DeGroot: Why Satz Sukz…In So Many Ways
BY BUDDY NEVINS
John deGroot is at it again.
This time its an attack on State Attorney Mike Satz for, well, lots of things.
I cut deGroot’s screed. I must say that I got a kick out of editing the copy of a guy who edited so much of my copy when he was City Editor of the Fort Lauderdale News.
For the full blog entry, go here.
BY JOHN DEGROOT
Guest Columnist
John-deGroot.com
WHY SATZ SUKZ
As forums go, a blog is an immaculate vehicle for dealing with local balloons in need of righteous deflation.
Like Broward State Attorney Michael J. Satz, who’s held the same office for as many years as the average life span of a pre-Colombian North American.
Okay.
I have never liked or respected the ferret-faced little man.
First, there’s Mike’s constitutional inability to look you in the eye.
Second is his shameless lack of moral courage or conviction as illustrated by his total failure to address the rancid history of of public corruption, misfeasance and malfeasance by a sleazy parade of Broward elected officials.
Then there’s Satz weaselish chutzpah– as in his spin-laden official biography where he boasts of helping Circuit Court Judge Robert Fogan establish the nation’s second Drug Court right here in Broward County back in 1991.
Which is unmitigated Satshit.
Truth is, having spent years deeply involved in the issue of substance abuse as it relates to Broward’s criminal justice system, the Mike Satz I’ve come to know cares as much about drug addicts as North Korea’s Kim Jong il sweats his starving people.
Understand this and you’ve got the back story to the recent courtroom hissyfit before Judge Carlos Rodriguez apparently because Satz’s aggressive Drug Trafficking Unit boss has a problem with the Judge’s allegedly “soft rulings on drug defendants.
Just take a gander at our top Persecuting Attorney’s merciless batting average in hounding thousands of addicted defendants in Broward’s 17th District Circuit Court for the past 20 years:
Total Circuit Court
Drug Defendants as percentage of criminal defendants 1998 through 2008
Florida– 29.9%
Broward– 41.5%
Yeah. I know. Statistics can and do lie.
But these are the records maintained by the Florida Courts at www.flcourts.org.
Point is, statistics can and do provide an accurate idea of how someone is playing the game be it baseball, or enforcing the law.
But don’t take my word for it.
Because the Satz Statz you’ll find at flcourts.org are enough to make any thoughtful person wonder how the man’s survived as Broward’s all time courthouse squatter.
(If they ever nuke South Florida, the only survivors will consist of several billion glow-in-the-dark cockroaches and Mike Satz looking to hustle their votes.)
Trouble is, from Broward’s oily Chief Judge Victor Tobin to our sadly crippled news media, nobody gives a flying cow pie about Mike Satz’s court-clogging, 33-year addiction to drug cases and jury trials as the county’s chief prosecutor.
And speaking of clogging the courts.
It doesn’t take a dime store Ollie Holmes to fathom the following judicial scrotum grabber:
Circuit Courts 1998 through 2008
Criminal Defendant–percentage convicted
Florida 57.8%
Broward 53.2%
Miami-Dade 63.8%
Now….
A word to Broward journalists blessed with IQ’s equal to an electric toaster: There’s a humongous story here, but you’ll have trouble finding anyone in the courthouse with balls enough to walk you through it. And then, of course, there’s the problem of getting your deadhead editors to let you report the story properly.
However, the obvious story concerns the huge number of criminal defendants Satz insists on dragging before a trial court especially when you compare their number to Miami-Dade’s.
Like the numbers we’re dealing with are dumber than 7th grade math although probably heavy lifting for your average Nova JD:
A. Miami-Dade charged 545,241 bad guys with a crime between 1998 and 2008. At the same time, Miami-Dade prosecutors ordered 11,656 of them to face trial.
B. Broward only charged 324,347 bad guys with a crime (220,894 fewer than Miami-Dade.) Yet, Broward prosecutors took 12,154 bad guys to trial (490 more than Miami-Dade.)
I mean, has 33 years in office led Satz to believe he’s the Infallible Inquisitor General on a mission from God to hunt down every nickel-dime druggie in Broward County?
Mike’s addiction to dragging druggies to trial is totally out of control. Which conjures the following possible Satz press conference:
QUESTION FROM THE PRESS:
How come you tanked so many of the drug cases you took to trial?
POSSIBLE ANSWERS FROM SATZ:
(A) Broward has real smart defense attorneys
(B) It’s the local cops’ fault for not giving me better cases
(C)I’ll let Chuck Morton answer that one.
(D) The courthouse pipes leak.
(E) People “call me mis-believer, cut-throat dog and spit upon my Jewish gabardine.
Now…
August 20th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
DeGroot is right: I don’t think Satz has ever prosecuted an official for corruption. He is an example of why term limits are necessary.
August 20th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Catch up John Jaablog has been saying this for years. You never said any of this when you were a reporter or a lackey for Jenne and Butterworth. Thanks to Jaab it is fashionable to come out against satz on drug cases.
If you are tired of the same old broward politics check out jaablog
FROM BUDDY: Jaablog is right. They have been all over Satz for years. But they were not the first ones.
Dan Christensen, who worked at four newspapers in South Florida (Miami Herald, Miami News, Daily Business Review and the Fort Lauderdale News), was an early critic in his Daily Business Review column of what he called Satz’s lack of public corruption prosecutions. Christensen, who got laid off from The Herald recently, is putting together a website.
Later, Bob Norman, of The Broward-Palm Beach New Times, took up the cudgel.
Both did so before JAABlog.
August 20th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Degroot claims he is or was a respected journalist. Once he resorts to name calling and personal attacks, he might as well be one of the anonymous morons on the courthouse blog.
Degroot first shows his ignorance by criticizing Mike Satz for trying too many cases. The public does not want cases “plea bargained”. They want their state attorney to try cases, and not give them away. Furthermore, there is nothing in the statistics to say that the cases tried were “drug” cases. Degroot, you know you lied when you tried to lead everyone to the conclusion that these trials were all drug cases. For all you know, they could have been all violent crimes that went to trial. While I am sure there were many drug crimes that did go to trial, one thing you will find if you look at the defendants that did go to trial is that nearly all had long records and were facing long prison terms if convicted. That is the exact type of defendant that the public wants to take off the street.
Why don’t you also compare the crime rates of the major jurisdictions? Broward has a much lower crime rate than Dade, Palm Beach, Orlando, Tampa, St. Pete, or Jacksonville. We do have a high number of drug crimes. Would you rather have a high number of robberies? Mike Satz office handles many drug crimes because that is what the police arrest. The police know that crackheads can only support their habits by committing other crimes. Degroot probably has no idea the extent of the diversion for drug offenders in this county. The defendants going to prison have had multiple opportunities for rehabilitation and have numerous felony convictions (other than drug crimes). Degroot, if you had even the most basic understanding of the criminal justice system you would know that it is judges that send people to prison, not prosecutors. Why don’t you criticize the judges for sending so many people to prison?
Degroot, one of the reasons that bloggers remain anonymous is because they do not want to show their ignorance. I guess you were not even smart enough to learn that lesson.
August 20th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Dear Jaablow –
It would seem you failed to read the thoughts I expressed about Satz in the depo I gave to his cream puff public corruption unit while I was serving as Ken Jenne’s lackey.
Truth be told, Jenne was never happy with my talents as a lackey during my years with BSO — even though I always did my best to look shorter than Ken by stooping over real low whenever I was standing near the Sheriff.
Also, I had trouble doing a good job with the bobblehead thing during PowerTrac, no matter how hard I tried.
August 21st, 2009 at 4:37 am
Mike Satz rightfully believes that drugs lead to crime. A walk through the jail will show anybody that drugs and alcohol are at the root of most crimes. Attack the druggie before he breaks into my house. I’m all for Satz.
