Posted on 07/17/2013 7:06:40 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Angela Corey, by all accounts, is no Atticus Finch. She is “one hell of a trial lawyer,” says a Florida defense attorney who has known her for three decades — but the woman who has risen to national prominence as the “tough as nails” state attorney who prosecuted George Zimmerman is known for scorching the earth. And some of her prosecutorial conduct has been, well, troubling at best.
Corey, a Jacksonville native, took a degree in marketing from Florida State University before pursuing her J.D. at the University of Florida. She became a Florida prosecutor in 1981 and tried everything from homicides to juvenile cases in the ensuing 26 years. In 2008, Corey was elected state attorney for Florida’s Fourth Judicial Circuit, taking over from Harry Shornstein — the four-term state attorney who had fired her from his office a year earlier, citing “long-term issues” regarding her supervisory performance.
When Corey came in, she cleaned house. Corey fired half of the office’s investigators, two-fifths of its victim advocates, a quarter of its 35 paralegals, and 48 other support staff — more than one-fifth of the office. Then she sent a letter to Florida’s senators demanding that they oppose Shornstein’s pending nomination as a U.S. attorney. “I told them he should not hold a position of authority in his community again, because of his penchant for using the grand jury for personal vendettas,” she wrote.
Corey knows about personal vendettas. They seem to be her specialty. When Ron Littlepage, a journalist for the Florida Times-Union, wrote a column criticizing her handling of the Christian Fernandez case — in which Corey chose to prosecute a twelve-year-old boy for first-degree murder, who wound up locked in solitary confinement in an adult jail prior to his court date — she “fired off a two-page, single-spaced letter on official state-attorney letterhead hinting at lawsuits for libel.”
And that was moderate. When Corey was appointed to handle the Zimmerman case, Talbot “Sandy” D’Alemberte, a former president of both the American Bar Association and Florida State University, criticized the decision: “I cannot imagine a worse choice for a prosecutor to serve in the Sanford case. There is nothing in Angela Corey’s background that suits her for the task, and she cannot command the respect of people who care about justice.” Corey responded by making a public-records request of the university for all e-mails, text messages, and phone messages in which D’Alemberte had mentioned Fernandez. Like Littlepage, D’Alemberte had earlier criticized Corey’s handling of the Fernandez case. Not many people are willing to cross Corey. A Florida attorney I spoke with declined to go on record because of “concerns about retaliation” — that attorney has pending cases that will require Corey’s cooperation. The attorney mentioned colleagues who have refused to speak to the media for the same reason. And to think: D’Alemberte crossed Corey twice. He should get a medal.
But what these instances point to is something much more alarming than Corey’s less-than-warm relations with her peers.
In June 2012, Alan Dershowitz, a well-known defense attorney who has been a professor at Harvard Law School for nearly half a century, criticized Corey for her affidavit in the Zimmerman case. Making use of a quirk of Florida law that gives prosecutors, for any case except first-degree murder, the option of filing an affidavit with the judge instead of going to a grand jury, Corey filed an affidavit that, according to Dershowitz, “willfully and deliberately omitted” crucial exculpatory evidence: namely, that Trayvon Martin was beating George Zimmerman bloody at the time of the fatal gunshot. So Corey avoided a grand jury, where her case likely would not have held water, and then withheld evidence in her affidavit to the judge. “It was a perjurious affidavit,” Dershowitz tells me, and that comes with serious consequences: “Submitting a false affidavit is grounds for disbarment.”
Shortly after Dershowitz’s criticisms, Harvard Law School’s dean’s office received a phone call. When the dean refused to pick up, Angela Corey spent a half hour demanding of an office-of-communications employee that Dershowitz be fired. According to Dershowitz, Corey threatened to sue Harvard, to try to get him disbarred, and also to sue him for slander and libel. Corey also told the communications employee that she had assigned a state investigator — an employee of the State of Florida, that is — to investigate Dershowitz. “That’s an abuse of office right there,” Dershowitz says.
