Marlins Stadium Update No. 13,471
With the trial in luxury auto dealer Norman Braman's lawsuit against Miami-Dade County, the city of Miami and the Marlins set to begin Tuesday, the timetable is in flux again.
At the request of Braman's attorney, Bob Martinez, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Pedro Echarte Jr. recused himself Thursday from the case he has overseen for months, because Martinez said in court papers that he discovered Tuesday he had a distant familial relationship with Echarte. Echarte's mother is related to Martinez's sister-in-law.
Already hampered by the case, which targets the $3 billion downtown redevelopment megaplan that includes a Marlins ballpark at the site of the Orange Bowl, Marlins representatives were none too pleased with the timing of Thursday's decision. Braman has lost on a couple of points in the case in the past week, and Marlins President David Samson accused Braman of trying to deflect attention from a case he can't win.
Samson said he was “flabbergasted” at the timing of the request for the recusal.
“I just think it’s sad. It’s a waste of taxpayers money," Samson said. "It’s the desperate musings of a man who knew he couldn’t prevail."
The timing may seem unusual, but I'm told there's no way Braman's legal team would move forward if there were even an inkling there could be a conflict.
The case has been reassigned to Circuit Court Judge Jeri Beth Cohen, who is holding a status hearing in the case on Friday afternoon. Perhaps then we'll learn a new date for the trial.
“Miami-Dade County continues to be confident with its case and hopes the trial can continue moving forward in a timely fashion,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez said in a statement. “Important timelines and funding streams are attached to this package of critical public works projects which are designed to improve the quality of life of County residents. In the short-term, these projects can provide an important economic boost in an uncertain economy, and get jobs on the street when they are needed most.”
Samson says plans for the ballpark are proceeding on schedule. The Baseball Stadium Agreement approved in February specified that definitive agreements on specifics such as construction management and financing, must be in place by July 1. But the county, city and Marlins have agreed to wait until after the trial in the Braman case.
Comments
It took them this long to figure out they were related? The sister in law never said to the lawyer, "Do you know that Judge Echarte in Miami? He's my uncle.", and the mother, when bragging about their son, never said "My boy is handling the Braman case"? The lawyers in Miami are a small club, and they intermarry all the time, they both KNEW they were distantly related, but after losing a few points, the lawyer tossed in this delay as a desperate extra measure. I hate the Loria clan, but Braman and co are rapidly falling to their level of lowness.
Posted by: Suffering Miami Fan | June 27, 2008 9:25 AM
If local fans who are so happy that the Loria family is going to vaseline them and want a grim reminder of sports carpetbaggers taking tax payers for a ride, well, not long ago ..... there were partners in crime Billy Cunningham and Lewis Schaeffel, owners of the Heat, who came here clearly not to be owners of a proud franchise but to become rich with tax payers money and they took the city for a big ride with that old Arena to increase their investment and the team and left the city with a bunch of cash on another bad deal for taxpayers (it is going to happen again with the Marlins?) .......... you bet!
And there is that white elephant Arena in the middle of Overtown and then they built another one ad another one.
If you are going to own sports team, you should have some money to do so and every single overrun and extra expense for that project will not be paid by the Loria family and their barking ankle biting grandson and pet, Dave Samson.
Posted by: FUSamson | June 27, 2008 2:20 AM