Mayo on the Side

Are Rothstein's partners handling fallout correctly?

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:43:33 -0500

Two attorneys who shared the law firm marquee with Scott Rothstein are taking two different approaches to the storm that has brought Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler to the brink of insolvency.

As Rothstein is investigated for possibly orchestrating a massive Ponzi scheme, Stu Rosenfeldt has been talking freely and frequently in an effort to distance himself from Rothstein’s actions.

Russell Adler, who has hired attorney Fred Haddad, hasn’t said a word.

Which approach is right?

In a case like this, there is no right answer. Each approach leads to questions and criticism.

Rosenfeldt hired former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey to represent himself and the law firm. Coffey arranged for media tours of the firm’s offices last week, complete with full access to Rothstein’s secretive and highly secured enclave.

Some people I talked to in the legal community thought that move was crazy, since it showed how far removed the firm allowed Rothstein to become, and it showed how little control and oversight key players had in things that obviously were the firm’s business.

Rosenfeldt shared tons of information with the media last week, including communications he had with Rothstein from Morocco. He told my colleague Brittany Wallman that he was on Xanax, a prescription anti-anxiety drug. He told me that he took a Ferrari as a gift from Rothstein in recent months.

He certainly acted like somebody who’d been blindsided, reacting with raw emotion and shock to the apparent disappearance of hundreds of millions of dollars and possible sudden demise of the law firm.

Rosenfeldt reminded me of shell-shocked residents I’ve come across after a hurricane hits, the ones who let you into their homes and see all the damage for yourself, because they don’t know what else to do.

There are some who think Rosenfeldt’s open approach could come back to bite him if facts reveal he knew more than he’s letting on, and others wonder if his openness is some sort of overcompensation.

But if he went the other way -- not talking and not answering questions -- wouldn’t people say he’s hiding something?

That’s the peril of the “no comment” strategy. Even though it might be the most prudent thing legally, it doesn’t necessarily help in the court of public opinion.

That’s where Adler finds himself.

Haddad told me he won’t let Adler speak because there’s the “possibility of so many derivative lawsuits. ” As a firm officer, Adler could be civilly liable or face Florida Bar sanctions for things that happened.

Adler didn’t have an equity stake in the firm (Rothstein and Rosenfeldt were 50-50 partners), but he is listed as a vice-president on Florida corporate records.

As a journalist, I certainly like Rosenfeldt’s approach more -- it gives us more to work with. But I can see how Adler might be taking the wiser course.

Which just goes to show that when a story this big blows up, the key players are damned either way. Either they’ll be criticized for not saying anything, or they’ll be criticized for saying (and showing) too much.

Sunday print column: Were Rothstein's associates blinded by his flash?

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:27:12 -0500

My Sunday print column hasn't made it onto the Website yet (the Sun-Sentinel is in the midst of switching our computer/content program) so I'm posting it here, complete with fresh details of how Scott Rothstein gave his partner a Ferrari as a gift and deeded a $475,000 Weston home to his longtime assistant for $100 in recent months:

WERE ROTHSTEIN'S ASSOCIATES BLINDED BY HIS FLASH?

In the months before his world crumbled, Scott Rothstein gave a Ferrari to Stu Rosenfeldt, the founding partner in his law firm. He also deeded a $475,000 house in Weston to Debra Villegas, his longtime assistant, for $100, county records show.

“It was a gift,” Rosenfeldt said Friday about the car, which now sits in his office building’s garage. “He liked generous displays.”

Villegas declined to let me into her gated subdivision when I visited earlier this week, and I didn’t hear back after leaving numerous detailed phone messages.

I don’t know about you, but if somebody gave me a Ferrari or a home, I might start asking some questions about where the money came from.

The last days of Rothstein's "company cafeteria"?

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:18:25 -0500

Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler attorneys called it “the company cafeteria.” But there weren’t many law firm staffers at Scott Rothstein’s pricey Las Olas restaurant, Bova Prime, when I dropped in the other day for happy hour.

With Rothstein frozen out of the firm and being investigated for massive financial fraud, the underlings don’t have to eat here to get in the good graces of the boss anymore.

I had a half-priced drink, ate a half-priced appetizer and paid in cash.

Didn’t want anybody to ring up my credit card for $500 million.

When I dropped by, the place still had a decent crowd. A waiter I know told me it did bang-up business last week during the boat show.

But soon the eatery might be one more piece of wreckage in Rothstein’s imploding world. Rothstein opened the restaurant a year ago with Boca Raton restaurateur Tony Bova.

Some staffers expect the restaurant to close any day. Still, a worker placed a sign on the sidewalk on Thursday that said “Now open for dinner on Sundays.”

On the night I went, I bumped into a group including former state senator Walter “Skip” Campbell, an attorney.

“I wanted to come for the Last Supper,” Campbell quipped.

Actually, he was looking for Russell Adler, one of the firm’s named partners, to make arrangements for a case they were involved in.

Like everyone in town, Campbell wondered how Rothstein could spend so much, expand the firm so rapidly and branch into so many side ventures, especially amidst a severe recession.

Now, federal investigators are trying to determine if Rothstein did it by engineering a Ponzi scheme.

Bova Prime might turn out to be another symbol of Rothstein’s meteoric rise and flameout.

The other week, the restaurant was featured in a CBS-4 investigation into places that falsely claim to serve Kobe beef, the expensive Japanese delicacy.

The restaurant actually serves American-style Kobe beef, Wagyu cattle raised in the United States, a fact that was noted on the menu when I visited.

How fitting.

In Rothstein’s world, even his meat might have been a fraud.

Question for Rothstein: How much is enough?

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:22:06 -0500

Scott Rothstein loved his fancy sports cars, and there could be an apt metaphor there.

The Fort Lauderdale lawyer might have taken some people, including his supposed best friends, for a very expensive ride.

We still don't know where Rothstein is, or where the money those who invested with him is. We still don't know if there's an innocent explanation, or if he'll join the ranks of infamous schemers like Bernie Madoff.

But it looks like his expensive ride is over. And when it ends with a crash, people get hurt.

As usual, it will be the littlest people who could get hurt the most, the law firm secretaries and restaurant servers who live paycheck to paycheck who might suddenly find themselves out of work. Or the charities who might find themselves stiffed on pledges who can’t deliver things to people who really need them.

We still don’t know who lost money and how much, but based on the M.O. of past con men, like Madoff and Dreier, it’s usually the closest friends and associates who get burned most.

In an interview last year, Rothstein told me his three best friends were: Ted Morse, president of the Morse auto dealership chain; Howard Gruverman, a Hollywood businessman whose Edify benefits firm is on the 11th floor of the same Las Olas office building where Rothstein worked; and Chuck Zloch, of Oakland Park, who Rothstein said was associated with Mass Mutual benefits.

I attempted to reach them on Monday but didn’t hear back.

A waiter who works at Rothstein’s Bova Prime restaurant on Las Olas told me Ted Morse was “making a scene” at the place last Friday night, after Rothstein was nowhere to be found.

I suppose we’ll find out the details from possible victims soon.

Here’s the thing I never get. If you have a loving family, a nice house, food on the table and a car that gets you from point A to point B, what more do you really need?

I suppose that’s why I’m just a law-abiding, middle-aged, middle-class schnook while others reach for the glitzy, glittering stars.

But when you sell your soul and betray your core values to get there, what have you accomplished? And if you rip off your closest friends in the process, how can you even look at yourself in the mirror?

It’s the question I wondered about Madoff, after he came clean about running a $60 billion Ponzi scam. A New York attorney named Marc Dreier did the same thing, only to the tune of “just” $350 million.

Schemers and frauds are nothing new, and if it turns out that Rothstein joins the club, then we’ll be left with the same questions here.

At one point, Rothstein, 47, was a partner in a small firm, living a comfortable but not gaudy life in Plantation. Then his ambition, or perhaps greed, took over.

He began reaching for the stars at age 40, in 2002, when he launched the Rothstein Rosenfeldt firm with Stu Rosenfeldt. Russell Adler soon joined them as a non-equity partner. The firm grew from seven to 70. And Rothstein branched out to a dizzying array of side ventures, including real estate, investments, restaurants, fine watches and premium vodka.

As his law firm and others pick up the pieces today, we’re left with the age-old question: How much is enough?

Rothstein law firm implosion -- Astonishing, not surprising

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:50:21 -0500

The unfolding implosion of the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm and its very public face, founder Scott W. Rothstein, is about as big and shocking a story in Broward that I can recall.

