STEVE CHAYKIN

Today Steve Chaykin will be laid to rest. I didn't know him well as a person. However his reputation as an attorney was well known to all: a lawyer's lawyer; a man dedicated to his clients and to raising the standards of his profession. 

In reading the articles and tributes about Mr. Chaykin, I have learned that beyond his enormous talents as a lawyer, Mr. Chaykin was a dedicated and loving husband and a very proud Father.  Mr. Cahykin leaves behind a young daughter and Sam Rabin is accepting checks for  a college fund on her behalf. 

Here is what I have been thinking about, for what its worth:

Steve Chaykin died while saving his wife. Can anything more be said about what kind of man he surely was?

Steve Chaykin died while on vacation, hiking. Can anything more be said about the fragility of life?

Steve Chaykin died way too early and leaves behind a grieving wife and young daughter. Can anything more be said about the preciousness  of family?

Steve Chaykin will be laid to rest today. 

Kiss your husband or wife or significant other; hug your children; tell the people most important to you that you love them; take care of yourself and enjoy your life to the fullest. 

Rest in peace Steve Chaykin. 

IRANIAN EMP NUCLEAR THREAT?

UPDATED BELOW

I don't think I've ever read an article in the last decade that frightened me more.  The tile of the post links to the article. 

A nuclear attack does not have to involve dozens or hundreds of MIRV'd warheads striking US cities. That was the Soviet threat in the Cold War.

EMP- an electromagnetic pulse is achieved by detonating one warhead in the atmosphere. And as this article details, it would send us back to the horse and buggy age without the horse and buggys.  The result would quickly reduce the US population levels to those of the 1800's- about 30 million.   Apparently the Iranians are conducting tests designed to "put a scud in a bucket" and place one warhead on a ship that could fire the missile off the coast of the US. 

What do you think? 

As our late great friend Sy Gaer used to say, "and you wonder why I drink."

UPDATE:

If the iranian story has scared me, I don't think any story has bothered me lately as much as THIS STORY  on the front page of the NY Times today.  To summarize, an illegal migrant worker in Florida was hit and crippled by a drunk driver. A local hospital saved the young man's life. Then, unable to find a place to care for him, they had a local court sign what turned out to be an illegal order, and they forcibly flew him back to his country of origin. They spent millions saving his life, and then 30 thousand on a private air ambulance, and now he lays wasting away in a hut, with no medical care available. 

What were these people thinking? I mean if you have no humanity whatsoever, why save his life? But if you save his life, why not try to make it a life worth living? At the very least, why send him to a place where surely all the wonderful work will be for naught?

BLAKE TOSSES SAO OUT OF PD CASE

Judge Stan Blake tossed Rudy Sorondo* and his client- the SAO out of the State Public Defender case in which the PD seeks not to accept any more cases during the budget crisis. However, Judge Blake allowed ASA Don Horn to cross Bennett Brummer. The title to the post links to the DBR Article which has a audio clip from the cross:

"Q: You were late today?

A: Yes. I don't get to court often and forgot where the hearing was."

(* Rick Freedman points out in the comments section that Sorondo was conflicted out prior to the hearing because his firm did work for the Pds. But the sentiment remains the same- The SAO has no standing in this matter. "Just shut up and file your cases", as it were. Anyway, like a good robed reader, why should we let facts stand in the way of a good post? "Sometimes wrong but never in doubt." That's out motto)

David Markus's Federal Fight Blog is frozen!

Longtime and careful readers of this blog will remember when right after our blog was hacked that Google froze the blog as being a spam blog. It took about ten days of negotiating with Google to get it unfrozen. Mr. Markus has sent us an email indicating the same thing has happened to him. He will be back and please be patient.

Herald Joins the Fray 

In this story the Herald joins the fray over our constant complaints over the unreliability of eyewitness identification. Better late than never. Their solution: hire more PDs. 

You can read one of our previous posts on the issue HERE

Steve Chaykin dies in accident.

RUMPOLE UPDATE: The federal blog has the details of the untimely death of attorney Steve Chaykin who died in Colorado rescuing his wife who slipped and fell into a stream during a hike. The title of the post links to the Herald's story. David Markus's blog also has articles from the Colorado papers. 

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

ELECTION UPDATE .....

Welcome to our ninth and final report in a series of reviews of the contested judicial races. Over the past two plus months we have attempted to introduce you to the 19 candidates that are running for the nine contested judicial seats in Miami-Dade County.

In Week One, we focused on the only contested County Court race of Lindsay v. Lesperance. Since then, we have provided you with the Circuit Court races of Cueto v. Velis; Migna v. Manny; Colodny v. Kopco v. Millan; Garcia v. Glick; Corona v. Cynamon; Caballero v. Chumbley; and Cohen v. Cuellar.

Today we cover the ninth and final race in Group 57 between incumbent Judge Bernard Shapiro and his opponent Denise Martinez-Scanziani.


DENISE MARTINEZ-SCANZIANI .....

Ms. Scanziani has been a member of The Florida Bar since May of 2000. She graduated from the University of Florida School of Law and began practicing as a Staff Attorney for Legal Aid of Broward County. Soon after, she opened up her own private practice and she now handles family law, real estate and probate matters.

Ms. Scanziani is 33 years old and if my recollection serves me correctly, she would be just slightly older that the youngest ever Circuit Court Judge in our County, Judge Thomas E. Scott, (who went on to become a Federal District Court Judge and was also the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida for a three year stint).

Many of the regular readers of this BLOG know that I hit Ms. Scanziani pretty hard on February 23, 2008 with a piece that I ran about her campaign. I will not provide you with the laundry list of details, but I feel that I must recap the history that caused me to write such a strong article.

On February 15, 2008, Ms. "Denise Scanziani" filed papers to run in County Court Group 34, which was Judge Sarduy's seat. The only problem with that was the seat was not open as a result of the JNC conducting interviews to replace Judge Sarduy, (who had been named to the Circuit Court bench). On February 20th, Ms. "Denise Martinez-Scanziani" filed new papers. This time she filed to run in Group 17 of the County Court against incumbent Judge Eric Hendon. (It was the name change that drew all the attention).

Finally, on May 2, 2008, at approximately 11:59 AM, (the deadline for qualifying was NOON that day), Ms. Martinez-Scanziani, switched again and filed against Judge Shapiro.

If you missed all of the fireworks, I would direct you to read the front page pieces by The Captain on Feb. 23 and Ms. Scanziani's reply on March 2 and the more than 135 comments written by our readers, (including my rebuttal that was posted on March 3rd at 6:42 pm).

As for raising money, Ms. Scanziani has a lot of catching up to do. To date, she has raised only $7,289 from 35 donors. She has added $2,000 of her own money into the kitty.

Check out Denise at deniseforjudge.com.


JUDGE BERNARD SHAPIRO (i) ....

Judge Shapiro has been a member of The Florida Bar since 1973. He graduated from the University of Miami School of Law. He first ascended to the County Court bench in 1987 and in 1990 voters elected him to the Circuit Court where he still sits 18 years later. In between, he was reelected in 1996 and in 2002. He has never faced opposition in any of his races for judge.

Judge Shapiro sits in the Family Division and has also been assigned in the past to the General Jurisdiction and Criminal Divisions. He began his career as a jurist handling DUI and traffic cases and then moved into general misdemeanors and civil cases. Prior to becoming a judge, Shapiro was in private practice for 14 years first trying PI and work comp cases and then handling family law matters.

Judge Shapiro is far ahead in the fundraising department having pulled in $94,789 from 384 contributors. He has also kicked in $25,200 of his own money.

Judge Shapiro's website can be found at voteforshapiro.com. (UPDATED)

Please do your homework on the two candidates. Help out our readers by giving us your comments, pro and con, on each of the candidates.

It has been a pleasure to provide our readers with this weekly series over the past couple of months. I must congratulate our readers for providing mostly positive input as to who they feel are the most qualified candidates for these nine seats. At times, the debate got a bit raucous, but all in all I think it was a positive exercise in the way a BLOG can be useful to our profession. I hope that you learned some new information along the way about the candidates (certainly a lot more than you would have garnered from those weak Herald endorsement pieces), and I hope that we helped you form a decision on whom you may end up casting your ballots for at election time. If we did, then we did good.

Rump has been nice enough to give me the vine and I have tried to use it fairly and, without taking sides, just present the facts ala Joe Friday.

Look forward to seeing you on Election Day with those real-time returns.

