By David Lyons
FloridaBulldog.org
A three-way race is looming among prominent circuit judges to become the next chief judge of Broward County, a largely ceremonial post that has been used as a bully pulpit for better court services and a venue for third-rail policy disputes.
By Dan Christensen
FloridaBulldog.org
A confidential U.S. Marshals’ security assessment for the Broward County Courthouse exposed numerous weaknesses in the building’s security system four years before last week’s scandalous escape of a 21-year-old murder suspect.
By Dan Christensen
FloridaBulldog.org
In a challenge to judicial authority, the Broward Sheriff’s Office is again pushing a scheme that would allow BSO, not judges or state law, to determine the reporting terms for county court defendants placed on probation.
By Dan Christensen
BrowardBulldog.org
Florida’s chief justice has ordered the state’s 20 chief judges to monitor the work of each judge in their circuit looking for goof-offs – a move that’s unnerved judges in South Florida and elsewhere.
Broward Chief Judge Peter Weinstein, left, and Public Defender Howard Finkelstein
Editors Note:
Last month, BrowardBulldog.org published the story of Broward’s “Forgotten Soldier” – a mentally ill ex-Marine in his late fifties whose journey through the county’s long broken mental health system was marred by illegal confinement and a lack of appropriate care.
The compelling story of the Forgotten Soldier was written by Owen McNamee and Douglas Brawley, two assistant public defenders who represent him. Last week, their boss, elected Broward Public Defender wrote to Broward Chief Judge Peter Weinstein to compare the treatment of the mentally ill by the criminal justice systems of Broward and Miami-Dade. Finkelstein concluded that Broward’s mental health system is backwards, cruel and unnecessarily costly.
“We need to get back on track and Miami-Dade has provided a successful model to follow,” Finkelstein said. Here is Finkelstein’s November 19 letter to Weinstein:
