Fort Lauderdale, FL (1888PressRelease)
October 29, 2008 - Lawyer Bill Scherer, who has done more to shape Broward County’s judiciary in recent years, has done it again.
Scherer was the architect of today’s victory which put Judge Pedro Dijols on the November ballot.
It’s now in the hands of the appeals justices, but it is not certain the decision today by Judge Richard Yale Fader of Miami-Dade County will be appealed.
Time is short. The ballots have to be printed and mailed to overseas voters within days.
Feder’s order prohibited Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes from distributing ballots with the name Mardi Levey on them. Levey and lawyer Bernard Bober had beat Dijols for a place in the November runoff.
But Scherer believed Levey ran illegally since she used her maiden name which she doesn’t use otherwise. He drafted the suit which accused Mardi Levey Cohen of running with a false name.
As a strong voice on the Judicial Nominating Commission for years and a leading member of the Republican Party, Scherer has been instrumental in getting numerous judges named to the bench including Dijols and Cohen’s husband, Judge Dale Cohen.
Tuesday Judge Feder agreed with Scherer.
Say what you will about Scherer, but the bench has more diversity today than it ever had under the last Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles.
“I’m happy today,” Scherer told me. “We got everything we wanted"
My sometimes guest columnist lawyer Sam Fields says, “I don’t know if Scherer is the most important guy when it comes to the judiciary. But he is surely somebody you don’t want to piss off.”
Scherer was clearly pissed off that the wife of one of his appointees challenged another one of his appointees.
The decision leaves some lawyers way out on a political limb. They had been supporting Dijols in the primary, but when he lost they promised to support Bober.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do now. I’m glad I didn’t write that check yet to Bober,” says one lawyer.
This isn’t over for Levey/Cohen. Several sources told me that their will be a Judicial Qualifications Commission investigation and a Bar complaint against her.
Bober was clearly pissed off that the wife of one of his appointees challenged another one of his appointees. The decision leaves some lawyers way out on a political limb. They had been supporting Dijols in the primary, but when he lost they promised to support Bober.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do now. I’m glad I didn’t write that check yet to Bober,” says one lawyer.
This isn’t over for Levey/Cohen. Several sources told me that their will be a Judicial Qualifications Commission investigation and a Bar complaint against her.
The best story on the testimony in the court is on JAAblog
For more Details please visit www.conradscherer.com
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