Judge Jose Gonzalez celebrates 50 years on the bench

Wow, what an accomplishment for such a good and nice man.  Last week the Court recognized Judge Gonzalez at the Ft. Lauderdale courthouse (good thing it wasn't raining!).  Lots of law clerks, friends and family attended, including good friend Justice Stevens.  Pretty neat.  Here's a picture of Judge Gonzalez with his law clerks:

Return of the Jedi

Guy Lewis and Michael Tein, along with Dexter Lehtinen, just blew up the Death Star.  It was a long war, but they have finally won to the tune of over $1 million in sanctions against the Tribe's lawyers.  Kudos to Lewis and Tein's lawyers Paul Calli, Chas Short, and Yolanda Strader for this big win.

Judge Marcia Cooke found:

•  “The history of this action, along with the attendant state actions … indicate that a sizeable monetary sanction, in addition to the … recommendation to the Florida Bar for ethical violations, may be the only deterrence that resonates with [the Tribe] and its counsel.”  
• “Roman could not, or did not, cite one instance where Defendants Lewis Tein’s billing actually was fake or fraudulent.” 
• “Roman disregarded the fact that other lawyers, including himself, had invoices for similar amounts. … Roman testified that he charges the Tribe $300,000 per month, or $3 million a year.”  
• “Roman initiated the investigation with a conclusion in mind and searched for facts to accommodate his presupposed conclusion.”
• “Roman’s failure to investigate, or rely upon the facts revealed in his investigation, are inexcusable and merit sanctioning, especially given that there is no justifiable reason for an ignorant filing.” 
• The Tribe's lawyer, Bernardo Roman III, should be referred to the Florida Bar and the S.D. Fla. professional committee for investigation and appropriate disciplinary action.
•  “I decline the invitation to refer Roman to the United States Attorney’s Office for inquiry into whether he should be criminally charged with any violations of the law. His behavior is egregious and abhorrent, but I will not interfere with the determination of whether it constitutes criminality.”

Wowee! 

Obi-wan Pacenti's last article at the DBR was fittingly on this:

A federal judge ordered more than $1 million in sanctions Friday against Miami attorney Bernardo Roman III, who represented the Miccosukee tribe in its feverish pursuit of a federal racketeering suit against its former legal counsel.
The Miccosukee tribe's "internal feud blinded its counsel, Bernardo Roman III, from adhering to the ethical tenants of our profession," U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke in Miami wrote. She called his conduct "egregious and abhorrent" more than a year after finding no basis for the lawsuit.
The sanctions order flows from the highly contentious complaint in 2012 against the tribe's former attorneys: Guy Lewis and Michael Tein of Lewis Tein and Dexter Lehtinen of Lehtinen Schultz Riedi Catalano de la Fuente.
Lehtinen and Lewis are former U.S. attorneys in Miami. Cooke ordered Roman to pay Lewis Tein $975,750 and Lehtinen $95,640.
The lawsuit claimed the lawyers helped former Miccosukee chairman Billy Cypress embezzle $26 million. It also claimed Lewis Tein billed the tribe for work never performed and Lehtinen's tax advice to a $170 million Internal Revenue Service lien against the tribe and its members for failing to report gambling profits.
Cooke dismissed the lawsuit in September 2013.
"The wrongful conduct is the filing of the complaints with no reasonable factual basis to support their allegations," she wrote.
Cooke's 27-page order referred Roman to the Florida Bar, where he already faces an ethics investigation, and the Southern District of Florida professional committee for possible disciplinary action.
The judge declined to refer the case to the U.S. attorney's office for criminal prosecution as requested. She also declined to sanction Roman's associates, Yesenia Lara and Yinet Pino.
In response, Lewis Tein attorney Paul Calli of Carlton Fields Jorden Burt in Miami accused Roman of filing a "cowardly series of drive-by-shooting-like lawsuits," including the federal "lawsuit devoid of any merit."
Roman did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.

A few news and notes

1.  The Justices seemed annoyed that the U.S. would deport someone over a sock.  From USA Today:

The Supreme Court had a suggestion Wednesday for one of the more extreme reasons used by the Obama administration to deport documented immigrants on drug charges: Stick a sock in it.
The justices appeared fed up by the latest in a series of cases they have reversed over the past decade — cases in which immigrants have been deported or threatened with deportation because of minor drug offenses.
This time, the offender was convicted of possessing "drug paraphernalia" — a sock used to conceal four tablets of Adderall, a stimulant used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
"If he had cocaine in his sock, he would probably be convicted of possession of cocaine," a clearly miffed Justice Elena Kagan said.
"He was convicted of paraphernalia here because he had four pills of Adderall, which if you go to half the colleges in America ... and just randomly pick somebody, there would be a decent chance..." the former Harvard Law School dean said, her voice trailing off.
Nearly all the justices appeared convinced that the government had gone too far in deporting Moones Mellouli, a Tunisian who came to the USA on a student visa in 2004 and went on to earn two master's degrees, work as an actuary and teach mathematics at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Mellouli was deported under a federal law that permits the government to remove non-citizens "convicted of a violation of ... any law or regulation of a state, the United States or a foreign country relating to a controlled substance." First offenses for minor amounts of marijuana are exempt.
Much of the hour-long argument dealt with the literal and practical interpretations of those words. Does the drug have to be on the federal list, or is the Kansas list enough? Is it the violation that matters or only the conviction? What does "relating to" refer to — the violation or the law?
It wasn't long before the justices socked it to the government, and the case began to unravel.
"Is a sock considered drug paraphernalia under federal law?" Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg asked Mellouli's lawyer, Jon Laramore.
"Do you think a sock is more than tenuously related to these federal drugs?" Justice Antonin Scalia asked the government's lawyer, Assistant Solicitor General Rachel Kovner.