What happened in the weeks and months that followed was instructive. Dershowitz says that he was flooded with correspondence from people telling him that this is Corey’s well-known M.O. He says numerous sources — lawyers who had sparred with Corey in the courtroom, lawyers who had worked with and for her, and even multiple judges — informed him that Corey has a history of vigorously attacking any and all who criticize her. But it’s worse than that: Correspondents told him that Corey has a history of overcharging and withholding evidence. The Zimmerman trial is a clear case of the former and a probable case of the latter. Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder, also known as “depraved mind” murder. The case law for that charge, an attorney who has worked in criminal prosecution outside Florida tells me, is near-unanimous: It almost never applies to one-on-one encounters. Second-degree murder is the madman who fires indiscriminately into a crowd or unlocks the lions’ cage at the zoo. “Nothing in the facts of this case approaches that.” Which Angela Corey, a veteran prosecutor, should have known, and a grand jury would have told her. In fact, both the initial police investigation and the original state attorney in charge of the case had determined exactly that: There was no evidence of any crime, much less second-degree murder
But that did not stop Corey from zealously overcharging and — the facts suggest — withholding evidence to ensure that that charge stuck.
Still, by the end of the case it was clear that the jury was unlikely to convict Zimmerman of second-degree murder; hence the prosecution’s addition of a manslaughter charge — as well as its attempt to add a charge for third-degree murder by way of child abuse — after the trial had closed. “In 50 years of practice I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Dershowitz. It’s a permissible maneuver, but as a matter of professional ethics it’s a low blow.
Corey’s post-trial performance has been less than admirable as well. Asked in a prime-time interview with HLN how she would describe George Zimmerman, Corey responded, “Murderer.” Attorneys who spoke with me called her refusal to acknowledge the validity of the jury’s verdict everything from “disgusting” to “disgraceful.”
But will Corey ever be disciplined for prosecutorial abuses? It’s unlikely. State attorneys cannot be brought before the bar while they remain in office. Complaints can be filed against Corey, but they will be deferred until she is no longer state attorney. The governor can remove her from office, but otherwise her position — and her license — are safe.
Meanwhile, those who speak out against her continue to be mistreated. Ben Kruidbos (pronounced CRIED-boss), the IT director at Corey’s state-attorney office, was fired last week — one month after testifying during the Zimmerman trial that Corey had withheld from defense attorneys evidence obtained from Trayvon Martin’s cell phone. Corey’s office contends that Kruidbos was fired for poor job performance and for leaking personnel records. The termination notice delivered to Kruidbos last Friday read: “You have proven to be completely untrustworthy. Because of your deliberate, wilful and unscrupulous actions, you can never again be trusted to step foot in this office.” Less than two months before this letter, Kruidbos had received a raise for “meritorious performance.”
The records in question — Kruidbos maintains he had nothing to do with leaking them — revealed that Corey used $235,000 in taxpayer money to upgrade her pension and that of her co-prosecutor in the Zimmerman case, Bernie de la Rionda. The upgrade was legal, but Harry Shornstein, Corey’s predecessor, had said previously that using taxpayer funds to upgrade pensions was not “proper.”
Meanwhile, while Kruidbos has been forced out of the state attorney’s office, the managing director who wrote his termination letter — one Cheryl Peek — remains. In 1990 Peek was fired from the same state attorney’s office by Harry Shornstein’s predecessor, Ed Austin, for jury manipulation. Now, as managing director for that office, she trains lawyers in professional ethics.
Since her election, Corey seems to be determinedly purging from the ranks any who cross her and surrounding herself with inferiors whose ethical scruples appear to mirror her own. Meanwhile, those she chooses to victimize — most recently, George Zimmerman — far too often have little recourse.
“Make crime pay,” Will Rogers once quipped: “Become a lawyer.” Angela Corey seems to be less interested in making crime pay than in making her critics pay.
— Ian Tuttle is an editorial intern at National Review.
You have heard Rodney Dangerfield describe a “2 bagger””?
You put a Bag over your head incase the Bag over her head breaks.
Clocks must stop in any room she enters.
So ugly, the next morning in bed, you chew your arm off to avoid waking her.
“LOLOL! Helen Thomas’ younger, prettier sister!”
...or, Joe Torre with t-ts!
The _resident now holding office sets the tone (or more precisely, Valerie Jarrett, his right-hand man, does), and they are all a bunch of petty, vengeful tyrants. The sh*t rolls downhill.
Even though it’s been decades since I ‘ve seen Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, she makes me think of the Queen of Hearts.
http://www.flgov.com/contact-gov-scott/email-the-governor/
Governor Scotts email page.
email to gov all these articles.
she has made many political enemies and no friends.
no friend other than pam bondi.
http://www.flgov.com/contact-gov-scott/email-the-governor/
Governor Scotts email page.
email to gov all these articles.
EVERY florida bar board of governernors:
Eugene K. Pettis, President
Haliczer, Pettis & Schwamm, P.A.