August 21st, 2009 at 4:39 am
Mr. deGroot forgot about Scott Cowan. He was convicted by Satz’ boys for election violations and served time in jail.
Much of what the papers call corruption is unprovable allegations by opposing political factions.
August 21st, 2009 at 4:57 am
I am the editor of the Sun-Sentinel and I fired Degroot because HE IS SUCH AN IDIOT.
FROM BUDDY: If this is the real Earl Maucker, he forgot how to spell his name. Obviously, this e-mail isn’t from the editor of the Sun-Sentinel.
As I recall, John deGroot wasn’t fired. He quit to work for Sheriff Ken Jenne right around the time Jenne was appointed.
August 21st, 2009 at 8:39 am
I wish to God Earl had fired me; it would have done wonders for my self esteem looking back on my career as a card-carrying lackey.
And as for deGroot is an idiot — I fear I’m guilty of such an extreme level stupidity that I actually believe there are still a few people living in Broward intelligent enough to be ashamed of the mono-ethnic ticket voters who continue to reelect self-serving politicians like Mike Satz, most of the judges and way, way too many County Commissioners and School Board members.
That sed, please keep your caustic comments cuming as they greatly loosen my old man’s bowels.
August 21st, 2009 at 9:41 am
Can’t wait to see Brad Pitt’s new movie, Inglourious Basterds. The title alone tickles my fancy. But there’s no time for that right now. John deGroot craves our attention so let’s get down to business.
In the twilight of his life, facing the inevitable mud pit that awaits us all, poisoned by his own mediocrity, a fact that in no way fills his unreasonably large ego, John deGroot chooses to lash out at his betters — people who have actually done something worthy in their lives. It’s anger and envy that fuels him, his regret turned outward with a vengence. He just screams out “please, won’t somebody, anybody, pay attention to me!” If only they would listen.
Unable to face up to his failure, his plot to make the world around him darker place. If he can only dim the sunlight around him it will no longer can burn his gaze.
How dare Ken Jenne not kneel at the altar of the Great deGroot, instead figuring out (too late of course) that Johnny boy was indeed an unmitigated asshole. How dare Mike Satz not run his office as the Great deGroot demands. How dare the public forget the Great deGroot’s, face it, forgettable career as a “journalist” now delegated to the pit of blogland.
I’m sure he wonders why there aren’t statues erected to honor the Great deGroot? I mean how can that NOT happen? Don’t they know who he is? Surely, we must get these people to see the error of their ways but how.
Hmm. I know. Let’s talk shit about others that have actually achieved something in life and bring them down to his level. Yea, that way he can look better. And let’s especially choose those that took pity on him and gave him work or attention when nobody else would. That’s the ticket.
How pathetic.
There’s an old saying that fits John deGroot perfectly: What can one expect from a pig but a grunt.
The Great deGroot grunts at Ken Jenne. He grunts at Mike Satz. He grunts at anyone that doesn’t see things his way. They must all be idiots. Think of the hubris involved in this. Mike Satz. Ken Jenne. Perfect? No way. Greater than deGroot? Ah…yea. That much is pretty certain. Yet he knows better.
But you see Johnny, that’s just the thing. Having no capacity to recognize that the enire world around you thinks differently than you is the first hint, indeed the most recognizable symptom of assholeness. That fact alone makes you the asshole that we all know you to be. You’re a classic case.
Assholes don’t fit in society. They can’t. And that’s John’s basic problem, always was. And the trouble with assholes is they’re too fucked up to see what they truly are. Yet being an asshole is what defines John deGroot, it’s what makes him a miserable old man who used to be a miserable younger man. This is why he’s always been a fraction of what he could have become. It’s why he drank his life away. It’s why he looks back on his life and himself with self loathing and regret. His aspirations of greatness are all dashed. All that remains is an old man with a haunting thought.
What could have been.
It’s a sad picture.
So I say everyone, hey. Let’s allow John to self medicate himself at the trough of blogshit if that makes him feel better. Please pity him. Let him slup up his full measure. Really, go to it John, eat to your heart’s content, we hope it comforts you.
