News and notes

Julie Kay's column, Justice Watch, in the DBR has lots of interesting notes today:

1. It describes in much further detail Alex Acosta's talk last week at the Federal Bar Association lunch. Here's one passage:

[Acosta] announced two new deputies in the major crimes division: Barbara Martinez and Ben Greenberg. They will join Chuck Duross, who Acosta named a deputy several months ago. Deputies play key roles, mentoring and supervising new assistant U.S. attorneys, who all start out in major crimes. Martinez, 34, joined the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami in 2000, after serving three years in the fraud section of the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Last year, Martinez received the second-highest honor given to federal prosecutors around the country, the Director’s Award, which is awarded by the Department of Justice. She received the award for her work on a child pornography case involving 100 victims. The defendant was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to 100 years in prison. Greenberg, 35, joined the U.S. attorney’s office in 2000. A skilled litigator, he is currently overseeing two of the office’s most high-profile cases — the prosecution of Z’ev Rosenstein, an alleged Israeli organized crime figure who is charged with a massive Ecstasy drug ring, and the fraud retrial of former Hamilton Bank chairman Eduardo A. Masferrer. Acosta related how Greenberg proudly “claims to have indicted 42 cases in one month” — a record for the office. He is the son of Miami-Dade County Attorney Murray Greenberg. Duross, 35, has worked at the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami since 2001. He previously worked at Kirkland & Ellis in Washington, D.C., for 4 1/2 years. Last year, Duross was named Federal Prosecutor of the Year by the Miami-Dade Chiefs of Police Association. He was honored for his work on Operation Check-Mate, in which 23 defendants were convicted in a massive counterfeit check writing scheme. In addition to announcing his new deputies, Acosta also said he would ask the Department of Justice for bonuses and raises for AUSAs in an effort to stem a high turnover rate. He declined to state how much he would request. With a new AUSA in Miami earning about $70,000, it is virtually impossible for them to afford a home in South Florida’s pricey real estate market, he said. By comparison, starting salaries for new associates at major Miami law firms are between $105,000 and $125,000. And since they cannot earn more than members of Congress, even more senior AUSAs are capped at a salary of $140,000 a year. “We’ve seen turnover similar to patterns seen in New York and California,” Acosta said. “The cost of housing is inordinately high here. Rather than hire a few more prosecutors, I’d rather use the money to reward the ones we have.” Former federal prosecutors later applauded Acosta’s plan. “The pay for federal prosecutors should be increased,” said Peter Prieto, managing partner of the Miami office of Holland & Knight and a former federal prosecutor. “They work very long hours and do highly sophisticated work.” Acosta said he’s also taking steps to replace the 30 or so prosecutors who have left in the last year. He reported that, after months of interviewing, he has hired six new prosecutors. Another initiative Acosta plans to start is a mentoring program to pair up senior litigation counsel, such as Richard Gregorie and Caroline Heck Miller, with younger attorneys. “All the big [USAO] offices have formal training programs, and it’s time Miami does too,” he said. According to several sources, Acosta found out he was chosen as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida about two weeks ago. The White House is expected to forward his nomination to the Senate next month, said the sources who spoke on condition that they not be named.

2. The Hamilton Bank trial starts today. It's take two. Last trial was hung. Defense lawyers are the Srebnick bros.

3. The other big bank case, the Bankest case "was abruptly postponed on April 5 when one of the defendants, former bank president Eduardo Orlansky, underwent emergency gall bladder surgery." His lawyer is Ed Shohat. Prosecuting is Caroline Heck Miller, Matthew Menchel and Ryan Stumphauzen. Hector Orlansky is represented by Bruce Lehr.

4. In non-DBR news, the comments to the last post are fun and are not meant to make anyone upset. I hope everyone took them in that spirit.

Why I practice in federal court

By now you all have heard about the Sean Taylor prosecutor. Apparently this guy moonlighted as a DJ, tried to promote this night gig by saying he was the Taylor prosecutor on a MySpace account (in which he also posted what Taylor's defense lawyer (Richard Sharpstein) has called pornographic pictures). Are you kidding me?!

Say what you will about AUSAs, but can you imagine any of them doing this, especially the DJ part? Actually, this is great -- we have fodder for a new poll: which SDFLA AUSA is best suited for moonlighting as a DJ?

For the best state court coverage, check out Rumpole and the accompanying comments, which are always fun to read... Also, here's the AP report, the Herald and the CBS4 video.

Acosta at the Federal Bar Luncheon

Interim (soon to be permanent*) U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta spoke today at the Federal Bar Association Luncheon, praising the assistants in the office, even pointing out many by name. He also cited the large proseuctions currently pending in the district (Abramoff, the Rodriguez brothers, Rosenstein, Hamilton Bank, and others). He mentioned that he was going to focus on training young lawyers in the office and on paying them more (which will require hiring less attorneys) so that he can compete with hiring practices in Miami. The speech was about 15 minutes.

* Acosta emphasized that the articles saying his nomination was imminent were premature and that is only an interim U.S. Attorney.

$10 million bail...

... for Ze'ev Rosenstein "over the objections of federal prosecutors, who said they were concerned that Rosenstein had ready access to huge assets and could readily flee the United States." Rosenstein is represented by Roy Black. AUSA is Ben Greenberg. Magistrate Judge is E. Torres.

Welcome (permanently) Alex Acosta

All reports (here is Jay Weaver's Herald article from Saturday and Julie Kay has a piece in Monday's Daily Business Review) are that Alex Acosta has lost the interim from his title and is now the permanent U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, the best and busiest district in the country. Welcome Mr. Acosta and congratulations.

I'm thinking of posting my requests for the new administration. If you have any suggestions, put them in the comment section and I'll add them to the list.

Congress may not burn the house to roast the pig.

So says the 11th Circuit in US v. Williams, discussed below by Marc Seitles. Here is Carl Jones for law.com on the case.

PROTECT ACT PROVISION DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL

Today, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in United States v. Williams, No. 04-15128, handed down a signficant decision holding that the PROTECT ACT's provision that prohibits the promotion of child pornography is facially unconstitutional as overbroad and vague. This case originated in Judge Middlebrooks' division. And Louis I. Guerra preserved the issue and won on appeal.

Here is an excerpt from the decision -

"In the wake of Free Speech Coalition, sexually explicit speech regarding children that is neither obscene nor the product of sexual abuse of a real minor retains protection of the First Amendment. We believe the Court’s decision in Free Speech Coalition leaves Congress ample authority to enact legislation that allows the Government to accomplish its legitimate goal of curbing child abuse without placing an unacceptably heavy burden on protected speech. Certainly Congress took many cues from the Court in drafting the legislation at issue in this case.
Given the unique patterns of deviance inherent in those who sexually covet children and the rapidly advancing technology behind which they hide, we are not unmindful of the difficulties of striking a balance between Congress’s interest in protecting children from harm with constitutional guarantees. However, the infirmities of the PROTECT Act pandering provision reflect a persistent disregard of time-honored and constitutionally-mandated principles relating to the Government’s regulation of free speech and its obligation to provide criminal defendants due process. Because we find the PROTECT Act pandering provision, 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(3)(B), both substantially overbroad and vague, and therefore facially unconstitutional, we reverse Williams’s conviction under that section."

Here's the whole opinion.

Big Money in Torture Case

Judge Joan Lenard ordered that a retired Honduran military officer pay $47 million dollars to victims of torture, murder, and kidnapping. A San Francisco human rights group, the Center for Justice and Accountability, brought the suit against former Lt. Col. Juan Evangelista Lopez Grijalba. Read more from today's Miami Herald.