The election takes place on Tuesday, August 26, 2008.

CAPTAIN OUT .........

1000+

Very quietly last week we posted our 1000th blog post.
It seems a bit surprising that we have sat down at various computers over the years almost a thousand times (we've had a few guests and the Captain contributes regularly) to write, mostly about our little world.

For me personally, the blog has meant a few things:
It has taken more of my time than I ever imagined. It has caused me to feel a certain weight of responsibility as I realized over time that people I knew and liked were reading things that sometimes bothered them. And at times I have made some very bad mistakes. But I know I have learned from them, and I hope my apologies were accepted in the spirit they were given.

But mostly it has been a joy. Wonderful things have been written by others on this blog, and it has contributed in a small way to creating a better sense of community in our courthouse.

Personally, it has made me a far better writer.

I can remember the very first time I sat at a table of lawyers and judges and heard someone mention that they laughed when they read something I wrote on the blog. That was an almost indescribable feeling- much like when I won my first jury trial.

So thank you for reading. I work as hard as I can to make this a fair and open forum for discussion about our courthouse. Not everyone is happy with what I do and the decisions I make. And in the end, much like those robed readers I enjoy poking every now and then, that must mean I'm doing a pretty good job.

See You In Court.

ABE LAESER REMEMBERS KURT LYLE MARMAR

A few weeks ago there was a passing comment on the blog about a lawyer named Kurt Marmar. Mr. Marmar passed away in the 1980's. Mr. Abe Laeser responded with a comment about a Moot Court  award at the U of M Law School given in Mr. Marmar's name. We asked him to write a few words about Kurt Marmar and he responded with this:

Kurt Lyle Marmar

Rare is the person who does not fade from memory after their death. Kurt Marmar, who died in his mid-30’s in 1985, remains as a beacon – an example – of qualities seldom seen; therefore easily remembered.

Kurt graduated from law school in 1974, and unfortunately died a mere decade later. He loved the law in the way that the most histrionic law professor might want every pupil to love it. Short, stocky, muscular – not someone you might see as an intellectual; but it was the ability to do battle for a cause drove him. Kurt was the consummate champion – a warrior among lawyers.

It was not the ‘side’ that he was on that mattered. He saw the law in a very idealized way – a battle between right and wrong – which could be fought by any lawyer, in any position. Kurt carried the dual edged sword of all great lawyers into battle. He had the legal skills to study the law until he understood even its most hidden nuances; then he applied his natural common sense to deciding which course to follow in his attacks. Surprisingly, he was collegial in the extreme, and had very close friends (and those who learned under his tutelage) on both sides of the aisle.

What proof do I have of his unique traits? He had been in private appellate practice for only a few years before his death. Before that, he achieved a milestone that would be unthinkable today. Within only a few years of his graduation, he was the Chief of the Appellate Unit for the Office of the Public Defender. He then, rather amazingly, left that office and became the Chief of the Legal Unit for the Office of the State Attorney. He kept personal work hours that astounded others, and even rented an apartment at the Cedars of Lebanon complex (before they were medical offices) so that he could walk to work at any time. Professional differences in both offices caused him to ultimately leave government service. In private practice, many of his finest arguments were at the highest Federal levels. .

Personally, he was a friend with very few peers. He hated social events, yet showed up with a Chateau Lafitte Rothschild 1961 for the host’s ‘collection’. He loved food and drink, and to travel. We once took a week-long food holiday with other friends, and literally went from city to city in Florida to taste their best dining fare.

Unfortunately, he had some phobias. We once mistakenly convinced him to try the log flume ride at Busch Gardens. It had an initial short drop, which bothered him. My next recollection, as we chugged up to the booth toward the longer drop, was of Kurt opening his wallet and offering all of the cash – and he always carried a huge amount of money - if the attendant would stop the ride. He survived, never said a word as he went back to his room – and was so upset by the events that he flew back to Miami alone that night.

After his untimely death, his many friends created the Kurt Marmar Moot Court Award at the University of Miami School of Law. It is a most unusual annual award, as the school and the faculty have no say in the selection of the winner; which makes it especially coveted. The fellow members of the Moot Court competition decide upon the choice. The criterion is simple; it is given to the person who: In the opinion of his or her peers has demonstrated a spirit of cooperation and fairness. That is a standard that Kurt would have always wanted for those who would compete for an award in his name.

