Dems:  348,000

Repubs: 241,000

About 589,000 registered voters

Dina has a real shot at being your next State Attorney.  Dave is in deep doo-doo with all the negative press, even though it doesn’t appear he’s actually done anything illegal.  Rob Gershan will split the democratic vote.  Everyone in the know (not many people, granted – but some) knows that Rob is a Democrat.

So, the Democratic vote will be split between Rob and Dave.  Republicans will vote for Dina just because she has an “R” next to her name.  In Palm Beach county, there’s a majority of Democrats.  But, if you figure all of the Republicans (maybe 41% of the votes) vote for Dina and Rob and Dave split the Dem vote, she’s in.

Dina is being sued over $4K.  Dina Keever allegedly owes her old campaign manager $4k.  Keever thinks she is getting some of the $6k back that she already spent.

I’ve heard good things about her from different people I respect.  One who knows her since law school, and two people who worked with her in Miami in the prosecutor’s office.  Whoever gets in, they will still be better than Mikey.

Enough is enough.  That’s what the folks in Anaheim have said.  They have taken to the streets, spoke at city council meetings, and are not above throwing rocks and kicking cop cars.  Here’s a great shot of a protestor kicking a cop car. H/t NY Times.

Last Saturday, the police shot and killed a 25-year-old man here who was apparently unarmed. Hours after the shooting, protests broke out on the streets, with some residents throwing bottles at the police, officers said, who responded with pepper spray and beanbag bullets. A police dog broke free from a car and attacked a woman and her two children….

The next day a 21-year-old man was also killed by the police, who said he had tried to run away and later opened fire. Early Friday morning, the police opened fire on a burglary suspect who was trying to escape. It was the eighth police shooting so far this year. Five have been fatal.

These shootings have exposed deep fury in a city that is better known as being home to the happiest place on earth. About 1,000 demonstrators showed up at a City Council meeting on Tuesday night, leading to outbreaks of violence and two dozen arrests.

Everybody who knows anything about cops and the criminal justice system knows that some cops are on steroids, they want to kick ass, and have bad tempers.  Yes, that’s a stereotype, but it is true for some.  I dare say most cops in my cases are on steroids.  There have been a number of police shootings this year in Palm Beach county.  8 so far as of this article.  Some of unarmed men.  No protests like Anaheim in Palm Beach county.  Ric Bradshaw has defended each one too.  He should be ashamed of himself for doing so.  Vote for anyone but Bradshaw.  Joe Talley is running for sheriff.  I saw some people on Okeechobee and Parker this afternoon with signs.  I don’t know Joe, but have heard good things about him.

The media brainwashes us from infancy that the cops are the good guys.  They don’t do any wrong.  We can trust them. And Bradshaw creates opportunities to fill the public with fear all the time.  Fear and consumption.  And the county commissioners keep buying it.  His budget remains unaffected, but they got rid of the Drug Farm, a program with low recidivism rates that actually helps people and reduces costs long term.

Seth Adams, an unarmed man, is dead.  He was shot four times according to his family.  The cop is on paid leave I’m sure.

How many more must die before Bradshaw has to go?

Cop talk radio has a post saying Dave Aronberg is a politician and didn’t really do anything illegal.  I said some of the same things here right after the story broke.

The line “We need a new state attorney” was coined by yours truly on this humble blog before it became cool to bash McCauliffe.  Around April of 2011.  I do not jump to any conclusions about assessing the truth of everything in the article.  However, many of the things Dave allegedly did do not seem illegal.  If he is not yet a candidate, the rules are different.  There is big money behind every successful politician.  This race is no different.  If you think that this kind of stuff doesn’t go on in virtually every political race in the country, I have some oceanfront property in Arizona I’d like to sell you.

Let’s look at a couple of ‘em:

McAuliffe has the lowest conviction rates in Florida.  True statement.

One theme Aronberg thought would resonate: conviction rates. State statistics showed McAuliffe’s office had the lowest rates in Florida. After McAuliffe resigned, those rates would be deemed statistical aberrations by his replacement, Peter Antonacci. Months earlier, however, the issue looked like campaign gold.

Aronberg asked O’Boyle and DeMartini to place an ad in the Jewish Journal. The weekly newspaper targets a crucial Palm Beach County voting bloc — and one that’s personal to both Aronberg and McAuliffe, who are Jewish.

Aronberg provided the ad and emailed DeMartini contact information for a Jewish Journal ad executive. It ran Dec. 14 and cost O’Boyle $3,400. In bold letters, it proclaimed: “Michael McAuliffe is Florida’s Lowest Ranked State Attorney.”

An imposing chart compared Palm Beach County’s conviction rates with top-ranked Pinellas County and the much higher state average. Across the bottom, it said, “We need a new state attorney!”

That last sentence sounds familiar.

Protests paid for by Marty O’Boyle , the plane flying with a sign over the State Attorney’s Office, video ad on facebook, etc.- Dave wasn’t a candidate yet.  Big deal.  Kinda cheesy that the “protestors” were paid actors, but not illegal.  Also, the ads didn’t advocate for a particular candidate or issue.

