Former APD and now OCCRC counsel Shari Vrod put her name in for the head of the 3rd DCA Regional Counsel office. Why she would be willing to move to Miami is beyond me. I happen to like Phil Massa personally. I’ve known him for about 10 years now. But, Phil Massa, former head of Regional Counsel here in the 4th district, gave back close to a million bucks to the state. That ain’t right. He should have invested that money in defending people – depo transcripts, cle training, hiring experts, and luring private criminal lawyers with experience. He even got an award for saving the State money. However, surprisingly, he didn’t automatically get the reappointment. Some folks say that Broward feels like the red-headed step-child of the 4th district. The think they are the center of the universe. Others say Phil should not have set up shop on Las Olas. Too expensive.
On the one hand, you have to hand it to Phil. He had no roadmap. He did the best he could with what he had.
But what a failed system. Designed by the legislature to save money. How much is this gonna cost? Gideon, schmideon. Let’s do justice on the cheap. Word is the lawyers can’t order depo transcripts or hire experts. They need to go back to the wheel system. The indigent clients would get much better representation.
According to the Captain over at Rumpole’s blog,
Current 4th DCA Regional Counsel Phil Massa interviewed to be re-appointed. The JNC sent three names to Governor Scott and Massa’s was not one of them.
CCCRC (4th DCA): Debbie Maken, Anuraag (Raag) Singhal and Algeisa M. Vazquez
Nobody in the legislature cares about poor people accused of crimes. They don’t vote. If it wasn’t for Gideon, they would all be in prison. And the legislature would be just fine with that. Unless, of course, it would cost them more money.