Public Reprimand of Judge John Patrick Contini
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ส.ค. 2024
- Judge John Patrick Contini of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit took office in January 2015. On October 9, 2015, the JQC filed a Notice of Formal Charges against Judge Contini for conduct in violation of Canons 1, 2A, 3B(4), 3B(7), 3B(9), and 3E(1) of the Code of Judicial Conduct. As detailed below, these violations manifested themselves threefold: (1) sending an ex parte e-mail to the Broward Public Defenders Office; (2) failing to seek a recusal or transfer when an appeal effectively froze his division; and (3) making impertinent and belittling remarks in open court about a pending matter. During his first day of attendance at Phase I of Florida’s Judicial College, in March 2015, Judge Contini sent the Broward Public Defender’s Office an ex parte e-mail. That e-mail-which contained suggestions for the use of a proposed order as a general template for downward departure motions-was neither copied nor forwarded to the Broward State Attorney’s Office at that time. Instead, Judge Contini waited seven days, until he returned home to the bench after attending the
Judicial College, to distribute the order to several state attorneys. On March 26, 2015, after the State Attorney’s Office became aware of the ex parte communication, the State filed a motion to disqualify Judge Contini from all open pending criminal cases. Judge Contini denied that motion as legally insufficient. As a result, on April 9, 2015, the State, through the Attorney General’s Office, petitioned the Fourth District Court of Appeal for a writ of prohibition seeking to disqualify Judge Contini from a list of 962 cases. On June 10, 2015, the Fourth District issued an order to show cause concerning the writ, which stayed further proceedings in the cases to which it applied. Although there was no formal stay in effect until the show cause order was issued, all parties acted as though a stay was in effect between March 26 and June 10. Judge Contini’s division-the criminal division-was essentially frozen, yet he neither recused himself sua sponte nor sought an administrative transfer. Instead, he remained within the division hoping for personal vindication.
While the writ proceedings were pending, on May 4, 2015, the JQC served Judge Contini with a Notice of Investigation with regard to his ex parte e-mail. In response, Judge Contini acknowledged that the e-mail was a “serious mistake” and explained that he denied the disqualification motion because the ex parte e-mail- while improper-was general in nature and unrelated to any particular case. Still, Judge Contini appeared before the JQC Investigative Panel on June 5, 2015, offered “no excuses,” and apologized for his conduct. The JQC took his testimony under advisement, but it did not vote on whether to pursue formal charges. It appears that Judge Contini became increasingly frustrated until he lost his temper in open court during August 11 and 12, 2015, hearings. In one instance, he said, “And if a prosecutor, someone with the AG’s office, wants to put that person’s case on their disingenuous list of cases that are pending sentencing, that’s a lie from the pit of hell, and that is a fraud on the Fourth [District].” He wished that the Fourth District would “spank the person who put [a case on the] disingenuous list” and “ream out the idiot who put [that case] on the list.” The assistant attorney general who signed the initial list was not present. However, Judge Contini chastised her by name for “misleading” and committing “fraud on the Fourth [District].” In another instance, Judge Contini threatened a state attorney with contempt while raising his voice and accusing him of inappropriate behavior. Judge Contini demanded that the state attorney admit to assisting the assistant state attorney who created the initial list and ordered bailiffs to escort the attorney from the courtroom after the exchange. Almost immediately following the August 11 and 12 exchanges, Judge Contini sought an administrative transfer. Before filing formal charges, the JQC held a second investigative hearing during which Judge Contini explained that he disagreed with the State’s list of cases, but he admitted that he “personified incivility” and offered “no excuses.” After a Final Hearing, the JQC issued its findings, conclusions, and recommendations, which Judge Contini expressly accepted.
The JQC determined that “Judge Contini was a new judge, who underestimated the process of transitioning from a well-respected, professional lawyer to a judge, and made a series of significant missteps.” However, the JQC did not recommend suspension or removal for this misconduct. Due to the nature of Judge Contini’s variegated infractions, and the mitigating factors in this case, the JQC reasoned that a public reprimand plus conditions were appropriate.
For those of you playing along at home, "sua sponte" loosely translates to "by the court's own decision", or "without being asked by either party".
During my divorce proceedings I sat in my attorney's conference room, when the phone rang and he had to answer it. I could overhear that the chief judge was calling. The judges sister had been arrested the night before for DUI and the judge was calling my lawyer to set up a deal whereby my attorney would represent her interests in court and another judge would dismiss the case against her. I already knew the nature of the beast but this event put the finishing touches on my understand of how things really work in the judicial system.