Come to think of it, here’s a better prescription. One that might actually make him and us feel better.
Go to your grave John. End your misery. You’ve suffered enough. Go to your celestial pigsty where you can squirm in the mud and the scum forever. Doesn’t that sound appealing? Go there and grunt away with the rest of the pigs who await you. Nobody here gives a shit, John, your writing only reminds us of how twisted a jerkoff you are. It reminds us of why we want to forget you. It reminds us of the plight that awaits anyone that lives a life as incredibly fucked up as yours.
Go. This way we can all go to the movies or see something else that’s really interesting.
FROM BUDDY: Ouch. In the words of the younger generation: “deGroot. You’ve just been served.”
August 21st, 2009 at 11:19 am
In my career as a law enforcement officer, I always viewed Mike Satz as a partner and ally in the fight against crime. That is what a prosecutor is suppose to be. DeGroot is the first one I ever saw who complained that too many criminals were being prosecuted.
August 22nd, 2009 at 7:36 am
I agree buddy…
I certainly have been served.
Altho I’m not sure what.
Personally, Inglourious Basterd just may be the first blog poster I’ve read who over-writes more than I.
That sed, I am truly humbled and cut to the quick by his searing assault on my craven character in turgid prose (sic) like:
“Unable to face up to his (deGroot’s) failure, his plot to make the world around him a darker place. If he can only dim the sunlight around him it will no longer can (sic) burn his gaze.”
Too bad Inglourious failed to mention the part about my slouching towards Bethlehem with “a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun.”
Ah well.
To borrow a line from my old pal Steve Dedalus, “Ad pulcritundinem tria requiruntur, integritas, consontia, claritas.”
Fact is,from my vantage point in the mud, I find both South Florida and Quintin Tarantino’s movies lack all three.
But then, if Inglourious grasped the First Noble Truth of the Buddha, the Basterd would comprehend (and possibly accept) my dismal view of pathetic political dopplegangers like Mike Satz and Ken Jenne.
That sed, I appreciate and thank the Basterd for all the time and psychic energy he’s invested in my humble efforts via his post.
PS – I understand Inglourious Basterds is about Jews killing Nazi soliders instead of innocent Palestinian women and children — which should prove to be a blood-splattered cinamatic hoot.
August 22nd, 2009 at 7:46 am
PPS
I the last time I had this much fun was during a parade that featured a very small Sheriff Ken Jenne* mounted atop a very large horse. *Wearing a Smokey the Bear hat, no less.
August 22nd, 2009 at 7:51 am
You cannot judge a book by its cover, but you can most certainly judge a spin doctor of the Machine by their comments.
Whether DeGroot is 100% correct or not, he has hit the nail on the head regarding the propensity for Satz to provide cover for the elected officials for all of his years in Broward.
The county is dripping with obvious criminality among the electeds, yet Satz seems to have a filter that eliminates those facts from his field of vision.
Buddy knows the truth. Sadly, if Buddy really told all, he’d be labeled a disgruntled Republican. One does not need an axe to grind when it comes to exposing the corrupt and routine criminality which exists in Broward. The plausible deniability model is the first thing taught to an up and coming appointee or elected. That is why the last to go in any bloated government organization is the multifarious layers of administrators that provide cover for the facilitators avoiding accountability.
Buddy knows and so does DeGroot and Norman. The sad part is that the citizens are never the ones stepping out to vouch for Satz. Rather it is always a member of the Machine.
Buddy knows………………….
August 22nd, 2009 at 8:49 am
DeGroot is a disgruntled old man who was once admired. Now he has sunk into a funk of hate for everybody. He worked for Jenne and testified against him. Some would call that a betrayal. He worked for Butterworth and left under mysterious circumstances. He doesn’t like Satz because Satz would not bow and scrape at the alter of John DeGroot. He hates the Sun-Sentinel because it isn’t the same ink-stained force in the community it once was. He hates the editors at the Sun-Sentinel because they pushed him out the door. He hate the county commission. He hates the judges. What this is all about is that nobody cares what John DeGroot thinks.
