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.

Saturday, September 20, 2014

BRAVE BLOG POST



A brave blog post:
We write this with some trepidation, but not with the same courage that it took our colleague Phil Reizenstein to make a post on his blog about Adrian Peterson and child abuse. Many of you have emailed us and asked us to re-post it. We won't do that. And Phil has not contacted us. But he did post it publicly, and that is enough for us to mention it here. 

It was always baffling as to how his name became linked with this blog, there being zero evidence to support such an allegation. And in the early years, to say he was upset at us is an understatement. He had to respond to at least one bar complaint that he forwarded to us. In recent years we have heard him joke about it. We were in the audience for one such reference. So please, no comments about Rumpole and who you think we are. Just applaud Phil for his brave discussion of some very personal issues. And beyond the Adrian Peterson post, it's a very unique blog for a criminal defense attorney. Much like another blog we know, where the writing is witty, and .....nah...won't go there. 

His blog is here. 

Enjoy the fall weekend. 


5 comments:

Anonymous said...


It's time to cll this ray rice story out for what it really is. A total CYA for the NFL. Nothing more than that. Cover Godell, cover the Ravens ownership and management, cover them all for being two faced liars

As criminal defense lawyers we spend every day in the trenches seeing much worse than what we saw on that video. Nobody, including this writer, is miniming the violence displayed on there. But we go into court every day and argue for mitigation and second chances for rapists, robbers, kidnappers, those convicted of aggravated battery, and even murder.

By all accounts Ray Rice was a model citizen who went out of his way to contribute back to his community. He answered every call from every charity by responding with his time and his money. Those arguments were used in mitigation just like we would at the GJB for any of our cases.

And if our client was a first time offender, with a good job, the likelihood is that they would not be dismissed for their job. Sure Rice deserved a suspension, and counseling, and the suspension maybe should have been for more than two games, (especially given the four game suspension NFL policy for PEDs and other substance abuse violations).

But Rice was handed over like a lap dog to the press and the public not because of what he did, but because of the way the NFL and the Ravens initially responded to the issue.

It's all about public perception and being PC and it sucks, for our clients.

Read the OTL story. It is worth the read.

http://m.espn.go.com/wireless/story?storyId=11551518

Anonymous said...

1:42 I agree. Good post

Anonymous said...

We belong to a group whose members routinely muster the strength to persevere against great odds to defend those who are unable to defend themselves. Often, these efforts result in personal or financial hardship. However, it is not so common an occurrence that one of us exposes their innermost fears and experiences with such candor and with such effect as has Phil.

Jeff Weinkle

DS said...

Bravo on Phil's blog essay on child abuse

Anonymous said...

It's cool you both are fans of Springsteen, though.