We don’t know where this leads yet. Is this criminal fraud along the lines of Bernie Madoff or Marc Dreier (a New York attorney who built a huge law firm and ostentatious wealth on Ponzi quicksand)? Or maybe it’s simply an investment meltdown amid extraordinary financial times?

We do know this was a quick and stunning downfall, and that many high-profile attorneys and other firm employees might soon be out of work. (A court hearing about receivership is scheduled for later on Monday afternoon, while a spokesman hired by the firm said it remains open for business).

Some aren’t surprised by this news at all. Many have wondered how Rothstein expanded so rapidly and spent so lavishly, with an intricate array of business interests along with a fleet of expensive cars and vast real estate holdings. He also gave generously to charity and mightily to political campaigns.

Many thought Rothstein was a house of cards waiting to fall.

(And for some eerie echoes, check out this link to the recent Vanity Fair piece on Marc Dreier, the fraudulent New York attorney who kept expanding and spending more lavishly.)

I wrote about Rothstein a year ago, spending a few hours with him in the Las Olas restaurant that he had just bought with Boca Raton restaurateur Anthony Bova.

He was charming and witty, and I wanted to believe his claims that all the whispers were simply jealousy and resentment.

At the time, he said, “I’m going to ride this wave as long as God allows.”

He also called the law firm “a benevolent dictatorship,” with a unique financial arrangement: only he and co-founder Stu Rosenfeldt were equity partners.

All the other attorneys, even those listed as partners, were “non-equity shareholders.” “I run the ship,” he said. “If I want to hire (somebody) I can do it without a committee meeting.”

He talked about being a “businessman first,” and wanting to create an
“entrepreneurial environment” that triggered client loyalty, not the usual law firm mentality focused on running up hours and costly litigation.

“In the short term, you’re not making the money, but in the long run the clients stay with you,” he said.

He also talked about his one rule for employees: “If you lie, you die…You can give me bad news, say something I might not want to hear, but never lie to me. If you lie, you’re gone.”

Rothstein also talked about his guiding principles: “Be fair, honest and tough…My grandfather said it’s very simple: Just do the right thing. The great thing is you know it when you’re doing the right thing. You can feel it in your bones.”

I wonder what Rothstein is feeling in his bones now.

What's casino mogul's interest in Crist and Florida?

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:32:43 -0500

After more unflattering news reports last week about his light schedule, Florida Governor Charlie Crist keeps phoning it in.

Today’s schedule shows three phone calls. Yesterday’s showed two phone calls after a 9 a.m. appearance at Valencia Community College.

The reason: Charlie has gone west, racking up cash for his U.S. Senate campaign.

Last night he was in Las Vegas. Today he’ll be in Arizona. Tomorrow he’ll hit California, where he’ll have a lunch fundraiser with the Governator -- Calif. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Hmm, I didn’t realize potential U.S. Senators from Florida had so many constituents in other states.

Kind of makes you wonder about the whole process, and whose interests really get served by our elected officials in Washington and Tallahassee.

The Las Vegas fundraiser, co-hosted by casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, has raised some eyebrows.

The swank affair was held in the Presidential suite of the Palazzo Las Vegas hotel, the new showpiece of Adelson’s Sands gambling empire that’s next to the Venetian.

Maximum contribution: $4,800. Suggested minimum: $1,000.

Also co-hosting was Nick Iarossi, a Tallahassee lobbyist who just added Las Vegas Sands to his client list in June.

That has some folks wondering: What is Las Vegas Sands’ interest in Florida?

There’s no casino gambling allowed here apart from the pari-mutuels in South Florida and the sovereign Seminole and Miccosukee tribes.

Or maybe somebody wants that to change?

I also heard that two lobbyists who do work for the Seminoles were at the Las Vegas affair.

Your guess is as good as mine as to what it all means. Let the conspiracy theories begin.

Happy weekend.

Something positive: Kudos to kids hospital

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:57:29 -0500

And now for something completely different: A compliment.

Usually my domain is the critical and negative, because news is dominated by bad things and wrongdoers.

Let’s face it, if you go to a bank, make your deposit and everything goes smoothly, that’s not news. But if someone pulls a gun and robs the place, it is.

