Already Scalded, Judge Ducks More Hot Water
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Broward Circuit Judge John Contini, already in trouble over giving advice to a defense lawyer, has avoided another controversy, several courthouse sources say.
Judge John Contini
Contini appointed his friend Lee Cohn as his judicial assistant several weeks ago.
One big problem:
Cohn is a disbarred lawyer. See here.
Sources say Contini was advised by another judge that it was not proper to have a disbarred lawyer represent a judge despite their friendship.
So instead Contini is hiring former Judge Laura Watson’s judicial assistant. The assistant has been looking for a JA job since Watson was removed from office by the Florida Supreme Court last month for improperly short changing other lawyers and her clients in a case before she was elected in 2012.
After being sworn-in earlier this year, Contini quickly got in hot water for sending an e-mail to a public defender that offered suggestions on how to write motions for reduced sentences for criminal defendants. This generated complaints from the prosecutors.
Browardbeat.com could not confirm that a complaint against Contini was filed with the Judicial Qualifications Commission, a group that polices judges.
Contini, a former criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, beat incumbent Judge Steve Feren in the 2014 election.
The judge did not return calls to his office for comment.
July 22nd, 2015 at 1:08 pm
Judge Contini is a good guy but loyal to a fault. A disbarred lawyer can work as a paralegal so it wouldn’t be a stretch to be a JA. The real problem, as you pointed out in your previous article, while disbarred Lee Cohn went to Court claiming to be then attorney John Contini.
The Sun Sentinel was right, when voting for Contini or Feren, it was best to hold your nose and hope for the best.
July 23rd, 2015 at 8:49 pm
troubled guy. only a matter of time.
July 24th, 2015 at 9:31 am
I see this all the time. This one getting a job because he/she I related to this one etc. Meanwhile these people w/ there connections getting these jobs are totally useless. To the point the only reason they are getting the job etc is because its who they know, or who they are related to, or who they are sleeping w/ . When am I going to see people getting jobs/positions etc. like this one you mention Buddy going to get the job on their merits and balls. Some of you say what you want about me @ least I find my own jobs. Usually its by working for myself. Which is fine also. Trust me I’ll never starve. PS to my stripper gal pals(many) congrats on suing the pants off(quite literally) my Mexican jumpin bean(owner of the club). 9mill huh.Your buyin th e next round. In regards to them all being indep. contractors(bs). People a lot of business owners us e this status(Ind. contractor)when they should not. If the owner etc is telling what time you report to work, what days off you have, you ar e not an independent contractor. Let me know and I’ll make you some good Christmas money(and how)… Could do all this in my sleep guys….
July 26th, 2015 at 2:07 am
Ooops. Everybody who wondered why a judicial candidate hired a disbarred attorney to be his lead campaign ground rep., raise your hand!!! And this wasn’t an atty. who got in trouble over alcohol or drug use or emotional problems or even using client trust funds—-he stood in a courtroom, while already under suspension, and LIED TO THE JUDGE’S FACE !!!! Who with an ounce of common sense would think this guy could speak to lawyers and other judges on his behalf???
Because he was a friend??
Or because he went around campaign functions telling Black attendees that I was predjudiced against Blacks– although I number Alcee Hastings, Chris Smith, Joe Gibbons, Hazelle Rogers, Gwyn Clarke-Reed, LeVoyd Williams, Roz Osgood, Corey Shearer, George Allen, Gene Pettis, etc., etc., among my longtime friends. Not to mention the fact that my white, Jewish, suburban son went to the Black, Christian, inner-city Dillard HS for 4 years, and took his smart and cute Black girlfriend to the Senior Prom at my expense and with my blessings.
What goes around, comes around—and sometimes bites you…
FROM BUDDY:
Former Circuit Judge Steven Feren was beaten by John Contini in 2014.
July 26th, 2015 at 10:42 am
How mighty white of you to pay for your son to take his black girlfriend to prom. I was always taught a gentleman usually pays for his date to go to prom. Did you try and write off the expense as a charitable deduction as well?
The Sun Sentinel never wrote up a better analysis of a judicial race when it told its readers if they did vote in your race hold their nose because you both suck.
July 26th, 2015 at 2:28 pm
Steven,
We get it now. You have black friends and you let your son go to school and associate with black students. So openminded!
July 26th, 2015 at 5:27 pm
Hey Feren;
How’d this work out for ya?
Blogger (not me) accuses Judge Steven Feren of misconduct over attack mailers.
http://www.saintpetersblog.com/archives/157402
Just remember, 2nd place means you’re the first loser.
July 27th, 2015 at 6:11 pm
To 5, 6, and 7
I knew as soon as I wrote that I’d get moronic responses from pea brains. Not one of you addressed the issue in the article, which was the ethical integrity, or lack thereof, of this attorney who was disbarred for lying, and who lied about me throughout the campaign to help my opponent get elected. Since the racial prejudice allegations by him was what came to mind first, that’s what I addressed. Did one of you check and find that I misrepresented my longtime friendships with the civic leaders I listed. Did you check out how many white parents sent their children to a 98-99% black school, because they weren’t concerned about color in the slightest? BTW, he had a 5.27 GPA and was the Salutatorian. And I didn’t care what color his girlfriend was, as long as she was a nice girl. The next year, at college (JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY), he dated a Korean girl….big deal. It was the lying that was the issue.
And speaking of lying, how many of you and your ilk went around saying that I spent all my time in Las Vegas casinos, when the truth is that I haven’t even been there in 6 years. Or which of you told people, and the newspapers, that I was never at work because I was a lazy judge—when in reality I developed a dread neuro-muscular disease which has gradually disabled me over the last three years to the point where I can’t even work part-time now..
