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Federal Judiciary

Southern District of Florida

News and notes on the Southern District of Florida

Post Frequency: 3.1/day

Last Entry: November 03, 2020 at 07:42:00

News & Notes

Posted on May 24, 2008
1. "Sport fishing 'shtick' nets probation term for charter boat operator" via Vanessa Blum. If you can't get enough Tom Watts-Fitzgerald, check out this article:Rejecting a call for harsher punishment, a federal judge on Thursday ordered the owner of a South Florida charter fishing business to serve five years' probation for not reporting sailfish reeled in by customers and killing undersized fish...

Liberty City 6 on the web

Posted on May 21, 2008
Just got an email about MobLogic.Tv which has this video about the Liberty City 6 and this post titled, "Thought Police":

News & Notes

Posted on May 21, 2008
1. "Former Miami-Dade teacher gets 7 years for enslaving Haitian girl" via the Sun-Sentinel. From the intro of Vanessa Blum's article:A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a South Florida woman to seven years and three months in prison for keeping a teenage girl from Haiti in servitude for six years...

Supreme Court decides US v. Williams

Posted on May 19, 2008
You all remember this case -- the child pornography case that our own Rick Diaz and Lou Guerra argued before the High Court. The Court ruled 7-2 against Diaz's client.Here's a summary from SCOTUSBlog:In a second major ruling, the Court ? after years of repeatedly nullifying Congress? efforts to stamp out child pornography on the Internet ? finally upheld such a law, a 2003 statute that Congress shaped in a way that it hopes would spare it from the same fate as earlier attempts...

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Ben Kuehne awarded

Posted on May 18, 2008
The Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers-Miami Chapter had its annual banquet Saturday night. Of note for this blog, Ben Kuehne received the lifetime achievement award (which the group decided to give him after he was charged, not before as was reported in the NLJ and WSJ blog -- I know this because I was at the meeting where we unanimously agreed on the award)...

Ben Kuehne to receive award from FACDL-Miami this weekend

Posted on May 16, 2008
Saturday night the Florida Association of Criminal Defense lawyer will be having its annual banquet. Ben Kuehne will be receiving the Daniel S. Pearson-Harry W. Prebish Founder's Award, FACDL's highest honor. The Jose Padilla defense team will be receiving the Rodney Thaxton "Against All Odds" award, and Judge Steve Leifman will receive the Gerald Kogan Judicial Distinction Award...

Is 23 years an appropriate sentence for a business opporunity fraud case?

Posted on May 16, 2008
That's the question posed by Vanessa Blum in this Sun-Sentinel article:"A once in a lifetime opportunity." "A part time business that earns a full time income." "Call now!" "Don't miss out!"The late night television ads for the Box Office Express DVD rental machine peddled a dream...

"The beagle is basically a stomach on four feet."

Posted on May 15, 2008
Why does Tom Watts-Fitzgerald have to disrespect the beagle like that? Okay, okay -- he was just explaining how the beagles find illegal cavier at the airport (via the Daily Business Review):Watts-FitzGerald said in some ways the illegal caviar trade is just as dangerous as the illicit drug market...

You Tube dude sentenced to 6 1/2 years

Posted on May 15, 2008
You remember this crazy guy -- the one who taunted the cops on You Tube. "We's out here, we fighting a cold war," Rudy Villanueva said on the video. "Metro Dade Gang Unit, here I am baby." Judge Cooke sentenced him to 6 1/2 years over his objection that he was just messing around...

Judge Gold at the Fed Bar luncheon

Posted on May 14, 2008
Judge Gold spoke today at the Federal Bar Luncheon about ethics and used Mark Giminez's "The Color of Law" as the basis for the discussion. It was a very entertaining speech and it was well received. Judge Gold's premise: You can do good and do well as a lawyer...

Should Judge Hoeveler recuse in the rock-mining case?

Posted on May 14, 2008
Judge Hoeveler says he doesn't "consider [himself] biased" in the rock-mining case in which he was just reversed. (Read the 2-1 opinion here). Although the 11th Circuit did not remove "the respected" Judge Hoeveler from the case, it did say that he had "predetermined" to ban the practice at issue...

New Building

Posted on May 12, 2008
STOP THE PRESSES! There have been court proceedings in the new building. Some of the judges have moved in, others are moving this week, and the most junior judges.... well.... it's still going to be a while. But progress is progress. Here's a picture of the inside...

Uma

Posted on May 08, 2008
I'm always fascinated by reports on deliberations. In the recent high-profile trial of the Uma Thurman stalker, a Wall Street Journal reporter was on the jury. Here is her description of the trial and deliberations.In local news, Jose Padilla co-defendant isn't happy with the jail he's been assigned to...

"If there is a verdict for her and she is ordered to be released, how can the verdict be changed so suddenly!!!!!!!!!"

Posted on May 07, 2008
That was the defendant's mom in this case after Judge Cohn sentenced Shahrazad Mir Gholikhan to 29 months a week after sentencing her to credit time served. I've tried not to blog about the case because I was involved for a brief time early on in the litigation...

Ethics

Posted on May 05, 2008
Here's a little ethics question for my SDFLA readers on Monday morning:Should the attorney-client privilege survive a client's death when revealing that client's statements (that he was the murderer and not the guy on death row) would save a man from death row or from life imprisonment (or any imprisonment)?Those are the questions Adam Liptak examines in this NY Times article from a real life example...

