EFTA00604322.pdf

1 IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE FIFTEENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT IN AND FOR PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA CIRCUIT CIVIL DIVISION AG CASE NO.:50-2009-CA-040800-XXXX-MB JEFFREY EPSTEIN, Plaintiff/Counter-Defendant, vs. SCOTT ROTHSTEIN, individually, BRADLEY J. EDWARDS, individually, and III., individually, Defendants/Counter-Plaintiffs. West Palm Beach, Florida July 6, 2017 8:45 - 8:53 a.m. The above-styled cause came on for hearing before the Honorable Donald W. Hafele, Presiding Judge, at the Palm Beach County Courthouse, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida, on the 6th day of July, 2017. Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604322  2 1 APPEARANCES: 2 For The Plaintiff/Counter-Defendant: 3 WILLIAM CHESTER BREWER, P.A. 250 Australian Ave 4 West Palm Beach, FL 33401 By WILLIAM CHESTER BREWER, ESQUIRE 5 6 ATTERBURY, GOLDBERGER & WEISS, P.A. 250 Australian Ave 7 West Palm Beach, FL 33401 By WILLIAM CHESTER BREWER, ESQUIRE 8 9 For The Defendants/Counter-Plaintiffs: 10 SEARCY, DENNEY, SCAROLA, BARNHART & SHIPLEY, P.A. 2139 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd. 11 West Palm Beach, FL 33401 By JACK SCAROLA, ESQUIRE 12 13 14 ALSO PRESENT: 15 Bradley Edwards 16 17 EXHIBITS 18 (No Exhibits Marked During This Hearing.) 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604323  3 1 (Whereupon, the following proceedings 2 were had.) 3 MR. SCAROLA: Good morning, Your Honor. 4 MR. BREWER: Good morning, Your Honor. 5 THE COURT: Good morning. I'm not 6 contemplating anyone appearing by phone, so 7 we'll proceed. 8 The order indicated that at least one 9 attorney from each side must appear in person, 10 and I see that Mr. Goldberg is here as well. 11 So, we have at least two attorneys here on 12 Mr. Epstein's side. Mr. Scarola is here in 13 person as well. 14 MR. SCAROLA: Mr. Edwards is also here and 15 is pro se in this matter. 16 THE COURT: Okay, I didn't see him. Good 17 morning. Appearance please. 18 MR. SCAROLA: Jack Scarola and Bradley 19 Edwards on behalf of Bradley Edwards, Your 20 Honor. 21 MR. BREWER: Chester Brewer and Jack 22 Goldberg on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein. 23 THE COURT: Thank you for being here this 24 morning. We had a motion earlier relative to 25 setting the case for trial and the Court's Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604324  4 1 concerns at that time regarding the need, or 2 lack thereof, relative to discovery and a 3 motion scheduling order. And I asked that 4 you-all be here today to address those issues. 5 So, since it's the counter-plaintiff's 6 original motion to set the cause for trial, why 7 don't we start with Mr. Scarola. Your thoughts 8 on the subject, please. 9 MR. SCAROLA: We would like the earliest 10 possible trial, Your Honor, for this 2009 11 matter. 12 THE COURT: All right. Do you see a need 13 for a discovery schedule or a scheduling order 14 relative to any motions that may be 15 contemplating? 16 MR. SCAROLA: In light of motions we 17 simply filed on Mr. Epstein's behalf, it 18 probably wouldn't be a bad idea. 19 THE COURT: All right. Mr. Brewer? 20 MR. BREWER: Yes, sir. There are three 21 motions, I guess, that are pending that are 22 important. One is our motion to strike 23 portions of the witness in exhibit list. That 24 same motion has been filed every time that 25 Mr. Scarola has filed a witness exhibit list. Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604325  5 1 The problem in a nutshell is in his 2 witness list, he doesn't list names and 3 addresses for a lot of folks; he does for some. 4 But at lot of them are groups of people, as in anybody whose name appears on discovery, or 6 anybody whose name appears in an interrogatory. 7 THE COURT: Well, typically I don't allow 8 that. But I don't like to give advice or 9 opinions. So, I'll wait until the motion is 10 before me at that time. 11 MR. BREWER: There's two different 12 motions, Your Honor. One is Mr. Scarola's 13 motion to expand interrogatories and our 14 objections to that. 15 The objections in a nutshell are that they 16 invade work product and there's a financial 17 discovery to those interrogatories, which has 18 been heavily litigated way back when. I think 19 it was back when it was with Judge Crow. 20 And then finally we have filed recently, 21 as Mr. Scarola mentioned, we filed a motion for 22 summary judgment. So those are three pretty 23 big motions. 24 THE COURT: Okay. 25 MR. SCAROLA: I would disagree that there Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604326  6 1 is anything of significance to be addressed 2 with regard to any of those motions. But as 3 Your Honor has stated, those are issues that 4 will be dealt with when the matters are called up for hearing. Two of those motions are 6 scheduled for hearing before Your Honor next 7 week. 8 THE COURT: Okay. Are they special set or 9 are they 8:45s? 10 MR. SCAROLA: All I know is that they're 11 on the calendar for next week and I can't tell 12 you, III not sure. 13 MR. GOLDBERG: They're not specially set, 14 Your Honor. 