plea came as his recent arrest by the Haiti National Police continued to spark nationalist sentiments in Haiti and abroad, and his supporters demanded answers about how he could have been turned over so quickly to U.S. federal agents for prosecution in the United States.
Philippe’s lawyers and supporters say there was no legal procedure followed, and he was essentially taken from Haiti without any formal process. The Haiti National Police, they said, voluntarily turned him over to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which brought him to Miami on Jan. 5.
“This may conflict with international law,” said Zeljka Bozanic, one of Philippe’s attorneys, who was joined by Philippe’s wife, Natalie. “I don’t think the proper legal protocol was followed.”

dd

And in other news, the Palm Beach Post remembers the Snow Day in Miami back in the 70s.  Our very own Bill Matthewman makes an appearance:

William Matthewman, a U.S. magistrate judge for the Southern District of Florida in West Palm Beach, was a uniformed police officer for the City of Miami in January 1977. He was on patrol, and handling a traffic stop with some other officers. He remembers it was bitterly cold.
“All of a sudden, small flakes fell from the sky and started landing on the windshield of our cars and on our dark blue uniforms,” said Matthewman, who was born and raised in Miami. “Once we all realized it was snow, we were really amazed.”
Matthewman said he recalls the driver in the traffic stop got a “snow break” and no ticket.
Climatologically, it is not supposed to snow in South Florida. The laid back tropics are a region constantly gaining energy from the sun, and with Florida’s temperatures moderated by warm water on three sides, snow is unusual even in northern reaches of the state.

If other blogs can report on Trump meeting with Pryor, we can report on Guliani meeting with Jon Sale (and his wife Jayne Weintraub).  Sale, one of the leading candidates for U.S. Attorney, and Guliani are law school classmates and close friends.  It may give him the inside track for the gig if he wants it.

Trump has interviewed Judge William Pryor for open SCOTUS seat

Wow, he's not wasting any time.  Above the Law has all of the details:

On Saturday afternoon, here in cold and snowy New York, President-elect Donald Trump interviewed Judge William Pryor of the Eleventh Circuit for the open seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. The opportunity to meet with PEOTUS to talk about SCOTUS must have lifted Judge Pryor’s spirits, in the wake of the loss of his beloved Crimson Tide in Monday’s football championship.
The news of a Trump/Pryor meeting, while notable, is not surprising. At last week’s press conference, Trump said that SCOTUS meetings are underway and we should expect a nominee within two weeks of inauguration day. And Judge Pryor, beloved by conservatives, sits at the top of the Trump SCOTUS list.
...
Judge Pryor is very conservative and very outspoken — but he’s also very smart and a stickler for preparation, and he would likely perform well at confirmation hearings. He might not be able to bob and weave around the issues as well as some other nominees, given his paper trail and past pronouncements (and he might not even bother to; recall how he refused to disavow his “Roe is an abomination” comment in his 2005 hearings). But Bill Pryor is not going to self-immolate like Robert Bork in 1987; he’s too shrewd for that. And short of a self-immolation, he has a solid shot of winning confirmation, with 52 Republicans in the Senate (plus some Democrats who might cross over — Vice President-elect Mike Pence is already working on that). 

"It’s Game of Thrones, The Apprentice, and Survivor, all mixed into one.”

Via Politico, great quote from a senior Trump person on the transition process... David Lat from Above the Law has coverage of the SG sweepstakes and the DOJ transition, which all seems very chaotic.  The process for this District doesn't seem any more organized. 

Enjoy the long weekend.

SCOTUSblog profiles Judge Bill Pryor

It's an incredibly detailed and informative post on the potential Supreme Court nominee from the 11th Circuit.  The whole thing is definitely worth reading if you are interested in the Supreme Court.  Here's the intro:

Judge William H. Pryor Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit is widely considered, along with Judge Diane Sykes, to be the front-runner to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia. President-elect Donald Trump mentioned both judges by name during a primary debate shortly after Scalia’s death, and both have the conservative bona fides necessary to allay concerns about, as Pryor himself has put it, adding “more Souters” to the court.
Pryor, 54, earned his B.A. from Northeast Louisiana University in 1984 and his J.D. from Tulane University Law School 1987. Pryor clerked for Judge John Minor Wisdom on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit and then worked as a private attorney until 1995. He served for two years as deputy attorney general of Alabama before becoming attorney general in 1997. As attorney general, he became known for his removal of Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore for Moore’s refusal to follow a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state Supreme Court building.

President George W. Bush nominated Pryor to the 11th Circuit in 2003, but the nomination stalled after Senate Democrats criticized Pryor for several incidents. While serving as attorney general, Pryor wrote a brief in defense of the Texas law banning sodomy that was later struck down in Lawrence v. Texas. Additionally, Pryor has called Roe v. Wade the “worst abomination in the history of constitutional law.” Bush eventually appointed Pryor to the appeals court during a congressional recess in 2004, and he was later confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 53-45.

Rumor has it (UPDATED)

The nice thing about blogging is that we can post rumors as they come in (oh wait, the MSM does that too, see Golden Showers!).  We don't have anything like that, but we have it on a reliable source that the Trump administration has asked U.S. Attorney Willie Ferrer to resign. [UPDATE -- someone with knowledge of this has indicated that this rumor is false and that Willie has NOT been asked to resign.] If true, there should be a shakeup in that office in the near future.  There's also been quite a bit of speculation on what Mr. Ferrer will do next.  I'll leave that for him to say.

The shakeup locally and nationally will hopefully change the extreme position that the government frequently takes on bond.  For example, yesterday DOJ asked for the VW executive (who was arrested in Miami while on vacation with his family) to be held on pretrial detention.  From the DBR:

The defense team said they would like Schmidt to be held in a marshal-supervised hotel until a full bond hearing could be held in Michigan. They argued Schmidt had cooperated with the U.S. government by meeting with FBI agents of his own volition in London early in the investigation.
"He showed that he has absolutely nothing to hide from the government," Massey told the judge.
Massey also said Schmidt's arrest came as something of a surprise, because the government told Schmidt's attorneys as recently as Dec. 16 that he was only a "subject" and not a "target" of the investigation.
Singer insisted that Schmidt's meetings with U.S. officials were rife with deception. Schmidt traveled to the U.S. to meet with regulators in 2015 and deliberately hid the emissions test cheating from them, Singer said.
"It's actually, I think, a fact that weighs against him," he said.

Schmidt's local lawyer is one of the candidates for U.S. Attorney, John Couriel.  If John gets the gig, there may be some hope that he softens the office's very harsh position on bail.

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.