IAGO Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands:
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.
Shakespeare, Wm., Othello, Act III, Scene III
As you should already have figured out by now, not only am I a real attorney. I also hold a VR permit from FWC, not that it has a lot to do with whether you should read the rest of the post, but it helps explain presence here. You can find all the other real attorneys at
http://www.flabar.org/; click on “Find a Lawyer.” Other VR permit holders may be harder to find. Some clever contributor to the BOI thread found me on a five-year old page for the State Attorney's Office; nice work.
Mr. Gubitz retained me, but not to shut anyone up.
Why does he need a lawyer? Besides having a mediocre memory and an intensely passionate style of self-expression, Neil has a reputation to protect. Neil is entitled to take any and all legal steps to protect that reputation, without having to justify himself to those who . We are a nation of laws and have been for 210 years; those laws encourage people to protect their property, even such ephemera as reputations, through the courts. The majority of us have for 210 years agreed that violence and intimidation are not appropriate.
Neil and I invite and encourage everybody, including Dave Lawson, to continue posting, so long as posted statements of fact are true.
Cybersolo wonders:
But Neil, why did you get a lawyer in Orlando? Why not in your hometown of Tampa? There must be more lawyers in Tampa than there are grains of sand in all of Florida's beaches! Why not pick someone closer to home?
Healthy curiosity is to be applauded. I got on Neil’s e-mail list, saw something intriguing about “What James Took,” e-mailed for clarification, and the more I heard the more interested I got. Clearly, there was an opportunity for personal and professional growth.
My qualifications:
BAR ADMISSIONS:
Florida Bar, October 21, 1985
Federal District Court, Middle District of Florida, December 16, 1985
EXPERIENCE:
Sole Practitioner, from February 2, 2000; general practice, criminal defense, contracts, automobile liability, consumer law, probate, commercial and residential leasing and other civil litigation.
Assistant State Attorney, Ninth Judicial Circuit, Orlando, Florida, fourteen years, 200 jury trials. Major Assignments:
Legal Advisor to the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation, three years. Provided legal guidance to agents and managers of a task force of state and federal law enforcement agencies investigating racketeering, organized fraud, money laundering, drug trafficking and vice crimes
Career Criminal Lead Attorney: Prosecuted career criminals, habitual felons, and prison-releasee re-offenders. Mentored other attorneys.
Deputy Chief of Intake Division, one year. Evaluated cases for probability of proof beyond reasonable doubt and suitability for prosecution. Directed selected investigations. Reviewed all traffic homicide cases submitted.
Governor's Executive Assignments: Prosecuted DUI Manslaughter and Leaving the Scene of an Accident With a Death in State v. Raya, Circuit Court, Okeechobee County. Prosecuted state attorney's office executive director for DUI Manslaughter and DUI Resulting in Serious Injuries in State v. Terri J. West, Circuit Court, Broward County.
Commercial Litigation, Hartley & Wall, Orlando, Florida, 85-86.
DEGREEES:
Juris Doctor, Florida State University College of Law, 1985, With Honors.
Florida State University Law Review Articles and Notes Editor, 1984. Special Award: Trial Evidence Seminar.
Master of Arts, Florida State University, 1979.
Bachelor of Arts, University of South Florida, 1971. Dean's List 1969 & 1970.
FACULTY MEMBER:Criminal Justice Institute, Valencia Community College, 1999-2000 (Adjunct instructor).
But enough about me. Abou ya'll:
Some sensible folks have weighed in on the matter, Nicole Dodd (Lady Chaos), John Reese (Emeraldguy), and Rich Z. Thanks for oil on troubled waters. I also want to express my gratitude to Tim Bowles, Arboreals of the Rainforest, who posted the nice summary of defamation law on this board recently. Saved me some work, he did. Florida law has a few variations on that general theme, which bear mention. A statement is defamatory (libel or slander) when it injures a person in his trade or profession. Libel need not be an intentional falsehood; it is still libel if the statement is negligently made. Loss of business need not be proven in dollars if damage to a business reputation can be proven.
