JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG

WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RICHARD E GERSTEIN JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO JUSTICE BUILDING RUMOR, HUMOR, AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT AND BETWEEN THE JUDGES, LAWYERS AND THE DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, CLERKS, COURT REPORTERS, AND CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS WHO LABOR IN THE WORLD OF MIAMI'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE. POST YOUR COMMENTS, OR SEND RUMPOLE A PRIVATE EMAIL AT HOWARDROARK21@GMAIL.COM. Winner of the prestigious Cushing Left Anterior Descending Artery Award.

Monday, August 25, 2014

WEAR V. CATALANO ADV CATALANO V. WEAR

Scene: Modern day Miami. 

Dramatis Personae: Maritza Alvarez-Shapiro, Nancy Wear, Michael Catalano. 

FACDL LISTSERV, Saturday, August 23, 2014. 

The story you are about to read is true. The names have not been changed, because it's just too damn fun and juicy. 

Like the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, an unlikely event that started the first world war, the War between Michael Catalano and Nancy Wear started with an innocent comment, by Maritza Alvarez-Shapiro, politely asking people to vote for Oscar Rodriguez-Fonts. Oscar is a good guy, an REGJB regular. For what's it worth, we're going to vote for him.  He will make a foin foin judge (It's an Irish sort of day for us.) 

Enter Nancy Wear. Bon Vivant. Raconteur.  FACDL LISTSERVE gadfly. Scourge of condo boards. Enemy, apparently, of one Michael Catalano- DUI maven, defender of disgraced judges, no fan of Ms Wear. 

Wear fired the first shot. In response to Ms. Alvarez-Shapiro's endorsement of ORF, gladly seconded by Jackie Woodward,  Nancy Wear wrote this:

Nancy Wear




to Jackiefacdl-miamiMaritza
What?  Michael Catalano has not landed on both of you for expressing your thoughtful opinions?  Wow! I guess it is only me he publicly attacks!!

Well, you knew Michael Catalano was not going to take that shot across his bow lying down. He fired back. And what we love the most is that after he warned Nancy Wear to keep the email private, she immediately forwarded it to the FACDL, claiming she did so without reading the email. 

Bravo! It's a move that would make Benjamin Netanyahu proud. Never negotiate a threat. Call the large bet. Be Doyle Brunson, move your chips all in.  

Nancy Wear



Unread.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael A Catalano <mcatalanolaw@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Aug 23, 2014 at 4:34 PM
Subject: FW: FACDL-Miami Oscar Rodriguez-Fonts for Circuit Court Judge
To: Nancy Wear <ncwear@gmail.com>

Nancy, this is JUST FOR YOU. Do not forward it. If you do, you do so at your own peril.

Everyone is sick of your crap. If you slander me one more time, I am going to do something about it.

I put up with your posts about Public Defenders being over paid and underwored. Boy was everyone wondering what planet you came from when you did that one....

I put up with your stupid insults to me during the Trauth/Llamas litigation when you told me I should have hired you to handle it and you would have gotten attorney's fees on the first round at the 3rd DCA. Nancy, I made that decision NOT to seek fees to make sure we won.... and we did. I ran that by some real appellate lawyers who agreed with my decision.  I did that for the sake of everyone's clients. Thousands of clients got their DL's back as a  result of my litigation.  I made the decision on purpose and you told me I was stupid for not knowing that I had to ask for fees separately at the DCA. I was really pissed about that dumb and rude comment but, I said nothing.

I put up with you demanding to be a speaker on seminars where you are don't even practice that kind of law.  You demanded to be on an ethics panel for the Masters of DUI seminar and you said your expertise was having handled ONE ethics complaint.  We pick speakers who are experts. You don't even do DUI cases and you still demanded and complained when we did not take you up on your offer to be a speaker.

I put up with you bitching and complaining that CLE's don't have enough women speakers and causing the volunteer organizers all kinds of aggravation.  You did that on the Federal Criminal Law seminar.  You even wrote to the Bar newspaper complaining. Do you have any idea how rude that was to the people involved?

I put up with you telling everyone how smart you are because you beat your condo association... as if we care.

Now, I am not putting up with your crap anymore.

Your recent stupid attempt to impress FACDL with your opinion on the candidates could have resulted in Rachel getting an ethics and JQC complaint if anyone thought she endorsed or approved of YOU sending out her campaign stuff with your discussion about other candidates. I sent my note to FACDL before I spoke with Rachel so that she can show that she didn't have anything to do with what you sent. Do you have any idea how many candidates and their friends get ethics complaints during elections?  Thanks to you, she may have had to spend lots of money defending your stupid mistake.  Thanks to me, she has a defense. It's called the Nancy Wear is stupid defense.

So, do us all a favor and stop posting on FACDL.

As for me, shut up and stop talking about me. I am really sick of it.

This is your only warning.

Mike Catalano


There you have it. A hot, boring Saturday afternoon turned on its head. Arch Duke Ferdinand was killed on a warm Sunday in Saraevjo, June 28, 1914. 

See You In Court. 



30 comments:

Anonymous said...


It is sad enough that this private argument had to be revealed to the entire list serv. but the list serv is a private way for members of a private organization to communicate amongst the members of the organization.

This did not happen in a courtroom, or in the halls of the justice building, or the parking lot, or in any public forum. You must be a member to participate on the list serv. and unless you had permission from both Catalano and Wear, you had no right to post this publicly. And no I don't care whether you are a member or some member sent it to you.

You were wrong to make this public. Dead wrong. All you are doing is further embarrassing someone. Do you get some joy from that? You are so much more intelligent that that. I would think you would be classier than that. And above something like that. I guess I was wrong.