15 THE COURT: All right. So it looks like 16 those motions can be done in a relatively due 17 course. My inclination -- and if it's going to 18 work for you-all, let me know. If it's not, I 19 want to know why. Is to try to get the case 20 tried before the end of the calendar year. 21 Which means that the most likely docket that 22 this would run would be beginning November 20th 23 through January 26th of next year. So that's 24 where III looking at it in terms of where I 25 think it would be appropriately set. Where any Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604327  7 1 discovery that needs to be done can be 2 completed. Where any motions that need to be 3 heard can be dealt with accordingly. 4 What III also willing to do is if there are any motions that need to be addressed that 6 are not addressed prior, I can put those 7 motions on a docket and have a hearing as it 8 relates to whatever motions remain between -- 9 or on the docket beginning September 25th, you 10 go on right before that docket. 11 MR. SCAROLA: The records will reflect 12 that Plaintiff's counsel has a broad grin on 13 his face, he's happy with that date. 14 THE COURT: All right. Mr. Brewer, your 15 thoughts? 16 MR. BREWER: No problem, Your Honor. 17 THE COURT: All right. So why don't we go 18 ahead and do that then and we'll try our best. 19 And I don't know what my docket looks like at 20 this stage, I have several before that, so it's 21 hard to know exactly what may be on one docket. 22 But the inclination would be to probably go 23 ahead and specially set the trial. 24 Was there an estimate? It was given 10 25 days? Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604328  8 1 MR. SCAROLA: I believe so, Your Honor, 2 yes. 3 THE COURT: All right. So that would 4 accordingly be the time we're looking at. What I'm going to do is this. After this 6 hearing, I'll get together with my judicial 7 assistant and we'll look at the dates that are 8 available. Obviously, I recognize that we have 9 the December holidays, as well as Thanksgiving, 10 during that period of time and the New Year. 11 So, I will do my best to schedule it 12 accordingly. And we're potentially looking at, 13 if there's no significant conflict, early 14 December as probably the date. Okay? 15 MR. BREWER: Very good, sir. 16 THE COURT: Again, it's with the 17 expectation that if you don't have a discovery 18 schedule that you're going to work together in 19 order to get to the date that I'm speaking 20 about, calendar call is November 3. 21 But again, if everything works out and we 22 have a special setting, it may not even need to 23 be heard at calendar call, as long as we get 24 anything that needs to be addressed done before 25 that time. So that's where I think we should Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604329  9 1 be. Again, it is an old case and it should be 2 tried, in my view, before the end of the 3 calendar year if at all possible, but at least 4 through January 18th. All right? MR. GOLDBERG: Your Honor, just very 6 briefly. 7 THE COURT: Sure. 8 MR. GOLDBERG: When you do meet with your 9 JA to kind of set a trial date, that window is 10 fine with me except for November. I have a 11 trial in November that I know is going. 12 December is fine. So, if you're looking for a 13 date, I would prefer December. 14 THE COURT: Okay. Like I said, I think 15 I'm looking for probably that week after 16 Thanksgiving to start the trial is probably 17 what I'm driving at. Because that way I'll 18 know there won't be any loose ends as it 19 relates to the Thanksgiving weekend. In other 20 words, I'll have everything done that I need to 21 get done, reasonably speaking, on that 22 Wednesday. And then I know that I'll be able 23 to start something fresh on that Tuesday, 24 because I do special sets on Monday. So, we 25 will do a four day trial week. Mondays will be Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604330  10 1 reserved, as they always are, for special set 2 ones. 3 MR. BREWER: Your Honor, if I may? What 4 was the docket in September -- 5 THE COURT: For any motions that may be 6 pending would be September 15th. I'm sorry, 7 September 20th docket call, September 15th. 8 I'll revise it again. September 25th with 9 a docket call of September 15th. The ladder 10 one you can take as being correct. 11 MR. GOLDBERG: Thank you, Your Honor. 12 MR. SCAROLA: Thank you, your Honor. 13 MR. BREWER: Thank you, your Honor. 14 (The hearing concluded at 8:53 a.m.) 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604331  11 1 COURT CERTIFICATE 2 3 4 STATE OF FLORIDA ) : SS 5 COUNTY OF PALM BEACH ) 6 7 I, , COURT REPORTER, certify 8 that I was authorized to and did stenographically 9 report the foregoing proceedings and that the 10 transcript is a true record of my stenographic 11 notes. 12 13 14 Dated this 10th day of July, 2017. 15 16 17 , COURT REPORTER 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Palm Beach Reporting Service, Inc. EFTA00604332