One Financial Plaza, 100 S.E. Third Avenue, 7th Floor
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33394
Phone: (954) 523-9922
Fax: (954) 522-2512
epettis@hpslegal.com
Gregory W. Coleman, President-Elect
Burman, Critton, Luttier & Coleman, LLP
303 Banyan Blvd., Ste. 400
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Phone: (561) 842-2820
Fax: (561) 844-6929
gcoleman@bclclaw.com
(Alpha Order)
Ramón A. Abadin (11-01)
Sedgwick LLP
9155 S. Dadeland Boulevard, Suite 1208
Miami, FL 33156
Phone: (305) 671-2124
Fax: (305) 437-8144
ramon.abadin@sedgwicklaw.com
O. John Alpizar (18-01)
Alpizar Law, LLC
1528 Palm Bay Road, NE
Palm Bay, FL 32905
Phone: (321) 676-2511
Fax: (321) 723-8077
john@alpizarlaw.com
Lorna E. Brown-Burton (17-03)
Law Office of Lorna E. Brown-Burton, P.A.
1041 SE 17th Street
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316
Phone: (954) 463-8322
Fax: (954) 463-8587
lornab@lebburtonlaw.com
Brian D. Burgoon (OOS-04)
The Burgoon Law Firm, LLC
659 Auburn Avenue NE, Suite 147
Atlanta, GA 30312
Phone: (404) 260-5147
Fax: (866) 805-5997
burgoon@burgoonlaw.com
Walter G. Campbell Jr. (17-01)
Krupnick Campbell Malone, et al
12 SE 7th Street, Suite 801
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
Phone: (954) 763-8181
Fax: (954) 763-8292
wcampbell@krupnicklaw.com
Jay Cohen (17-04)
Law Offices of Jay Cohen, P.A.
100 SE 3rd Avenue, Suite 1500
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33394
Phone: (954) 763-6939
Fax: (954) 763-6093
jcohen@jaycohenlaw.com
Ian M. Comisky (OOS-02)
Blank Rome, LLP
One Logan Square, 130 North 18th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Phone: (215) 569-5646
Fax: (215) 832-5646
icomisky@blankrome.com
Steven W. Davis (11-06)
Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP
100 S.E. 2nd St., Ste. 2800
Miami, FL 33131
Phone: (305) 357-8424
Fax: (305) 539-1207
sdavis@bsfllp.com
William Howard Davis (02-02)
Dobson, Davis & Smith
610 N. Duval Street
Tallahassee, FL 32301
Phone: (850) 224-2683
Fax: (850) 224-2283
bdavis@ddslaw.net
Sandra Fascell Diamond (06-02)
Williamson, Diamond & Caton, P.A.
9075 Seminole Boulevard
Seminole, FL 33772
Phone: (727) 398-3600
Fax: (727) 393-5458
sdiamond@wdclaw.com
Stephen H. Echsner (01-01)
Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz, PLLC
17 E. Main Street, Suite 200
Pensacola, FL 32502
Phone: (850) 202-1010
Fax: (850) 916-7449
sechsner@awkolaw.com
Dori Foster-Morales (11-02)
Foster-Morales Sockel-Stone
Museum Tower - PH II / Suite 2950
150 West Flagler Street
Miami, FL 33130
Phone: (305) 577-0090
Fax: (305) 577-4551
dori@fostermorales.com
Winston W. Gardner Jr. (PM-01)
2305 Edgewater Drive, Suite 1201
Orlando, FL 32804
Phone: (407) 254-5370
wwgardner@aol.com
Melanie S. Griffin, YLD President
Dean Mead
P.O. Box 2346
Orlando, FL 32802
Phone: (407) 428-5106
Fax: (407) 423-1831
mgriffin@deanmead.com
John H. (Jack) Hickey (11-07)
Hickey Law Firm, P.A.
1401 Brickell Avenue, Suite 510
Miami, FL 33131
Phone: (305) 371-8000
Fax: (305) 371-3542
hickey@hickeylawfirm.com
Michael J. Higer (11-04)
Higer Lichter & Givner, LLP
18305 Biscayne Boulevard, Suite 302
Aventura, FL 33160
Phone: (305) 933-9970
Fax: (305) 933-0998
mhiger@hlglawyers.com
Anthony Holloway (PM-02)
Clearwater Police Department
645 Pierce Street
Clearwater, FL 33756
Phone: (727) 562-4343
Fax: (727) 562-4339
anthony.holloway@myclearwater.com
Michael S. Hooker (13-04)
Phelps Dunbar, LLP
100 S. Ashley Drive, Suite 1900
Tampa, FL 33602
Phone: (813) 472-7550
Fax: (813) 472-7570
michael.hooker@phelps.com
Dennis G. Kainen (11-05)
Weisberg and Kainen, P.L.
