Posted on November 6 at 9:45 a.m.

"It’s not as easy as looking up the property’s owner, sending a note and getting the situation taken care of, because it’s oftentimes difficult to determine who the letter should be sent to after a home is foreclosed."

What? This is exactly all that is involved. When the Certificate of Title for the Foreclosure sale is issued by the Clerk, it has the address of the successful bidder in the Public Record which can be accessed at the Clerk's Office. I am not sure why the City is having so much trouble looking up this information.

On Bonita hopes to cut through foreclosure-code enforcement mess

Posted on August 28 at 9:24 p.m.

(This comment was removed by the site staff.)

On Letters to the editor: August 29, 2008

Posted on August 28 at 9:15 p.m.

Too many typos in my last post. Sorry about that! I suppose the adrenaline got the best of me!

glenn

On Mistrial declared in 2006 Immokalee drive-by murder

Posted on August 28 at 9:07 p.m.

Bramble:

What is unfortunate is that the family could put so much pressure on the State's Attorney's Office that it would force that office to try an unwinnable case.

I have been in a similar situation once in Collier County since I have lived here. I don't practice criminal law, but I have in the past, and I took on a case, pro bono, mainly because I was so outraged at the conduct of Bealls (and the SAO) in prosecuting an indigent women for shoplifting. Despite that the entire "crime" was videotaped and showed nothing, the Bealls' representatives (victim) insisted that my client should suffer some undeserved draconian punishment based upon her alleged "conduct" recorded by the tape. Under the currently adopted "policy" of the SAO, the prosecutor assigned was "required" to adhere to the wishes of the "victim". Alas, the concept or prosecutorial discretion had been abandoned, and my client was forced to go to trial in an "unwinnable" case. Needless to say, I had the prosecutor put on the videotape in his case in chief, and I rested my case without presenting any evidence or calling any witnesses. My client was acquitted by the Judge in less than 30 seconds after resting my case.

The point is that Prosecutorial Discretion is an incredible power afforded to the State which should reside solely with the prosecutor, not with whatever "victim" walks through the door of their office. The power of the government to take away your rights is an extremely broad power that is taken for granted and one that you clearly don't understand. So think about that the next time a cop pulls you over and "tells" you how "fast" you were going.

And in case anyone wants to claim that I am just another "ambulance chaser" or "scumbag defense lawyer" whose goal in life is to "game the system" for my own benefit, that trial was the first (and last) criminal trial I ever did in Florida, and the last, other than a helping a former friend on a violation of probation. I did it at my own cost, and paid everything out of my own pocket. There is never a "cost" for justice, but someone has to pay for it.

On Mistrial declared in 2006 Immokalee drive-by murder