Rothstein takes down Mafia player

Curt Anderon and Jay Weaver cover the story of the 4 year deal for Roberto Settineri. Jeff Weiner, Settineri's lawyer, had this to say:

"Our initial intention was to go to trial,'' Weiner said in an interview. ``My client had no criminal record. He was actively targeted and set up by Rothstein.
``But my client made a terrible mistake in judgment by agreeing to help Rothstein,'' he said, pointing out that the FBI's sting generated tape recordings and text messages incriminating his client. ``The bottom line, when the evidence came in . . . it would have been a foolish choice to go to trial at that point.
"[Settineri] took the bait, hook, line and sinker, to help someone he thought was a friend,'' the lawyer added. ``He was one of Rothstein's victims.''

Election night

Rumpole and JAABlog are covering your Dade and Broward elections. Even though I think judicial elections are ridiculous, it's still fun to watch the election results.

While you wait for the results, check out the new trailer for Square Grouper by the boys at Rakontur (who made The U and Cocaine Cowboys):



Finally, Efraim Diveroli is back behind bars, this time ATF nabbed him in Central Fla. He's still awaiting sentencing for the Miami conviction on the illegal Chinese ammo. The Complaint is quite a read.

First day of school

And there goes another summer...

This one seemed to go by really fast, no?

School shouldn't start in August. After Labor Day. That's the way it should be.

Enough about school. What's going on in the SDFLA?

1. Two Magistrates are up for reappointment -- Patrick White and Frank Lynch. Send in your comments if you want to be heard.

2. There isn't much time left to comment on the proposed 11th Circuit Rules. Rick Bascuas has some commentary here.

3. And of course, the King building needs drapes. You like the ones I picked?

4. More Rothstein indictments coming soon? (via DBR)

Should federal judges be writing books?

That's the question this Boston Globe article raises in light of Judge Nancy Gertner's new book, In Defense of Women: Memoirs of an Unrepentant Advocate --

The 64-year-old Boston jurist said the book being published by Beacon Press focuses on her two decades as a prominent criminal defense and civil rights lawyer before she joined the bench in 1994. As such, she might not have to worry about the federal Judicial Code of Conduct, which prohibits judges from making public statements about cases that could come before them.
But by devoting a memoir to her years as an “unrepentant advocate’’ for notorious criminal defendants and women who brought sex-discrimination suits, Gertner will almost certainly give ammunition to those who say she tilts toward those litigants instead of prosecutors and corporations.
Gertner, whose sentences of criminal defendants have drawn criticism from federal prosecutors and who was accused of bias by lawyers defending the Boston police in a civil rights suit, said she is not worried.
“The unrepentant advocate stuff ends at my swearing-in,’’ she said, referring to the day in April 1994 when she officially became a judge.
She also emphatically denied that she is biased on the bench in favor of criminal defendants or people fighting corporations or police departments. Just last week, she noted, she dismissed a lawsuit by several customers of Bank of America, N.A., who al leged the bank engaged in deceptive business practices.
“I do believe my record speaks for itself,’’ she said in a telephone interview last week, adding that news outlets tend to cherry-pick rulings that reinforce the stereotype of her as a liberal.

**

Several lawyers who insisted on anonymity because they might have to appear before Gertner said a judge should not be an “unrepentant advocate.’’
In contrast, Harvey Silverglate, a criminal defense and civil rights lawyer and former law partner of Gertner’s, dismissed the notion that judges should be silent about their personal and professional backgrounds or even their views on jurisprudence. Judges, he said, had lives before they entered what he called the “monastery,’’ and it is foolish to pretend otherwise.
“Judges, like other human beings, have predispositions,’’ said Silverglate. “Some are called liberals. Some are called conservatives. To hide these facts doesn’t make them untrue. And so by encouraging judges to talk more, when you have a case before a judge, you have a better idea of what that judge might be interested in and what you might have to say in order to overcome that judge’s predispositions.’’
Asked whether the book will expose his friend to criticism, he said, “Of course. If your question is, ‘Will it expose her to legitimate criticism?’ the answer is no.’’
To be sure, Gertner is not the first sitting federal judge to write a book or even a memoir.
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote a critically acclaimed 2002 memoir with her brother called “Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest,’’ that described her childhood in Arizona and New Mexico.
Richard A. Posner, an influential judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago and appointee of President Reagan, has written about 40 books on jurisprudence and legal philosophy, some of which plumbed current events. He also blogs and writes magazine articles.

Thursday news and notes

1. Rocket indicted.

2. Big opinion out of the 11th today on jury instructions -- a reversal for not providing the good faith instruction as requested by the defense. It's 67 pages and I haven't digested it yet, but here's the money quote:"The requested instruction properly placed the determination with the jury as to whether they acted in good faith in seeking advice, fully and completely reporting to their accountant, and acting strictly in accordance with the advice."

3. Joel DeFabio says his pimp (of Haitian descent) is being selectively prosecuted when compared to Jeffrey Epstein:

Johnny Saintil, a Fort Lauderdale native of Haitian descent, sits in jail awaiting a federal trial Monday on charges of recruiting two girls for an Internet-based prostitution ring in Broward County. The 28-year-old faces up to life in prison if convicted.
Jeffrey Epstein, a Palm Beach billionaire, ended his one-year probation last month after serving 13 months in jail on two state convictions for soliciting a prostitute who was a minor. He also had to register as a sex offender.
Epstein, 57, came within a whisker of being indicted by the U.S. attorney's office in Miami on essentially the same charges as Saintil -- but involving a much higher number of victims.
Now Saintil's defense attorney, Joel DeFabio, is urging a Fort Lauderdale federal judge to throw out the indictment against his client, arguing ``selective prosecution'' by prosecutors while citing the race and class differences between Saintil, a poor black man, and Epstein, a rich white man.
***
DeFabio points out that Epstein didn't just pay for sex with high school girls -- he also schemed with aides to recruit them for his personal pleasure.
``Epstein was both a pimp and a `john' (an individual who pays the prostitutes for sex),'' DeFabio said in court papers. ``He recruited and paid individuals to go out into the public and find minor girls to have sex with him for money.''
Two other defendants charged with Saintil -- Michael DeFrand and Stanley Wilson -- have joined his selective prosecution petition filed with U.S. District Judge William Zloch.
The U.S. attorney's office countered in court papers that DeFabio's claims are ``unfounded.'' A spokesman declined to comment.