Joke charges, Reneau arrested, and Publix settles

Art Teele's defense lawyer, David Garvin, called the federal charges against his client "a joke." See it in this Herald article. Interestingly, Teele spoke to the press on the courthouse steps.

There was also a significant arrest at MIA today. Steve Reneau, 46, was arrested Friday at the airport, said Barbara Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Reneau was linked to the Andrew ``Papa'' Brown cocaine drug smuggling ring. Read about it at this Sun-Sentinel article.

In other SDFLA news -- after seven years, Publix Super Markets has put an end to a class-action lawsuit (in front of J. William M. Hoeveler) charging that the supermarket chain violated requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Publix promised to improve disabled access at its 857 stores and pay up to $260,000 to settle a 7-year-old federal class-action lawsuit. William Charouhis represented the disabled plaintiffs, and Carol Lumpkin represented Publix. Read entire article here.

News and notes

Various items of interest in the news concerning the Southern District this morning:

1. USA v. Serge Edouard, a closely watched trial in front of Judge Moore, resulted in a guilty verdict. According to this Miami Herald article, "A federal jury in Miami convicted a powerful Haitian businessman Thursday of running a conspiracy to export tons of cocaine and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to top security officials in the government of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Serge Edouard, 43, reputedly one of Haiti's richest men, showed no emotion when the jury found him guilty of 11 counts of cocaine smuggling and money laundering. He could spend the rest of his life in prison." Representing the government, Lynn Kirkpatrick and Matt Axelrod.

2. The drunk pilots ended up with sentences of 5 years and 2 1/2 years. Read about it here. Although this case ended up in state court, it was in federal court for a bit, in front of Judge Seitz, before the 11th sent it back to state court. You can read about the federal proceedings here.

3. Roy Black's new legal reality TV show. The Daily Business Review covers it here (pass through link required).

Southern District snubbed

Ah well... no judge from the Southern District of Florida or from the State of Florida was nominated tonight. Maybe next time... In the meantime, we get Judge Roberts, who easily will be confirmed. And he should be. He's smart and qualified (Harvard College and Harvard Law, clerk to Rehnquist, SG's office, argued 39 cases before the Supremes, Hogan & Hartson, DC Circuit), he's got a great judicial temperment; he was unanimously confirmed for the DC circuit; and the dems (hopefully) aren't crazy enough to cry wolf, when they could have gotten someone much worse. The usual suspects, How Appealing, SCTNomination, Talkleft, and Sentencing Law & Policy, have all the scoop. Here is one recent case of his, which I lifted from SCTNomination: United States v. Mellen, 393 F.3d 175 (D.C. Cir. 2004) - Writing for the majority over a dissent by Judge Henderson, Judge Roberts found that the district court had erred in attributing to the defendant the value of all of the goods stolen by his wife and stored in their shared home. Judge Roberts held that mere knowledge was insufficient to render the defendant responsible for the goods. Instead, the government had to establish that he had agreed to participate in the conspiracy or taken affirmative steps to facilitate the crime.

Justice Altonaga!

An article on CNN.com this morning packs a lot of interesting news about O'Connor's replacement. And we have another Southern District Judge being mentioned -- Judge Altonaga -- as under consideration. The article says a decision could come as early as today. Read it here.

SDFLA news and notes

Two items:

1. In today's Miami Herald: "Detention method defended; Prosecutors took a tough stand as two terrorism suspects held in federal detention in Miami asked a judge to address complaints of poor treatment by prison officials." Veteran lawyer Ken Swartz represents one of the defendants; prosecuting the case is another veteran, AUSA Russ Killinger. Judge Cooke is presiding.

2. Also, congrats to Mark Eiglarsh for his successful defense in a 3 week fraud trial in front of Judge Hurley.

Southern District of Florida Blog on MSNBC?

More than one person has mentioned to me that this Blog was mentioned (about a week ago) on MSNBC (television, not the website) during some sort of tech minute where they discuss interesting posts on blogs. Apparently, the hosts mentioned the post suggesting that the President appoint a Floridian to the Supreme Court. I can't seem to find the coverage, however. Can anyone help?

UPDATE -- Well, someone pointed me to this transcript of Tucker Carlson's show, in which he mentions the op-ed on doing away with peremptories (the post has a number of interesting comments, most of which disagree with me). Here is the portion of the transcript:
TUCKER CARLSON: Anyway, David Oscar Markus writes . . . that race bias needs to be eliminated in jury selection—quote—“Any trial lawyer who says he does not consider race as a factor when selecting a jury is not telling the truth. The problem with selecting juries is that the system is geared for relying on stereotypes and prejudice.” Boy, is that true. And this has been going on really since Edward Bennett Williams brought Joe Louis into the courtroom during the Jimmy Hoffa trial. And the problem with playing the race card is, it works.

Biggest case for this district?

Richard Rosenthal (a soon-to-be contributor to this blog) had a great question: What is the biggest case ever in the Southern District of Florida? I'll post it as a poll soon, but first wanted to see if there were any suggestions. Certainly the following make the list: Bush v. Gore, USA v. Magluta/Falcon, and USA v. Noriega. And maybe some class actions like the HMO litigation and Allapattah v Exxon. Any others? Post them in the comments.

3 months in prison for FEMA Fraud

Here is the most recent story covering the government's FEMA fraud investigation arising from Hurricane Frances. You can read all about it in the Sun-Sentinel here.