Earlier this week, I was reminded that good things happen everyday, that there are institutions and people who do their jobs exceedingly well, and that these things never get much attention.

So I just want to say thanks to the folks at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood.

My family spent part of the day in their emergency room on Tuesday, after my daughter hurt her arm on the playground at her nursery school.

It turned out to be a minor thing, not a fracture -- something called Nursemaid’s Elbow, where the lower arm bone is dislocated from the elbow joint.

(It’s prone to happen in children under 4, before their bones and joints are developed. This is why you should never yank your small child by the arm or swing him by the hands).

It was a simple procedure to put it back into place -- the pediatrician simply manipulates the bone back into the joint. No X-rays were required, and as soon as the bone was back in place, Natalia was fine.

But it was an unnerving couple of hours, because she was in some pain and couldn’t move her arm.

The hospital experience couldn’t have been better. The children’s hospital is next to Memorial Regional Hospital, and they have their own separate emergency room (with valet parking to boot).

Yes, there was a crowd in the emergency room, and there was a wait. But the place is specially designed for kids, and the atmosphere and staff were soothing and calm.

First she was taken to a triage room, then her own private patient room, where she awaited the doctor by watching Winnie the Pooh on a small flat screen HDTV (no wonder why bills are so high).

She had her vitals taken by a nurse, was seen by a student doctor, then fixed by the pediatrician.

At the end, she got a double-wide grape Popsicle.

As we awaited the discharge paperwork, another worker came in the room to restock supplies. My daughter asked if she had “a special treat.”

The woman came back with a goodie bag that included a coloring book, crayons and a stuffed animal.

Little touches like that go a long way.

So kudos to the kids hospital.

Feel free to share your stories of good news and everyday unsung heroes below.

Parkland texting ban: Nice sentiment, horrible wording

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:57:32 -0500

In my mind, there’s nothing more annoying and dangerous than folks who text while driving. Selfish idiots, nincompoops, morons, whatever pejorative you want to use, I’d love to see them all swept from the roads.

So I like the spirit of Parkland’s new ordinance banning texting while driving.

The actual wording, though, leaves a lot to be desired.

“Any person driving a motor vehicle who is operating a wireless handset while such vehicle is in motion in the City of Parkland shall be presumed to be composing, sending or reading a text message,” the ordinance states.

It goes on to say: “The presumption created by this subdivision shall be rebuttable by evidence showing that the driver was not composing, sending or reading a text message.”

So, everyone is presumed guilty until you can prove otherwise.

“Kind of novel, unless your standard of reference is the Soviet Union in the Stalin years,” wrote a concerned reader who’s not a Parkland resident. “What the heck?”

For now, enforcement is limited to warnings from Broward Sheriff’s deputies in Parkland. A proposed $100 fine will not take effect until the ordinance is reviewed by the Florida Attorney General.

Something tells me this ordinance might not pass legal muster.

With this wording, in essence Parkland is not just banning texting while driving, but also operating a cell phone while driving.

Because anyone punching a phone keypad -- even if you’re dialing a number or hitting the receive button on your phone to answer a call -- could be stopped for texting.

And then it’s going to be up to the driver to prove that he wasn’t texting, but merely dialing a number?

An all-out ban on cellphone use while driving might not be such a bad thing, given all the recent studies showing it’s just as dangerous as drinking and driving.

But the city should be up front about that.

And a ban should really be the Legislature’s job. It should be up to the Legislature to create uniform statewide law regarding the use of electronic devices and cell phones while driving.

So far, the Legislature hasn’t shown much interest in the issue, letting chaos rule the roads. That’s why it’s fallen on local municipalities to pick up the slack.

One more thing about Parkland’s ordinance: Public safety workers, including police officers, fire officials and EMTs are exempt. (And you should see the computers and other gadgets in Broward Sheriff’s Office vehicles -- talk about distracting.)

So it’s OK for public safety workers to text while driving, but not the rest of us? Will they be any less reckless?

What buzzword do you hate the most?

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:13:51 -0500

I work with words every day -- they’re the tools of my trade -- and I love language. One of my favorite Sunday reading rituals, before his death last month, was William Safire’s On Language column in the New York Times Magazine.

Notice I said “death” and not “passing,” a euphemism he surely wouldn’t appreciate. Passing is what you do around slow-moving traffic on a two-lane road.