I miss my friend, and his kind heart, and his fiery intellect. I will always remember Kurt.

THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

ELECTION UPDATE .....

Welcome to our eighth in a series. Over the past seven weeks, we have brought you seven of the nine contested races analyzing the judicial elections in Miami-Dade County. In Week One, we focused on the only contested County Court race of Lindsay v. Lesperance. Since then, we have provided you with the Circuit Court races of Cueto v. Velis; Migna v. Manny, Colodny v. Kopco v. Millan, Garcia v. Glick, Corona v. Cynamon and Caballero v. Chumbley.

As we reported on May 2, 2008 on this blog, there are nine contested races here in Miami-Dade County; eight in the Circuit Court and one in the County Court. Today we cover the race in Group 55 between incumbent Judge Geri Beth Cohen and her opponent Abbie Cuellar. Next week we will rap it up with the Bernard Shapiro race.


JERI BETH COHEN (i) .....

Judge Jeri Beth Cohen has been a member of The Florida Bar for 22 years. She educated herself at Boston U, Harvard, and earned her JD at Georgetown Law School. She was a practicing attorney from 1986-1992 when she was elected a County Court Judge. She spent four years on the bench, in the Criminal Division, and in 1996 she ran, unopposed, for a Circuit Court seat. She has spent the past 12 years in the Juvenile Division and the General Jurisdiction Division.

Judge Cohen has a long history of community involvement both off and on the bench. The list is long and I would direct you to her website to read all about her background. Of note, she began one of the first Dependency Drug Court programs in the country in 1999.

Judge Cohen has not avoided controversy while on the bench. While challenger Cuellar can actually claim being shot at (see below), Judge Cohen can only admit to shooting herself in the foot, a few times. There was the comment about Hispanics many years ago that first got her in trouble. This year, her campaign manager's secretary inadvertently sent out a campaign letter to several prominent attorneys; the letter included the names of several attorneys who had not in fact endorsed her. Then she showed up at the Coral Gables Democratic Club meeting and gave a speech. Only problem - that was a violation of Canon 7 of the Code of Judicial Conduct. She admitted the violation and apologized.

Judge Cohen has been in the news of late; she is the Judge on the City-County-Marlins v. Norman Braman lawsuit. By all accounts, she seems to be doing a great job given the very complicated legal issues and the public nature of the case.

All this publicity has not hurt her one bit in the fundraising category. She has blown away her competitor and The Captain is impressed with the 806 attorneys who have donated over $190,000 to her campaign. Judge Cohen has kicked in an additional $100k.

Check out Judge Cohen at judgejeribethcohen.com.


ABBIE CUELLAR ....

Ms. Cuellar has been a member of The Florida Bar for 11 years. She earned her legal degree from Rutgers Law School. She runs a solo practice with a concentration in Family law and Criminal law. She is also a Guardian Ad Litem Staff Attorney and has been very committed in that area.

Ms. Cuellar made the news in March when she was driving her Infiniti SUV and suddenly two men jumped out of a van and started shooting a hail of bullets at her windshield. She pulled a Starsky & Hutch reverse move and survived with cuts from the flying glass.

Ms. Cuellar, along with attorney Alan Mishael, represented real estate developer (and former sports agent) Joe Cubas and his wife last year in their unsuccessful effort to become the permanent guardians for a five year old Cuban girl. The Judge - Jeri Beth Cohen. It was the decisions of the Judge and the way she handled the case that motivated Cuellar to run against Cohen.

Cuellar reports raising no money as of her last filing. She did contribute $15,000 of her own money to the campaign.

You can check out abbieforjudge.com for the Cuellar campaign.

Please do your homework on the two candidates. Help out our readers by giving us your comments, pro and con, on each of the candidates.

The election takes place on Tuesday, August 26, 2008.

CAPTAIN OUT .........

Tricia Walsh Smith - The video that started it all!

The divorce case from hell. We've all heard about them. Well, this woman, who is divorcing her husband who is apparently well known Broadway producer, made a video about her husband and divorce and posted it on You-Tube. 3.2 million hits later, you can still watch her call her husband's secretary and complain that they had no sex, and yet she found a bottle of viagra and condoms. Enjoy, and be glad you're not on the receiving end of this angry Brit.