2.  Feds grab man selling black rhino horn.  From the Sun-Sentinel:

The president of a luxury Boynton Beach auction house pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiring to smuggle rhinoceros horns, coral and elephant ivory to China.

...
Christopher Hayes, president of Elite Estate Buyers, admitted to participating in a complex conspiracy to falsify shipping documents and use third-party shippers to help slip the illegal items out of the country to foreign buyers. In one case, federal prosecutors say, he sold two horns of the endangered black rhinoceros to a Texas resident and who was smuggling them to China....
Hayes' lawyer, Benedict Kuehne, said his client was "deeply apologetic" about violating the law protecting endangered species.
"He is distraught that he even in a slight way may have contributed to the harm of the environment and endangered species," he said. "Through his established business, he hopes to become an educator and leader in informing the profession about the concerns with endangered species items."
Hayes, 55, of Wellington, faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. A sentencing date has not been set. The company, which does business under the name Elite Decorative Arts, will pay a fine of $1.5 million. The company deals in high-end goods such as Chinese jade jewelry, oil paintings and antique porcelain.
The horns of the black rhinoceros, a critically endangered African species, command high prices in Asia for their use in traditional medicine. The investigation involved undercover officers of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who posed as buyers.

3.   Dersh's op-ed about the false accusations against him is pretty powerful:

I now stand accused of crimes I did not commit, by an unnamed woman who I don’t know and never met. I am also being sued for defaming my accusers. I still have no opportunity to respond in court to the false charges, though I am now seeking to intervene in the lawsuit in which the accusation was filed. I have submitted a sworn statement denying the accusations with great specificity. The court has not yet decided whether to accept my motion.

I feel like a victim of a drive-by shooting or the object of scribbled graffiti on the wall of a bathroom stall. I may never have the opportunity to prove my innocence, or to have my accusers prove the false charges, in any court of law. But because I am relatively well known—a double-edge sword in these situations—I can at least fight back in the court of public opinion, though at the very high cost—in legal fees, loss of insurance coverage and the possibility of a large monetary judgment against me.

Imagine the same thing happening to a person who did not have the resources to fight back.

There is a gaping hole in our legal system that allows lawyers to bring irrelevant accusations against innocent nonparties in court papers that insulate them from any consequences, and to deny the falsely accused any opportunity to respond.

The law must be changed to shatter this hall of mirrors I face and others might. There must be consequences for those who file accusations with no offer to prove them and no legal responsibility if they are categorically—and disprovably—false.

I will not rest until this gaping hole is filled with reasonable safeguards, so that what is happening to me can never happen to another innocent person.

"If the well-known, vinyl-era rock bands Bad Company and Blind Faith had merged to form a super group, then the hypothetical new band might have been called Bad Faith."

That was Judge Goodman in an order dealing with a bad faith claim in a civil lawsuit. The DBR covers the case here, http://m.dailybusinessreview.com/module/alm/app/dbr.do#!/article/1731936770

He also notes that the alternative Blind Company, "could be a colorful, hyperbolic yet somewhat accurate description" of the plaintiff's claims.  

He's having too much fun!

Fugitive caught after 37 years.

From the Government's press release:

Robert Anton Woodring, formerly of Fort Lauderdale, Boyton Beach, and Pompano Beach, Florida, was arrested on charges of failing to surrender for service of sentence.  In 1984, Woodring was indicted for failing to surrender in September 1977, to commence a 10-month sentence imposed in October 1975, for removing a yacht in order to prevent seizure by authorized persons. Woodring had also been sentenced in a related case to seven year imprisonment after a jury found him guilty of mail fraud and conspiracy to conspiracy to commit mail fraud.  Woodring is set to be arraigned on January 14, 2015, at 10:00 a.m. 

U.S. Marshals, with the assistance of the FBI and Mexican authorities, apprehended Woodring in Guadalajara, Mexico, in December 2014.  On December 22, 2014, Woodring appeared in federal court in Los Angeles, California, where a U.S. Magistrate Judge ordered him detained pending trial as a risk of flight. Woodring waived his right to an identity hearing and removal hearing and agreed to be transported to Miami for further proceedings.

Mr. Ferrer commended the efforts of the U.S. Marshals Service and FBI in apprehending the defendant. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert T. Watson.