Anyway, in the spirit of Mr. Safire, I’ve taken a roundabout route to get to my point today: Nothing irks me more than bad buzzwords.

You know them when you hear them -- faddish words that percolate to popularity for no good reason. They’re pretentious and pernicious, an assault on the senses and sensibilities of anybody who respects rhetoric.

I was reminded of this as I sat through the Florida Gaming Summit earlier this week.

“We need to take a holistic approach,” one panelist said.

“It’s time to look at things holistically,” another said in a later session.

Holy holistic-ocity, Batman.

Is “holistic” the new “synergy?”

You remember synergy, the favored rationale of merging corporate executives?

That was one of my all-time most-loathed buzzwords, something some Wharton M.B.A. grad must have used in a memo, only to get parroted over and over again.

Some other buzzwords I despise: “Closure,” “convergence” and “right-sizing.”

Any other language lovers out there? What are some buzzwords you wish you could take a buzz saw to?

Happy weekend.

FBI antics: Bad manners or good undercover work?

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:04:51 -0500

Is it appropriate, reasonable or ethical for an undercover FBI agent to use a legitimate business as a prop in a sting operation without its knowledge or consent?

I ask because that appears to have happened in the FBI’s corruption investigation of the Broward County School Board, according to a fascinating story today by Miami Herald reporters Scott Hiaasen and Patricia Mazzei.

In this case, an undercover agent posed as a businessman named Pat Foster who supposedly worked for Le Bec Asset Management.

There’s no such thing as Le Bec Asset Management -- it was a fictitious company set up by the FBI for the purposes of the sting.

That seems fine, exactly what you’d expect from good undercover investigators.

In his efforts to get contracts and ferret out corrupt practices at the school board, Foster apparently went out and sought actual clients, including a Hialeah glass firm.

According to the story, Foster never asked or told Continental Glass that it was being used as a prop in the sting. Foster then allegedly gave school board member Beverly Gallagher a $2,000 kickback to help the glass firm’s chances to land a contract.

The money was the FBI’s, not the firm’s.

The Herald story quoted a lawyer for Continental Glass as saying, “My clients had no idea their names were being used in this way. We didn't give any money to anybody.”

The company’s executive director told the Herald that a contractor introduced him to Foster and that Foster never told him he’d be using illegal kickbacks in an attempt to get school board work.

The company said it retained Foster on a contingency basis, meaning he’d get paid if the company landed the job. It didn’t.

“We didn’t do anything wrong,” said executive director Oskar Valmana.

The company says it has been unfairly smeared. The FBI declined comment to the Herald reporters, citing the ongoing investigation.

To me, the FBI crossed an ethical line here, if everything has been accurately portrayed.

To have an undercover agent offer bribes on a legitimate company’s behalf without its knowledge doesn’t seem right.

I understand the need for secrecy and operational security. But this makes me a little uneasy.

Couldn’t the feds at least try to find a firm willing to work with them in a surreptitious way, much like Sunrise commissioner Sheila Alu said she was a willing informant who offered to work with the FBI?

What do you think?

Was this bad manners or good undercover work?

Florida House speaker to feds: Shut down table games, slots at Seminole casinos

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:33:30 -0500

Florida House speaker Larry Cretul sent a letter to federal regulators today declaring an “impasse” in the gambling compact talks with the Seminole Tribe “that can only be remedied with your intervention.”

Cretul asked the National Indian Gaming Commission to halt table games like blackjack and certain slot machines at the Seminoles’ seven casinos pending a resolution to the long-running compact dispute.

But it’s doubtful the commission, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of the Interior, will take immediate action.

“I certainly intend to take a look at the issue,” acting gaming commission chairman George Skibine said Tuesday. “One big issue is who has the authority to decide if a compact is valid or not.”

The Seminoles argue that the original 2007 compact signed with Gov. Charlie Crist is still valid and that they can continue running table games and Class III slot machines in which gamblers play against the casino. The Seminoles note that they are still making payments to the state, which are being held in escrow.

The House says that the compact was voided when the Florida Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the deal needed legislative approval and that Crist exceeded his authority by allowing games that are illegal elsewhere in the state.