1401 Brickell Avenue, Suite 800
Miami, FL 33131
Phone: (305) 374-5544
Fax: (305) 358-8565
attorneys@weisbergandkainen.com
Gary S. Lesser (15-04)
Lesser, Lesser, Landy & Smith, PLLC
101 Northpoint Parkway
West Palm Beach, FL 33407
Phone: (561) 655-2028
Fax: (561) 655-2033
glesser@lesserlawfirm.com
Laird A. Lile (20-01)
Laird A. Lile, P.A.
3033 Riviera Drive, Suite 104
Naples, FL 34103
Phone: (239) 649-7778
Fax: (239) 649-7780
LLile@LairdALile.com
Leslie J. Lott (11-03)
Lott & Fischer
355 Alhambra Circle, Suite 1100
Coral Gables, FL 33134
Phone: (305) 448-7089
Fax: (305) 446-6191
ljlott@lottfischer.com
John Wesley Manuel (14-01)
Manuel & Thompson, P.A.
P.O. Box 1470
Panama City, FL 32402
Phone: (850) 785-5555
Fax: (850) 785-0133
jay@manuelthompson.com
Margaret Diane Mathews (13-03)
Akerman Senterfitt
401 E. Jackson Street, Suite 1700
Tampa, FL 33602
Phone: (813) 223-7333
Fax: (813) 223-2837
margaret.mathews@akerman.com
Scott R. McMillen (09-03)
McMillen Law Firm, P.A.
608 East Central Boulevard
Orlando, FL 32801
Phone: (407) 843-0126
Fax: (407) 650-3420
scott@mcmillenlawfirm.com
Eric L. Meeks (OOS-03)
Meeks Law Firm, Inc.
P.O. Box 8098
Cincinnati, OH 45208
Phone: (513) 826-0229
Fax: (513) 826-0231
emeeks@meekslawfirm.com
Mary Ann Morgan (09-01)
Billings, Morgan & Boatwright, LLC
399 Carolina Avenue, Suite 100
Winter Park, FL 32789
Phone: (407) 679-9900
Fax: (407) 975-6505
maryann@billingslawfirm.com
Charles Richard Nail (10-01)
GrayRobinson, P.A.
P.O. Box 3
Lakeland, FL 33802
Phone: (863) 284-2280
Fax: (863) 688-2175
richard.nail@gray-robinson.com
Michael Fox Orr, YLD President-elect
Dawson | Orr
233 E. Bay St., Ste. 1010
Jacksonville, FL 32202
Phone: (904) 358-8300
Fax: (904) 358-8303
mfo@dawsonorr.com
Ronald P. Ponzoli, Jr. (15-02)
Richman Greer, P.A.
250 S. Australian Ave., Ste. 1504
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Phone: (561) 803-3500
Fax: (561) 820-1608
rponzoli@richmangreer.com
David C. Prather (15-01)
Clark, Fountain, LaVista, Prather, Keen, et al
1919 N. Flagler Drive, 2nd Floor
West Palm Beach, FL 33407
Phone: (561) 899-2117
Fax: (561) 832-3580
dprather@clarkfountain.com
Adam Glenn Rabinowitz (17-05)
Broad and Cassel
100 S.E. 3rd Ave., Ste. 2700
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33394
Phone: (954) 764-7060
Fax: (954) 713-0981
arabinowitz@broadandcassel.com
Diana Santa Maria (17-02)
Law Offices of Diana Santa Maria, P.A.
5220 S. University Dr., Ste. 205-C
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33328
Phone: (954) 434-1077
Fax: (954) 434-4462
diana@santamarialaw.net
Paul Louis SanGiovanni (09-02)
Morgan & Morgan, P.A.
P.O. Box 4979
Orlando, FL 32802
Phone: (407) 236-5995
Fax: (407) 841-9520
psangi@forthepeople.com
Andrew B. Sasso (06-01)
Sasso & Bodolay, P.A.
2600 McCormick Drive, Suite 240
Clearwater, FL 33759
Phone: (727) 725-4829
Fax: (727) 725-4938
lexsb@aol.com
Edwin A. Scales, III (16-01)
Edwin A. Scales, III, P.A.
