Limbaugh Attorney Black's Statement on Leaks from SAO

Rush Limbaugh Website ^ | 01-23-04

[AlwaysLurking]

Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office Dances Atop Their SUV, Releases Confidential Correspondence

Roy Black Comments on the State's Release of Confidential Correspondence

Miami, FL – January 23, 2004 – Roy Black, attorney for Rush Limbaugh, issued the following statement today regarding confidential correspondence that was released to the media by Palm Beach State Attorney Barry Krischer.

“My letter to Mr. Krischer regarding Mr. Limbaugh’s case asked that Mr. Limbaugh be afforded the treatment anyone else would receive. The State's response was preposterous, but consistent with their double standard in this case. The facts are: Mr. Limbaugh went to these doctors to relieve chronic, intractable pain; there was no doctor shopping. Mr. Limbaugh never considered accepting the State’s ludicrous offer. He was not going to plea to something he did not do. We sent them a letter suggesting Mr. Limbaugh be treated in a similar manner that others had been treated. They responded with a preposterous offer. Discussions ended at that time. At no time was there ever a plea agreement of any kind.

"What the records don’t show is that before we could draft a letter responding to the State, we received a phone call from a newspaper reporter, as a result of a leak by the State Attorney’s office, asking us whether Mr. Limbaugh had agreed to enter a plea. As I told the court last month, we think the State Attorney’s Office should be investigated for journalist shopping.

"What is most troubling here is the continued violations of Florida law and bar ethics by the State Attorney’s Office. One need look no further than the bold caption on top of my letter alerting everyone to the confidential nature of the communication. The disclosure of these highly confidential communications violates the Florida statutes, the rules of procedure and evidence, and the Florida Bar Rules governing professional conduct. Because the State has no case against Mr. Limbaugh they continually seek to discredit him in the media.”

[OldFriend]

Somewhere on this thread there is a link to his actions during the Willie Smith rape trial. Seems he obtained the woman's medical records under false pretenses.......none of the information contained therein had the remotest connection to her charges of being raped. He used that information to slander the woman in the media.

Interesting too that last night Hannity was insisting that the rape victim in the Bryant case had no right to keep her medical records private. I guess when it's Rush there is one standard and when it's an athlete, it's another.

[OldFriend]

Rush owes it to himself to protect his credibility.

That credibility has been diminished and no defense of his behaviour before or after rehab can alter that fact. Only Rush can help himself.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

Somewhere on this thread there is a link to Roy Black's actions during the Willie Smith rape trial. Seems he obtained the woman's medical records under false pretenses.......none of the information contained therein had the remotest connection to her charges of being raped. He used that information to slander the woman in the media.

Roy Black is a LIAR-FOR-HIRE.

[TigersEye]

Who has defended Rush's behavior concerning the allegation that he illegally bought drugs?

[Howlin]

Actually, by my own logic, I don't have to ASK for a deal; I'm guilty of nothing.

Read the letters on The Smoking Gun.

[RS]

"The letters bolster the absense of any plea deal. The prosecutor was obvious in not making a legitimate offer."

Well duh - if there was a deal we would know -

The letters prove that there WAS dealings, albeit unsuccessful.

... and just how much of a lighter deal could the prosecutor have offered ?
What would your suggestion have been that Rush should have taken ?

[Rockitz]

Krischer is trying to parlay this cse in to a run for State Attorney General. I'd guess he's getting his marching orders from the DNC.

[blackie]

Rush Rocks!

[ConservativeMan55]

BUMP!

[AlwaysLurking]

http://home.hpphoto.com/servlet/LinkPhoto?GUID=1b7d416b-15b8-5ff3-1920-70043582308a&size

[X-FID]

BS, pal. I had an "8" handicap -- not exactly a "hacker"

Just for the record I didn't say that you were a hacker, and I'm not as big a Rush fan as you imply, pal.

[blackie]

Rush Is The Man!

[longtermmemmory]

The maximum should be an issue of drug court intervention. It is only natural for the defense lawyer to find out the intent of the prosecutor.

I suspect the reason behind the letter from Roy Black was to put in writing what they were seeking. Judging from the consversation outlined in Roy's letter, the letter was encouraged from the SA. Encouraged as a means of being suckered. Roy Black should get the jury consultant Dimitrius to analyze the SA personalities.

Remember there are no charges. The deal of drug court would be a very reasonable deal. The defendant consents to the charge and jurisdiction of the court. There is no need of probably cause because you would have a confession.

I am still believing the notion that the cline immunity deal was dovetailed to the cline's releasing the story to the enquirirer. The SA intended the story to embarass Rush into an admission.

The SA has an ethics violation problem.

[longtermmemmory]

The law was different then. The law is stricter now. The comparison may be apples and oranges.

FL has a constitution privacy amendment, FL has very specific laws regarding who can access medical records.

Also remember Rush is the Defendant and in the Bryant case this are not the defendants records but records which could exhonerate a defendant.

Also access to medical records does not equal admissibility or even relevance during a trial.

These are two different contexts and two different sets of state laws.

[OldFriend]

Access to medical records guarantees leaks to the media.

[longtermmemmory]

The media has been getting the court info about 35% correct. Many of the media stories have been sent out from CNN reporters in miami over 90 miles away.

The behavior of the media tells me they are intentionally being ignorant about the FL drug court program. Each Circuit has a judge who is assigned to first offender cases. As part of the pretrial release the defendant goes to treatment and does community service.

If the defendant fails to complete treatment or gives a dirty urine sample, they are violated out of the program and have a choice of pleaing the case for regular plea based on guidelines or transfering their case randomly to regular criminal circuit court.

Before you could plea you have to have charges and the charges have yet to be made. (Remember they have dumped using the maid to say she illegally sold him drugs. So much for the Cigar Box of Dooooom.) The Roy Black letter was a means of fishing to see what the prosecutor has in mind and to offer an orchestrated charge and plea combination.

Usually there are not the time and budgetary resources to devote to a mere user case. A first time defendant who offers on a silver platter to go into drug court is a godsend to overworked prosecutors.

The filing attorney would then be able to directly mark the case for drug court and assign more serious cases to the court prosecutor who actually has to try the cases.

[longtermmemmory]

I think the prosecutors looked at the records long before the seal was broken. That is how they could say in Dec they had 10 counts with probable cause.

Of course that can't be isolated anymore because the judge conveniently allowed a "window" of access before resealing the records.

[OldFriend]

The Bryant defense also had 'accidental' access to the victim's medical records and has agreed to destroy them.

Since we haven't heard a word my guess is there is nothing damning in them. Sometimes the defense would rather let the imagination of the public take over.

As for Rush, much of the information has found it's way to Smoking Gun.......

[longtermmemmory]

Have you ever met the man? Obviously not.
Roy Black knows the law and he works very hard to keep up.
The media get so much wrong, there is no way you could asses his legal skill from media reports. Just as there are hotshot lawyers on the news who you should not trust to handle a minor speeding ticket. (marsha clark comes to mind.)

[longtermmemmory]

I never have any confidence in the destruction of records orders or claims. There is no way to erase the memory of having seen that information.

This need to "destroy" records is common in civil cases and particulary in complex divorce cases.