Lastly, Mr. Chaz, who are you kidding??
Buddy told everyone that you gave him a copy of the Complaint that YOU filed with the JQC complaint against me—10 days before Election Day (as Buddy would say, hmmmmm). And, Chazziepoo, it so happens that disseminating that fact was a violation of state law, my boy, and actionable by me as the aggrieved party. And as long as you brought it up again, why don’t you tell everyone the “WHOLE TRUTH”, that your politically motivated, vaporous charges against me were all DISMISSED….. Ha!!
Anywhere, anytime ??
July 28th, 2015 at 8:34 am
Steven;
Remind us again.
How’d you do again in the election?
Anyyime, anywhere, just not from the bench.
July 28th, 2015 at 9:53 am
1) The article had nothing to do with your political friends, as the article was about Lee Cohn.
2) The article had nothing to do with your son or his fondness for dating minorities. What is next? Your son dated a shiksa and a pacific islander?
3) I am truly sorry for your medical issues. If they were as debilitating as you say, you should have retired early and claimed disability. By not showing up to work and getting a full time paycheck was a wrong committed on the tax payers.
As to your race, Contini didn’t beat you, you beat yourself. Rubbing oneself with sandpaper would be more pleasant than dealing with Sandy (congrats on the divorce). Hiring a Jurassic Park dinosaur like Miller was no help either.
You spent little of the 100k you put in the race. For as close as the race was, an extra 25k could have put you over the top. Honestly, if you had done a pro Feren piece at the end instead of the hit piece on Contini, albeit close, you may have won.
July 28th, 2015 at 11:37 am
Wow! Reading Feren’s nonsense above, it looks like the residents of Broward dodged a bullet when Contini beat him.
He was only looking for a better retirement when he left due to his disability, IMO.
And Steve-O, if Chaz’s dissemination is so actionable by you, why don’t you do something about it? Sounds like a load of BS to me.
July 28th, 2015 at 1:43 pm
Steve, as a friend, this is not the court of public opinion, but the court of giving an opinion.
Nothing personal Buddy.
You aren’t going to win an agrument on a blog or sway anyone. It doesn’t represent the many but only the few who bother to comment. It is obvious to all that Contini may have some serious problems and many may question whether he should have been elected.
As some friendly advice, let it go, stop responding, and let the light shine on Contini, not on you. He will do his own damage and your comments just distract the message away from him.
July 28th, 2015 at 2:24 pm
As much as Feren and Contini both stink, could the smell be any worse than the feces that was allegedly thrown at an ex gf by a blogger who is a minion of Satan?
July 28th, 2015 at 4:46 pm
Typically, when an individual trots out all of his black friends and acquaintances to include his son’s black friends and acquaintances, that individual is a racist. Plain and simple. Did you expect an award of some kind for having black friends?
Truly and honestly diverse individuals do not feel the need to speak out on this by differentiating the ethnic backgrounds of their friends.
They just believe in living their lives like that…diverse without the need for praise because of it.
ALSO EX-judge Feren, you speak of “ethical integrity”. What hypocrisy! How about the Tao Condominium impropriety?
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/the-tao-of-sunrise-mayor-judge-steven-feren-6459918
As for your “dread neuro-muscular disease which has gradually disabled me (sic) over the last three years to the point where I (sic) can’t even work part-time now”. Funny this didn’t seem to bother you when you were scrambling all over Broward during your FAILED campaign.
Is this your indirect admission that you fraudulently accepted your $145,000.00 judicial salary all the while knowing that you were, SELF-ADMITTEDLY, not capable of performing your judicial duties?
Isn’t that kind of like stealing?
One could go on and on about your “colorful” past filled with improprieties, questionable commission votes, back room deals, etc., but everybody already KNOWS about most of these things.
Bottom line is: DON’T YOU DARE PREACH ETHICS AND INTEGRITY TO ANYONE!!
Nobody is sorry you lost, except you. Good riddance to you and “YOUR ilk”.
It is YOU, thankfully, who has been DISMISSED Ha!!
July 29th, 2015 at 3:37 am
I knew as soon as I wrote that I’d get moronic responses from pea brains.
—
I can see why this fellow may have been tempermentally unsuited to a job on the bench (plus, as he has admitted, he is an invalid and cannot work). Sometimes the voters may get it right.
July 29th, 2015 at 8:19 am
I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my five decades of existence, but by far the biggest?
I shouldn’t have allegedly throw feces at that woman. I should have collected a year’s worth of dung, excrement, and poo … then buried her with it.
She is a godawful person.
She lied, stole, cheated … she physically abused me. She kept my very valuable artwork, jewelry, electronics, and pages and pages of other stuff. She filed false allegations with the police. She intentionally nuked my business.
Did you know all this, pardon the pun, crap started because I broke up, moved out, and filed a lawsuit to recover my possessions?
So please, don’t say I allegedly threw shit at her … say that she deserved to be covered in crap and Chaz is sorry he missed that opportunity.
By the way, that was 2002. Don’t you think you, and Belly Bob Norman, need to move on?
It’s just silly.
July 29th, 2015 at 4:36 pm
Minion of satan,
hey knucklehead, no one “deserves to be covered in crap”.
It’s not silly.
It’s sick.
July 29th, 2015 at 6:02 pm
@17…
I wholeheartedly invite you to give her a call.
July 29th, 2015 at 8:28 pm
Hey Chazzy,
Sometimes folks that lie, have trouble keeping their facts straight.
It was 2004 not 2002.
FROM BUDDY:
That’s it about Chaz Stevens’ personal history. This is about a Broward County Circuit Judge.