Joe Cool defendant passes polygraph

Posted on May 02, 2008
Assistant Public Defenders Anthony Natale and Brian Stekloff, who represent Joe Cool defendant Guillermo Zarabozo, filed a motion yesterday to admit polygraph evidence. Here's the intro:Mr. Zarabozo has passed scientifically valid polygraph examinations conducted by two separate, leading experts in the field of polygraph examination...

Looks like it was a busy day...

Posted on May 01, 2008
...in mag court.

Judge Gold to speak May 14

Posted on May 01, 2008
This should be a great talk. May 14th at the Banker's Club at noon. Cost is $35. RSVP to Lourdes Fernandez at Lourdes_Fernandez@flsd.uscourts.gov

Rumpole & Ashley Dupre

Posted on April 30, 2008
Rumpole has a funny post about the federal buildings here. From what I hear, there are trials scheduled in the new building in May... I'll believe it when I see it.The AP's Curt Anderson reports here that Ashley Dupre is on video saying she is 18 and consenting to the Girls Gone Wild video:The release came one day after series founder Joe Francis and his companies were sued for $10 million in Miami federal court by Ashley Alexandra Dupre, who claims she was only 17 at the time and too young to sign a binding contract...

"Prosecutors say jailhouse snitches won't be called to testify in Joe Cool case"

Posted on April 29, 2008
That's the headline from Vanessa Blum's article discussing the government's filing today. It makes sense not to call these guys, who would just muddy the case up for the government. Smart move. From Blum's article:Two jailhouse snitches who say they heard incriminating statements from a suspect in the Joe Cool murder-at-sea case won't be called to testify at trial, federal prosecutors stated in a motion filed Monday evening...

Spitzer call girl sues Girls Gone Wild owner...

Posted on April 28, 2008
...here in the Southern District of Florida. Here's the complaint (Ashley Dupre v. Joseph Francis, et al), filed by attorney Richard Wolfe. Here's some coverage by the Herald:Five years after Girls Gone Wild filmed the unknown teen cavorting topless in South Beach, the now-notorious Ashley Alexandra Dupr� is demanding a cut of the money from the video sales...

Joe Cool defendant wants to keep supposed statement out

Posted on April 25, 2008
Looks like the Joe Cool case is starting to heat up again...At a status today, Judge Huck set a hearing on Guillermo Zarabozo's motion to exclude his supposed statement to a jailhouse snitch for next Wed. Here is the intro to Jay Weaver's article:A Hialeah man charged with another man in the slayings last year of four Miami Beach charter boat crew members is trying to have his alleged ''confession'' to a jailhouse snitch tossed out before trial this summer...

How not to do an oral argument

Posted on April 24, 2008
Phipps: . . . so that?s about all I have to say, Your Honor. I don?t have anything other than that. You know, my client lives in Chicago. ... She continues to earn a living, and she?s generally unavailable if you call her because she, she?s sort of a traveling doctor...

Liberty City to be tried a third time

Posted on April 23, 2008
Trial to be set for the Fall.Here are the minutes from today's hearing:Government announced they will proceed with a third trial. Deft. Herrera?s motion for bond is granted; $50k ps co-signed by father; deft Abraham?s moton for bond is denied; Prebish?s m/withdraw granted, the Court to appoint counel w/in 2/3 days, further status set for 4/30/08 @8:30am...

Mold findings....

Posted on April 23, 2008
Some more coverage of the Dyer mold problem here and here and here.From the AP:Miami's historic downtown federal courthouse suffers from extensive contamination of dangerous types of mold and should have some sections closed for cleaning, according to a new environmental study released Tuesday...

Trial stats

Posted on April 22, 2008
The commenters were correct that I posted the wrong link concerning the number of trials in this District. Thanks to a helpful reader, here is the correct link for the total trials in this District and the rest of the country. The conclusion in the prior post -- that we try more cases in this District than any other -- is still correct.

Weekend reading

Posted on April 20, 2008
1. Ben Kuehne. The feds decided to drop the obstruction count, but added a wire fraud count:Federal prosecutors have added and subtracted charges in the money-laundering indictment brought against prominent Miami attorney Ben Kuehne and two others.In a superseding indictment filed Friday, the Justice Department added a wire-fraud conspiracy count but dropped an obstruction of justice charge...

Jose Padilla to the Supermax

Posted on April 18, 2008
Jose Padilla was transferred today to Florence, Colorado -- commonly known as the Supermax -- to serve his 17 year sentence. �

Judge Martinez speaks at the Federal Bar Association today

Posted on April 16, 2008
As expected, he was entertaining and the turnout to see him speak was great.Apparently, the judges have been delayed moving into the new building because GSA forgot to order them the audio-visual equipment. This is not even funny anymore!The buzz at the luncheon, of course, was whether the feds would retry the Liberty City group...

Liberty City mistrial

Posted on April 16, 2008
The Liberty City jury hung for a second time today. Judge Lenard will have a hearing next Wednesday to find out if the government will proceed a third time and if so, when that trial will be rescheduled. Lots of coverage from all the regulars.I will re-post my questions from an earlier entry:Well then SDFLA readers, should the government retry the case for a third time?Don't two mistrials demonstrate that the government has a proof problem? [edited to get rid of the double negatives referenced in the comments]...

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