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561-835-0220 WWW.USLEGALSUPPORT.COM UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA CASE No.: 08-80736-Civ-Marra/Johnson JANE DOE #1 and JANE DOES #2, Petitioners, -vs- UNITED STATES, Respondent. _____________________________________________________ HEARING BEFORE THE HONORABLE KENNETH A. MARRA Friday, August 12, 2011 United States Federal Courthouse West Palm Beach, Florida 33401 2:00 - 4:19 p.m. Stenographically Reported By: Melinda L. Colchico, FPR, RDR, CRR Case 9:08-cv-80736-KAM Document 208 Entered on FLSD Docket 07/10/2013 Page 1 of 113 561-835-0220 WWW.USLEGALSUPPORT.COM 2 1 APPEARANCES: 2 On behalf of the Petitioners: 3 Brad Edwards, Esq. Farmer Jaffe Weissing Edwards Fistos & Lehman 4 425 N. Andrews Avenue, Suite 2 Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301 5 (954) 524-2820 6 Paul G. Cassell, Esq. USJ Quinney College of Law 7 University of Utah 332 South 1400 East, Room 101 8 Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-0730 (801) 585-5202 9 Jay C. Howell, Esq. 10 Jay Howell & Associates 644 Cesery Boulevard, Suite 250 11 Jacksonville, Florida 32211 (904) 680-1234 12 13 On behalf of the Respondent: 14 Dexter A. Lee, Esq. Marie Villafana, Esq. 15 Assistant U.S. Attorneys 99 NE 4th Street, Suite 300 16 Miami, Florida 33132 (305) 961-9320 17 18 ALSO PRESENT: 19 Roy Black, Esq.. Black Srebnick Kornspan & Stumpf 20 201 S. Biscayne Boulevard, Suite 1300 Miami, Florida 33131 21 (305) 371-6421 22 Bruce Reinhart, Esq. 250 S. Australian Avenue 23 Suite 1400 West Palm Beach, Florida 33401 24 (561) 202-6360 25 Case 9:08-cv-80736-KAM Document 208 Entered on FLSD Docket 07/10/2013 Page 2 of 113 561-835-0220 WWW.USLEGALSUPPORT.COM 3 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 - - - 3 THE COURT: Good afternoon. Please be seated. This 4 is the case of Jane Doe No. 1 and Jane Doe No. 2, versus United 5 States, Case No. 08-80736. Will counsel state their 6 appearances, please. 7 MR. LEE: Good afternoon, Your Honor. May it please 8 the Court. For the United States of America, Marie Villafana, 9 Assistant United States Attorney, and Dexter Lee, Assistant 10 United States Attorney. Good afternoon. 11 THE COURT: Good afternoon. 12 MR. EDWARDS: Good afternoon. On behalf of Jane Does 13 1 and 2, Brad Edwards, as well as my co-counsels, Paul Cassell 14 and Jay Howell. 15 THE COURT: Good afternoon. 16 MR. BLACK: Your Honor, good afternoon. Roy Black 17 appearing on behalf of the intervening lawyers, Black, Weinberg 18 and Lefkowitz. 19 THE COURT: Good afternoon. 20 MR. REINHART: Good afternoon, Your Honor. Bruce 21 Reinhart on behalf of myself. 22 THE COURT: Good afternoon. Anyone else that's going 23 to be participating as an attorney? 24 All right. We have a number of matters to go over 25 today. I thought the first thing I should do is figure out Case 9:08-cv-80736-KAM Document 208 Entered on FLSD Docket 07/10/2013 Page 3 of 113 561-835-0220 WWW.USLEGALSUPPORT.COM 4 1 who's going to be participating in the proceedings. So I think 2 I should deal with the intervenors' motions first before we get 3 to any of the substantive motions. 4 So, Mr. Reinhart, why don't I hear from you first. 5 MR. REINHART: Good afternoon, Your Honor. 6 THE COURT: Good afternoon. 7 MR. REINHART: Let me start by saying I don't want to 8 be here and I shouldn't be here but I feel like I have to be. 9 What is pending before you today is a motion by the plaintiffs 10 to address what they purport to be violations of the Crime 11 Victims' Right Act by the government. However, buried in that 12 motion, for reasons that escape me to this day, are allegations 13 that I, who am not a party to this litigation, have never been 14 counsel in this litigation and was minding my own business, 15 have now been alleged to have violated the Department of 16 Justice's regulations and the Florida Bar rules. 17 If you look at the face of the motion, it's clear 18 that there's absolutely no reason for that to be in the motion 19 other than it's a personal attack for the purpose of harassment 20 and abuse. To my knowledge, these allegations have never been 21 sent to the Florida Bar, even though Mr. Edwards, as a member 22 of the bar, would have an obligation to report them if he 23 believed they were true. But he hasn't. They have never been 24 reported to the Department of Justice, even though there are 25 civil and criminal sanctions, if, in fact, they believed it was Case 9:08-cv-80736-KAM Document 208 Entered on FLSD Docket 07/10/2013 Page 4 of 113 561-835-0220 WWW.USLEGALSUPPORT.COM 5 1 true and they believed I did what they said I did. 2 Rather than putting these allegations into that sort 3 of a forum, where I would have a chance to respond and the 4 investigation would be confidential and I could clear my name 5 in private, they've thrown them into this litigation in a 6 public pleading and now they say I shouldn't be allowed to 7 respond to it. 8 THE COURT: Well, haven't you really responded to it? 9 MR. REINHART: Judge, I've said what I want to say 10 but there's been no finding. There's been no -- frankly, 11 there's been no inquiry why in the first place they did what 12 they did, and I think that's really the issue before the Court 13 today. It's not the merits of whether what they say is true or 14 not true. It's not, but that's not the issue for you today. 15 The issue is whether the Court is going to sanction this sort 16 of behavior and whether we're going to have a legal system 17 where I could stand here in a commercial litigation case and 18 put in a pleading that my neighbor is a tax evader or that the 19 guy down the street is cheating on his wife. I mean, we have 20 rules of court that are supposed to limit the facts at issue to 21 the facts at issue. And if we start letting people simply make 22 ad hominem attacks outside of the four corners of the case, the 23 Court can't allow that. 24 So what the Court ought to do, most respectfully, in 25 this case, is to -- whether you allow me to intervene and Case 9:08-cv-80736-KAM Document 208 Entered on FLSD Docket 07/10/2013 Page 5 of 113 561-835-0220 WWW.USLEGALSUPPORT.COM 6 1 pursue it myself or whether you do it on your own, you ought to 2 convene some sort of a proceeding and make the plaintiffs 3 justify why they put these allegations in this pleading when 4 they so clearly don't belong there and what, if any, 5 investigation they did to support them. And that's what I'm 6 asking you to do today is to simply convene that process, and 7 if they complied with the rules of the court and they did their 8 sufficient investigation, then the proceeding will show that. 9 And if they were reckless and they were malicious and they did 10 it just because they could, they ought to be sanctioned for it, 11 and the Court ought to send a message that you're not going to 12 tolerate that sort of behavior. 13 So, Judge, in short, that's what I'm asking you to 14 do, either exercise your discretion under Rule 24(b) to allow 15 me to be a p