There are rules that will determine the admissibility of evidence to prove in a court of law. Generally, the rules are commonsense guidelines for determining the credibility of what we hear. The rule against hearsay is an important one, but that rule has 23 exceptions in the Florida Evidence Code, not including the one that was held unconstitutional.
“Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear.” Francis C. Townes, 1926 –2002.
With good reason the courts don't allow "X told me Y said ABC." Too much opportunity for misunderstanding, prevarication and outright BS.
IAGO O grace! O heaven forgive me!
Are you a man? have you a soul or sense?
God be wi' you; take mine office. O wretched fool.
That livest to make thine honesty a vice!
O monstrous world! Take note, take note, O world,
To be direct and honest is not safe.
I thank you for this profit; and from hence
I'll love no friend, sith love breeds such offence.
OTHELLO Nay, stay: thou shouldst be honest.
IAGO I should be wise, for honesty's a fool
And loses that it works for.
Shakespeare, Wm., Othello, Act III, Scene III
salito718, your question is well-taken. Perhaps there is a misunderstanding, or perhaps there is a source of misinformation that has been accepted too readily by some of the participants in these discussions. Rich Z. seems to be an unbiased party, and I am inclined to take seriously his recent post with questions about the credibility of one apparent source of information.
So, is Iago right "Honesty's a fool?" Put another way, if my memory of what I heard my wife say does not coincide with what she is certain she said, is one of us a liar? Well, one of us knows some things can go all day without being said.
On the other hand:
Consider also, dear Salito, the possibility that amateur or professional public or private “investigators” jump to conclusions without getting all the reasonably available information. For example, google.com leads us to the Tampa Police Department website, where we notice that a case number recited by an active poster on this thread seemed to refer to a grand theft motor vehicle, not a stalking charge. Do we then call the poster a “liar,” or do we consider that the number may be that of another law enforcement agency or even the court case number.
The poster failed to provide important information about the case number; is the poster evasive, careless, ignorant of the multiplicity of agencies and case numbers? We can explore lots of hypotheses before we decide someone has deliberately presented a falsehood. But a negligent investigation should cause us concern about the “facts” and “evidence” the investigator urges us to accept on his authority.
For example, some posters have claimed to be uncommonly well-informed on police matters. And right you are Ritchie Luna and John Apple about police reports, up to a point. We got this list of case numbers and commentary by simply running The Snake Pit address on through the search engine on
TPD
https://secure.tampagov.com/servlet/PoliceReports?action=search
Tampa Police Department’s website (which this Luddite lawyer found with google.com). Anybody want to order them up at $6.50 each and see what they say?
Select Reports
Date of Incident Report Year Report Number Location of Incident Incident
Type Add
2002-05-07 2002 199948 1302 BUSCH BL W
2002-05-02 2002 191015 1302 BUSCH BL W BURG-STRUCTURE
2002-05-02 2002 191110 1302 BUSCH BL W
2002-05-02 2002 191129 1302 BUSCH BL W OPEN DOOR/WINDOW
2002-04-12 2002 158274 1302A BUSCH BL W
2002-04-11 2002 158075 1302A BUSCH BL W
2001-12-16 2001 705854 1302 BUSCH BL W
2001-12-15 2001 705639 1302 BUSCH BL W BURG-STRUCTURE
2001-10-15 2001 611556 1302 BUSCH BL W
2001-10-15 2001 611571 1302 BUSCH BL W
2001-07-06 2001 49481 1302 W BUSCH BLVD PETTY/GT FROM BUILD
2001-03-25 2001 22249 1302 W BUSCH BLVD BURG-STRUCTURE
2001-02-07 2001 9846 1302 W BUSCH BLVD
Mr. Luna is concludes: “The answer is YOu must have filed a delayed police report.” A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and jumping to conclusions is not currently an Olympic event. And, No, confessing a temptation to do bodily harm is not a threat legally or morally, any more than confessing lust is a threat to rape. An apology to Neil is in order, Sir, for ill-conceived accusations. Please be man enough to give it.
Nicole is on the right track. The case numbers are in (reverse) consecutive order. Those of us with experience in law enforcement matters would have known that the case numbers are assigned consecutively, even if the report was of an offense occurring months earlier.
Don't try this at home, kids, without adult supervision.
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