Florida Criminal Law Blog

I left Pensacola to travel to Wyoming on August 19th this year to spend another week at a graduate level program at the non-profit Trial Lawyer’s College (TLC). The lawyers and staff that attend live in a barn that has had it’s bottom half converted to a co-ed dorm with twin beds in each room or out buildings with similar, austere accommodations. Everyone has a roommate, often a lawyer from another part of the country. Everyone is committed to be a better lawyer or they wouldn’t be there. Everyone has chores like busing tables or cleaning bathrooms. It is a place for lawyers to come to become more human, something that law schools don’t teach and in fact don’t encourage. I hope by being actively involved with TLC I am helping bring a little more justice to Pensacola.

I think this was about the 13th time I have traveled from Pensacola to Wyoming, Washington, California, Texas, South Dakota, Colorado or Virginia to attend a TLC or TLC related program in the last five years. I wondered this time what was I really going to gain by going on another “trip to the barn.” (The “barn” is on an isolated ranch in the middle of Wyoming). I am now on my way back, sitting on the airplane on August 25th as I write this article. I feel like I have learned a lot in the last week.

I have learned that it is more important to be a person than it is to be a lawyer, inside and outside the courtroom. I am no doubt a better lawyer and person every time I return from one of these programs. Attending these emotionally taxing and physically exhausting programs also reminds me of what the day in and day out stress of being a trial lawyer can steal from you - - - primarily your humanity. This last week I have had the good fortune of directing and helping other lawyers in working on their cases and working on issues in their personal lives through the use of psychodramatic methods that are too numerous to describe in this forum and of which I am not qualified to explain. (All sessions are supervised by some of the top certified psychodrama therapists in the country including the imminent psychodramatist John Nolte, PhD). I have also worked on my own client’s pending cases with the assistance of some of the best lawyers in the country at the Ranch.

Simply put psychodramatic methods allow one to find the real truth. The methods allow someone to better understand themselves and other people, both qualities necessary to be a good trial lawyer. What’s taught are not tricks or slick techniques - far from it. What is taught is how to discover and present the real truth of your case to other people, which, in the world of trial lawyers, means presenting a case to a jury or a judge who usually hold the fate and future of your client’s world in their hands.

Continue reading "Bringing a Little More Justice to Pensacola?" »

In a Pensacola courtroom yesterday a courageous judge issued one of the most articulate, well reasoned decisions I have heard or been a part of in 22 years of practicing law - a decision based upon facts presented in a long hearing about a man who truly loved his dog; a decision made without consideration to the misdirected television and press coverage this case had received in the days following the July 4th accident where the dog was accidentally injured by it's loving owner Pompeyo Morales. Pompeyo had accidentally left his puppy tied to a passenger side mirror on his truck while Pompeyo could load his tools into the back of the truck after working all day on the July 4th holiday. Pompeyo drove off from his job site forgetting that the puppy still was attached to the mirror. When he found out he had drug his puppy, he was "shocked" and "stunned" according to witnesses who later contacted the authorities. He was arrested for Felony Animal Cruelty and Escambia County petitioned the Courts to find Pompeyo unfit and unable to adequately care for his pet. All of this fell immediately on the heels of the publicity involving the high profile dog fighting case involving pro football player Michael Vick. (See Steve Wyche's report today in the Atlanta Constitution). Pompeyo and Bugsy's case even reached the national spotlight by being reported by CNN and on national news programs, all of which cast Pompeyo in a negative light. Simply condemnation with out investigation.

In the short time I have been defending and helping Mr. Pompeyo Morales with his case he appears to be one of the hardest working men I have ever met or represented. The County alleged that Mr. Morales was not a fit "parent" for the dog, even after more that 85 people had stepped forward with letters and petitions indicating that Mr. Morales would never intentionally harm his puppy or for that matter harm any living thing. The day of this accident, Pompeyo had found a snake in a woman's yard where he was working and instead of killing the snake as she asked him to do, he placed the snake into a container, punctured holes and placed food in the container for the snake to survive, all in order that he could take it to a friend who could release it into the woods on the friend's property. Escambia County Judge David Ackerman, after hearing from both sides in a 3 1/2 hour long hearing, found that Pompeyo had simply made a mistake, a mistake like all human beings make from time to time. He denied the County's petition and awarded custody of Bugsy to Pompeyo.

Today, for the first time in six weeks Pompeyo Morales was allowed to see Bugsy at the Animal Clinic where he is being kept. Bugsy hopefully will be coming home with Mr. Morales next week if Pompeyo can obtain enough money to pay off the veterinarian bills and the costs of kenneling the puppy since July 4th. From what I understand Pompeyo was sitting in a room when the kennel people let Bugsy, a high strung little guy, enter the room where Pompeyo was sitting. Bugsy immediately jumped into Pompeyo's lap and began feverishly licking his face. Having come to know Pompeyo since I began helping him with his case, I have no doubt tears were also running down his face when he was reunited with his little friend. Justice was served.

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