201 Front Street, Suite 333
Key West, FL 33040
Phone: (305) 292-8950
Fax: (305) 296-6629
escales@edscalespa.com
William J. Schifino, Jr. (13-01)
Burr & Forman, LLP
201 North Franklin Street, Suite 3200
Tampa, FL 33602
Phone: (813) 221-2626
Fax: (813) 221-7335
wschifino@burr.com
Clay A. Schnitker (03-01)
Davis, Schnitker, Reeves & Browning, P.A.
P. O. Box 652
Madison, FL 32341
Phone: (850) 973-4186
Fax: (850) 973-8564
cschnitker@earthlink.net
Carl B. Schwait (08-01)
Dell Graham, P.A.
203 Northeast 1st Street
Gainesville, FL 32601
Phone: (352) 372-4381
Fax: (352) 376-7415
cschwait@dellgraham.com
Lansing C. Scriven (13-02)
Trenam, Kemker, et al.
101 E. Kennedy Boulevard, Suite 2700
Tampa, FL 33602
Phone: (813) 223-7474
Fax: (813) 229-6553
lscriven@trenam.com
Lawrence E.Sellers, Jr. (02-01)
Holland & Knight, LLP
P.O. Box 810
Tallahassee, FL 32302
Phone: (850) 425-5670
Fax: (850) 224-8832
larry.sellers@hklaw.com
Marcy Lynn Shaw (20-02)
The Law Office of Marcy L. Shaw
P.O. Box 875
Fort Myers, FL 33902
Phone: (239) 275-2208
Fax: (866) 433-1459
marcy@mlshawlaw.com
John M. Stewart (19-01)
Stewart, Evans, Stewart & Emmons, P.A.
P.O. Box 643345
Vero Beach, FL 32964
Phone: (772) 231-3500
Fax: (772) 231-9876
jms@st-ev.com
Michelle Renee Suskauer (15-03)
The Suskauer Law Firm, P.A.
1601 Forum Place, Suite 1200
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Phone: (561) 687-7866
Fax: (561) 688-0581
michelle@suskauerlaw.com
Michael Grant Tanner (04-02)
Tanner Bishop
1 Independent Drive, Suite 1700
Jacksonville, FL 32202
Phone: (904) 446-2980
Fax: (904) 598-0395
mtanner@tannerbishoplaw.com
Richard A. Tanner (OOS-01)
De Beaubien Knight Simmons Mantzaris &
Neal LLP
725 East Park Avenue
Tallahassee, FL 32301
Phone: (850) 201-3655
Fax: (850) 205-3717
rt7@bdksmn.com
Renée E. Thompson (05-01)
Mateer & Harbert P.A.
7 E. Silver Springs Blvd., Ste. 500
Ocala, FL 34470
Phone: (352) 351-8003
Fax: (352) 351-9002
rthompson@mateerharbert.com
Sandra C. Upchurch (07-01)
Upchurch Watson White & Max Mediation Group
125 S. Palmetto Avenue
Daytona Beach, FL 32114
Phone: (386) 253-1560
Fax: (386) 255-7722
supchurch@uww-adr.com
Samuel Grier Wells (04-01)
GrayRobinson, P.A.
50 North Laura Street, Suite 1100
Jacksonville, FL 32202
Phone: (904) 598-9929
Fax: (904) 598-9109
grier.wells@gray-robinson.com
F. Scott Westheimer (12-01)
Syprett, Meshad, Resnick, Lieb, et al.
1900 Ringling Blvd.
Sarasota, FL 34236
Phone: (941) 365-7171
Fax: (941) 365-7923
swestheimer@smrl.com
good one...
Thank you for posting these contacts.
I’ve already called the governor’s office and left messages with my state rep about this vile woman.
I wouldn’t care if she looked like Miss America and you shouldn’t either. The issue is that she is a corrupt, power hungry and possessed of government power.
She has the looks that would strike mortal fear into criminal and non-criminal alike.
Is she really one who has an “R” after her name? I must have misread that.
Nope, double coyote ugly. You chew off your arm to get away without waking her, then cut off the other arm in case she comes looking for a one armed man.
“I wouldn’t care if she looked like Miss America and you shouldn’t either. The issue is that she is a corrupt, power hungry and possessed of government power.”
Yah, but a face living in front of that kind of bad character and soul sickness for a few decades will show the effects.
Your parents give you the face you are born with. By
40 or so you have earned the face you wear. She looks like what she is.
“I wouldn’t care if she looked like Miss America and you shouldn’t either.”
“Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” They hate when you use their Alinsky tactics against them. Fight fire with fire. Do not let up!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.