So you accuse your lawyer and a judge of a possible crime so what did you do with this information? Might hope more than just posting on TH-cam.
I hope you report both to your state's ethics commissions. Probably nothing will happen but it's worth the shot to hold them accountable
Immature behaviour from a newly appointed judge. That was a serious wag of the finger, I’m sure it left quite a burn. What a joke! 😒
If he had just copied the prosecutor on that email-there would’ve been no initial ethics violation
He took the law to his hand and punished anti LGBQs
I see so many cases of judges being abusive, breaking laws, covering for lawyers who break laws, but the bias is almost always in favor of the prosecutor and there's no disciplinary hearings and the videos I'm talking about are of the 'criminal disrupts court proceedings' variety where the judge is presented as justified in behaving unprofessionally because a citizen is demanding basic rights or trying to get a fair trial while their 'public defender' lawyer is basically jacking off in court and not really representing them. In some rare cases a judge gets in trouble after years of violations in favor or prosecutors, but when a relatively new judge bends the rules to help defense lawyers or raises their voice to abusive prosecutors there's immediate action.
This chief justice MUST get tired of reading the same speech over and over to these moron lawyers and so called judges. I would !!!!!!!!
Y’all scolding a judge in the comments here for…. Trying to help a public defender help the public at large.
Yes what he did was wrong and he deserved punishment but y’all are acting like he was some menace to society rather than just a menace to the prosecutor’s office,
Judicial misconduct is not mitigated because the judge was “on the right side.” Judges are supposed to advance the cause of justice. Not help one side or the other.
Moreover, unfairly hampering the state’s ability to prosecute cases is hardly ‘helping the public at large.’ Many crimes have victims. Those victims are part of the same public.
You and that liberal judge want to change America by giving criminals a free pass to terrorize society, good luck with all that’s because Y’all will fail.
@@judicialoversight7201 until you realize that most crimes do not, in fact, have actual victims.
@@zubdub2506 I never said that most crimes have victims.
Are you suggesting that it is acceptable to be a menace to the prosecutor's office ?
Judge Labarga would make a fantastic ventriloquist , his mouth does not move while speaking
We lawyers sometimes see misconduct of judges [and among ourselves]. We call it "Black Robitis." Put on the Robe and sometimes both negative defects and positive qualities are magnified.
We know that ex parte communications are more frequent than those few that are reported. Angry judges throwing a temper tantrum or abusing power in petty ways that are under the radar and may not rise to the level of a complaint to the JQC are fairly frequent.
Most lawyers will never file a JQC complaint as they may feel it would be injurious to their practice.. I worked for a Public Defender Office for a long time. My office never filed a JQC complaint as far as I know. State Attorney offices rarely do it too.
At the end of the day Judges are all too human. They, like all of us, suffer from personality disorders, mental illnesses, normal work pressures, alcoholism, poor judgment, overwork, lack of patience, marital problems at home etc. Sometimes it bubbles over.
Like many people they may manifest sexist attitudes or unconscious bias. We cannot know for sure but only observe actions, like a condescending look, a sarcastic comment, a sneer, a comment on a defendant's attire and the like.
Considering the thousands of cases judges handle there will be unfortunate examples of ethical lapses. But, on the other hand, mostly there is an honest attempt by all parties [as imperfect as we all may be] to do their jobs right.
And when they get caught they should be thrown out and disbarred, not giving a public reprimand.
@@gollumtheartisticnewt1028 I appreciate your view. But the punishment should fit the crime. Not all ethical lapses merit the most extreme punishment. Sometimes ethical lapses are inadvertent, relatively minor, or the result of stressors in a judge's life.
Don't get me wrong. I was in the front line. I have had my share of abusive behavior directed to me personally and to my clients. When it came to me, I sucked it up. But when it came to my clients I did a motion to recuse the judge. From time to time I have been threatened with contempt of court for doing nothing more than my job. But I'm not perfect either and sometimes both prosecutors and defense attorneys may step over the line in their zeal to do good work. It's a confrontational system and things can get heated.
I must also say, in fairness, I have seen an awful lot of good things from judges. Some are utterly outstanding. But even the best of judges have a bad day or make mistakes.
I can tell you that the Supreme Court of Florida is serious about their work in disciplining both lawyers and judges.
