News & Notes

News & Notes

1. Marc Caputo is saying that its Judge Ariana Fajardo's job to lose for U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Florida:

A Miami family-law judge has taken a major step closer to being the next U.S. Attorney in South Florida now that her leading rival for the post has taken a job with a top Florida lobbying firm with close ties to President Donald Trump.

The behind-the-scenes contest for the job as top prosecutor in the district that encompasses Trump’s so-called “Winter White House” of Mar-a-Lago has raged for about a year and appeared to come down to Miami-Dade Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan and former state Rep. José Félix Díaz, a former contestant on Trump’s show, “The Apprentice.”
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Fajardo, backed by both Sen. Marco Rubio and Gov. Rick Scott, was considered for the post after the Trump administration, Rubio and the Justice Department deadlocked on other choices for the post. Soon after her name surfaced, insiders considered her the front-runner for the job.

“With Díaz out, it unclogs the drain,” said one source familiar with the White House’s decision-making over the U.S. attorney post.

Said another: “As long as Judge Fajardo passes her background checks, she should be the next U.S. attorney in South Florida.”

2. Mickey Munday was convicted today. And immediately remanded. No more Cocaine Cowboy interviews... (prior coverage here).

Judge Altonaga orders plaintiff to “certif[y] the pleading has been reviewed and approved by a teacher of the English language — such certification is to be included in the notice of filing the second amended complaint.”

Judge Altonaga orders plaintiff to “certif[y] the pleading has been reviewed and approved by a teacher of the English language — such certification is to be included in the notice of filing the second amended complaint.” (See order here).

OOOOF!

From Judge Altonaga's order:

The Court notes Plaintiff’s proposed Second Amended Complaint is replete with grammatical errors, including improper punctuation, misspelling of words, incorrect conjugation of verbs, and lack of apostrophes when required for possessive adjectives; sentence fragments; and nonsensical sentences. The proposed Second Amended Complaint is also an eyesore, with its formatting errors and spaces.

This caught the eye of Above The Law, which first reported on Judge Altonaga's order here.

That blog reports that the case was voluntarily dismissed shortly thereafter.

“This ruling sentences this highly intelligent, deeply lonely, and distressed ____ to a lifetime of physical and psychological harm, confined to a tiny concrete cell without family, friends, or freedom,”

“This ruling sentences this highly intelligent, deeply lonely, and distressed ____ to a lifetime of physical and psychological harm, confined to a tiny concrete cell without family, friends, or freedom.”

That was not a quote about some criminal defense lawyer's client.  The missing word was orca and the quote was by Jared Goodman, director of animal law at the PETA Foundation, after the 11th Circuit ruled against PETA in its quest to release Lolita.

From Reuters:

By a 3-0 vote, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Miami rejected claims by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and others that keeping Lolita in captivity violated the federal Endangered Species Act.

“The evidence, construed in the light most favorable to PETA, does not support the conclusion that the conditions of her captivity pose a threat of serious harm to Lolita,” the court said.

Friday’s decision upheld a lower court ruling. The lawsuit began in July 2015, two months after the National Marine Fisheries Service recognized whales such as Lolita as an endangered species.

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The appeals court ruled nine days after Bob Barker, the former host of “The Price Is Right” game show and animal rights advocate, called for Lolita’s release in a video posted on PETA’s Twitter account.

Here's the opinion.

Chief Justice raises Ferris Bueller (incorrectly)

Well, the good news is that the Chief Justice of the United States made a Ferris Bueller reference during oral argument. The bad news is that he got it wrong!

The oral argument was in Collins v. Virginia, addressing the question of whether the Fourth Amendment’s “automobile exception” permits a police officer, uninvited and without a warrant, to enter private property, approach a house and search a vehicle parked a few feet from the house.

Roberts question was about the mobility of cars:

“I mean, if you have an automobile in the house, which is not, you know, Jay Leno’s house, right, where he’s got dozens of rare cars, or the Porsche in ‘Ferris Bueller,’ he says. “Are you saying that you … can just go in because they got it in there somehow and they can get it out?”

 Awesome stuff!  Except it wasn't a Porsche!! It was a Ferrari...

This shows the power of amicus briefs, which raised the Bueller hypo and even used a picture:

How much should a cop have to pay for illegally spying on you?

How much should a cop have to pay for illegally spying on you?

Yesterday, a jury said $15,000. Here’s Paula McMahon:

A South Florida police officer owes $15,000 in damages to a Broward County couple she illegally snooped on 167 times in two years, jurors decided Tuesday.

Pembroke Pines Police Officer Melodie Carpio admitted she broke the law and used her job to look up information about the couple — her boyfriend’s ex-wife and her new husband — on confidential law enforcement databases.

Carpio, a 41-year-old patrol officer, is personally liable to pay the civil judgment to Cindy Thibault and Claude Letourneau. She will also owe significantly more in legal fees to the attorneys for the victims and her defense.

The couple smiled and looked relieved when jurors announced their verdict after a one-day trial in federal court in Miami. They declined to comment.