News and Notes

1. Ken Jenne's days in prison. (via Miami Herald and Sun-Sentinel). From Dan Christensen: Once Broward's most powerful politician, ex-Sheriff Ken Jenne now spends his days raising vegetables in the garden of a federal prison camp in rural Virginia.
Jenne, convicted of corruption last fall, talked briefly about his new duties in a three-hour deposition taken six weeks ago in a federal civil rights lawsuit in which he's a defendant.
...''I work in what is called the garden planting various vegetables,'' Jenne, 61, told Fort Lauderdale lawyer Barbara Heyer.

2. Prosecutors object to Joe Cool polygraph. (via Sun-Sentinel):

Federal prosecutors are fighting to make sure jurors never hear that one of the suspects in the murders of four people at sea passed two lie detector tests saying he did not take part in killing any of the crew members on the Joe Cool.Guillermo Zarabozo, 20, of Hialeah and Kirby Archer, 36, of Strawberry, Ark., who were passengers on the boat's ill-fated charter voyage in September, are charged with four counts of first degree murder and could face the death penalty. Their trial is expected to begin this fall.Zarabozo's lawyers say his favorable polygraph results should be allowed as evidence because they corroborate Zarabozo's version of events--that he was lured onto the boat under false pretenses by Archer and did not know anything illegal was going to happen until Archer fired the fatal shots.At a hearing in Miami federal court Wednesday, prosecutor Karen Gilbert said the polygraph evidence should not be allowed because it is not reliable and could have too much influence on jurors.
U.S. District Judge Paul Huck said he would rule after government officials conduct a separate polygraph exam of Zarabozo--a procedure defense lawyers said they welcomed.

Cuban Spy decision from 11th...

... is here.

Haven't had a chance to read it yet, but it's a 1-1-1 opinion. Pryor writes opinion affirming convictions and vacating sentences for 3 defendants. Birch concurs, but states that case should go to Supreme Court on venue issue and that murder issue is very close. Kravitch dissents on whether evidence was sufficient on the murder conviction.

I have a funny feeling this case isn't over...

Katherine Harris upset by Laura Dern's portrayal

After my post about the HBO movie Recount yesterday, I received an email from Suzanne Schmidt, Joe Klock's PR person, informing me that he and Katherine Harris would be on Hannity & Colmes to "discuss[] how Harris was unfairly portrayed in the film and how the film could be nothing further from the truth." Harris and Klock do a nice job on the show (see above for a short clip), but....

I'm still ready to give Laura Dern an Oscar...

More trouble for Kuehne prosecution and other lawyer news

In what already looks like a doomed prosecution against attorney Ben Kuehne, it just got tougher. Yesterday, the Supreme Court decided Cuellar v. United States, which holds (9-0 per Thomas) that the federal money-laundering statue did not require proof of “appearance of legitimate wealth” and the statute could not be satisfied solely by evidence that a defendant concealed funds during transportation. The Kuehne team will be pouring over every word of the opinion, I'm sure...

In other lawyer news, Goeffrey Fieger was acquitted yesteday. His lawyer, Gerry Spence, remains undefeated! Fieger had this to say (apropos of the above case): "I'm very pleased with the American system and the jury. I thank the jury for listening. I hope this puts an end to political prosecutions in the age of Mr. Bush."

And finally, attorney Mel Weiss was sentenced to 30 months (3 months below the advisory guideline range agreed on by the parties).

Recount

So I finally got around to the HBO movie Recount on my TiVo. I really enjoyed it. It threw me back to those days in 2000 when I was attached to the TV watching the twists and turns of the bitter election fight between Bush and Gore. I actually had dreams (nightmares) last night after watching the film...

There were lots of SDFLA references of course, since we were ground zero.

A guy named Phillip Nolen played Ben Kuehne, but he didn't wear the bowtie! Bruce Altman played Mitchell Berger. Laura Dern was an excellent Katherine Harris. The other main players were also very well cast. I may be mistaken but I thought I saw Kendall Coffee sitting as an extra in the Supreme Court scene at the end...
Anyway, if you want to relive some of those moments, it's well worth it.