I’m going to say one thing. They appoint somebody a judge, and they give them no training. But that aside, his pattern has been to act out, and then apologize, to act out worse and then apologize by “taking full responsibility“. This is a pattern of behavior that he has probably exhibited his entire life. It’s not gonna change because you publicly humiliate him. It may change in the short term, but counseling and mentorship is not going to change a basic coping mechanism behavior that he has used throughout his life. I think he’s one of these people that apologizes and thinks that that undo what he has done or at least it gets him off the hook for it. This is a classic, spoiled little boy who now has power and doesn’t understand why he can’t use it as he sees fit.
Why does the defendants face move up and down as though he is nodding yes and yet his ear and back of head do not move accordingly? Anyone else notice this? This looks suspiciously altered.
Offers his apologies but not his resignation
Its a sad state of affairs when this channel only has a couple thousand subscribers.
How many of these reprimands ARE there in Florida??
Sure are alot of Judges going before a committee to be reprimanded, makes me wonder if they are unqualified or just bad
The Law and Judicial Systems are I the gutter God help us and U. S.
When are they going to do the governor
So...what did he do wrong? He made suggestions about effective defense for those already at the bottom of society who cannot afford their own lawyer, and he didn't copy the prosecutors for seven days. On, apparently, no further justification, prosecutors tried to have him recused from a large number of cases, leading to the other situations. Possibly this judge lost his temper, but it also seems very likely that his anger was righteous.
Yeah i don't see the issue.
Those were the circumstances, but the problem with the email is that it would qualify as an ex parte Communication which is a serious breach, and undermines the system. I’m not sure that there would not still have been an appearance of impropriety had he notified both parties As it could be seen as favoritism/bias to try to help out the defense in secret, but regardless, the way he went about it looks very bad from a legal perspective and isn’t tolerated for obvious reasons.
Righteousness isn't what a judge's job is.
Being a judge is a job where impartiality is a core requirement and is (at least imo) the most inportant one. The judge behaved in a way that demonstrated bias unbecoming of a judge. Ergo he is now being publicly reprimanded.
@@chrisfoxwell4128 then why should I care whether a judge does the job correctly? This presumes that some greater good is done by unrighteousness, but I doubt that is actually true.
Contini, gets a slap on the wrist and after a light suspension, he is back in the Saddle again ? Seriously .There is something very disturbing with the Judicial system..
Did the bailiff say "...you shall be heard in dishonorable court"?
How is Judge Aileen Cannon not reprimanded and put off the bench for her corrupt rulings regarding Trump cases ?
Looks like in 2018 he ended up abruptly resigning from the bench after additional chargers were being prepared against him. He falsified his docket so he could take personal time and had his judicial assistant handle personal matters for him.
Why is sit that every time I see one of these reprimands the person getting the reprimand is smiling. Could it be that the punishment doesn't fit the offence and they know they will go right back to doing it. Only this time they know how NOT to get caught.
Sounds like a technical error and not an ethical one to me. I'd say someone had it out for him. One more thing...how many of those supreme judges make mistakes everyday? I'd like a full apology from all the judicial for the way they continue to allow all the injustice in our nation.
Are their any qualified Judges in Florida that don't use their authority for personal reasons?
There's none in America
Just imagine how much is happening in places that don't make it public like this. Gov is corrupt at every level.
NO
thank you ....
The judge should have been dismissed. He has zero credibility.
So he got off Scot free.
#floridaman turns out Florida man can even be a judge in certain instances.
They let him off!!! All his admitals were after he'd been caught. Any form of justice would thrown him out as a judge and disbar him as a lawyer.
Corruption
When will judge Jorge Labarga learn to read and speak English fluently?
I understand every word he said
What a silly and ignorant question.
He shouldn’t be reading from a script, someone is his position should use limited notes and speak from memory. Probably was promoted because of his ethnicity.
@@lorddowski He isn’t reading from a script. He is reading from his own notes. Something judges of all colors and races and ethnicities do.
@@lorddowski racist much? You must be a trumper.
It's an incredibly arrogant Judge to do things they know are wrong when they know they'll end up on Florida TV and TH-cam.
7:28 the sarcastic facial expressions of judge Contini, and the leniency of this Court, and justice Labarga’s disingenuous repetitive speech 🎤, with the actions of these judges lack of respect for the public, the people, and the law, is the most obvious evidence for a broken judicial SYSTEM, encouraging that it must be restructured, NOW.
I didn't see a trace of sarcasm in his expressions.
Are you a bot account for him?
@@uncletony6210 are you a bot account for him?
@@thedon1570 no. are you a bot account against him?
@@uncletony6210 your Russian lies know no bounds!