August 22nd, 2009 at 8:51 am
Satz has been in office for 33 years and will continue in office until his casket door is shut for two basics reasons:
1. Democrats believe that he is an honest public servant who is tough on crime.
2. Republicans believe that he is an honest public servant who is tough on crime.
August 22nd, 2009 at 9:00 am
Permissum is quisnam est vacuus sin iacio prothoplastus calx
Nuf said.
August 22nd, 2009 at 10:30 am
Degroot’s PS above (PS – I understand Inglourious Basterds is about Jews killing Nazi soliders instead of innocent Palestinian women and children) shows that he is not only an idiot, but an anti-semite. No wonder he hates the State Attorney.
August 22nd, 2009 at 11:06 am
Buddy,
It seems to me that Degroot, with his anti-semitic comment, has put you in a position where you will have to decide whether you will allow your column to be hijacked by the lunatic fringe.
The more Degroot writes, the more he proves that he is an idiot.
FROM BUDDY: I agree deGroot’s post and one of his comments have gratuitous references to (1) Satz’s “Jewish gabardine” and (2) Israelis attacking “innocent” Palestinian women and children. They have nothing to do with the subject of the state attorney. I left them up so that readers can judge for themselves about the writer.
August 22nd, 2009 at 1:00 pm
No one wants your respect. It doesn’t sound like you are having as much fun as a parade anymore. I suspect you reread your PS and realized what a fool you have become. We understand and encourage for you to go bye-bye.
August 22nd, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Since DeGroot is so fond of statistics, here is the only one voters care about.
Broward County has less crime per 100,000 than Dade or Palm Beach.
Broward has 4,685 crimes per 100,000. Palm has 4,854 and Dade has 6,179.
Maybe one of the reasons is that Satz prosecutes crime!
August 22nd, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Thanks for the writing tips there coach. I might have done a better job had I put much effort into it. Just the same, I think my point got across just fine.
You’ve been seen slithering around Fort Lauderdale for many years in fact. We here know exactly who and what you are. So to hear you complain that someone else is corrupt, of all things, or not doing their job right, sorry but one sails just a bit bit far over the top to not merit a proper response.
An old piece of shit like you with no scruples whatsoever has no business judging anybody. Wanna’ get pensive? Spend some time thinking about how to become a proper human being. That should keep you plenty busy.
But for GD sure, you’ve got nothing to teach or preach to anybody. And I’ve just decided that I’ve heard enough of your twisted shit. Future responses from me will include specifics from your life that will make those you seek to villify look like choir boys.
October 26th, 2011 at 8:40 am
The question is: Why does Satz refuse to prosecute police corruption?
Because he has willfully and knowingly used false evidence, know to be false and altered, to send innocent citizens to their deaths and to long terms of imprisonment. If Satz would arrest and charge, for example, the Disney cops from Hollywood, they would scream in the media: Why, now, when we have worked together so many times before to falsely convict and embellish the name of Michael Satz; put notches in his gun belt(s)?
Here is an example of a Satz prosecution based upon false and altered evide4nce:
http://db.tt/4s6d7Riy
and,
http://db.tt/GsVKaNSq
and, finally,
http://db.tt/HHeHt8q1
Satz knows, fully, the identity of the Dr. Frankenstein at the Hollywood Police Dept. who altered and falsified the video evidence in the Torrens-Vilas case, as well as in the Donald Baker case. He has yet to take Pressley and Francisco to trial, and the statute of limitations has run as to Dr. Frankenstein (a/k/a: Robbie Knapp) of the corrupt Hollywood Florida police department.
When a state attorney resorts to suborning the perjury of a defendant’s own attorney, the sand has been removed from the whale dung, and midst the decaying excrement, you will find the likes of Michael J. Satz, State Attorney, and his “Prosecutor of the Year,” Scott Raft. If anyone needs proof of these facts, write me at mcnamara.john6@gmail.com
John McNamara
John McNamara