Crist signed a revised compact with the Seminoles in August, but it hasn't been ratified by the Legislature. House leaders say it's illegal for the Seminoles to run "banked table games" like blackjack without legislative approval. The Seminoles have table games at three of seven casinos: The Hard Rocks in Hollywood and Tampa, and a casino in Immokalee.

Even if the National Indian Gaming Commission issued a "notice of violation" and ordered the Seminoles to halt the disputed games, the Seminoles could seek a stay in federal court and keep the games running. That's what happened recently with a disputed tribal casino in upstate New York.

Cretul and House gambling negotiator Bill Galvano met with Skibine on Tuesday morning at the Courtyard Marriott in Plantation to lay out their position.

Skibine appeared a short time later on a panel at the Florida Gaming Summit at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood.

Skibine, who will serve a 7-month term as acting NIGC chairman, said there are many legal technicalities that make the ongoing issue particularly complicated.

In his letter sent on Wednesday, Cretul wrote: “The Tribe’s ability to profit from these illegal games creates a disincentive to enter into a compact, and places the state at a significant disadvantage in negotiating games to which it never gave its consent...Until the banked card games (and slot machines) are shut down and the Tribe gives some indication that it is willing to abide by the law...it would appear that the State would be ill-advised to enter into any compact with the Tribe."

My sense: This is all just more negotiation posturing. But if a compromise isn't reached by the end of the spring 2010 legislative session, it might take a federal court to sort it all out.

Is "virtual blackjack" real blackjack?

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:48:31 -0500

Virtual blackjack machines will soon be coming to South Florida racinos, a development reported earlier this week by colleague Nick Sortal.

In his story, he quotes Mark Pilarski, a syndicated blackjack columnist, as saying it’s “real blackjack.”

I strongly disagree.

This might look like blackjack, play like blackjack and have the same rules as blackjack, but it’s not going to be blackjack.

Real blackjack involves physical cards being dealt by a live dealer.

This is just a tricked up slot machine, meaning the odds of winning a hand will be determined by a random number generator, not actual cards in a shoe.

In fact, the only reason state regulators approved the machines is because racinos argued that they’re the same as slot machines.

So what’s the difference between real blackjack and the coming computerized version?

Well, let’s say you sit down at a live blackjack game with a standard six-deck shoe and no constant automatic shuffler. The shoe will contain 24 aces and 96 cards worth 10. That’s a nice thing to know for anyone with rudimentary math skills.

At any given table, it’s mathematically possible for a dealer to bust many times in a row. It’s mathematically possible for everyone at the table to win simultaneously. And it’s possible that over a short period of time (let’s say one shoe) all the players will end up ahead and the house will lose.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think the same thing will happen with a virtual blackjack game.

The machine will be programmed to pay out a certain amount of the total money deposited, and the “cards” that get dealt out will have no bearing to the real odds of them appearing in a live game.

I’m guessing you will hardly see a dealer go bust, while players might bust an unlikely number of times.

And I’m guessing you might have three people get dealt 19s, one dealt 21 and the dealer will magically draw to 20. And that might happen three times in a row.

And you can’t chalk it up to being the luck of the draw, but the way the machine is programmed.

To me, that’s not real blackjack. I wouldn’t touch the machines with a three-dollar bill.

What do you think?

Federal judge: Beware of contracts with Seminoles

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:04:53 -0500

As the state’s gambling compact with the Seminoles continues to sputter and stall, another contract dispute should serve as a reminder about the perils of doing business with the sovereign tribe.

It involves the Seminoles’ abrupt July 2008 lease termination and takeover of the Hollywood Mobile Estates trailer park on State Road 7.

The land belongs to the Seminoles, but for years they leased it to a partnership controlled by Hartman & Tyner, the Michigan firm that also owns the Mardi Gras Casino.

(I know, I was shocked that the gambling rivals were business partners, but Mardi Gras head Dan Adkins said the arrangement pre-dated the Seminoles’ gambling empire.)

The Seminoles claim that the lease was breached and they seized the mobile home park by force last year.

The U.S. Department of Interior, which oversees tribal matters through its Bureau of Indian Affairs, found the lease was improperly voided but hasn’t done anything about it.

In turn, the management company sued the Interior Department.

This week, a federal judge in Fort Lauderdale denied a motion for a rehearing and upheld the case’s dismissal. U.S. District Judge William P. Dimitrouleas ruled that his hands were tied in ordering the Department of Interior to take any action against the tribe.

