Close to the Edge: Near Death on the Orange Line
Sports Redux: C's Shot Down
Max Goes to Longwood: Wild Things on the Subway
Saturday Happenings
Sunday Happenings
Joseph President, a 23 year- old from Rozzie resident, pled not guilty on charges of possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute. He showed up to the Suffolk County courthouse on what the Globe reports was "court business." This really could be anything from paying a fine, contesting a traffic ticket, or filing a complaint of some sort. When he passed through the security check at the entrance to the courthouse a court officer inspected the bottle of Pepsi President was carrying. The bottom half of the bottle contained a baggie, which contained 11 smaller bags of a substance a court spokesperson identified as probably crack. President grabbed the baggies, dumped them in a trash can, and fled the scene. He was quickly apprehended by a State Trooper, and the substance in question was collected. Though possession of crack, especially with the intent to sell, is always illegal, bringing it into a courthouse or police station is generally one of the dumber things we can think of.
Update: A kind reader drew our attention out of the city to Lawrence where a rental minivan was returned, but some of the cargo remained. The folks on the car lot called the cops to report suspicious packages (two liquor boxes coated in transmission fluid). The boxes contained about $1 million in cocaine. They followed the trail to a house in Methuen where they found a whole bunch of cash and more cocaine. The rental car had logged around 2,400, enough to get you to Atlanta or Jacksonville, Fl and back, but not all the way to Miami and back. The two arrested in the case were smart enough to mask the scent of the coke with transmission fluid on the boxes, but not with it enough to grab their boxes out of the van before they turned it back in.
We could have had a picture of little baggies, crack cocaine, or crack in baggies (courtesy of many government web pages) but instead we just searched Flickr for crack and landed on user cobalt123's image of some dude's ass hanging out.
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On November 7th, 2006, the good people of Miami-Dade County and Monroe County will VOTE either Yes or No for the retention of three Judges of the Third District Court of Appeal. Most people do not realize that the Third District Court of Appeal is the last appeal available to the citizens of Miami-Dade County and Monroe County on almost every legal issue. A loss in the Third District Court of Appeal almost always may never be appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, leaving a litigant only one appeal to the United States Supreme Court which will likely be denied very quickly. The United States Supreme Court accepts for review less than 1% of all appeals filed in their court, in addition just the printing cost of the briefs in this court will set you back $5-k.
The Third District Court of Appeal has literally in essence denied almost 50% of all the appeals filed by the citizens of Miami-Dade County and Monroe County, by issuing what is called a PCA, meaning the Court denies the review without any reason. Although the Florida constitution guarantees the right of appeal, the Third District Court of Appeal has side swiped this right by issuing a PCA denial of review. All PCA orders in Florida are NOT reviewable by the Florida Supreme Court and any attempt to seek review by the Florida Supreme Court will be denied on its face by the Clerk of the Florida Supreme Court (this decision is by choice of the current justices of the Florida Supreme Court). As noted filing an appeal to the United States Supreme Court is basically useless.
This November 7th, 2006, is the opportunity for the Voters of Miami-Dade County and Monroe County to send a message to the Third District Court of Appeal that we will not tolerate not being allowed meaningful appeals. An appeal is a right guaranteed by the Florida constitution, for example you could lose your, freedom, child custody, house, life savings and so much more by a trial court who might not follow the law and on appeal the Third District Court could simply say PCA without any explanation. Some have written on the subject that it is because of lazy Judges that sit on the Third District Court of Appeal that over 50% of the appeals are PCA denied without reason.
Miami-Dade County has been known as the capital of judicial corruption since the F.B.I. sting of the 90's titled "Operation Court Broom" that nailed several Miami-Dade Judges who took money bribes to fix the results of cases. In Miami it means so much more to get meaningful due process and provided a reason why you lose your freedom, house, car, life savings, etc;. When justice does not work in a town full of history of corrupt Judges it gives the appearance of impropriety. A detailed account of “Operation Court Broom” and the resulting indictments and trials, including the trial of Judge Sepe, is contained in the opinion in United States v. Shenberg, 89 F.3d 1461 (11th Cir. 1996), cert. denied sub nom. Sepe v. United States, 117 S.Ct. 961 (1997). CLICK HERE to read the details of this case.
No appeals Judge in any Florida appeals court has ever been removed by the voters. We believe it takes 51% of the voters to vote "NO" for the Judge to be removed. For a list of all the current Judges on the Third District Court of Appeal with picture and biography, CLICK HERE .
Here are the names of the Judges up for retention on November 7, 2006 :
Judge Leslie B. Rothenberg - Vote Yes or No
Campaign Treasurer:
Ramon A. Abadin, Esquire.
Judge Angel A. Cortiñas - Vote Yes or No
Campaign Treasurer:
Elena Maria Almeyda
Judge Richard J. Suarez - Vote Yes or No
Campaign Treasurer:
Steve Goldston