Matthew Menchel leaving U.S. Attorney's Office

That's a big loss for the office. He was the chief of criminal division and a very skilled trial lawyer. He's headed to a firm with offices in New York and soon to be in Miami... Good luck to Menchel. Now the question is -- who will be named chief of criminal?

Where is everyone?

On most days, you'll find a bunch of reporters in Judge Cooke's courtroom dutifully covering the Jose Padilla trial. Not today. Today, they were all in Bankruptcy Judge Cristol's courtroom for the O.J. book litigation. Here's the AP's Curt Anderson on what happened:

A federal bankruptcy judge Monday awarded the rights of O.J. Simpson's canceled "If I Did It" book to the family of the late Ronald Goldman to satisfy a $38 million wrongful death judgment against the former football star.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge A. Jay Cristol's decision pushed aside complaints from the family of Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, who was slain along with her friend Goldman in a 1994 knife attack.

***

Fred Goldman, Ronald Goldman's father, choked back tears outside the courtroom and said he intends to release the book as a measure of justice to portray Simpson as "a wife-beater, as a murderer, written in his own words."
"After 13 years of trying to get some justice, today is probably the first time we had any sense of seeing light at the end of the tunnel," said Goldman, who attended the hearing with his daughter, Kim. "It's gratifying to see."
Lawyers for Brown's father, Louis Brown, objected to a settlement awarding the rights to Goldman.
The Browns wanted Cristol to give equal rights to all the creditors, rather than allowing the Goldmans to collect the lion's share of any profits from the book.

Camel racing jockey case dismissed

Judge Altonaga threw out the child camel jockey case against Sheikh Mohammed, the Prime Minister of Dubai, and his brother, Sheikh Hamdam, on personal jurisdiction grounds today. The State Department was about to weigh in on the issues of head of state immunity and perhaps other issues in the motion, like international comity.

--David Oscar Markus
www.markuslaw.com
305-379-6667

No questions

That was AG Alberto Gonzalez who was here in the Southern District of Florida today speaking to the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.

According to this Herald article: "Gonzales talked about federal efforts to curb violent crime, posing for photographs with law enforcement officers but taking no questions from reporters."

Apparently, the SDFLA is a safe place for him: ''It's a safe haven out of Washington,'' said Elsie Scott, president of the Congressional Black Caucus. "It's a place where he can be comfortable and not be booed.''

Inmates dance to Thriller

Check this out!




I don't think the guys over at FDC will be doing this any time soon...

HT: Above the Law.