Dimitrouleas’ order included some strong wording that should be a warning to anyone doing business (or considering doing business) with the Seminoles.

He wrote:

“It now appears that the Department may be unwilling to do anything to damage the fiduciary or government-to-government relationship it enjoys with this or any Indian tribe…
If tribes have sovereign immunity, except for limited circumstances where only the Department of Interior can intervene, and if the Department will only intervene to protect the rights of the Tribe, then non-Indian entities should be very wary of entering into contracts that will be enforced only against them.”

Let me repeat that, with emphasis: “Non-Indian entities should be very wary of entering into contracts that will be enforced only against them.”

That shouldn’t exactly fill Floridians with confidence about the Seminoles’ future adherence to a gambling compact that’s filled with escape clauses and wiggle room.

The proposed compact contains provisions for disputes, including arbitration and court remedies, but this is the point where it’s time to wonder if the Interior Department will make the Seminoles comply.

Under the current system of sovereignty and shackled courts, anything that takes place on tribal land seems stacked in the Seminoles’ favor.

As Dimitrouleas noted: “Certainly, there was a time in American history where Indian tribes were deserving of the paternal protection of the U.S. government. Whether that situation continues to exist is a matter for political debate in another forum.”

Interesting stuff. Anybody concerned?

Deerfield teen's torching the work of twisted minds

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:56:27 -0500

Back in my old Brooklyn neighborhood, here’s what we used to do as kids when we had a beef.

We’d fight.

Throw some punches and wrestle.

Then there were the bullies, who’d terrorize the meek and weak.

They’d menace victims with threats, wield baseball bats, sometimes throw lit firecrackers at them. One time, I saw a bully run over a kid with his moped at the neighborhood park.

But douse someone in rubbing alcohol and light them on fire?

That’s about the sickest thing I’ve ever heard.

I still can’t grasp that a group of teens are accused of torching 15-year-old Michael Brewer of Deerfield Beach, supposedly as revenge over money owed for a video game.

Did they think it would be funny?

That the flames wouldn’t really hurt?

That this was some video game, a world of virtual reality erased with the off switch where consequences don’t stick?

Brewer now lays in Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, in critical condition with burns on 80 percent of his body. He’s in a very precarious state -- burn victims are prone to skin infections that can be lethal.

We don’t know the full histories yet of the five accused, and I can only guess about what kind of family, parent and behavioral issues these kids have.

It reminds me a bit of the infamous homeless beating case in Fort Lauderdale from a few years ago.

So sick. So senseless.

There’s little doubt these kids will -- and should -- be charged as adults.

Soon we’ll find out more answers to the question, “How could they do this?”

The answers will be disturbing, and not the least bit satisfying.

A theft, a death

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:18:39 -0500

Bad day yesterday, which explains why there’s no column in the print edition of today’s newspaper.

Just past noon, got a phone call from my wife. Her purse was stolen at work.

Big pain. Taken: cash, drivers license, bank/credit cards, iPhone, digital camera and her keys (house and car). Oh, and her makeup, which was a big deal to her. (Women can relate, men just scratch their heads).

You never realize how much disruption a little bag could cause until it’s gone.

Rest of the afternoon was spent scrambling to get her spare car keys, re-key locks, cancel and replace cards and phone, talk to police, etc.

As the economy has tanked, property crimes have spiked (although violent crimes have gone down). Now we’ve become another statistic, just like my wife’s friend whose home was recently burglarized.

(Question for readers: have you or anyone you know been a crime victim recently? Do you sense more economic desperation out there?)

I told my wife it’s no big deal. Things, they’re just things.

Things can always be replaced.

Then came another phone call. Another loss.

This one of the most significant kind.

His name was Ken Crandall, and he was part of my wife’s running group.
They’d train on Sunday mornings at dawn on Hollywood beach, and they ran the Fort Lauderdale half-marathon in February.

He was thin and he was fit and he loved the ocean and outdoors. He and his wife lived in a condo on Hollywood beach. On Sunday afternoon, he went for a swim and something went wrong. A lifeguard pulled him from the water off Jackson Street. He wasn’t breathing.

An attempt to revive him with CPR failed, and he was pronounced dead at Memorial Regional Hospital. An autopsy is pending.

He was 47.

Condolences to his family.