Claude Erskine- Browne said...

First, I am voting for Oscar Rodriguez Fonts. He is well versed, has a good temperament and most importantly has Common Sense.
Wear had NO Reason to attach an attack on Catalono to that email string. Wear is a nasty lady.
Yes, Mike has a big ego, but Well Deserved, He is Mr. DUI and his DL litigation had great results.

Rumpole said...

3:13 I hear your criticism. I disagree that an email on FACDL is "private" - i goes out to hundreds of lawyers and the sender has no control over anyone of those lawyers forwarding it to- as literally a dozen did in this case.

Rumpole said...

forwarding it to me I meant to say. I don't join listservs for precisely that reason, plus I don't join any club that will have me (Groucho Marx).

Anonymous said...

3:13.........Nancy chose the arena when she forward Michael's response. Once you distribute something to hundreds of people (many of which you're not friends with or even dislike), you can't claim violation of privacy.

BTDT

Anonymous said...

WOW! No way! Catalano making an ass of himself?! There's gambling at Rick's!?!?!

Dude doesn't learn his lessons. He does this like what, every 2 years?!

Where is Tom Thumb when you need him!?!?!

Anonymous said...

Not a lot of testosterone flowing out of the conflict

Anonymous said...

Nancy dug her own grave. I wish our list serve was private and I really wish she'd get booted off.

FACDL Listserve Leaker said...

"Nancy, this is JUST FOR YOU. Do not forward it. If you do, you do so at your own peril. . . .This is your only warning."

Just for the tallybooks, Nancy Wear is not the FACDL Listerve Leaker. But FLL approves of her "leak" in this case.

How many times have we all told a client: Do not send anything in an email that you couldn't stand to see published in The Herald -- or to a jury. Catalano is a smart lawyer, but he evidently forgot that.

And "at your peril"? Really? Can anyone describe what cause of action would win such a plaintiff damages for the publication of his own words?

This, Rumpole, THIS is what we come to this blog to read.

Schadenfreude: the most powerful force in the universe, and you know it in your hearts.

Anonymous said...

Rump. You need to be taken off list serv.

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...

The Captain Reports:

Please remember to VOTE tomorrow if you have not already sent in your absentee ballot or done early voting. By tomorrow night we should have the results of all eight judicial contests and we could have eight new judges on the bench come Janaury 2015.

Only one of the eight contests could reset in a runoff; that being the County Court contest between incumbent Jacqueline Schwartz v. Rachel Dooley v. Frank Bocanegra. If so, that runoff would take place in November.

Cap Out .....

Anonymous said...

Kinda douchey for reprinting those emails.

the trialmaster said...

Is this Nancy Wear the former proscuter who went under the name of Nancy Johnson?

Anonymous said...

@ 10:15 am .....HILARIOUS!

Anonymous said...

The Wear email had nothing to do with Oscar's race but a previous email she had forwarded on the ListServ. Shame on Rump for only printing half the story ala the Herald. Shouldn't have printed it all!

Seriously, WINE was lost forever in NAPA!!!

Anonymous said...

Rump,
It started when Nancy sent out her personal endorsments on the list. No foul in that but, Nancy put it on top of a politcal announcment sent by Rachel Dooley's camp. It wasn't signed and if you didn't carefully examine it you could easily think Rachel's camp was endorsing her and other candidates. You had to look to see who sent it. That' a big no,no.

Mike fired back to make it clear.

Nancy went crazy again. This is not the first time she's gone nuts.

Then, you got involved and made this worse by publishing it.

Mike's right in the rest of his email. Nancy said public defenders are over paid. List serve was hotter than Miami in August when she said that. She never apologized either.

Anonymous said...

The herald only prints half the story !?!? No! It can't be !

Lol - what a fucking rag that once proud paper is. Other than ovalle, not a writer worth a shit.

Anonymous said...

This may cause the demise of the list serve.

Anonymous said...

In this corner we have an appellate lawyer nobody knows who constantly pisses off everyone.

In the other corner, we have a well known lawyer who does CLE seminars, works hard and loves media attention.

Start your engines.........

Anonymous said...

catalano is a big talker (clearly).

Anonymous said...

Who the hell is Nancy Wear and why's she so crazy?I never heard of her.

Did she really say that public defenders are overpaid? Really?

Anonymous said...

Mike C here:

Everyone... calm down. No riots in front of the courthouse please!

Peaceful demonstrations, please.

Anonymous said...

They are extremely well-matched. Both are self-involved blow-hards.

Anonymous said...

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Anonymous said...

Rumpole, it is Sarajevo.

Anonymous said...

Somebody should dump an ice bucket on Ms. Wear!

Anonymous said...

The funniest thing here is Nancy, whoever she is, demanding to be a speaker at a CLE. I didn't know we had a right to be a speaker on a subject we know nothing about.

I've been in the MJB for about 24 years and never met her. Who is she anyway?

You know that Catalano, Hersch and Reiff used to send out useful info all the time and people like Nancy gave them good reason to simply stop helping people.

Anonymous said...

Shut up mike . For once, shut up.

- fake Tom Thumb

Anonymous said...

I have always had a secret crush on Tom Thumb. How I miss your email humor!

Anonymous said...

Speaking of nutty women lawyers (and really horrible former judges) Has anyone else followed former judge Ana Maria Carnesoltas since she moved to St. Pete. Bar complaint after complaint. Suspensions and practicing while suspended.

What ever happened to the contempt hearing in Federal Court where she screamed at the court deputy in Judge Zlock's courtroom during the Outlaw Motorcycle trial?

I remember her courtroom. It was a nightmare.