Donations aren’t donations until you file.

The Post further reported:

Almost a year before, one of Aronberg’s friends, Melissa McKinlay, had filed an ethics complaint against McAuliffe. McKinlay, an aide to Palm Beach County’s legislative delegation, accused McAuliffe of following her out of a meeting and threatening her in the parking lot. “He then told me I had better be careful about who I spent time with,” she wrote. He had seen her talking to Mike Edmondson, a former McAuliffe aide who left after a falling-out.

The Florida Commission on Ethics found no cause for the complaint. But McKinlay told Aronberg about it, and in September he asked her for a copy. She didn’t have one, so Aronberg and O’Boyle picked up the file during their October trip to Tallahassee.

Later that month, McKinlay was called for jury duty. She told Palm Beach County Circuit Judge John Kastrenakes she could not serve. The exchange was captured on video. “I was threatened by the state attorney,” McKinlay said to a stunned Kastrenakes.

In an interview with The Post, McKinlay said she didn’t know she was being videotaped. But she said she told Aronberg about the exchange with Kastrenakes. Edmondson, who was helping Aronberg’s furtive campaign, obtained a copy of the video, court records show.

I have reliable information regarding McKinlay’s allegations that Mike threatened her were in fact true.

McAuliffe is gone – in part because of the attacks.  Who knows why he really resigned.  The good news is Mike is gone.  If Dave had any part in that, I thank him.

Told so by The Post, McAuliffe chuckled. The attacks, he said, didn’t force him out. But the “prospect of an insurgent primary campaign … made me more open to alternatives.” Without the attacks, “I might never have opened the door” to private – sector opportunities at that point, he said.

When asked about what Dave would do about the DUI charge, he said he would pass it along to a line asa.  No quid pro quo there.  Allegedly, Dave thought Marty was wired.

When clients walk into my office for a conference, I assume they are wired.  I have a friend who was a successful criminal lawyer in the 70s and 80s.  He successfully helped mob clients. The feds wanted him.  They sent in somebody to try and set him up.  The putative client asked “I want to know how to run some girls out of the back of my club and get away with it.”  The lawyer told him “You shouldn’t do it.  That’s illegal.  Now get the hell out of my office.”  A couple of other lawyers in town were dumb enough to take the bait.  They, of course, got disbarred and went to prison.

Mike is gone.  Whoever wins the State Attorney’s race will be better than Mike.

Angry and frustrated, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge James Martz laced into attorney Margherita Downey one day last September.

“When I’m talking, you’ve got to listen,” he told her. If she didn’t want to follow judicial orders, he said, “go down and get on the ballot.”

You have to give it to Judge Milt Hirsch.  It takes a huge set of coconut balls to find a statute unconstitutional and write an opinion with Shakespearean references.  And to say that federal law trumps state law when interpreting a statute.

I was in trial today, so I missed the judge wannabe candidates debate co-sponsored by PBACDL.  Most lawyers know who they are going to vote for anyway.  It may be a good way for the candidates to shake down some more people for money.  It’s harder to say no in person.

Barry Cohen can hear criminal cases.  It was a one line opinion.  Talk about a slap in the face.  The 4th basically said your argument is so crappy we won’t even dignify it with a response.  Prior post on it here.

There’s a gun show this weekend at the fairgrounds.  The ads are everywhere.  Some gun enthusiasts swear by the baby glock.  Others don’t like the fact that it doesn’t have anywhere to put their pinky.   Others prefer a 5 shot .38 special for concealed carry.  Maybe some prosecutors want to stop by, take the concealed weapons permit class and arm themselves.  They may not even need the cwp class since they are a division of law enforcement.  Hey, it doesn’t hurt though.  If you leave the SAO, you are set.

There will be a conflict of interest for the SAO in Palm Beach to prosecute the case.  Let’s see who gets the case.  Assuming there is an ID, of course.

Many victims of robbery look more at the gun than the perpetrator.  I did when I was robbed.  Actually it was two guys that robbed my friend and me.  One had a gun and the other had a knife.  It’s difficult to ID somebody when you are in shock and fearing for you life.  You are thinking about surviving the robbery and less about the “stuff” the bad guy is getting.   I have defended robbery with a firearm cases after I got robbed.  I found myself being able to get into the alleged victim’s head easily.  We should always try to do that in every case.  Get in the other person’s shoes.  How do they feel?  What motivates them?  What is going on in their heads? Gerry Spence’s TLC teaches us to love our enemies.

Bill Matthewman got sworn in Monday.  H/t David Markus.  He is our newest federal magistrate judge.  He will come up to West Palm Beach.  Bill just got a not guilty for his client charged with murder.  Not a bad way to go out.  With Dave Brannon and now Bill Matthewman, there are finally some former defense lawyers on the bench.  Kathy Williams too.

Happy 4th of July.   Going down to the 4th on Flagler?  Tip:  The view from Palm Beach is great and you don’t have the crowds that you do over the bridge.

The supremes held that Citizens United applies to corporations in state races.

Does that mean my biz is going to get asked for more than $500?